Uncategorized – PigTailz

I have been making gifts for friends, and they keep getting stolen. I’m feeling a bit like a famous artist. Instead of getting mad about it, I’ve gotten quite curious where the little guys are going, so I’ve made a bit of a game.

I am learning how to make wire bicycles. I decided to put the first bicycle out to steal and parked it in a bike rack. My friend decided to be the one to steal it! He attached it to his own bike, but it was stolen a few weeks later. The mushroom I made for another friend’s restaurant was also stolen.

We live in a city where people visit from all over the world. I regularly meet people that have come from far away places like Thailand, Germany, Australia, New Zealand. They are here to make the Camino de Santiago.

I wanted to know how far my creations traveled, so I decided to make a game of it.

You can check back here if you want to see what happens or follow @xgf2b on Instagram.

I promised my daughter a trip to the Harry Potter Studio Tour in London for her birthday. Unfortunately, I purchased my plane tickets before purchasing tickets to the Studio Tour. When I went to the website to purchase the studio tickets, they were sold out. I was heartbroken. I contacted the company through the website and they were so helpful! They sent me to an affiliate site (Golden Tours) that carries tickets paired with transportation to and from the studio. This was a much better situation than trying to arrange my own transport as the studio is about 2 hours away from where we were staying.

The bus picked us up from the designated location within 5 or 10 minutes of the scheduled time. The accomadations were quite comfortable. We had plenty of space, the driver was nice. The tour comes with a time window and you are directed to return to the bus on time for the return trip. They said it is okay if we are late, that they will do their best to fit us on a later bus, but that there were no guarantees and we should be prepared to find alternative transportation. We were given a 4 hour block to make the tour.

At first I was dismayed by how crowded the studio seemed. We queued in a long line and were gathered together into a large theater for a short film. The film ended and we shuffled in a large group into the great hall. We were there for a special event that included some of the animatronics that went into the creation of Hagrid as well as the hanging clandles in the dining hall.

After this point, we were able to spread out through the exhibits and it quickly became possible to take pictures.

Time in this room was more than sufficient, but limited. I thought we would be ushered through the entire tour in with the large group, so I hurried my daughter a little through the next space thinking we would have to rush to see everything before being told to move along. There was so much to see.

After leaving the dining hall, the door opened onto statues and ceilings and video screens and … I quickly realized the timing of the movie theater and the dining hall were only to allow people to spread out through the studio. Access was available from this point to the end meaning we could spread out and meet back and revisit for the rest of the trip.

The potions classroom, Dumbledor´s chambers, boys dormitory, and the moving stairway were among the first things we saw.

As you walk through the exhibits, you can see how detailed are the furniture and artwork. They show parts of the development of the various costumes and sets so you can see the effort and technology that went into them. There are places to touch and intereact with the sets. Honestly, I preffered this to any of the museums we visited. This is art. This is so many forms of art coming together to create a fully immersive experience for visitors.

There were some greenscreen photos and videos that were pretty fun. My daughter wanted to do the broomstick ride of course. It was 40£ ($51) to order all the videos and photos in a digital format with one printed photo. Pretty standard themepark package.

I really enjoyed the spiders in the Forbidden Forest.

I´m going to be honest here. I usually try to only say nice things, but… Lunch in the studio was not my favorite. I tried the vegetarian option for an entree. It was so flavorless that I couldn´t eat it. We ordered vegetarian chili fries to share and that was enough to hold me over, but still not great. The staff was incredibly friendly though. The cups for the butterbeer are meant to be taken as souveneirs. Since many people don´t realize this, the staff rinses the cups and leaves them out for other visitors who cannot afford them or want more.

Outside the cafeteria were a number of larger features. The covered bridge, the triple decker bus, the greenhouse, and 4 Privet Drive were all together in the plaza.

After leaving the outdoor plaza, we entered into the next segment of the studio tour. There was quite a lot regarding the technical aspects of the engineering and videography. The goblin hands were so realistic that it genuinely looked like old hands and skin even close enough to touch it. And then there was Gringotts. I couldn´t get a clear photo, but the marble arches and floors were stunning.

Diagon Alley was also pretty amazing.

The grand finale was the Hogwarts castle. This miniature used for the overhead shots and zoom scenes was so impressive. Each tiny detail was made by hand and affixed to the castle. And by this I mean each of the roof tiles was individually placed. It took 86 artists working together to construct the model. It was the equivalent of 74 years worth of work for a single artist.

This made for a fantastic adventure. It was a bit expensive, but not any different from other tourist attractions. It took between 3 and 3.5 hours to walk through. Fortunately we saved plenty of time for the shop. There were so many things to look at. And in the end, we made it to the bus exactly on time.