Quackers!

Sorry, I know that title is really bad, but it had to be said, didn't it???  Especially since I've spent ALL WEEKEND building a box around a giant duck. 

It's Tuesday morning, and it's all done except the eyelashes and the decals.  It's now sitting on Sarah's desk as a surprise for her when she arrives this morning.  Well, I say a surprise - she should be expecting it!  So, I spent the weekend cutting up bits of foam and sticking myself to everything in sight with superglue...

Start with a quick "mock-up", of course - this is held together with masking tape, but at least it let me know how it was going to work:

I stitched the box together to begin with, because I figured it would need to be held together pretty tightly if it was going to survive the trip down the river.  Then overlaid all of the stitching with superglue, just to be sure of it! 

We'd decided that the duck needed to be "blinged up" a little, so I added a touch of lippy, and shoved him back in the box to see how that looked...

The container then needed to be corrogated (as all of our boxes are), so it was time to cut strips and stick them on.  Lots of strips, and all needing to be stuck on in perfect little rows.  Lets face it, I'm a perfectionist!  Problem was tho, that I'd reckoned without Mal's excellent superglue (Sarah's having ran out within a few minutes!).  For those who want to know, it's "Loctite" and he got it from B&Q.  I managed to get the strips on, fairly straight (honestly, even a second, and this glue has stuck rigid!) and then played a little with some cornering pieces. 

I also added a few sticks of wood around the doorframe, because it desperately needed something sturdy in there to hold it all together!

Finally, the doors...  The question was, do I do full doors that will pretty much mean that there's no hope in hell of the duck winning the race, but the container will look damned good, or do I go for some other vaguely-designed look that won't be right, but might help the duck to swim?  After consulting Sarah, we decided that the container was more important than the race!  So full doors it was, and it turned out just as I'd wanted it to!

Finishing touches - a reg plate for the back - "MMUK" of course - and a graffiti'd plate of my signiture. 

 

I'm happy with him! 

A call for help!

Well, it's been quite a while, but with the panic over college deadlines, and then the relaxation of college being finished for the year...  But there's lots to say, and lots happening, so here's a start!

I had a frantic email from my friend in the marketing department of the company I work for yesterday.  "I need your help - please come see me when you have a minute!"  Needless to say, my curiosity alone had me in her office within minutes.  I don't quite know what I expected, but it wasn't a rubber duck.

Yes, a rubber duck.

And isn't he a handsome chap???  A little large for the bath, but perfect for the River Mersey.

The story goes that one of our customers asked us to sponsor a duck.  The duck would be sent to us to "decorate," we'd then return it, and it would go on display in a museum in Liverpool before being a part of a rubber duck race down the Mersey.  I'm not entirely sure whether Sarah needed my help because of my creativity, or just because the insanity of the idea is right up my street!

Sarah simply wanted to cover the whole duck in sparkly stones, but I had other ideas...  We work for a container company - what have sparkly stones got to do with that???  The duck should be in a container!