Bertha, the Sourdough Bread Starter

In the last week or two, really, since the play has ended, I've been obsessing over the idea of baking bread.  Not just any bread, but bread made from Wild Yeast.  I partially blame this on my sister, who is very knowledgeable about healthy eating and has posted a variety of articles on Facebook that have been encouraging me to change some of my crappier eating habits.  We can discuss chia seeds at length in another post. Anyway, one of the articles got me thinking about how I should be making my own bread, and since I watch TV shows like Alaska: The Last Frontier and Alaskan Bush People, I naturally thought I shouldn't BUY yeast, I should CAPTURE it, WILD.

Enter, the Sourdough Starter.

I googled "how to make a sourdough starter," found a how-to that looked good and followed the directions.

The first day was easy.  I mixed 4 ounces of water with 4 ounces of flour (although I intend to make mine with organic whole grain eventually, the site said white flour was most dependable to start with), set the bowl on the counter and waited.

Now let me explain.  Weird experiments are fairly commonplace in my house.  I just spent two months making a Mushu costume out of spray foam and wire screening.  When my family sees weird, sticky objects drying in the basement, they don't get alarmed.  I guess the same goes for weird, sticky Pyrex measuring cups on the counter.

The first day was no problem.  It looked normal and smelled fine.

On the second day, bubbles eventually dotted the surface of the starter.  It grew slightly in size.  You could say it smelled yeasty.  Not unpleasant.

The third day was challenging.  It was distinctly sour.  I smelled it, but no one else seemed to notice.  My son frequently leaves his dirty socks around the house, but I never remembered them smelling like this…  Maybe everyone was ignoring it because they thought it was the kitchen garbage pail, which frequently went unmentioned because no one wanted to have to empty it - sort of like the fart rule of "Whoever smelt it, DELT it." The good thing about this day in the life of my starter was that it grew AMAZINGLY.  When I placed its delicate self in the Pyrex bowl, it was 2 cups in size. Before I knew it, it had grown to FOUR CUPS in SIZE!  I was so PROUD! AW, that's MY baby starter! I named it Bertha.  I made the mistake, at this point, of making my husband acknowledge my starter's existence.

"Check it out.  I'm making a sourdough starter.  You capture the wild yeast in the air and use it to make bread."  He looked vaguely interested, most likely he feigned this interest because I listen on a regular basis to his stories about carburetors, bronze worm gears and tiller attachments.  I held out the bowl for him to inspect.

"It's supposed to smell sour.  Smell."  I lifted the plastic wrap…

He leaned over and sniffed…

"UGH!!!  Oh, MAN, that's HORRIBLE!  I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU MADE ME SMELL THAT!"

"Oh come ON," I said, "You're such an exaggerator!  It's not THAT bad."  Ok, so it smells bad.  But sour is the word, sour.  Isn't it supposed to smell sour?  It IS supposed to be for SOURdough.

So now Bertha is sitting on the counter again, well fed, but unloved by everyone except me. That's ok, she will have a chance to redeem herself when I make a beautiful loaf of sourdough bread next week.  My daughter told me she was "...wondering why the kitchen smelled like cheese."

When I came home the other day, I found an addition on my note asking everyone not to touch my starter.  Next to where I had written Sourdough starter:  DO NOT TOUCH, my husband had written,  "Who would want to?"

If we ever have to move to Alaska, I know my frontier skills will be much better than his.  

Finished Costume! Mulan's Mushu on Stage!

After all that preparation, the day of the show finally arrived!  Here's a phone shot of one of the scenes with Mushu on stage, standing on a box.  They had two different students play Mushu, so I made sure the costume accommodated their two different sizes.

I may have made the Mushu costume, but my awesome friend Cindy made all of the other costumes.  Aren't they FABULOUS?  She was a sewing maniac for months! Everyone looked great!

I was told by the director that both kids who played Mushu loved the costume.  She said, "They didn't want to take it off!"

And that is what tells me I did a good job.  I loved the challenge, and I'm glad they loved wearing my creation!  

Great job kids!  Until next year!

Mushu Headpiece - Finishing Touches

I am just about done with the Mushu headpiece.  Tomorrow I add the velcro to hold the jaw onto the head (to be put on after the actor is wearing it) and I also add the belt that will go around the actor's waist to keep the head from tilting forward.  I've been working on this for a few hours and I have work tomorrow so…

That's it for this post!

Mushu Costume Head - getting there!

Since it's almost the last day of Christmas Vacation, I figured I'd better get moving.  My Mushu head needed some foam touch-ups in a few areas.  I bought My second can of Great Stuff (and I'm now more convinced than ever that is really is Great Stuff…) and I sprayed a couple of things in the basement this morning (the others will be in another post).  It was dry enough for me to carve at about 7 this evening.    I added a layer to a low spot on the right side of the face, covered the halves of the ears close to the head (I will cover the ends with just the fabric) and I filled in the backs of the horns and a little bit under the jaw - nothing really noticeable in this picture.

When it was dry I carved off the excess again (this time, avoiding my thumb) and gave it a coat of Elmer's wood glue mixed with a little bit of water - I wanted to make sure my paint layer would stick.  

When I was painting, I was wondering if maybe I should just go with paint, but I decided I'll also add the fabric, and here's why:

1. Carved Great Stuff is loaded with holes.  I can't efficiently get the paint in all of them.

2. I'm using a box cutter to carve, and while it's more than sharp enough to cut, the blade is too short to  make nice smooth cuts across just the surface. I'm winding up with a lot of channels when I need to remove a large area.

3.  My paint looks kind of PINK, and what the hell? PINK??

4.  It kind of reminds me of a devil head at this point, and who needs that?  I think the scales will make the dragon identity more clear. 

So, as soon as I post this, I'm off to cut my fabric into strips of scales and then to ponder what kind of glue I should use (Probably Tacky Glue…?) 

Oh, and I need to spring for a new pair of fabric scissors. 

After 30 years they are finally getting dull enough to be annoying.  

(Yes, I got them for Christmas when I was just born. LOL)

Mushu Dragon Head - Carving the Foam

I carved the Mushu head tonight.  

I had other things to do, but I thought, I'll just try this for a few minutes and see how it goes. Haha.

I started with what you see below.  

Basically, I took off the parts that seemed to pronounced.  I tried to make the whole thing a bit more sleek.  You know, if you can call a costume head made of foam "sleek." 

I can see that I'll probably have to fill in a few spots, in addition to finishing the ears and the edges underneath.   Each touch up with require another can, since I can see how the stuff would definitely gum up the nozzle and most like not work a second time.  

You definitely don't need a serrated knife to cut this, but your knife DOES have to be sharp.  I used a regular box cutter, so I kind of had to gouge and tear off pieces, but it was not TOO bad.  A sharp, longer, flexible knife life a filet knife would probably be much better, but who wants to dull their good knife on a block of foam?  

I still think I'm probably going to cover it with fabric scales anyway, but I'm not sure. Either way, I believe I'll have to coat it in glue first to keep the foam from melting.  

Mushu Costume head and lower jaw - made of carved Great Stuff.

I didn't realize until I was done that there were two teeth on that lower jaw.  It will need a bit more carving after the foam patch job, I guess.  More in a few days...  

Mushu Dragon Head - Spray Foam Coat

I have been procrastinating.  

I procrastinate when I'm worried.  

Well, that's one of my reasons, anyway. 

So this evening I sprayed the Mushu dragon head.  I was worried about the mess it would make, how it would stick to the form, if I would be able to carve down to the shape I had originally intended, etc.  You name it, I worried about it.  But you know, procrastinating doesn't answer these questions, it just delays the inevitable. 

I decided to spray in the basement.  I didn't need the hyperactive dog shooting her dog hairs on it (or worse, taking a taste, or stepping in the drips) while it was still wet.  I have had it perched on a copper kettle for a while so I could look at it at the correct angle, so I wrapped the kettle completely in plastic wrap.  I perched the kettle on a rubbermaid tote and topped the tote and the floor around it with newspaper.  I am usually a really neat painter, but this stuff it completely unforgiving.  I read the can before I got started - it says that you can remove the WET stuff with acetone (a chemical in nail polish remover) but the dry stuff will have to wear off… OMG, will have to wear off… it's one of the reasons I decided to spray in the basement.  

I shook the can really really well as directed, put the spray nozzle on and promptly broke one side of it off while pressing down.  CRAP.  When I finally got it going, it came SHOOTING out, expanding like a son-of-a-gun, pretty much obliterating any form I had made.  The first thing I sprayed it on was the lower jaw.

I covered the ends with plastic wrap because I'm going to cover those with fabric and then add velcro so that it can attach to the headpiece on the sides, so the actor's head is completely encircled. 

I cannot say enough that this stuff is SO DAMN STICKY that there was not even a CHANCE that I could do both sides of the jaw at once.  I sprayed what I could reach and figured I could always peel the newspaper off the edges when the foam was dry. I'm going to carve it down a bit anyway.  

I moved on to the head.  Finally I started spraying very slowly so I got a finer stream of foam. I moved the nozzle back and forth, but as I did, a ball of foam clung to the end of the nozzle (did I say this is THE stickiest stuff on earth?  It is.)

I sprayed around the eyes, leaving the centers open, then pressed the eyes into place and sprayed around them to hold them in.  I had covered them with plastic wrap also so that I can just peel or cut it off after the foam is dry and I will have two perfectly clean eyeballs.  

As the foam built up, it started weighing down my armature, which made me worried.  I hadn't planned on that.  

I propped up the horns with an aluminum tray I quickly found in the basement.  It's disposable. 

I propped up the ears with a paper plate.  I knew I couldn't spray the underneath parts and I had prepared by greasing a shish kebob skewer with vaseline in hopes of preserving the remainder of the can for use tomorrow.  But guess what?  I ran out of foam anyway.  

So, I hard press on the nozzle makes the foam come out quickly but that foam seems to be much lighter and more airy.  When you press lighter, you get a smaller stream, but it seems to expand less and be denser. I would say that the optimal use would be to press the nozzle harder, but move the can quickly and deliberately across your surface.  In the middle left of the picture above you can see where I tried to  use the end of the nozzle to stick two sides of the foam together to cover a hole - the only thing that happened was it made a clump of foam which stuck to the nozzle, tore out a section and dropped with a plop to the newspaper.  Lesson learned.

I will need at least another can for the underside, and possibly a third can for touch ups.

Back to Home Depot. 

We'll see what it looks like tomorrow when it's dry.   

Keepin' it Real - Making Adjustments to the Mushu Head Armature

I started the armature for the Mushu headpiece a few days ago, and then I stared at it for a few days.  I stared at it and thought, "It's too bulky."  At first I thought I would cover it in Great Stuff (spray foam) and smooth it out, making a coating all around.  But the friend who did the bulk of the spraying on The Little Mermaid set pieces for me advised against trying to manipulate Great Stuff before dries.  I realized that with the armature so large already, it would leave me little room for carving.  If I spray it and decide, "this edge needs to be taken down," but I can't because it's the edge of the screening, that would be a big problem.

So today I went to Walmart and bought some carpet thread and some yarn darning needles (big, fat, long needles), and I did a little slenderizing of Mushu's head.  I cut his nose straight down the center, overlapped and sewed it.  I cut the side of the face and overlapped and sewed them, bringing the whole thing down and making it narrower from left to right as well.  I was happy with the results.  I think it leaves me more room for a thicker layer of foam.  I might still do some fiddling, but it's a lot closer to the result I was looking for.

Today my dad gave me back the clear plastic Christmas ornaments I had asked him to cute in half for me.  They came out exactly how I wanted them (good old Dad! - instead of putting them in a vice and using a Dremel to cut them, he put the Dremel in the vice and moved the ornaments to cut them - great idea!).  I also picked up some black and some white tissue paper at Walmart as well as slippers for the actor's feet and a PERFECT red velour sweatsuit.

I painted the inside of each half of the clear ornament with Mod Podge and stuck first black tissue (for the pupils) and white tissue paper (for the whites of his eyes).  

My next challenge will be covering the armature with spray foam while avoiding enough of the eye space so that I can put lights inside the headpiece to get his eyes to light up.  Maybe this is overkill, but I they can always not use them.  I just thought it would look cool.  Like this:

Just a little glow.

I also attached his horns, which seem to poke out the back of his head in a very low direction and his ears, which look kind of like donkey ears.  There's a notch in one of them, which I added also.  Hope I don't lose the location of it when I cover it with spray foam.  

Here's a side view of how he looks now:

I still have to form a bottom jaw which will attach to each side of this, leaving a hole for the actor's face in his mouth.  I stopped cause I'm a bit stymied.  I need to think about how to best accomplish that.  Do I spray it separately and attach it later?  Should it be hinged, or stationary?  Maintaining a hole in the middle for the face of the actor makes it so much more difficult! 

  More in a couple of days!