My spider journal continues!
July 23, 2023. Giant Spiders, and in 3D
Janet is being very helpful – gleefully so! – about my spider adventures. She sent me the amazing spider art of Louise Bourgeois. Amazing, but also quite terrifying.
Now, Janet is looking at 3D-printer designs of possible spider models that she can print and build for me.
July 25. Indy’s Hat Spider
Watched the new Indiana Jones movie and really enjoyed it. There was one bug-related scene where I’m pretty sure there was a big spider on Indy’s hat. It didn’t seem to want to get off. Was it real?
July 26. Relaxation
Today I read that systematic desensitization combines the feared stimulus (in my case, spiders), with relaxation exercises, so that you start to associate the thing with relaxation instead of fear. I need to start doing this after each spider experience.
July 27. Johnnie’s Terrible Idea
Had dinner with Johnnie Christmas and we got talking about my spider-related plans. He suggested that it wasn’t enough to have a tarantula walk on my arm – I should lie down and be covered from head to toe with hundreds of tarantulas. And then we joked that I could be covered in dead flies, so that the spiders could hungrily lurch at me. I said, “This is going into my spider journal!”
July 28. Parking Lot Spider Memories Still Haunting Me
Taking out the garbage, I remembered an incident a few months ago when I opened the door to the parking garage and there was a spider hanging a few feet in front of me at eye level. If I hadn’t spotted it, I would’ve walked straight into it with my face. Now, every time I go through this door, I think about that dangling spider, and I walk through the parking garage a little more vigilantly.
July 29. Chameleon, and Going Public
Accidentally watched a Facebook video of a chameleon eating a spider. It was a big spider. But I actually felt bad for the spider.
Started my Spider Journal online. Going public makes me feel like I really need to make this happen and get over my fear of spiders. Readers sent me pictures of spiders, and spider-related links, and sometimes they expressed their own fears about spiders. I am not alone!
July 30. Spider Research
Working on the script. Early days, still. Somehow I ended up on a page about the 9 Deadliest Spiders in the World. Oh, great, some of my recent spider visitors are on the list! Grrrrrreat.
Meanwhile, Janet is running a test on her 3D printer, printing out a giant spider leg. She found this awesome design!
July 31. Harmless
Spider-related comic today. Janet continues to 3D-print spider legs and is now painting them purple to match my character’s color.
August 1. Jorōgumo Tea Towel
Today I learned about the Jorōgumo, a supernatural creature in Japanese folklore that is a woman-spider, sometimes depicted as a beautiful woman with spider legs, sometimes depicted as a woman who can control small fire-breathing spiders. Fire-breathing spiders!
After reading about the Jorōgumo, I was folding laundry and putting tea towels in a kitchen drawer. While I was folding a tea towel, a little black fuzzy thing fell out of the tea towel and then seemed to grab onto the tea towel and not let go. I thought it was a spider, but it was just a ball of lint.
August 3. The 3D Spider Model is Coming Together
I contacted “Maker81”, the designer of the 3D spider model that Janet has started printing for me, to ask for permission to use their design as an art reference tool. The spider doesn’t look quite like my character, but I’ll be able to use it for looking at a spider from different angles, and for seeing how light and shadow play off of the spider. Thankfully, the designer responded and is cool with us printing their spider and posting pictures of it. Thanks, Maker81! (Follow Maker81 on Printables!)
August 5. Return(?) of the Wolf Spider
There’s a spider in the kitchen, up in the corner of the ceiling. Google Lens tells me it’s another wolf spider. Irrationally, I think “It’s the mailbox spider!” but it’s impossible that it would travel up to the top floor from the lobby. Impossible. Right?
Bah, ants are better. 😛