My friend Sam, who I met several years ago in art school, wanted me to make something “dental hygiene” themed for her to wear while she studies to become a dental hygienist. I couldn’t think of anything outside of silly cartoons on shrink plastic that showed cute smiling teeth in love with toothbrushes, or cute little doodles of teeth who were happily giving you a thumbs up or a peace sign. I wasn’t happy with those drawings, even after they were coated with a perfect shiny coat of resin and looked about as good as they were going to get. I stopped working for a few days, but kept thinking about the assignment to create something dental related…I couldn’t get past dental waiting room-type drawings to calm children down; but then I remembered the lyric from Regina Spektor’s song, “That Time.”
Hey, remember that time that I found a human tooth, down on Delancey? Hey remember that time when we decided to kiss anywhere except the mouth? Hey remember that time when my favorite colors were pink and green…
I don’t know why I didn’t just think to make a human tooth and turn it into something cool. When I finally thought of this it seemed so obvious…I used polymer clay that I painted with a super glossy finish after baking it. The smaller teeth are going to be cast in resin later today.
They turned out great!!