Awhile back Florence Henderson was a guest on Home and Family. On the same episode producer's planned a game segment to play. It's become the norm that I create some kind of fun themed trophy prop for the winner. That day's game, with Ms. Henderson playing and The Brady Bunch in mind, was to guess old TV show themes.
As someone who grew up watching the Brady's, I couldn't think of a better trophy than the evil taboo tiki from their classic trip to Hawaii episodes. You remember those right? When the kids found the tiki at Mr. Brady's construction site and it cursed all who wore it? Then Vincent Price showed up to tell them how to end the curse?
I decided to custom make one for the challenge and fun of it. It's far from screen accurate, but I knew it wouldn't be, not having a whole lot of time to create. I was just going for a recognizable nostalgic facsimile to sell it.
Here's how I made it.
First, after pulling lots of reference from the web, I roughly sketched the idol onto a piece of random craft foam (from the prop stash).
Next I began sculpting it. Best part about craft foam, it doesn't really require special tools. I literally used a kitchen parring knife to roughly cut out it and whittle it, then with my own fingers, I pressed and mushed the foam until it had the basic shape and form.
I then added the smaller details onto it with Model Magic.
Once the Model Magic set up, I coated the whole thing a coat of Fix-It-All patching compound. Once dry, I sanded globby spots and carved in the finer details like nostrils, defined lines, grain, etc.
It was finished with a base coat of grey acrylic, then a wash of watered down black-brown acrylic, and a dry brushing of light grey.
Was this the story of a prop that represents my best work? No.
Was this the story of a prop that I'll never forget making and glad I did? YES!
Oh, and yes, if you're wondering, when the trophy tiki was presented, our fantastic soundman added the famous evil music sting from those episodes.
