Sunday, March 6, 2011

ten things i learned inventing the spinning mermaid popsicle machine

photo: jackie theriot

1. A 100-year-old typewriter frozen in a big block of ice would look really cool as it melts, but my freezer isn't big enough for a typewriter.

2. Drinking glasses are small enough to fit in my freezer and -- since they are made to hold liquid -- are well suited to holding liquid as it freezes.

3. Toy people are too big to fit inside sherry glasses, but plastic cocktail mermaids are just the right size.

4. There is drama in the neck of a sherry glass.

5. When a sherry glass filled with water and a plastic cocktail mermaid -- tail up -- is frozen and hung upside down, the fork of the tail of the mermaid -- now pointing down -- collects the melting water and serves as a dripping point.

6. In the same way that an ignited trail of gunpowder can be harnessed to create a work of art, a melting mermaid popsicle can be harnessed to create a work of art if instead of frozen water frozen watercolor is used.

7. Hanging the melting popsicle from a spinning ceiling fan would create a large watercolor painting if the floor beneath the fan were covered with watercolor paper.

8. A record player on the floor is the opposite of a ceiling fan on the ceiling.

9. A disc of watercolor paper the size of a record can be glued to a record and spun on a record player.

10. A mermaid popsicle would look really cool plopping out of an upside-down sherry glass into a kiddie pool filled with water, but kiddie pools filled with water are difficult to move and, besides, record players and water don't mix.