Saran Wrap Mannequin
I'm going to teach you how to make a saran wrap and packaging tape mannequin using your body as the mold... it's helpful to have a helper at certain points :)
This is an awesome decoration for around campus or any other public area with a lot of people traffic. It makes people smile and laugh as they walk by...
This is an awesome decoration for around campus or any other public area with a lot of people traffic. It makes people smile and laugh as they walk by...
Materials
Here is what you will need...
Saran wrap (1 roll per body about)
Clear packaging tape (about 200 m^2)
x-acto knife or scissors
yourself (and possibly a helper)
[optional]
LED's, etc. (I will explain later)
rope (to hang it from)
Saran wrap (1 roll per body about)
Clear packaging tape (about 200 m^2)
x-acto knife or scissors
yourself (and possibly a helper)
[optional]
LED's, etc. (I will explain later)
rope (to hang it from)
Cover Yourself!
Ok, now grab that roll of saran wrap and start wrapping it around yourself everywhere!!!
A friend might be helpful here (I had none willing to devote the time unfortunately)
You will want to cover yourself in about 20 layers (+/- 7 layers-ish) and then put away the saran wrap roller (its not needed anymore for this part).
Then, grab that clear tape and start doing the same, make sure to cover every part of your body with an additional 3 layers of tape total. 4-5 layers in some places if you think they need strength.
Now the tricky part, have your friend pick up a knife or scissors (they better be a good friend), or do this yourself if you can... you need to make as few cuts as possible to get yourself out of this suit. I found that one cut up your spine (obviously without drawing blood) and then splitting along your arms and another split down the backs of your legs and a final cut up the back of your head allows you to get out quite easily and doesn't ruin the structure of the mannequin too much. Now step out of the suit carefully. Now pick up the tape again. tape the cut back together carefully, giving the mannequin full form again.
Due to the short time intervals I was allowed to use to make this, I decided to make it in pieces. The whole thing turns out much better if you do it all at once with a friend to cut you out at the end. My way ended up with me splicing all of the pieces together (which made it weaker and less awesome).
The disadvantage to doing this in steps is that it is weaker, the advantage is that it is easier to install the LED's if you want them... along with whatever mechanism you use to keep it up.
If you did it all at once (post pics!) ignore this step. If you made the suit in steps, you should make some sort of frame to hold it up as you tape all the sections together... I used cardboard (and a settlers of catan box).
A friend might be helpful here (I had none willing to devote the time unfortunately)
You will want to cover yourself in about 20 layers (+/- 7 layers-ish) and then put away the saran wrap roller (its not needed anymore for this part).
Then, grab that clear tape and start doing the same, make sure to cover every part of your body with an additional 3 layers of tape total. 4-5 layers in some places if you think they need strength.
Now the tricky part, have your friend pick up a knife or scissors (they better be a good friend), or do this yourself if you can... you need to make as few cuts as possible to get yourself out of this suit. I found that one cut up your spine (obviously without drawing blood) and then splitting along your arms and another split down the backs of your legs and a final cut up the back of your head allows you to get out quite easily and doesn't ruin the structure of the mannequin too much. Now step out of the suit carefully. Now pick up the tape again. tape the cut back together carefully, giving the mannequin full form again.
Due to the short time intervals I was allowed to use to make this, I decided to make it in pieces. The whole thing turns out much better if you do it all at once with a friend to cut you out at the end. My way ended up with me splicing all of the pieces together (which made it weaker and less awesome).
The disadvantage to doing this in steps is that it is weaker, the advantage is that it is easier to install the LED's if you want them... along with whatever mechanism you use to keep it up.
If you did it all at once (post pics!) ignore this step. If you made the suit in steps, you should make some sort of frame to hold it up as you tape all the sections together... I used cardboard (and a settlers of catan box).
Keep Wrapping and Someday You May Become Famous...
I thought I should put some sort of disclaimer her...
IF YOU MANAGE TO SCREW UP OR HURT YOURSELF OR EVEN DIE IN ANY WAY WHILE ATTEMPTING TO MAKE OR FOLLOW THESE DIRECTIONS IT IS NOT MY FAULT = IT IS YOURS. DO NOT COVER YOUR MOUTH IN SARAN WRAP OR TAPE, IT IS STUPID!!!
ok, on with the instructable... as I mentioned above, do not cover your mouth please. cut holes ahead of time if you are going to do this or simply wrap around in ways so that your mouth / eyes / nose / whatever aren't covered. This is probably the most annoying part to get right... just follow the previous step though and it should go fine (remember the mouth disclaimer).
Before splicing the head onto the rest of the body, I implanted laser eyes (LED's) with tape into his head. With a lot of finagling and annoyance, I managed to get the LED's to stick into proper alignment (although they fell a bit after a day or so, oh well...) I will explain how to make the LED circuit in the next step... -->
IF YOU MANAGE TO SCREW UP OR HURT YOURSELF OR EVEN DIE IN ANY WAY WHILE ATTEMPTING TO MAKE OR FOLLOW THESE DIRECTIONS IT IS NOT MY FAULT = IT IS YOURS. DO NOT COVER YOUR MOUTH IN SARAN WRAP OR TAPE, IT IS STUPID!!!
ok, on with the instructable... as I mentioned above, do not cover your mouth please. cut holes ahead of time if you are going to do this or simply wrap around in ways so that your mouth / eyes / nose / whatever aren't covered. This is probably the most annoying part to get right... just follow the previous step though and it should go fine (remember the mouth disclaimer).
Before splicing the head onto the rest of the body, I implanted laser eyes (LED's) with tape into his head. With a lot of finagling and annoyance, I managed to get the LED's to stick into proper alignment (although they fell a bit after a day or so, oh well...) I will explain how to make the LED circuit in the next step... -->
LED's
To use LED's for the eyes, I made a very simple circuit containing 2 LED's (blue and red) and a resistor connected to a set of batteries.
The schematic below sums up how the circuit looks.
the batteries are just 4 AA batteries connected in series (I have them in a battery holder).
the LED's have the following specs:
At this point, you should either solder or twist / wrap the wires, LED's, and resistor together.
I'm not quite sure how to explain to you which way the bias (direction of electrical flow) of the circuit goes, but heres how I'll do it anyways... if the LED's don't turn on when you connect it one way, switch the terminals they are connected to (they should work now)
Solder or connect the wires to their proper terminals on the batteries now. If you want to stop the LED's, just take out a battery and put it back in when you want to turn them back on...
***I got all of my electronic parts through Mouser Electronics in case anyone wants to know***
The schematic below sums up how the circuit looks.
the batteries are just 4 AA batteries connected in series (I have them in a battery holder).
the LED's have the following specs:
- RED
- 2.2 V
- 20 mA
- 12000 mcd
- BLUE
- 3.5 V
- 20 mA
- 2200 mcd
At this point, you should either solder or twist / wrap the wires, LED's, and resistor together.
I'm not quite sure how to explain to you which way the bias (direction of electrical flow) of the circuit goes, but heres how I'll do it anyways... if the LED's don't turn on when you connect it one way, switch the terminals they are connected to (they should work now)
Solder or connect the wires to their proper terminals on the batteries now. If you want to stop the LED's, just take out a battery and put it back in when you want to turn them back on...
***I got all of my electronic parts through Mouser Electronics in case anyone wants to know***
Enjoy :)
I like to share my creations with campus (whether or not campus wants them is not their choice)... So we'll see how long this stays up... it is hanging close to the center of campus :)
I turn the circuit off during the day, and back on again after classes...
By the way, all of my inspiration came from seeing this done before and some help from the website linked below...
http://www.tapesculpture.org/
Oh! Last min advice: hang it higher so drunk people don't decide to give it a nice firm hug ;)
I turn the circuit off during the day, and back on again after classes...
By the way, all of my inspiration came from seeing this done before and some help from the website linked below...
http://www.tapesculpture.org/
Oh! Last min advice: hang it higher so drunk people don't decide to give it a nice firm hug ;)