Sunday 5 August 2012

The Prometheus Party & the Giant Alien Eggs!!!

In June of this year my friend Lydia was ever so excited about the launch of the new Alien movie: Prometheus. So excited in fact that she decided to throw a Prometheus party where we all went to the cinema to see the movie and then back to hers afterwards for some drinks, face huggers and more alien movies! Well the film turned out to be a bit of a disappointment; in my opinion anyway. I have found a good Prometheus review here if you want to take a look but be warned it contains a lot of spoilers if you have not yet seen the movie. But even though the film wasn't the best, the after-party was a great success thanks to Lydia being an excellent host and some pretty cool props! Here are some photos from the night...


Here you can see the giant aliens that we made with the face hugger coming out of them, not forgetting of course the Weyland-Yutani Corporation tape! And on the right a pitcher of Lydia's 'acid for blood' cocktail!

In this post I am going to show you how we made the alien eggs, which took quite a few sessions over a few weeks but it was definitely worth it as they looked great on the night! If you remember back in May I posted a tutorial about how to make a Strawberry Pinata. This is quite similar except on a larger scale. Please note that this tutorial is very time consuming and needs done over a number of different days, particularly because you have to allow time for the papier mache and the paint to dry out.

WHAT YOU NEED
  • Extra Large Balloons
  • Plenty of old newspaper
  • PVA glue
  • Old paintbrushes
  • Toilet roll
  • Thick card
  • Masking Tape
  • Scissors
  • Acrylic Paints

METHOD

STEP 1
Please note that this tutorial shows you how to make 2 Alien eggs; one opened and one closed. As with the Strawberry pinata, mix up PVA glue with lukewarm water (half and half) to make a smooth paste then use this to coat the balloons with a few layers of newspaper strips. Remember to leave a gap at the top of one of them to make an opening with!
 I would advise coating the eggs with quite a few layers of newspaper then leaving at least 48 hours in a warm ventilated area to dry out. If after this your eggs still don't seem sturdy enough then repeat Step 1 again. You don't want to cause yourself problems further down the line!

STEP 2
Now to pop the balloons and make the lips! I used thick card to make flaps for the open egg and rolled up newspaper to make the lips for the closed one but you could experiment with different things. Secure everything down with masking tape.
Then cover everything with another layer of papier mache to smooth it all out and give it more strength. You will probably need to give it at least another 24 hours to dry out again.

STEP 3
Now to add some texture! We made giant 'plooks' out of bits of scrunched up toilet roll which we then dipped in the papier mache paste and stuck all over the outside of the eggs. You could add veins instead or as well as, don't be afraid to experiment. Leave to dry out again for another 24 hours!

STEP 4
Now for the fun stuff; to get messy with the paint! We mixed up browns and greens for that more yucky appeal. By this stage we were getting behind time so we roped my boyfriend Bob in to help ... and a wee cheeky glass of wine too!

STEP 5
The finishing touches. Finally we added some pink fleshy colour for the inside of the lips on our open egg and then went over it later with some white paint to make some realistic looking veins.... yuck!


Now all that is left to do is add some 'acid for blood' cocktails and a face hugger and you've got yourself an alien-themed party as our friend Zoe here demonstrates. 

On the whole making the alien eggs was great fun and it even made me consider what it would be like to get a job in the movie industry making props. Although I could imagine that after having made hundreds of them alongside HR Giger in the original alien movies would be a hard slog! So with that in mind I think I will continue to carry along my experiMENTAL creative journey, lol! Please check back again soon for more tutorials and news. Faerie love and sparkles, Nomi xxx