Snippets of conversations with my oldest as she started her customized Funko Pop side hustle:
Her: Dad. I need (insert exotic art or craft supply) for this Pop project. Where would I get that?
Me: Upstairs, My Office. Brown Cabinet, Fourth Drawer. Left side.
Her: No…no. I meant where can I buy it.
Me. Why? I already have that upstairs.
Her: But I need to know.
Me: Will you need it again? Ever?
Her: Well, um, no.
Me: Upstairs. My Office. Brown Cabinet. Fourth Drawer. Left Side.
Also:
Her: Dad, why do you have 18 different kinds of glue?
Me: Because I need to be able to stick anything to anything and not everything sticks to everything.
This is what we used to call in the theater “Hell Week”, the run-up to opening night where everything that is not finished must be finished and everything that is not tested has to be tested and if it isn’t working has to be made to work. Because, on Saturday night…
I’ve been dabbling with prop and costume work since I was a wee laddie. It’s nice to actually be at a point in my life where I can go buy that special glue that sticks this thing to that thing and does nothing else. Of great importance during Hell Week is understanding just how long it takes for the special glue to fully set up, because, unfortunately, not everything can be stuck together with Krazy Glue, despite what the ads say.
I know, because at some time or another I have tried to use Krazy Glue on just about everything. Likewise hot glue. Which melts some things you want to stick together. It truly sucks to discover that during the last day before you go live.
Other magical “universal” adhesives are not nearly as universal as they claim to be. Some will work. Some will work but not well. Some will work but do damage (see melting above), and some will decide that you truly need to be humbled by the cosmos for not doing the proper homework and leave you with no choice but to start over with hours or minutes to go.
In these situations, we go for the roll of “duct” tape, or the more expensive and oft misused roll of gaffer’s tape. “Duct” tape is not actually duct tape. That is, it is a vinyl backed canvas scrim high tack tape that was originally designed to provide a water-proof seal on ammunition cans back in WWII. The word used then was “duck tape” as in “tighter than a duck’s…” “Duck tape is actually a brand name for this particular kind of tape.
Now, it is used sometimes on ducts, but there is a duct tape that is adhesive backed heavy aluminum foil that is used to provide airtight efficiency for HVAC systems. It could be used in place of the duck type, but the duck type is not always a viable substitute for the duct type.
Gaff or gaffer’s tape is a special fabric scrim tape with a special rubber adhesive that leaves minimal to no residue, and most commonly comes in matte black. It’s original purpose was to secure electrical cables on stage and set. There are now color varieties and a glow-in-the-dark version for putting down actor’s marks or lighting steps offstage during performances.
I am sure you are enjoying this short education on the various kinds of roll based adhesive but there is a little imp in the back of your brain screaming about what in the world does this have to do with occult practice.
I’m not sure it does. The joke has been made that the “Force” from the Star Wars franchise is duck-type tape because it also binds the galaxy together.
But rather I am thinking the parallel, and it’s a thin one, is that need to understand what works in a given situation, and what doesn’t. Secondarily, much study, practice, and yes, terrible devastating failure may be necessary to gain that knowledge.
Put simply, you can spend hours and days and years and dollars on books and blogs and seminars and videos to “educate” yourself in the esoteric subject of your choice. There is some need for that, because trial and error, though instructive, takes a very very very long time to teach. On the other hand, if all you do is pursue the academic, to sit in the chat rooms or on social media ping-ponging back and forth over some minor point of lore or methodology, you are not putting your knowledge to any good use.
At some point you have to try to stick this thing to that thing and deal with whatever consequence comes of it. You gotta do the work.
And with that said, I will hang back to the theme-based title of this week’s article and share some WIP images of the props work that will go live Saturday. The next week’s article will feature photos of the same taken during the event, with lights and fog and hopefully a crowd willing to brave the elements and be entertained by the odd bits I have created.
For the artist, there is always an exchange of energy when the audience is present. While we ultimately do what we do as a private ritual, the result of which is tangible within our minds, to deny that we want public accolades is disingenuous. They are two separate things, but they are connected.
There are, perhaps artists and creatives for whom the process is the ultimate reward. They can divorce themselves from the completed work emotionally, and either are indifferent to audience experience or view it only as a transactional matter involved in the fiscal support of that process.
There are others who are so emotionally invested in their creation that a bad review will send them into spirals of deep depression.
For me personally there is a sliding middle, and I think that comes from many many years of doing the work with the realization that if I want to consider it more than a personal hobby, I have to put it out there and deal with the public eye.
Since the nature of my work is generally outre in the first place, prior to the Internet the receptive audience was extremely limited. I am happy to have found a larger tribe these days, and I am happy that my children (and everyone else’s) live in a world where they will probably be able to find those who honor, respect, and enjoy their creative output, their personal quirkiness, and the life they choose to lead.
At the same time, I am troubled that even with this global perspective, there are those who still feel the need to limit and corral other people and dim their spark, simply because the “tribe” doesn’t conform to the vanity of their own egos.
As we move closer to our most cherished personal holidays, there comes the inevitable online snarking about the proper pronunciation of Samhain, and how all the modern Christian holidays are stolen from pagans, and whether or not veils are thinning, and a number of other unimportant diatribes that simply serve to puff up people on social media.
Such pedantry and dogmatism are for the unimaginative. WE are better than this. WE need to act like it.
Now, please excuse me. I have a mummy to wrap.