taleya | death, death DOOM (Reply)

Haven't been getting much sleep. They're tearing down a house adjacent to our property (well, pretty much next to our bedroom window), so we get the roar, the crash, the fumes, the squeals and the bumcrack,. Lovely. Not only that, the fucking retaining bolts on the excavator are too small, so the fucking bucket claw shudders with a noise like a dying moose EVERY. DAMNED. TIME. THE FUCKING MACHINE MOVES.

They've been at it since Monday. Apparently it takes four 12 hour days and counting to tear down a house, 7am - 4/7pm. (Note: this house is already gutted, all they have to do is knock it down and clear the shit. that is all) My sleeping patterns, as once could expect, are completely fucked, and the rats are freaking in a combination of "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT NOISE" and screwed up routines. ("Why isn't mummy sleeping? What's wrong? ZOMG FREAK FREAK")

But yesterday was the cruellest of all.

I thought they'd finished yesterday. I really had. No noise. Trucks driving off. No big yellow beast on yon horizon. My heart quickened a beat. Could it be? Could it really be? It appeared to be so!

...and just in time for the council workers to start up fucking impact grinders on the footpath outside my house. -_-

Still. no matter, I thought, no matter. 'tis but a simple job, and it is out the front, where most of the house can block it, not the back, where our bedroom is, I can grab a shower with the rats, wash my hair and by the time I'm done they'd have moved down the street far enough to be less noisy.

So into the bathroom I paddle, four-footed maniacs in tow.

And lo, when I emerged, dripping haired and clean-ratted, they had moved down the street and blurred into an absent, easily ignored hum of background noise. I gave the rats their meds, snuggled them down with pasta screws to chew and slipped into bed with a sigh of relief.

JUST IN TIME FOR THE FARKING BULLDOZER TO START UP AGAIN

Since sleep's been off the agenda, I've been wandering about making other uses of daylight hours. Such as making fifteen fuckin' rat hammocks and foofterubes in varying colours for various rats and people (Now with action shot!), foiling the inside of the hanging braziers, cutting airholes in said braziers and....

...putting the dough casing on the tombstones. This is a mix of salt, flour and baking soda - so yeah, basically homemade cheap moulding clay slathered on over the papier-mache skeleton. Why did I bother mache'ing then? Well it gives it more stability in holding its shape, and also provides better surface for the dough to stick to. It also not only provides a visual and tactile stone effect on the tombstone, it also supplies a significant amount of weight and stability to the forms, as well as hiding flaws that papier mache faithfully duplicates.

Spooky AND nummeh!

torasin thought they said "Fitz" and "Shitz" and got terribly excited when he saw the "S" on the other one, then realised it said "Smith". Not one to disappoint, it seems I have one more baby tombstone to make...

This one I'm most decidedly pleased with. It will have an inset inscription when completed, and has a fuckin' cornices

Full view, showing the inset section for the inscription

Cornices, cornices, FEAR MY CORNICES, BIZNITCH *manical laughter*

Still not sure if I'll do all the tombstones in this manner - it's a pain in the arse and takes ages to dry. Grr. May see if there's a cheap 'n nasty spray on equivalent next time I go to bunnings.....

That, friends and neighbours, is bob. Usually seen sitting on a bookcase in my office with a cigar wedged 'twix his teeth, today he has been taken out of retirement and covered in foil. Which will then be covered in mache. And will then give me a nice supply of cheap shitty skulls to play with. Mwahahahhahaaa