We have put in a good deal of hard work and a lot of pain to get to the place we are at.

I have been really struggling lately. I feel like my voice is lost and I am afraid.

I wanted to share some experiments using these starch packing peanuts as a sculpting material. I simply just took a spray bottle of soapy water and started pinching, stacking, wetting, stacking around some bamboo spines, making sure to let each layer dry completely before applying the next layer. If you don’t wait or use too much water it will melt into a horrible mess.

Also letting it try completely means less overall shrink/breakage and It becomes pretty stiff once dried. I again want to note that I did have some issues where I let it get thin towards the back and since it contracts a good bit while drying you might get a few holes like this. You can go back and fill/back them with more wet peanuts if needed.

Check out my other video on these starch nuts:

Starch mâché?

Thanks for letting me share this with you and please take care of each other.

A few months ago I picked up an old transit case from the reuse store that suffered some water damage. I took it home and found out that the damage was pretty bad. I worked on chiseling out as much damaged wood as I could and ended filling it with bondo. Never again. Even with PPE and crazy ventilation that stuff is not worth it. If I was to do this again I would just use an epoxy with some flexibility.

The right photo is the inside after a single coat of super matte black. If you look hard enough you can see some of the severity of the damage. But I think this is going to work out well for my diorama/display case.

The cloth is from reuse, I used a matching pair of upholstery sample books to cover the long outsides of the case.

I will share more as the work continues.

Please take care of each other.