Tonight is the Industrial Trainee leaving dinner, where we all get together and celebrate out year at IBM and all our super-awesomeness. Maybe there will be a prom king and queen? Maybe there will be a slow dance? It’s going to be crazy-fun. Instead of going, I have decided to embrace the role of bitter nerd, the one that got asked out by her dream guy as a joke, only to have raw burgers thrown at her as she stood on her doorstep. Thats right, instead of going to the dinner, I’m spending tonight: Blogging.
It started with a birthday. For my 21st my brother gave me a DIY Munny. Munnys are great, there are some amazing custom ones by graphic designers and regular bods alike. Inspired, I decided to try making mine into a clock. First thing to do was find a clock to combine with my Munny. I live in a rented house, and there is all kinds of crap here including, according to our itinerary, “miscellaneous items, scraps of carpet and a pair of size 7 work boots”. There is a drawer in our kitchen that has an old and utterly hideous clock which I managed to dismantle though it was absolutely filthy, and I had to sort of squint and look away like a valley girl changing a soiled nappy.
Munnys are made out of vinyl, so they are easy to cut, though its hard to do it neatly. I started by making big holes in the front and back of the head, then I fixed in the clock part (arms removed) and covered it with milliput. Milliput is good because its sandable so you can be as cack-handed in application as you like, and then just rub it all off until its passable. Perfect :) .
Here is a photo of poor Munny with a clock in his head.
Spot the lovely curtains on the left there too. Mmm.
Following this I had to paint Munny all white. I bought some white gloss paint from ASDA, my least favourite place in the world. The paint did the job though.
Then I had to decide what to paint it. This was an easy choice. I really love Roy Lichtenstein. There’s such an unpretentiousness to his work which he exemplifies here:
“I’m not really sure what social message my art carries, if any. And I don’t really want it to carry one. I’m not interested in the subject matter to try and teach society anything…”
I love how bright and simple yet striking his pictures are, and also how distinctive. His painting style is also easy to emulate :)
The paint work is pretty messy, but I’m OK with that. The Ben Day dots took FOREVER. I had to dip a little tube in paint and the print it onto the body, then fill it in with a paintbrush. This would have been fine except I accidentally bought flipping oil paint instead of acrylic. So it took about four days to dry after each application, and I kept smudging it. I had a lot of fun with this, and I already have my next one planned…
9 Comments
May 31, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Awesome :)
I like how there are no dots on his/her/its palms or inside legs, artistic choice or a limitation of your dot making tool? (or both?) Either way it looks ace.
June 2, 2008 at 8:11 am
That looks really cool, I love the way you’ve done that. What are the “four mystery accessories” it came with?
June 3, 2008 at 6:11 pm
@Lachie, Well, it was both, but I like the way it finishes how it has.
@shawdm, I got a frying pan, a boom box, a visor, and some wings. I The frying pan is my favourite. The boom box is crud, it’s actually just a black box, and the visor doesn’t stay on Munny’s head.
June 3, 2008 at 10:03 pm
unpretentiousness++
That is a brilliant and wonderful thing.
June 12, 2008 at 12:33 am
Very cool! Loving the artwork.
November 26, 2008 at 3:56 pm
I’d like to buy your Munny. Please contact me via email.
March 20, 2009 at 11:18 pm
Aw, thanks but I don’t think I could sell it
February 1, 2009 at 6:16 am
If you heat your munny it will cut like butter, and super sculpy works wonders.
March 20, 2009 at 11:17 pm
Ah great tip! Thanks very much :)