Campbell Family Crest

Spring is finally here and with it I'm back to work on projects around the house. This weekend isn't pretty here in Iowa, the weather folks are still predicting four inches or more of that white stuff today, but it will melt quickly and I know warm weather is around the corner.

I'm anxious for the warmth because it will allow me to begin cutting and finishing wood outside, for the projects inside.

But, there are some things I can do inside despite the weather and one is finishing up the Campbell family crest. For the unenligtened in the crowd, Campbell is indeed a Scottish name and our family has been traced back to the old country.

My plan for the basement here is to turn it into a contemporary pub... you'll have to wait a few months before that one comes to reality. In the meantime I thought it would be fun to re-create the ancient Campbell Scottish Crest.

My re-creation is four-foot wide and tall, and made from one-inch thick styrofoam. This is the same sheet styrofoam you use to insulate the walls in your home or garage.

The process is rather simple. I took the image at the top and enlarged it on my computer to the appropriate size. I then printed it out and taped the many different sheets of paper together to create my pattern. (the black and white photo)

I painted the foam a gold and black mix to give it a bit of "aged" look and then laid the pattern on it, using a plastic volleyball net stake (it has a large round point) to transfer the pattern into the foam. It left me with actual indentations in the foam. Transfer paper will not work for this because the ink just don't wanna stick.

From there it was just a matter of taking my Hot Wire knife and cutting it all out. In addition, I "carved" out the letters and other parts of the crest that would be painted black. You can see the carved out spots in the third photo... they're in blue, the original color of the foam.

Finally, it was a matter of painting the whole thing. My goal was to not be "perfect" with the painting because I wanted it to give the feel of being made from wood, as well as being aged. Unless you examine it closely, I think I accomplished that.

Painted Skin

My daughter is studying theatre design and art at the University of Iowa. She hopes to become a prop designer for theatre and movies. Yesterday I went to see the latest play she has been working on.

The play,Painted Skin, was written by a grad student at the university and was quite interesting. He has created a brief YouTube video of it. The video doesn't really give you an idea of what the play was like, but you might find it interesting. By the way, if you look quick at 1:09 minutes into the video, that's my daughter standing at the table in back with a green top on.



As an old college history major the play was particularly interesting to me as it was set in World War I. Much of the war was fought in trenches that seemed to literally cover Europe at the time. The trenches provided a tragic setting, creating untold facial injuries (in addition to those that always occur in battle) as soldiers stuck their heads out of the trenches, only to be shot in the face.

As often happens in times of war, these injuries led to dramatic advances in medical care. In this case the advances came in the area of plastic surgery. However, even with those advances there were countless numbers of soldiers who still could not have their faces repaired.

For them, artists created masks to cover the soldiers' faces. They took great effort in making the masks resemble the soldiers own face. The masks were attached to the soldiers' eye glasses.

The play used the masks as its theme but really was more about the manner in which those caught up in a war react to the horrors that they encounter.

It's unfortunate that, as a student play, the chances are slim that anyone will have the opportunity to see it again.

If you would like to learn more about the masks there's a good story about it in a past issue of Smithsonian magazine.