SUGAR ART

After watching too many food network specials, I've become obsessed with sugar art - creating sculptures out of sugar. While I haven't yet achieved the ability to create 4 foot tall works of art, I was pretty proud of my first foray.

You have to melt the sugar to 320 degrees and then wait for it to cool enough to the touch. Then add coloring, trying not to burn yourself and sculpt it into something that looks decent. Josh and I created a lot of blobs before I figured out how to make the ribbons. I added red and blue coloring to make this one (the sugar has a yellow hue, so that's where the green comes from). I then wrapped the sugar around a turkey baster to keep the curl until it hardened enough to keep the shape. I definitely need a lot more practice but it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. Probably a few classes would help me improve.

More photos at my flickr page.

When I went out today to run some errands, I forgot to take into account that 1) it's a holiday and a lot of people are off work 2) it's LA and there's always a lot of people out and about and 3) it's raining and all the crazies come out. Good times for all.

Since I posted last, things have been really good. I've been working pretty constantly, which is a nice change from not working during January and February. A zombie movie in March, a tv pilot and another horror film during April. The zombie movie ("Plane Dead") was hell - in all ways. Really long working days (minimum 13 hours - mostly 14-15 hours), not enough crew (each day I would be the loader, 2nd AC, pull focus on b camera and sometimes operate) and really tight working spaces (the entire set was an airplane and we shot mostly in the back galley of the plane). But I met some fun people and it was interesting to see the behind the scenes of effects make-up.

The pilot was for ABC, called "In Case of Emergency" and i've read that it was already picked up for 6 episodes which is fantastic. The crew was cool - i was hired by one of the guys from Boomtown - it's funny how things come full circle sometimes. The rest of the camera crew were all really experienced and great to learn from. I only hope that I can work with them all again.

Currently up is another horror movie about a haunted jail. This director has a deal with the sci fi channel so if you ever see something called "Death Row" or about a haunted jail on that channel, that's probably this. The makeup/effects guys are awesome and the DP is really fun to work with. Lots of smoke and dust, so it's wreaking havoc on my allergies. Fun fun.

We have 3 days off for Easter, which is nice to be a bum and not worry about being unemployed at the same time. it's almost like a real job! Josh is working today but we'll have the weekend to hang out. maybe even do some wedding planning, gasp! no date or location yet, much to everyone's dismay. sometimes i think if people didn't ask us about it, we would never even think about planning the wedding. it's all just a little bit funny.