Thursday, April 14, 2011

lovely lulu

ah, lovely lulu. i love lulu. i hope to keep her around for a lot longer.

she is still an attractive thing, you know. for a mannikin, that is. but lulu is starting to get a bit worn out. she is showing her age. her glossy, black duct tape body is struggling to stay together after being tugged at, toted up and down stairs, dressed and undressed a million times, and shoved into corners when out of use. a small split here, a tiny rip there, is all it takes for her insides to begin to fall out.

i am sentimentally attached to lulu. years ago hannah lovingly and carefully crafted her out of this and that. lulu was the belle of the ball, the talk of the town, the cat's whiskers, the bee's knees, the snake's hips, etc., etc. but time marches on and, alas, she could use a lift here, a tuck there, something to smoothe out the wrinkles. couldn't we all?

lulu's body was fashioned this way:

hannah put on a long t-shirt. i wrapped her body, just over the t-shirt, round and round in black duct tape, overlapping neatly. then the torso mold, t-shirt attached, was carefully cut straight down the back. hannah took it off, and with the black duct tape she taped up the slit, formed the neck, and covered the neck and arm openings. then she stuffed the manniken from the bottom with poly-fill stuff (the kind in pillows), cut a piece of cardboard and inserted it to keep the stuffing in place, and taped the whole bottom up smoothly and securely. an old sawed-off metal floor lamp base became her stand. what fun.....lulu had arrived.....