Two-Headed Fetus Display Custom Furniture
Furniture Design & Fabrication
Neil Patrick Harris 2013
NPH asked me to make a display stand in the style of a 19th Century Side Show Attraction. When you want something to look 150 years old, you mix equal parts historical research and childlike recklessness...
The Process...
The long version of this story would be less interesting but more clear. The short version is Neil asked me to make a stand for his two-headed cow fetus that could rotate with the touch of a button. Neil is a man of many talents, one being magic. A staple of magic/showman lore is the circus side show; a place of amazing oddities, like a two-headed cow...
From Eggs To Legs...
Neil is perfectly classy so he deserved a unique piece equally classy. Instead I gave him a beat up piece of shit that I had to refinish. The Paul Harvey reveal is that I did it on purpose. And now...the rest of the story...
The metaphor for my design was the fetus itself. (Themselves? which way do I play that?) I made legs that played on a bovine's hind legs. The base of the display is the shape of a cross-cut egg. Neil wanted the top to resemble a side show curtain with a boastful banner to pique curiosity. The display stand itself also needed to live in the old fashioned side show world. His request was for people to see it and ask, "Where did you get that?!"
The best way I knew to make something look authentic was to treat it authentically. I dropped, scratched, slammed and generally roughed up the parts after I made them. Then I stained everything and applied a top coat.
Then I finally got to work. I slapped it all around a bit more, for old times' sake, and then stripped the entire thing. I sanded it down smooth again; the same process as refinishing old furniture. The result was a less-than-perfect display stand that looked like it might have some years/miles on it. I then finished it again, this time using care to treat it with respect, like a wooden lady. The dark walnut color and classic-looking pedestal gave it the right amount of mid-nineteenth century charm.
The distress suffered the display stand is hardly obvious, but it gave it just enough imperfection to be classic.
