tym pez!

i spent this weekend celebrating timmy's 27th birthday, and my present to him is his squid tattoo that i'm paying for next month. it just didn't feel right to be present-less on his birthday sunday, so i made him a customized pez of himself! who's sick of artwork based on tim? i suspect he is, but then again he is way too in love with himself for that. i'm still amused, so they'll just keep on coming.

tim's was (is?) a huge pez collector. apparently he has 700+ pez stored away in the attic ready to someday be displayed god knows where. his collecting has slowed down significantly sometime after he spent about $700 at one time on pez.  who would've thought pez could be such expensive hobby. every now and then i pick him up a pez that i like/he likes, but he really doesn't collect them anymore otherwise. since i've met him, back when i was 16, i've always connected him to pez-- through his aol screen name, sticker on his car, old bedroom filled from top to bottom (literally), including the ceiling in pez, and the stories i've heard about him wearing pez on a necklace around his neck in high school (what a dork).  so, now he is a functional pez dispenser.

to make this, i searched for a green pez dispenser (for green bay packers colors). the shape of the head wasn't right for what i wanted to do: his chin was way too wide, his ears and hair were unnecessary, and his snout stuck out too far.  so i got papabear to carve off each of those parts for me (see picture to left); i don't trust myself with sharp tools since i'm 90% likely to cut myself.  then i just build up clay and added some details and paint while praying i wouldn't break it.  i put tim's new customized pez back in the original bag and used two-way tape to seal it back up, and you could hardly notice unless actually looking for it.  my intention was for him to open up his little present, see the pez bag and wonder which one it is, like he has with the plenty of other pez presents i've given in the past, but this time to realize it was of himself!  it was a success and i tricked him (so he says).  either way i was excited and it was a fun mini project