Yukon Educational Theater approached YuKonstruct earlier this year to ask if the makerspace and Chris Lloyd, who designed the airplanes in the Winterval parade, would be interested in building the effigy for Burning Away the Winter Blues. Of course we jumped at the chance to build an epic effigy!
Chris designed a snow monster, the Yeti, to symbolize all our winter worries and blues. The 3D model was created in Autodesk’s MeshMixer and then 123D Make was used to turn it into a series of panels that could be cut out on the laser cutter. The model was exported to SketchUp where Chris drew the plans for an internal skeleton made of 2x2s to support the cardboard skin. All the software used is free and also available on YuKonstruct’s computers.
Icycle Sport donated 30 bicycle boxes which we cut down and used to make all 292 carboard pieces. Every piece had to be tied together with thin wire. We assembled all the pieces over 12 hours with the help of 15 awesome YuKonstruct volunteers.
The finished Yeti was handed over to Splintered Craft where the youth gave him a colourful paintjob.
Everyone was invited to write their worries and winter blues on the effigy before the torch-lit procession that carried the Yeti to his final resting place, a large bonfire in Robert Service Campground. The Yeti and all our winter blues were burned away in the fire.