How to make a Flying Spaghetti Monster
It was late September, 2005, when I first heard about His noodly majesty. For anyone who still hasn't heard the story, see http://www.venganza.org.
Now on with the How-to
Tools required
Safety glasses
Wire cutters
Needle-nose pliers
Drill
3/32th drill bit
Staple gun
Masking tape
Yard stick or measuring tape
Scissors
Supplies
White bicycle helmet ($8 from Big Lots)
50-75' of aquarium airline tubing ($7 at WalMart)
Spool of 14 gauge solid wire ($9 at Tractor Supply Co.--electric fence wire would work too).
Bubble Eyes 30mm size ($.33 at Hobby Lobby)
Can of beige spray paint ($2 at Hobby Lobby--on sale, whoopee!)
Can of reddish-brown spray paint ($4 at Hobby Lobby)
2 miniature wooden bowls 1.5" diameter ($3 at Hobby Lobby)
Vaseline
Masking tape
2 small pieces of velcro
2 pieces of junk scrap plywood 12" x 6"
Aluminum foil
Here we go!
Cut the airline tubing into 36" sections (I used 24 pieces).
Now staple one end of each strand to a piece of plywood.
Staple the other end of each strand to the other piece of plywood.
Paint all the strands beige and allow 15 minutes drying time.
Now flip the whole thing over and paint the other side of the strands.
Don't worry if a bit of the clear tubing shows through on the side--you'll
do touch up painting after attaching the strands to the helmet.
When the second side has dried, use scissors to cut all strands free from both ends.
Dip the tip of the wire (about three inches) into the jar of vaseline. Insert the wire into a strand of aquarium tubing. Stop pushing four inches before the wire would exit the tubing (that way, you'll get flimsy noodles that won't poke anyone's eye out). At the other end (insertion end), cut the wire with three inches protruding from the tubing (the protruding wire will be used to attach the noodle to the helmet). Set this noodle aside and insert the wires for all the other noodles.
Use masking tape to mask the black part of the helmet (because no matter how much beige paint you use the black part will still look dark--so you might as well mask it and remove the tape later). Paint the helmet beige. Two coats should be sufficient--assuming you started with a white helmet as instructed. You do follow instructions, don't you?
Paint the miniature bowls beige. Wad up a few pieces of aluminum foil (meatballs) and paint them reddish brown. Later--when they're dry and you've finished the costume-- teach yourself to juggle. I also found two 10" long one-inch diameter hose pieces that I could use for eye-stalks. If you aren't so lucky, you can use some leftover airline tubing.
Cut a strand of wire about 12" long. Use needle-nose pliers to twist one end of one wire into a rough approximation of a ball. Tear off two 14" lengths of aluminum foil. Crumple both sheets at once around the ball-end of the wire, making a meatball lollipop--which, incidentally, would be a good name for a rock band. Repeat these steps to make a second meatball lollipop. Paint the meatball lollipops the appropriate color (hint: it's not beige!).
Count your noodles. If you have 24 noodles, you will need to drill 24 noodle holes in the helmet. Space them evenly across the back, top, and sides. AVOID drilling holes in the front because that would look ugly (you'll see what I mean later). The noodles are long enough that you can shape them to cover the front. Think noodle combover!
Insert the exposed-wire end of a noodle into one of the holes you drilled in the helmet.Use needle-nose pliers to make a small loop inside the helmet. Using the pliers, shove the loop back into the styrofoam. Confession: although this worked adequately, I did experience some slippage and felt some of the wire loops rubbing against my noggin after a few minutes of wearing the helmet. If you can devise a better attachment method, more noodly power to you!
Attach all the spaghetti strands and then you can begin to artistically shape them--think tangley. Drill a hole through the center of a miniature bowl. Repeat on a second bowl. Cut a 26" section of wire and bend it into a "U" shape. Stick the pointed ends out of left and right ventilation holes in top of the helmet (the result will remind you of horns). Slide one piece of eyestalk tubing onto one protruding wire, then poke the wire through the bottom of a pre-drilled miniature bowl. Use needle-nose pliers to twist the wire into a spiral--this will hold everything in place. Repeat these steps for the second eyestalk.
Now is the time to touch up the noodles. Examine the helmet from all sizes and spray any area they isn't already sufficiently beige. Be careful; if you over-spray, you will make paint drips on the helmet.
Cut a velcro disk in half and glue it into the the bottom of a miniature bowl. Glue a velcro disk to the back of a bubble-eye. Attach the eye and repeat these steps for the second eye.
Peel the masking tape off the bottom of the helmet. Drill a hole near the helmet's temple on each side. Insert a meatball lollipop in each temple. Instead of doing the loop thing, run the end of the wire laterally inside the helmet and then poke the sharp end into the styrofoam: there will be no danger of a meatball falling out.
posted by Nerdzar @ 5:33 PM
0 comments
The Flying Spaghetti Monster is in town--just in time for Halloween!
