Doin' It Right At Chocolate Manor

I had hoped to get this post up by Halloween/Day of the Dead, but that obviously didn't happen.

A few weeks ago a friend of mine was in town and wanted to swing by Chocolate Manor and grab something special for her family during her visit.  You remember Chocolate Manor, right?  Allow me to refresh your memory.


Awesome handmade chocolates........including their Caribbean Night Creams, and Hawaiian Sea Salt Caramels.............and truffles..............

They also have gelato........

.....and chocolate dipped pretzels!

Anyway, while we were in the store, local artist/chocolate artist Randyl Mohr showed us some of her white chocolate skulls she was making for a lucky customer for Halloween.  I asked her if I could snap a few photos of her process to post on my blog.

She starts out with a pan of undecorated white chocolate skulls which have been removed from a mold.

Next she gently 'cleans' each chocolate with a small amount of vodka to remove any impurities which would prevent the next steps from adhering properly to the surface of the chocolate.

Then, with an itty-bitty pastry bag, she pipes on some colored white chocolate around the eyes.

If the colored chocolate around the eyes wasn't time-consuming enough, she then hand paints each eye socket with edible gold.

One by one she gives her attention to each skull.

The black arrow points to the shot glass with vodka used to 'clean' each skull of impurities.

Now, this next part blows my mind.  Randyl picks up a nonpareil (small candy bead) with tweezers, gently dips half of it in a bowl of liquid white chocolate.....

....and then places it next to the eye socket.  Once its in place, she picks up another one and repeats the process until she's place three or four by each eye.

Before I close out this post and show you the finished product, I should also point out that in order to keep the chocolate at its optimal temperature, they keep the store at 69 degrees year round (so customers get the best quality chocolate possible).  Just a little chilly for my delicate constitution......

Anyway, back to awesomeness in motion.  After the nonpareils are placed, the final touch is to add a gold tooth to each skull.

POW!

One at a time, -until the order is complete.

If I recall correctly these skulls were part of a batch of 250 chocolate treats Randyl was creating.

If you haven't made the pilgrimage to Chocolate Manor yet, they can be found at 110 East Second Street in Davenport.  They are open Monday-Friday 10am-6pm and Saturday 10am-5pm.  Their phone number is (563)-355-6600.

The Figge Gig: Part III

Now the gallery is littered with components of various pieces.  Time to start assembling/constructing.

Here are the foam ribs for Ophidia.

Ophidia is a series of ribs and 'skin' sections which are held in place with wooden skewers.

The beginnings of Vestibule before the arches are joined.

Terry Rathje right before he joins the two halves of the arches together.

The view.

Terry, Monica, and Vinicius Lima assembling the wooden rings that make up Skep.  As a point of interest, one time, Terry took Skep to a show in Portugal in 3 suitcases.

Lift with the knees!

Ahhh, Biscit-arific!

The start of the arch for Vestibule.

By the end of Wednesday, we still had several pieces to assemble/construct, and the largest piece, Lagrima, found itself on the chopping block.  We had less than two days complete everything in time for the opening reception on Friday night.

Below is the configuration of the show before Lagrima got 'voted off the island'.....

A few shots of general mayhem.

48 hours before the show opens, and we still have a lot of green stained lumber on the ground and not in the piece (not a good place to be).  So late Thursday afternoon Terry Rathje and I buckled down on creating Vestibule.

'Action shots' of Terry Rathje 'buckling down'......grrr serious.

Order from the chaos.

A quick detour.....

Now fortunately, we had two things working in our favor.  1) Monica has a sweet tooth and practically insisted that we get some chocolate, and 2) just a few weeks ago, a candy store named Chocolate Manor, opened up two blocks away from the museum.

They have all kinds of chocolates, killer cupcakes, and gelato.

For those keeping score, I now have a place that sells gourmet chocolates and gelato one block away from my studio.

Mmmmm, gelato......anyway, back to work!

As mentioned earlier, midway through Wednesday, the decision was made to remove a large piece which would not be able to be completed for at least another week.

This change required us to rearrange several other pieces.  Ophidia is now in the center and Skep moved to the corner.  Here is a look at the new configuration of the show.

A big thanks to Robin Hill for taking these next few images from her extenda-roost lifty-deal.  A bird's eye view of the show.

The top of Terry's and my collaborative piece, Vestibule.

A quick picture of Terry standing next to Inspiration House just a few minutes before we declared the show 'done'.

Terry, Monica and I standing inside one of the arches for Vestibule.

...and remember kids, the material you are working with is 'space'.