Thor’s construction for Odd and the Frost Giants is much like Loki’s but he is much, much bigger.
Here is the “skin” for his face cut out of veneer. You can see a pair of scissors in the lower right of the frame that give a little bit of a sense of scale. Those are full size adult scissors.
He was so large, in fact, that when it was time to soak the veneer, I had to soak it in the bathtub.
The veneer is backed with paper and I’ve got him facedown in the tub, which is why the woodgrain isn’t visible.
But you see the sheer size of him, right? Huge. This made him easier and harder to deal with.
Easier because I didn’t have to ask the wood to make such tight turns. Harder because his skin just wanted to flop everywhere.
In general, the wood I was using for Thor was significantly more pliable than Loki’s. It rolled into a tube in the water, so a lot of the assembly involved fighting its urge to roll back into a tube. I wound up needing Rob to help me with assembly. I held the head and he stapled it. Even with that, I had to stuff the head to keep it the back of Thor’s skull from curving in on itself.
Thor’s skin over his body is a wool knit that I’ve been trying to shrink and felt. The idea behind the felting is to tie into the Nordic traditions of felted clothing.
Here, Harriet demonstrates how much it resembles an animal pelt.
I also liked the way it feels similar to Thor’s woodgrain. Truly, I got really lucky with this. I couldn’t have asked someone to knit something that was more perfect for the part.
And finally, here’s the completed structure for Thor’s head.
Again, Harriet assists us to demonstrate scale.
When I get to Houston, I’ll attach this to the body and install the skin as well. Once that is done, I’ll stain the head to match the skin and to emphasize the shape.
Here’s a front view, for completeness.
He’s so big and the veneer was so pliable that, there was a significant woogedie-woogedie issue at the back of his skull. I was worried about how weak Thor was in the head, so I papier-mached the interior of the head to reinforce the veneer.
