[Sca-cooks] Pictures from my Illusion Feast

[Robert Downie]

Olwen the Odd wrote:

> Wow Faerisa!!  How much time did all this take?  How many folks worked on
> the paper mache? Did you only do the one swan and turtle and crab or one for
> each table?  Whoever did the roses did a wonderful job.  I have forwarded
> these pictures to our cooks guild list so they can have a look.  Thanks for
> sharing.  I was thinking about you and your wonderful feast last saturday.

The conceptual stages took many months - the execution took one very long month
(sleep, we don't need no stinking sleep!)!
I did the 10 swans,  10 peacock heads and 10 crab bases by myself (I'm funny
that way, I'll have a picture in my head that's easier to translate to reality
without distractions).  I had 2 other people help with the turtle production,
both making the base shape and doing the base coat of paint.  We used a pyrex
dutch oven, lined with foil as a release, as a mold - we sped up the drying by
popping them in a convection oven at very low heat  so that we could remove the
hardened plaster and start the next one.  I was in charge of heads, flippers,
and  detail painting.  We were pretty punchy by the end of that day, making
turtle jokes (any other fans of Tardy from Greg the Bunny out there?).

I mostly stuck with the same 2 people to help with the fiddly things, like the
sugar paste walnut shells, crab top shells, peascods, etc.  We had one night
with more bodies but in a smallish kitchen, I found we were mostly getting in
each other's way.  I was piping butter roses the night before while waiting for
our crasher to arrive (if you have anyone in your group who decorates cakes
mundanely, they are a shoe in for this job).

Faerisa