As You Wish Project

The official Star Wars convention Celebration VI is currently underway down in Orlando, Fl. Late last year I was asked by the 501st to contribute to the Make A Wish Foundation's As You Wish Project, where we the artists had to alter a clonetrooper bucket in some artistic way, add our own special touch to it. So, after submitting two designs and being approved for both I chose to do a Deep Sea Diver Clone. A sort of steampunk version, of sorts. Here is the official helmet bio:

Deep Sea (DS) Clone Diver

Helmet Bio:

My deep sea diver clonetrooper helmet is based on just that, a deep sea diving helmet. I often use a deep sea diver in my artwork as a symbol of myself as an explorer of the sometimes wide and deep chasms of the sub-conscious. An adventurer mapping his own way of where he’s been and why.

I like the idea of having this futuristic clonetrooper juxtaposed with a more anachronistic and foreign aesthetic. I could say that this has a steampunk feel to it, but that might be stretching it some. I’ll leave that for others to decide. And having an airhose strikes me as being a little sarcastic, if not completely out of place in the Star Wars universe. The Jedi have used re-breathers, after all. Then there are the bolts that just tied it all together for me. It was not my desired helmet until those bolts were put in.

I began my project by cutting out the side and top visual ports and adding bars across all the visors. I wanted the bars to look as though they were welded onto the bucket. I used a combination of plastic and metal, as well as some found objects for the added parts. I also saw this underwater helmet having an organic feel and bought some fake coral at a pet shop and applied pieces to the top and sides, as a living, breathing extension of the helmet, which is why it is painted the same colors as the helmets copper and brass. 

There are other artists that also contributed to this project and all of these helmets are up on ebay as I write this to be auctioned off and all of the proceeds will go to the charity. You can go here to bid on my helmet (which already as a bid!), but please check out all of the other helmets as they are spectacular. My friend Thomas Spanos did a clonetrooper/Alien helmet that is the talk of the show, I am sure.