This is the first time I ever used plaster. I made the substructure from scraps found around my apartment (cardboard, bottles, even old sponges) and then covered the work with wet plaster using a large rough brush. I never thought it was very good but one night, when my friend Marty was staying with me, someone was trying to break into my apartment from the downstairs. Like many areas in New Orleans, the door was protected by a metal gate so it was unlikely the intruder would get in but they were doing their best to kick the door down through the gate. This was a shady part of town and being awoken from a dead sleep was enough to freak out both of us. Marty assumed I had a gun since I was in the military but since I did not we began to look for things to throw onto the intruder as they came up the stairs. It was not until Marty picked up this plaster head as a potential projectile that I suddenly became rational and clamly asked him to put my art down. We called the police but they never bothered to get out of their car to check on us. I had told 911 that the apartment was in the back of the building, but again, it was a shady part of town.