Making: Tar Man
Is he a man? Is that tar? No.
The best thing I discovered during the making of Maskwitches is black hot glue. It melts at a lower temperature than the clear stuff, it remains quite flexible when cooled, and best of all it looks like pitch, which is a fascinating and sophisticated tool used by many humans in the deep past. Pitch is made by cooking up resin collected from trees, and makes a strong glue. Tree “wounds” or broken branches are an especially good source of resin, and it can also be extracted from wood by heating it. Given the ease and abundance of collecting it direct from the tree, it’s likely people did just that. Once cooked, it can be mixed with all manner of other substances to change the composition of the resulting glue/resin/putty. People combined it with bonemeal, ash, bees’ wax, and fibres like human hair or plant material to alter its rigidity, brittleness and workability. It’s a very resilient material. While long before the period of Maskwitches, Rebecca Wragg Sykes’ excellent book “Kindred” has a great section about pitch and its uses by Neanderthals.
Of course having an ersatz version I can squeeze out of a glue gun means I can also use it to make monsters.
I began with a simple wire figure. This is armature wire, so it’s flexible, extremely malleable, but holds its shape. I paid attention to the hips and shoulders because I knew they would help make this fellow look the way I imagined him to be (ie: horrible). I wanted him to appear very tall and thin, with obvious bones, or a structure that indicated bones.
On reflection I think I was channeling to some degree my imagined version of the leather men from The Giant Under the Snow, which is one of those 1970s “children’s books” which is far too terrifying for children to read.
I’ve learned on this project that taking the time to base my models right away is very helpful. A nice stable block holds the skeleton in place, and I can start applying the hot glue without worrying about how I’m going to hold the model, or place it down during making. Did you know that boiling hot glue can make metal wire very hot to the touch? Who knew?
The glue adheres very well to the wire. I’ve learned that I can work in different ways but dragging strands of cooling glue away from a point of contact, and then reattaching. That allows for all kinds of horrific filaments and tendon-like detail. Ew. You can see how much I built up his hip bones and a creepy kind of pelvis structure.
Once “he” is all done it’s off to a set for “his” big scene. Tar man is absolutely horrible and I love him. A nice quick build, using some era-appropriate materials. (At least in appearance)
Sleep well, boys and girls.