He has a mouth that looks like a butthole, and he is very ticklish. He came from a tube, making him basically a test tube baby, but he will go on many adventures, and rest on many a chest, for he is Nibbles the HashtagEwGrossWhy, and he's here to capture the hearts of everyone this winter. And possibly suck the blood out of them.
Just kidding, there's no story yet.
However there's Nibbles' birth. Which all started at, despite being Hispanic, the last place I'd ever find myself;
Yeah. I can make those jokes. It's awesome.
I was in there for about a whole 4 minutes on a quest to acquire 2 tubes of caulk. My quest was fruitful, and so I ventured forth to acquire a few more things, specifically from Michael's.
Why I went with caulk... I guess because it was the only thing that was rubbery enough and easy to work with for what Nibbles is. And I like squishy things. They make me happy.
When I was little, one of the most satisfying things was to squish at caulk in window sills that was super rubbery and squishy. It was always in the back of my mind to one day purchase caulk and just make a big, squishy, rubbery ball and just squish it forever.
Anywho, Michael's provided me with acrylic paint and a glaze (Mod Podge) I wanted to try out for the first time.
And maybe a candle.
Here are some of Nibbles lab parents, so to speak. I went with Dap for the caulk because it was on sale, and it was the first kind I spotted within a minute of walking into Home Depot.
The saran wrap was just to cover my desk and a non-stick base to work on. It was easy to peel off once the caulk cured enough.
I used an entire tube for Nibbles' main form. I had no idea how big I wanted him to be and was pretty much just going off the generic shape leeches have once they've sufficiently fed. Then I used a thin spatula to even out the sides and kind of give it some shape and smooth it out a little.
Caulk is super thick, so it wouldn't spread very easily but I got it as smooth as I could and let it cure over night.
Here's where my Noobishness manifests itself.
So because the base wasn't exposed to oxygen, it didn't cure. That morning before I left for work I peeled the saran wrap off the bottom, the top portion having cured sufficiently over night, and learned that it was still very wet.
So, I propped Nibbles belly-up on a block of clay and my findings organizer and left him there to cure for another day.
Nibbles' tummy cured, but he was still very squishy inside. Fortunately he was cured enough to paint. My curiosity got the best of me, and I did 3 layers of black acrylic paint on his form, taking turns doing his tummy, then flipping him over and then going over his back.
Since Nibbles was still really squishy inside, his form wouldn't hold very well. His sides would droop which would make his tummy concave, and when I'd turn up belly up, his back would start to flatten because of the weight of the still-wet caulk inside.
So if you can see the lines there, those are where I cut into him for the patterns that leeches have, and through the middle one I injected more caulk to beef him up, and to better maintain his gluttonous shape.
This part was messy, but also really fun. I had to be careful not to over-do it, and inject the caulk in the right places that needed it most. It felt like plastic surgery XD
Once he was filled, I propped him up again so that his tummy would come out a little bit and dry with more of a curve. Thankfully by this point his back was cured enough that it held enough support to not give in and bend into itself.
Once the caulk cured enough inside so that he wasn't ultra squishy anymore (but still somewhat squishy) I went over him with a few more layers of black acrylic. Then, I painted on some patches for detail, as I know leeches aren't always completely black.
I also went over some of the indents and imperfections with a blood colored mix of Scribblez. His tummy as you can see was still kind of concave, but left a cool looking indent that looks like a cut or something.
For the glazing I ended up using my other glaze that I know will be ultra slimy looking; TripleThick.
Triple Thick is kinda hard to work with because it's.... really thick, lol. And it dries quickly so you have to haul ass when you apply it. I looked up some reviews of Mod Podge: Gloss and wasn't impressed. Nibbles has to look wet and slimy, and I don't think Mod Podge can achieve that the way Triple Thick can. =\
You can kind of see how big Nibbles is. He's around 7 inches long and 2 inches at his widest. Nibbles is... phallic, lol. None of this was even deliberate, he just gooked out of the tube that way! Haha
I'm glazing his top and tummy in shifts. His back is done with its' first layer, while tonight his tummy cures.
Nibbles came out pretty much how I wanted him. I'm super proud of him. He's my first cosplay prop, and.... I think leeches are incredible animals. I used to have a pet leech when I was a teenager and thought I was soooo cool. lol. My friend an I went walking around through a creek by my old house in Pennsylvania. I found a leech on a rock and adopted it. Eventually I let it go because I couldn't feed it sufficiently and didn't want it to die. Its name was Bertha.
When the time comes to debut my cosplay I'm really hoping people will let me be a little interactive with them, to fully appreciate the character in all her glory! This character is so overlooked, but she's soooo awesome!! I hope I do her justice :)
Everyone that I run into at Son of Monsterpalooza, Long Beach Comic Con, and Comikaze, please don't be afraid to come up to me! I want everyone to cuddle with Nibbles. He loves long walks on the beach and peoples' chests.
Let him just sleep on your chest. Just let him do it. He loves you.
K.
Fett's here and I'm gonna show him how to open up my computer and learn stuffs and the bits and anatomy and yay PC dissecting!
k bye. :B
