Thing in a Jar

Here are some instructions on how to create your own pickled-punk ^_^ in case you have the urge to...

7 inches by 4 inches, mason jar

Pictured above is the Thing in a Jar that's usually sitting in my office at work.

The coolest thing about the Thing is that everyone responds to seeing it by asking questions. Where did I find it?  Is it an internal organ?  Is it some sort of fetus? Would it go well with pasta?

The Thing in a Jar is made out of Sculpey, acryllic paint and rubber cement. The liquid inside the jar is diluted Coke.

This is the third Thing in a Jar I've made. For some reason I'm always compelled to give them away as gifts.

Here's a conceptual sketch I made of this Thing before I sculpted it.

1.5 by 2.5 inches, ballpoint pen

Usually when I make a Thing in a Jar, I try to keep the shape ambiguous enough so that the viewer cannot really pin down exactly what they're looking at.

The glass jar acts as a physical barrier, preventing the viewer from directly accessing its contents. The murky fluid acts as a visual barrier, making the exact details of the form indistinct. The viewer is forced to fill in the gaps with their own imagination.

I think this is much cooler than, for example, a painting, which basically has this big implicit sign hanging off of it that says, "I am just a painting of an object, not the object itself. Obviously you are not looking at a real alien fetus."

Viewers of The Thing in a Jar do not have this preconception. When they first see it, it is not entirely clear whether the Thing is real or not.

It's fun to leave the Thing in a Jar in someone's refrigerator and watch their reaction.

Update

I've gotten a lot of requests for instructions on how to make your own "thing," so here you go.

		First you'll need some Super Sculpy (via Amazon.com)...
		...and a jar. This one might be a little large, so get a smaller one if you can find it somewhere else.
		Also you'll need some Coca Cola.
		...and some rubber cement.
		...and lastly, some acryllic paint. I recommend some sort of creepy flesh tone, but choose whatever makes you happy or what you think would bother your friends the most.

OK here's what you do. Make a funny shape out of the Sculpy. Make absolutely sure it will fit in the jar. A good start for the design would be to hunt around the web for some funny monster picture somebody else made, and then do something loosely inspired by that. 

If you feel that you have no artistic talent at all, just make a weird blob shape and claim that it's an internal organ. 

Follow the instructions on the Sculpy box about how to bake it in the oven.

After it cools, paint it with the acryllic paints however you want. A clever way to do this is to paint the whole thing with a light natural color like pink or something, and then when that dries, heavily dilute some black paint and use it to fill in all the creases, to make them stand out more. Then wipe any remaining black paint off the exterior surfaces. 

Once the paint dries, brush a layer of rubber cement all over the thing. Let this dry. Repeat about three or four times, sometimes rubbing the rubber cement off in certain areas, to make it look like it's skin that's sortof rotting away.

After everything is dry, put the thing in your jar. 

Fill it 3/4 of the way with water, and try putting in a little Coke to darken it up so it's not perfectly clear. Add some more water. The idea is you just want the water to look a little yellowish or dirty. Food coloring might work here too. 

To make it easy to carry the jar around without it leaking everywhere, you could also glue the top permanently shut with epoxy, although this can be kinda tricky.

That's it! 

By Drew

Sword Swallowing Ladies: throughout the ages

Unlike the majority of sideshow tricks, there really is no secret to sword swallowing that makes it appear more impressive, dangerous or painful; you just have to do it. 

It is a fairly risky act with ancient roots, and most famous sword-swallowers have had one or two notable injuries.

In the 1890s Miss Victorina (Kitty Fisher, a native of Berlin) swallowed swords in her act along with her husband Kar-mi.

Kar-mi would swallow a loaded gun barrel, and while it was down his throat, would shoot a cracker off a man's head, while Miss Victorina was said to have swallowed a record 16 swords at once around the turn of the century.

In 1899 the Victorinas put out a "Text Book On The Art of Sword Swallowing - Explaining How To Do It Sixteen Different Ways" with some mythical tips on how to swallow swords, some written in an untranslatable ancient script! I would love to get my hands on a copy...

The Boston Herald of December 28th, 1902, described Victorina's performance:

"By long practice she has accustomed herself to swallow swords, daggers, bayonets, walking sticks, rods, and other dangerous articles. Her throat and food passages have become so expansive that she can swallow three long swords almost up to the hilts, and can accommodate a dozen shorter blades." On one occasion, while sword-swallowing in Boston, a sword pierced a vein in her throat.

The blade was half-way down, but instead of immediately pulling it out, she pushed it further in.

She was laid up in a hospital for 3 months after this performance. In Chicago she had an even narrower escape. 

One day while performing at a museum on Clark Street, Victorina passed a long thin dagger down her throat. In withdrawing it, the blade snapped in two, leaving the pointed portion some distance in her passage.

Dropping the hilt on the floor, she leaned forward, and placing her finger and thumb down her throat, she succeeded in catching the end of the blade and pulled it out.

Many gutsy ladies during this time period were making a living swallowing swords at a time when it was quite risque to reveal your ankle in public.

Miss Edith Clifford Williams is another famous American performer who held the impressive title "Champion Sword Swallower of the World." Clifford began swallowing swords in 1899 at the age of 13 after learning from sword swallower Delno Fritz. 

Clifford was said to be "generously endowed" and "possessed of more than ordinary personal charms, a refined taste for dressing both herself and her stage, and an unswerving devotion to her art." 

Clifford married Thomas Holmes who was known as the "Elastic Stretch Man."

They worked for Barnum & Bailey Circus in Vienna Austria in 1901, where Clifford became famous for swallowing razor blades, scissors, saw blades and bayonets.  was said to have swallowed 18 to 20 inch blades without a problem, and a longer blade up to 26 inches long, as well as 10, 16, and up to 24 swords at one time.

During one of Clifford's performances she swallowed a bayonet that was shot down her throat with a gun. By this time, she had been sword swallowing for over 20 years.

The legacy lives on in modern performers of today such as the lovely Miss Behave (Amy Saunders) who bills herself as "one of the last living female sword swallowers in the world!"

She is in fact one of five female sword swallowers currently performing worldwide (she gets extra points in my book for dressing only in latex).

Miss Behave spoke of her past in an interview with the Telegraph, "I taught myself to sword-swallow about 10 years ago, after a friend bought me Memoirs of a Sword-Swallower. I'm quite gobby, and he thought it would shut me up - but I read it and thought that it sounded like a damn fine idea."

Her current act (yes she is available for hire!) includes scissors, switchblades, chair legs, and the World Record for swallowing up to 5 swords simultaneously! A normal 10 minute show will include Rose through tongue, sword swallowing, table swallowing, fire eating and glove act. 

Miss Behave says of her act "Whenever I swallow a sword, I do exercises to warm up, but a shot of tequila also helps."

Throughout the ages technique for sword-swallowing has not changed, 

it's an art that takes years of fearless practice and conditioning.

Images, Sources: 1 2

In Memoriam

Deus, cujus miseratióne ánimæ fidélium requiéscunt,

 hunc túmulum benedícere dignáre, eíque Angelum tuum sanctum députa custódem:

et quorum quarúmque córpora hic sepeliúntur,

ánimas eórum ab ómnibus absólve vínculis delictórum;

ut in te semper cum Sanctis tuis sine fine læténtur. Per Christum Dóminum nostrum.

Amen..

Susi, the Elephant Skin Girl

Susi was likely born in 1909 as Charlotte Linda Vogel in the western district of Berlin. In early childhood Susi’s ichthyosis manifested aggressively and her skin quickly thickened, turned grey and cracked to resemble the skin of an elephant.

Susi's condition was severe to the point where it caused her constant physical pain. She was also very suseptible to infections and illnesses as bacteria invaded the major cracks formed in her skin from even her most subtle movements.

During her early years, Susi couldn’t even blink her eyes without risking life-threatening cracks

Susi also endured emotional torment as she was the subject of ridicule by her peers and lived as an outcast from them.

During the hot summer days, while the other children frolicked in the water, Susi rubbed ice over her arms in an effort to cool down as her skin condition left her unable to sweat. As the children pointed and laughed at her she would not shed a single tear. Her condition had robbed her of that ability as well.

Susi’s parents, in an effort to improve the quality of her life and to prevent infection, lathered Susi with generous amounts of oil and moisturizer on a daily basis.

Susi’s parents were also highly concerned with her general appearance and took to peeling the skin from her face on a nightly basis.

Both practices did wonders as her skin became suppler and her facial complexion cleared to reveal a lovely face. Susi would, however, need to repeat the daily procedures for the rest of her life.

Susi first came to the United States in 1927 as part of a troupe consisting of a giantess and a bearded lady and she made multiple subsequent visits to the US.

With her manager, she emigrated to the U.S. from Germany to escape the oncoming war and moved into an apartment on New York’s west side.

Susi left Coney Island in 1933 to be featured in the Ripley’s Believe it or Not?! exhibit at the Chicago World's Fair, where she gave no fewer than eighty performances to a million curious viewers.

When these grind shows became too exhausting for Susi, she traveled to New York and took a low stress job with the Gorman Bros. circus as a member of the menagerie, performing for just an hour a day next to an elephant named Lou.

Susi spoke beautiful English and Walt Hudson recalled she "was a very pleasant girl to converse with". Her favorite hobby was crossword puzzles, and she often asked people to save her the puzzles from their daily papers.

By all accounts Susi was a shy, introverted and quiet woman who preferred to keep a low profile and exhibit sparingly.

She exhibited herself more or less locally until her manager passed away in the late 1960’s. With his death, Susi’s career and heart for the business died as well.

Her last confirmed public appearance was at the Great Allentown Fair in Pennsylvania as a single attraction billed as ‘The Swamp Girl’.

By some accounts Susi retired to Germany, but most report that she passed away in New York City in 1975.

 

Information taken from The Human Marvels

Images from Quasi modo

Halloween dreams...

Things start to go a bit nuts around here this time of year in preparation for my favourite day of the year... Halloween, I am attempting the ultimate bad-ass female villain; Mystique from the X-men comics.

Mystique is a shape-shifting super-villain with blue skin, red hair and yellow eyes. Her character is over 100 years old. 

 

 Mystique has a number of different looks ranging from fully dressed with light blue skin, to a fully scaled alien-looking naked mutant. 

I am going to be attempting her look from the X-men movie, where she is portrayed by Rebbecca Romijin. In 2009, Mystique was ranked as IGN's 18th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.

This costume is going to be quite the under-taking involving copious amounts of body paint and  hairspray among other things, so I am getting started early.

I am still undecided on what material I am going to use for her scales...it's a toss up between liquid silicone, latex or fabric paint...or something else. If you have suggestions I'd like to hear them!

I'll keep you posted and be sure to reveal my results when the time comes, wish me luck!! ^_^

The Ringling Brothers Funundrum= Saddest show on Earth

As you may have gathered, I am crazy about circus and sideshow acts, therefore when I heard The Ringling Brothers Funundrum touring show was coming to town (or at least just outside the city limits), I rushed to purchase some tickets.

Thankfully I did a little research first and what I found is not looking good for the Funundrum. This show will no longer tour through my city because we are on the list of cities who have banned circuses featuring animal acts.

They have an extensive elephant act during which the animals sit upright, stand on their hind legs, and even stand on their heads. For me, this in and of itself is upsetting enough; I have no interest in seeing one of the most majestic, dignified and intelligent of wild animals forced to perform in captivity for human enjoyment. They also use tigers and zebras in the show.

I remember going to a circus as a child once, and enjoying the whole thing immensely...until the elephants came on. I was close enough to get a good view, and remember seeing so many whip marks on the skin of the elephant. In reality- the elephant skin is tough like a horse and they probably didn't feel any of those marks more than a tap- but looking into it's eye, it just looked beaten down and confused at why it was being asked to perform these illogical tasks.

After reading up on this issues from a number of sources, I've found that the Ringing Brothers are being investigated and on trial for animal abuse, specifically of their elephants.

The tools and methods used during trainings are coming into question, as well as the conditions in the boxcars, ventilation feeding and lack of adequate veterinarian attention are all on the table.

Do yourself a favour and don't youtube Ringling Brother's elephant training methods, lets just say my dreams about the state of this particular modern circus have been crushed forever.

A number of former Ringling employees have spoken out about these practices, including Frank Hagan, a Ringling Handler, who has signed an affidavit claiming that the death of his lion Clyde was a result of negligence, alleging that his repeated requests to stop the boxcar to check on Clyde during 109 degree heat were ignored because the circus was behind schedule.


A number of welfare groups including the Animal Welfare Institution are in a legal battle with the Ringling Bros and Barnum &Bailey.

This website has a nice detailing of all the U.S.D.A inspection reports for a whole list of circuses, for your reference.

My hope is that eventually the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus will catch on to the declining popularity of their animal acts and will omit them for good, so that I can go enjoy the show with a clean conscience. Although it's true this traveling show has a very long history including animals acts, times change and people must change too!

Ruysch's anatomical curiosities

It is not that often you come across a truly bizarre man whose work accurately reflects what is going on on the inside.Weeping baby skeletons, elaborate trees constructed of human organs, injected with colourful substances, puppets constructed from human tissue being manipulated by a dead foetus, this is the mind of Frederik Ruysch.  

Human beings have been fascinated by the oddities of the natural world for thousands of years. Ancient Greek tales tell of one-eyed Gods; biblical characters appear in the form of giants and magicians. Objects which produce a sense of wonderment for their rarity, or for their curious unfamiliarity, will probably always be a source of intrigue and inquiry.

The engraving above shows the tableaux (or dramatic scenes) created by the anatomist Frederik Ruysch (1638 - 1731) and included in his wondrous cabinet of curiosities.

Ruysch discovered the recipe for a special coloured substance that, when injected into human organs, revealed the journeys taken by the blood vessels through the lymphatic system. 

He later included these injected body parts in his museum of curiosities: body part specimens in glass jars, baby skeletons, and preserved organs sat alongside exotic birds, butterflies and plants.

He thought of these exhibits as highly educational, but also felt that they should be decorated 'prettily and naturally'. So his daughter would prepare delicate cuffs or collars to be slipped on to severed arms or placed around necks. 

Ruysch turned other pieces in his collection into theatrical scenes. Small skeletons were positioned in 'geological' landscapes, crying into handkerchiefs, wearing strings of pearls, or playing the violin. The 'botanical' landscapes were also made up of body parts: kidney stones or tissue from the lungs would become bushes, grass or rocks.

The scenes were intended to work like plays or stories, representing particular themes or ideas - the idea that our life on earth is short for example, or that our love for the material things of this world is irrelevant given the enormous complexity of the universe. Clearly, Ruysch was as much an expert showman as he was a scientist.

Ruysch performing a dissection

His public dissections would be held by candlelight and accompanied by music and refreshments. And his curiosities, held open to public viewing in a number of Amsterdam houses, were known as the 8th wonder of the world.

In these instances the body has become a metaphor (or symbol) with which to tell a story and encapsulate a particular idea. It is a lifeless object to be put in a case like a jewel. Dead things are re-animated to become part of a fantastical cabaret. While we might now see these exhibits as macabre forms of entertainment, perhaps it is important to reflect on the different ways that other cultures and eras have looked at death.

From the late 1600s, thanks to advances in preservation techniques, there was a fashion for collecting and exhibiting body part specimens. The specimens were either submerged in alcohol, or injected with resins or wax and then dried. In either case, the body parts seemed chillingly lifelike – the dead seemed to be reanimated, and viewers were captivated.

There was a widespread craze for cabinets of curiosity during this period. These small exhibitions were displayed in the houses of wealthy collectors and would include strange, beautiful and outlandish objects.

Exotic shells and jewels, stuffed animals, preserved bodies, clockwork and scientific instruments would often be accompanied by the stuff of fairytales - mermaids, dragons, or the clothes or footsteps of giants. 

Collections frequently included examples of rare and misunderstood deformities. Among the curiosities of the Russian emperor Peter the Great was a two-headed sheep, a four-legged rooster, the teeth of a singer and a tablecloth maker (which Peter himself had extracted), and the bones of a giant footman.

There were also live exhibits: a hermaphrodite (a person with both male and female sexual organs) and a man with only two digits on each of his hands and feet.

Images and information from The British Library