Day of the Triffids, or The Making of Two Triffids for Halloween 2020

 This is the story of my Halloween build that took me three months

July 25th 2020.  

 Found this image scrolling through the internet looking for Halloween build ideas.  This is an image of two of the movie props (circa 1963).  The movie is okay, the props are amazing, the novel by John Wyndham is most excellent.   

Wednesday August 26th 2020

 I've started building the bodies here.  At this point I've probably already spent three weeks on the build - researching, drawing, and then doing until I was happy with it.  This is empty plastic bottles, junk newspaper ads, cardboard boxes, paper towel tubes, recycled aluminum foil, hot glue, and some blue tape.  So far it's cost me $20 in a new roll of foil and a new bag of hot glue sticks.

September 5th 2020 

  This odd image is me flipping a Triffid upside down so I can start doing the clay work on the bottom of the to be statue.  I use Pal Tiya https://www.paltiya.com/ for my clay mix.  It comes dry, and gets mixed with water.  Wear latex gloves when working it.  And try not to inhale the dust.  Any kind of mask works - the dust can puff up when your measuring it out. 

Once the bottom is covered, cured, and hard, I can start working on the rest of the body with the statues right side up.  Pal Tiya needs a non porous surface to adhere to, but when cured is a lot like stone.  Crumpled up foil works really well for it to stick to, and the inside armature can stay lightweight.  

 September 16th

September 19th

 Cardboard papier-mache solves my armature rigidity problem - lightweight and hard.

September 20th

 Testing the fit

September 21st

 Building the flower heads

September 25th

September 30th

October 3rd

 The stem needs to be supported while the weight of the clay cures.  I've done two layers on the stem and bulb to give additional reinforcement.  I keep the clay decently wet to help with the cure.  However, for this, any additional weight will set off stress fractures, so I'm forgoing wet towels like I normally would use. Insead, I'm using a spray bottle to spray down the curing Pal Tiya several times a day.  I'm giving this 72 hours before I finish off the inside of the flower head, and then I'll move the scaffolding over to work on the second Triffid stem

October 5th

 I have now finished one 40 pound bag of dry Pal Tiya Premium clay mix (plus I had 2 or 3 pounds left over from my February pumpkin builds).  I have a second 40 pound bag standing by.  The paint I am using is Culture Hustle https://www.culturehustleusa.com/ 

Oct 10th: 

Oct 11th: 

Oct 18th: claying and painting upside down is difficult and awkward.  

Oct 20th: 

Oct 21st: 

Oct 22nd:

Oct 25th:  

The Triffids are done. Okay, I actually didn't engineer one of the legs on the bigger Triffid enough, and had to rebuild most of it on the 24th.  It'll be fine.  I'm planning on putting them out Wednesday before Halloween.  The smaller one I'm calling Malee is about 40 pounds, and the bigger one I'm calling Manhui, is about 70 or 80 pounds.