Maker Faire NYC

This past weekend was Maker Faire here in New York and Saturday I volunteered my crafting services as part of the Martha Stewart team. I didn't know what to expect but I was surely pleased to be surrounded by many different types of makers and people that were just interested in how things are made. Inspiring!

The crafters from Martha gathered together to demo a few Halloween ideas from the October issue of Living. I was designated to work on one of my favorite pieces from the story which was the ginormous bone! It's really not complicated to make and although the size makes it seem unmanageable, it is lightweight and uses few supplies.

 The armature of the structure is completely made of newspaper and masking tape. A few pieces of newspaper are rolled together on a slight diagonal to create a long tube, which will be the bone's length, the Diaphysis or shaft of the bone. Crinkled and twisted pieces of newspaper are then taped around the roll to  make it thicker. Newspaper balls are taped to both ends to resemble the Epiphysis, the bone's bulbous ends. 

Once the skeleton of the bone is made, Rigid Wrap is used to stabilize it and make it hard. Rigid Wrap is a cast material that used to be used to set broken bones. It is a gauze-like fabric with plaster powder embedded in it, that, when dipped in water can be molded. If you remember, I used it last Halloween to make my parrot headpiece.

For the big bones, we wet small strips of the Rigid Wrap and wrapped them around the newspaper structure. The Rigid Wrap is smoothed out by rubbing the plaster more into the fabric when it's wet. To make the bone sturdy and firm, about two layers are needed. It hardens fairly quickly, particularly fast in the heat of the day!

 With the many eager young makers willing to get their hands dirty—the weekend ended was a pile of bones! We plan to use all the bones made at Maker Faire on Martha's TV set for the days leading up to Halloween, so be sure to keep an eye out for them.

 
 Thank you to everyone who participated in helping set our bones!