The Mad Lab

Project: Mad Scientist Brain Speciman

Creator: ArtsyChiqua

SEI: Progressive (pipe, planter, beach towels)

That creepy green glow....
Every curious kid wants to see what's making that eerie glow from across the room.... and I am no exception.  Of course I like to check out old buildings...  peek around in the leavings and see what cool things were left behind.  On one such excursion through an old building, it could have been some type of offices or something like that, a small group of us headed in just to see what we could find.  We had our flashlights and cameras with us which was a good thing since it seemed to get dark awfully fast that night.  I can't really remember what floor we were on, but we stumbled on a room with tons of old, dusty books and journals strewn all around the room.  This must have been some kind of an old medical lab but the notes in the journal were very odd.  While I had my nose buried deep into one of those journals, I heard my friend Rhonda call out that she could see a light.  How strange, I thought, since this building was totally abandoned.  I closed the journal and tucked it under my arm and met up with the rest of my friends where Rhonda was.  She wasn't kidding.  There, down a long hallway was an eerie faint glow.  This wasn't a ghost or anything like that, but it was very strange.  We just had to go check it out!  As we walked down the hallway, the room where the glow was coming from held shelves upon shelves upon shelves.  There we found more journals, bottles of various things, strange tools, and several things covered in rudimentary bags made out of old towels or burlap.   One of those bags had a large hole in it, where it appeared that someone had been watching whatever was inside and that's where the glow was coming from.  We all were silent.  Of course they pushed me toward that eerie green glow and with my camera in my free hand, this is what I found:

You could see the corrosion on the metal.... this thing had been here for a very long time.  The closer I got to it, the more I could see that this was some kind of vat... with air hoses on the top and several knobs all around it.  It was very hard to see what was inside exactly, until I got right up on it.... I could hardly believe my eyes!  There, inside this old forgotten building, down the long hallway into a room filled with all kinds of weird things and this strange container that glowed a creepy green color was...... a brain!!

I couldn't believe my eyes!  Then I realized that there were body parts including eyes all over that room!  One of the girls screamed and another one dropped her flashlight but we all took off in a dead run to get the heck out of that place!  I had forgotten all about that journal that was still tucked under my arm......... and that's what I'm going to tell the Trick or Treaters this year when they come inside to see the Mad Scientists' lab.

Ok... so this is my most expensive project to date.  Some of the parts I've been saving to use (like the hex aquarium and pump) but other things had to be bought.  I bought the brain online at  Zowie Fun for just under $10.  I went to a local fish store and bought the bubbler hose for $10 and the special one watt, blue moon glow LED light for $40, and some air hose that fit into the holes of the second SEI, aka 'the planter' for about $5.  The rest of the stuff that I used -- the knobs, the silver screw on caps, paints, etc., I had in my stock.

Every project starts with an idea.

The flower things at the bottom of the picture above are actually heavy metal samples from work.  I used some of those as weights in the brain so it wouldn't float away.

Here's the brain and several of the 'knobs' I used for this prop.  The little top hat-looking things are actually finials used on lamps to keep the shade in place.  The glaze that I use is an oil based glaze so when I age the outer parts of the prop, it will stay in place and not wash away.

Here's the actual hex aquarium that was used.  It's your standard table top beginner's fish tank type.  I didn't use the black spray paint afterall (even though it's shown in the photo).

In the photo above, the special light is there in the yellow package.  In order to reduce the temperature so that something electric wouldn't melt the plastics (causing a fire, perhaps) and drop into the water (possible electrocution...), I had to find a light that would be bright enough and still be low temp.  Almost any LED light would work, but the nearly black-light color of the light (you'll see this in later photos) gives off a great color.  The bubbler hose is the other new package and it's really cool when it's bubbling away.  As far as the planter, it's the cheapest thing out there and I spray painted it silver before anything else was done to it.  There's also some PVC that I painted silver and the air hoses that I mentioned earlier.

So there's everything except the third SEI in the above picture.  Then I went to work on the prop....

First things first... gotta get that brain to float.   Using ordinary fishing line, I made a simple tether on the top of the brain by using a needle.  Pretty easy.  Then I cut a small incision on the bottom of the brain and stuffed some of those heavy metal samples into the brain until it floated the way that I wanted it to.  Using a small drill bit, I made a couple of holes into the lid or cover of the tank and suspended the brain using the fishing line in the water.  It took a bit to get it right.... buoyancy can be difficult!  It looked like this:

Once the brain floated the way that I wanted it to, I cut the PVC exactly to size, painted it silver, and fit it over the tank's pre-existing tube to give the prop a more 'industrial' feel.  I'd removed the rubber guards from the top and bottom of the tank and here's where the project gets dirty.

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Grab a set of disposable gloves before you do this next step!!

Put a dollop of Great Stuff foam into your glove covered hand and smoosh it onto the planter and the guards.  (Yes, smoosh is a technical word!!!)

Whenever you use Great Stuff foam, always keep in mind that LESS IS MORE!!!  This stuff has a mind of its own and will continue to grow, so use small amounts and add more later!!  Once the foam is dry, paint the surfaces silver to duplicate the corroded metal look and feel.

Once the paint is dry, drill small holes to insert the silver screw-on caps and glue some to the holes on the now topside of the planter.  On the other holes not covered by those caps, insert the larger air hose and let it hang down and touch the tank.  Where they touch the tank, simply hot glue it into place.  A couple of clamps were used for effect on the front air hoses and the lamp finials-now knobs were hot glued into place on the tank.  Remember to let the top area be where you can disassemble the prop when needed so don't glue absolutely everything down!  Once all the little extras are in place, use the glaze and age it!  Here's a picture of the prop without the highlighter in the water... it's a very cool blue color, but it looked too nice and pretty for such an evil prop!

And here's a close up of the tank so you can see the bubbles in action.  The brain actually bobbles in the tank since it's tethered from the roof -- a very cool side effect!

Then came the third SEI of the beach towel..... now I really had to get creative.  Here's the items I used:

Using an old towel, holes were punched into the sides with an awl and ordinary twine was used as sewing material as the sides were stiched closed.  Then a simple back and forth pattern near the top made up a drawstring closure for the bag.  Once it was all built, the bag was dyed with and icky brown color and a basic black.  Here's how it turned out:

Once all of that was done, it was decided that the water needed to look very gross.  In a bright neon yellow color, a highlighter was disassembled and the color cartridge was immediately placed into the water and the highlighter bled completely into the water.  The nearly black light makes the flourescent color glow a creepy green:

Here's a few more pictures of the completed prop:

This is certainly a great addition to the Mad Scientists' Lab this year.  Everyone loves looking at the brain!!

Thanks for taking a look!!