Budding Entrepreneur

You just never know what project may spark new ideas.

Off and on over the past few months Tristan has been working on making his own plaster skulls. Originally, he had an interest in making latex masks (like those that are sold at Halloween). So we jumped on the internet and quickly found directions. Those appeared straight forward enough, but finding the correct materials in the middle of Alaska proved to be a problem, however. Back to the internet we went and found a company that sold several starter kits, including one to make shrunken heads (mini latex masks) and another to make mini plaster skulls.

Tristan decided to start with the mini skull kit. This included sculpting a skull from clay (much more difficult that I thought!), making the latex mold, and then mixing/pouring the plaster to make the skulls. After not being happy with our skull sculpture, Jody came to the rescue while on leave. He helped Tristan create an alien skull. Then came time to make the latex mold...a procedure that included painting 15+ layers of liquid latex compound onto the sculpture. Little did we know that the compound contained ammonia, which made Tristan run for cover. Enter Mom, who diligently painted on layer after layer of this smelly substance. ;o) We then peeled the mold from the sculpture, poured the plaster and....behold....mini plaster alien skull!!


What did this lead to? A few nights ago Tristan came up with his newest business plan. He wants to sell his plaster skulls. He's obviously been thinking a lot about this. He'll sit me down and talk endlessly about how many skulls he needs to produce before he officially opens for business, marketing ideas, when the best time of year is to sell them, how to package them, etc. My favorite is his packaging ideas. He'd like to have prepainted skulls, skulls that come with packages of paint (a "paint your own" type of kit), and a skull "3-pack." *grin*