Army bowl

[begin again]

the linked work, tho it doesn't appear that their attempt at the army bowl did, dangit (tho they've gotten much farther than me who simply muses about it and has yet to try anything.....)

[time_warp]

Hmm, I can see the pictures...well, they at least look like they have the right idea...just needs a few tweaks.

--Sarah

[second-hand-smoke]

the pic link worked - UGH! what a mess! I would be interested to know what method she tried tho... i tried searching the site for the discussion related to the pictures with no luck. any idea where her post is?

[Asha]

i was woundering f you could place a glass bowl in water bring to to a boil and then place the armymen in the bowl then placer another bowl on top of that to weight it down, it may take a while to melt the back down but it might work  

[amareluna]

I have tried the War Bowl/Army Bowl experiment.  Check out all the info on what we did and see the pics here:

http://artneuvoj.xbuild.com/

 

[amareluna]

Since some people are having trouble with the other site, I'll go ahead and post the info here 

Visiting my parents this weekend seemed like the perfect opportunity to try this experiment. Here's what happend..


Off to Wal-Mart Dad and I went, with a quick visit to the toy isle, the glue isle and the housewares department.

$11.62 later we emerged with a pack of super glue, a set of 4 metal mixing bowls, two bags of green and brown army men and a 20 ounce coke (from the looks of this project it's going to be a long nite!)

So...without further ado..the experiment...

Plan One: Superglue the army men to one another in the shape of the inside of the bowl. Heat bowl then 'drop' in connected men.

Thing we didn't think about: The glue is flammable.  Good thing we didn't get very far with this one..Mom was NOT pleased to say the least.

Problems encountered: The glue doesn't stick.

Plan Two: Start with larger bowl and layer the army men along bottom. 



Once they have been layered enough that you can't see the bottom, insert smaller bowl and continue to 'fill' the sides between the two bowls, thus keeping the army men in place.




Fill smaller bowl with ice water and pop in oven.



Thing we didn't think about: Mom's oven only cooks on radiant or convection- both heat sources coming from ABOVE the bowl.  Mom is now glowering at us. I think we're in trouble.

Problems encountered: Little men at top of bowl now have no heads. Bummer for them....they are our first casualty.

Plan Three: Take afore-mentioned army-men lined bowl with inner bowl filled with ice water and place directly on burner of stove.



Thing we didn't think about: The bottom heated VERY VERY quickly. Sides did not heat at all.

Problems encountered: Noxious fumes immediatly filled the house.  We are now sleeping in the van, as Mom has banned us from her home due to our stupidity.

We 'unmolded outside'.






Our new metal bowl now has permanantly affixed army men. Fashion statement? You decide.



This isn't over! Tomorrow we will be trying two more methods: Cookie sheet on the grill and THE TORCH! Stay tuned!

[Asha]

my husband has a great idea try putting ice in the top bowl as you heat the bottem bowl, keets the top from melting

[amareluna]

The inner bowl was filled with ice. It quickly turns to ice water once the heating process starts (see pictures)

We're at it again...results soon!

[melidomi]

Try sticking your army man metal bowl fusion in the freezer overnight.  It's possible that the metal and the plastic will contract at different rates, and so the men will come loose.  Worth a try anyway.

[amareluna]

Army/War Bowl Day Two. The quest continues.

When we got up this morning, we popped the metal bowl from yesterdays attempts out of the freezer and begain the tedious chore of removing melted army men from it.  Didn't really work and I'm begining to like the bowl..sort of a testament to all experimental crafts everywhere. Should be featured on top of a trophy or something.

So we ran up to the Doller General. This was a safety precaution- if we used MOM'S stuff for today's experimenting, she'd probably kill us both.

Which would suck.

So we bought out OWN aluminum foil, cookie sheet, pickles (hey..we needed something to munch on while crafting!) and an extra bag of army men..just in case.

Home again home again.

Dad fired up the Fire and Ice grill while I turned the oven on radiant bake 500 degrees. I put the second largest bowl (first was a casualty) in the oven to get hot.

Then I sat down at the table and layerd the cookie sheet with the foil, which I then sprayed down with non-stick cooking spray.

I placed the army men on the foil in the 'best bowl shape' I could come up with, judging the size of my 'pattern' by the size of the bowl.

Once they were all done, I took the cookie sheet with men to dad in the backyard.

He placed it on the grill and we waited.



After what seemed like forever but was really closer to three minutes, dad declaired that he *THOUGHT* they were hot enough to work.

We ran inside and grabbed our now-hot metal OUTSIDE bowl from in the oven and took it out by the grill.

We picked up the foil (army men in place) and dropped it in the first bowl.  We then took our 'inner bowl' and used it to smoosh the army men into the shape we wanted (VERY much like how I make my record bowls!)



Once we had it the way we wanted it, we brought out the hose and hosed down the INNER bowl and and outside of the OUTER bowl.



Then we pulled out the foil (army men still on it). LOOK! OUR BOWLS AREN'T RUINED!!



We continued to hose off the FOIL until it was ALMOST cool to the touch, then we peeled it back..holding our breath...and...

SUCCESS!!!!!!!!!







While it's not the BEST shaped bowl we've ever made, for a first try, it's not bad.  Next we'll be working on a pattern, finding a better set of bowls to use, etc.


~ and we did it ALL outside so even MOM was happy! ~