A chicken update!

I've been AWOL, doing something I am excited to tell you about... but I'll tell you about it in my next blog post. Today, I want to take a momentary break and give you an update on Henrietta, the paper-mâché chicken I built for a chicken Wing Fest trophy more than a year ago in April 2015, along with a chicken wing trophy holding a bottle of hot sauce.  (Henrietta, by the way, is named after the large chicken in the zany Daniel Pinkwater children's book The Hoboken Chicken Emergency, a favorite of my son during his childhood.)  I wrote about the details of building these trophies in a blog post of April 2015.  You can find that post HERE. 

In May 2015, the first annual Glens Falls NY Wing Fest was held, and ironically, both trophies were won by the same local pub, who proudly displayed them in their window for the entire year.  I admit I had a hard time saying goodby to Henrietta when she left my home to embark on her new adventure.

In May, 2016, the 2nd annual Wing Fest was held and there was a tie, between that same pub, and a new local dinner-and-movie restaurant.  Barely a block apart on the same downtown street, they agreed to share the custody of the trophies over the coming year.  

Meanwhile, this past winter I was contacted by a woman in Chicago, who had seen a photo of Henrietta online, and was hoping to commission me to make a trophy for their Wing Fest, too. Ultimately, her committee decided to work with someone locally, but I was flattered by the attention.

Why am I telling you about that now?  Because a few days ago, when I was out-of-town doing the exciting thing I'll be telling you about in my next blog post, a local animal rights activist suddenly noticed the chicken trophy in one of the restaurant windows, and wrote an angry letter to the editor of the local newspaper, titled "Chicken wing award is in bad taste".  My husband shared it with me when I got home, and IAnd I've been having a good laugh about it ever since.  Here's most of the letter.

I am not heartless, but never in my wildest dreams did I think that the ridiculously goofy expression on the face of my paper-mâché chicken would be interpreted as being "in great pain", that I would be accused of "gross callousness" for my design, and that my silly chicken would incite an angry diatribe on animal rights.  I mean, this chicken is made from TOILET PAPER!  Yes, it's a papier-mâché mash of mostly shredded toilet paper, with flour, Elmer's Glue-All, and joint compound!  

Today I wrote a rebuttal letter to the editor of the paper, and I look forward to seeing it in print. With a 300 word limit, I had to restrict my thoughts, but luckily I have no word limit here on the blog. So I am able to muse over the ridiculousness of his letter, when there are so many more horrific things going on in the world than the imagined demise of a paper-mâché chicken at the hands of a papier-mâché ring of fire! And I can wonder why it took the letter-writer more than a year to notice the trophies in the window.  And I can be baffled why my chicken provoked such ire, when Disney movies, such as Bambi and The Lion King, regularly brutally kill off parents of young animals.  Or when tv shows and movies regularly depict not only animals, but children in grave peril.  

Anyhow, I just wanted to share this silliness with you.  And if I'm ever asked to make another Wing Fest trophy, I think for the next incarnation, the chicken will either be locked in stocks, or have it's head in a guillotine!

All about the Chicken Trophy!

So, I've been told people prefer to read shorter blog posts, but there's no doubt in my mind this will be a long one.  Hope it's worth it! (Above left, Henrietta the chicken, and right, my completed chicken trophy)

If  you are a regular reader of this blog, you've seen my posts about building trophies for my Temple's annual 'LatkeFest' celebration, a fun event celebrating the potato pancake, a traditional Chanukah treat.  You can find those posts here, here, and here.  I originally made one trophy, thinking it would be re-used each year, but the winner wanted to keep it.  So in four years, I've made four crazy silly trophies.  With that in mind, I guess it shouldn't have come as too much of a surprise when someone recommended me to build a trophy for the 1st annual revival of an old event in my town, 'Wing Fest', celebrating the yummy variations of chicken wings made by local restaurants.  (The name of the event actually has a double meaning, since the town where I live was founded by a man named Abraham Wing.) 

I was cautious.  I have made the latke trophies as as a donation of my time and materials.  Making papier-mache latkes are actually quite easy, but putting together the trophy takes time.  A chicken wing trophy seemed even more complex.  I said that I would only make the trophy with these stipulations:
1) I would be reimbursed for the materials and compensated somewhat for my effort;
2) The trophy would be re-used every year (kind of like the Stanley Cup or the Calder Cup);
3) The trophy could be large and goofy, my specialty;
4) If I could wait to start building it until I returned from the NAEA convention in NOLA. 

When they agreed on all points, I decided to make a trophy with a triumphant looking chicken,  wing raised in victory, perched heroically on the side of a cooking pot.  I started by making the chicken armature, beginning with some Styrofoam balls, some armature wire, tin foil, cereal box cardboard, and a lot of high quality (the stuff that sticks good) masking tape.

I wanted a strong papier-mache coating, did a little research, and came up with this:

It is a mix of toilet paper (that has been wet and squeezed out), joint compound, Elmer's Glue-All, flour, and a little mineral oil.  It all gets mixed with a hand mixer, that I bought for $5 at Walmart.  I made a couple of batches of the stuff, and I must say, there is a lot of variation.  It's hard to measure toilet paper accurately!  The first batch was very textural, which worked out well for a feather texture on the body, and the second batch was a bit smoother, which was great for finishing up.

 It was around this time, when everything was drying out, that I received an email asking me if I could make a second trophy.  Uh oh.  I had just spent a couple of full days building the chicken, and still had all the other parts to make, and they wanted another trophy??? So of course, I said yes.

As Henrietta (the chicken; she has been named after the chicken in the adorable children's book The Hoboken Chicken Emergency by Daniel Pinkwater, which had been a favorite of my son when he was young) dried out, and Isis the cat slept on my chair, I began constructing a large wing based on the Wing Fest logo, to use in the second trophy.  There's wire in the armature to give it some curve, as I wanted the wing to appear to be holding something.

 Meanwhile, I tried to find the perfect inexpensive cooking pot to use under Henrietta, but was not successful.  Instead, I came home from the store with a slotted spoon.  I decided the chicken would perch on the spoon above a ring of fire.  So I built a papier-mache ring of fire (below).

As the papier-mache was drying, I purchased some wood, that my husband cut for me, to use as trophy bases.  I then used some tooling foil scraps to create plaques for the trophies (below).  It was at this time, that that I received an email asking me to "put the year on the trophy" to which I responded "WHAT??  You told me it would be re-used every year!"  The committee had changed their minds, and had decided they would commission me for a new trophy every year.  Um, NO.  I had to remind them of my original stipulation: this was a one-shot deal.  I will NOT be creating more Wing Fest trophies.  No thank you.   I spent more than a week, every day, working on the trophies, and I am not doing it again next year!  I'm not even a big fan of eating chicken wings!  Anyhow, here's the plaques, without the year.  The recipient of the 'Winner' trophy will be determined by a jury.  There's a rather stiff competition between restaurants in two towns that are closely tied together.  The 'People's Choice' winner will be decided by voting of festival attendees.

Finally, our weather has changed, and I was able to take everything outside to paint in warm sunshine.  Without the pot to sit on, Henrietta no longer seemed triumphant to me, so I painted her face to look terrified of the flames below her spoon perch.  The original concept had disappeared, sadly.  Below, you see various trophy parts, including the spoon, which was cut shorter for me by my husband.  I then created a new shorter end with the papier-mache goo, and painted it to match.

My trophy building was not without mishap.  Carrying everything back outside today for the final assembly, and trying to keep the cat from getting out the door, I put the trophy parts on the porch railing temporarily.  A breeze immediately kicked up, and the chicken and wing fell off, and I then had to spend time repairing a broken wing, cracked leg, and damaged comb, and repainting, and re-glossing.  Yippee.....

 

My husband drilled holes for me to insert dowels for assembly. (Perhaps you see a theme here; if it appears to you that my husband doesn't let me use the power tools, you would be correct.  Probably a wise move on his part.)  In the photo above, I have become a chicken proctologist.  I'm sorry, Henrietta.  I had no choice.  The assembly has begun.

I created a fake bottle of hot sauce, by finding the perfect bottle, coating the inside with paint, and using Sharpies on peel-n-stick vinyl to create the labels.   Here's a closeup of the bottle glued into the wing.  The 'GFC' on the bottle stands for Glens Falls Collaborative, the name of the organization sponsoring the Wing Fest. 

  And the trophies are now complete, other than some minor glue reinforcement. 
And this long post is complete, too!!!

Dancing Latke-Man, the Golden Latke Trophy

In celebration of Chanukah, which starts in a couple of days, our Temple holds a fun event called LatkeFest.  For the fourth year in a row, I have built the 'golden latke' trophy for the first place winner of this fun event.  Today was LatkeFest, and an assortment of amateur 'latke-chefs' served up their creations and assorted condiments, and attendees voted on which they liked best. 

Below, a young latke chef (his father was a 3-time champion) helps out.  He is modeling an apron designed by a religious school student.  They were made for the religious school cooking team by a parent, using the student's design.  

If you don't know what a latke is, it's basically a fried potato pancake, and is usually served with applesauce and/or sour cream.  Today's cooks offered interesting variations, from a crispy yucca latke (the winner) to gluten free latkes, to an 'apple pie latke' with a caramel sauce.  Toppings ranged from the traditional applesauce to the fun extreme, such as wasabi - my favorite!

A klezmer band entertained, and there was dancing and a fun atmosphere.  

So how does someone go about building a silly golden latke trophy, you might ask?  Here's the process: to make the latkes, I used a 'shredded paper clay'.  I got shredded paper from an office shredder, added a mix of Art Paste (liquid form; it had already been mixed up) and Elmer's Glue-All, and mashed it all together, making it into pancake shapes.

in the oven!

I knew I wanted arms and legs, so I shaped them out of armature wire and jammed them into the biggest mushy paper pancake.  It was very wet, and I was worried  'latkes' would take forever to dry, so I put them in a warm oven and 'cooked' them all afternoon, turning every so often.  By the end of the day, they were totally dry and ready for the next step. 

I bolted the wire feet onto a wood block, glued small latkes on top of the bolts for feet, and then fattened up the legs and arms a little, using newspaper and masking tape.  

Yes, my workspace is an absolute mess!

I built a spatula for his hand, and then covered the arms, legs, and spatula with a layer of papier-mache, finishing with paper toweling to make it form smoothly around the bends.

 Once the structure was dry, I sprayed the latkes with gold, and painted the rest with acrylic paints.  I made the plaque out of foam core, painted the lettering, and glued it on the front.

 I used a small hunk of gold-tone tooling foil to cut out the #1, and I glued it on the side.  (Actually, there's another #1 on on the other side, too.)

For a finishing touch, to make 'Latke Man' look like he was dancing, I cut a little cloth napkin and used my sewing machine to put a star of David on it.  If you've ever been to an Orthodox Jewish wedding, where there's Israeli dancing, you've likely seen a napkin used between the hands when a man and woman dance together. 

So here's the proud winner, with his new trophy!!

 And with his beautiful family. 

 

Note the klezmer band in the background.  The music was lively and fun. 

Goodbye, Latke Man.  

I hope you are happy dancing in your new home, with your new family!!

Here's the trophies from the past three years.

Happy Chanukah!

Thanksgiving, Chanukah, and latke trophies!

A belated happy Thanksgiving, and a Happy Chanukah, from my crazy family to you all!

Here's my hubby and son on midday Thanksgiving day, at our Adirondack 'camp' on Loon Lake; it was bitter cold and the lake surface was churning with the whipping icy wind.  We (hubby, son, and myself) were outside for, like maybe 2 minutes before we gave up! Hubs looks cold doesn't he?  But son's new hat was really warm! Here's our partially set mismatched Thanksgiving table, with a Chanukah menorah on it too!

After dinner and family fun, and after the company (stepdaughter, her husband, and two young boys) had left, the three of us spent the night at the lake, and when we woke in the morning, the lake looked like this: 

 

The whole lake had frozen over during the cold night!  But what is the strange message written in the ice?  We have no idea where it came from, but it is frozen into the ice.  Crazy, huh?

 My husband used the kayak as a sled and rode down to the lake!!

The photo of my son below was taken through the window, from the warmth of the camp.

Today was LatkeFest, a fun, lighthearted cooking competition and fundraiser.  There were 8 people who had signed on as latke chefs, each with totally unique recipes, and attendees got to taste-test them all and vote on their favorite!  The winner receives the Golden Latke trophy, which is made by... drumroll please... ME!  And there's a klezmer band, and dancing, and a dreidel competition for the kids, and more.  Fun day!!  Here's this year's trophy:

And here I am with all my creations:

 Above are the previous two years' creations, and below is the one I made for this year.  I already have a plan for next years' trophy!

So, tomorrow I plan to get back to posting about last week's wonderful conference, and another couple of workshops I taught.  Till then, Happy Chanukah!  And may your latkes always be golden!