|
Viewing 1 - 9 out of 9 Blogs.
Another Halloween has now since passed ... Thanksgiving is near and that "other" holiday is in count-down mode. Our 'season' of higher traffic and (hopefully) better business is upon us now here in southwest Florida. Northern areas have had some snow and the temperatures have dropped a bit here, too, thankfully. It's official... winter is here.
With winter comes a slight depression for many people. Myself, I miss the hot temperatures. I stay away from the chilly gulf waters and reminisce about the days when the water felt as warm as a jacuzzi. I'm bundled (and the northerners can't begin to understand why) and chilled and huddling with those that I care about for the warmth of their bodies. Fire pits crackle and marshmallows get toasted and all seems right in the world. Well, for most people, that is.
I'm a haunter. I dream in black and orange. My sketchbook is filled with scary images and nightmares that will hopefully come true. The garage is filled with all of my Halloween stuff and there are times that I find myself in there... staring.... holding the gargoyles.... smelling the spray paint....and missing Halloween. How can all of this planning, all of the hard work, all of the sheer enjoyment be over??
Fortunately there's photos -- TONS of photos -- wonderful, delicious snippets of memories of the times recently shared. This years' party was a huge success and the costumes were fabulous. My guests really put the effort into their creations and they brought their "A" game. The mural of the morgue made a spooktacular background, too. Take a peek:
As more of the party pictures are unsurfaced, I'll add them to this post. I've been under the weather for so long (stupid cold that kicked my butt for 10 days, went away for 4 and is kicking my butt again for now 8 days....) that I am seriously behind documenting Halloween 2008! I will get caught up, I promise!!
~Artsy
Tags: Parkfield Cemetery Party Pictures Costumes Morgue
Wow! This years' party totally RAWKED! It was a perfect party with outstanding costumes, great guests, FUNtastic food, and so much more.
The pictures above are from my wonderful ghoulfriend Heather in her Zombie Hunter costume and she had three zombies to chase and shoot all night long! Those zombies kept getting out to the road and toying with the traffic that went by (spooking those poor unsuspecting people) and finally the huntress had to go to the road and take care of some business! The zombies heard my call to her for action and started their attack on her instead! In the end, at least one zombie was killed but Heather did fall under the pressure and she succumbed to the fight of the zombie.
...more party pics will follow......
Tags: Party Zombie Parkfield Pictures
Let me start off by showing you my inspiration. I found this picture in a catalog somewhere and I fell in love with the idea. Of course, my doodle replica of this little gem featured not one, but two jars of body fluids. This project was a bit of a challenge and it took us to many places we didn't expect to go to make a Halloween prop. So, here's my inspiration:
This project started with an old bird stand I had at home. Once the bird stand was deconstructed, the reconstruction began. First thing that was added was height. Metal pipes were cut to not only add the height but also to add a cross bar to support two fluid jars.
Ok, so the pipes were cut and then I was off to the thrift shops. I was looking for old sun tea jars that had a spigot on the bottom. Not such an easy item to find for some reason! And, as an interesting point of interest, the newer, nicer jugs have decorations that were 'baked' onto the jar and are impossible to remove! We tried everything!! Razor blades, acetone, lacquer thinner, paint stripper, steel wool... nothing worked! So, we worked with what we had. First the spigots were removed. The one jug that the paint could be removed was cleaned and wired for hanging. The other jug with the impossible paint was repainted! Why not make it look like blood...
The spigot was then replaced with materials which will allow the 'body fluids' flow easily from the jar down to the faucet. Gaskets were cut out of black fun foam to reduce leakage around the new spigot.
This prop needed fixed faucets to control the 'body fluids' and a T plate was added to support the faucets and a block of wood was added to support the skull.
Of course this prop had to personalized! I've made many hot glue skulls this year and one was added to the pole to redirect the tubes from the jars to the faucets.
A close up of the faucets:
The painted skull now houses the tubes for the 'body fluids'
The next stop made was at the automotive supply store! Two clear (new) fuel filters were added to the tubes for effect and to replicate those found hospitals.
Put it all together and you have a great addition to the Autopsy Room in the Morgue. The Embalming Station will hold adult beverages for the annual Halloween party (Mai Tai's in the "urine" jar and vodka/cranberry in the "blood" jar).
This was entered into the October contest for the Mad Lab. Once again there was stiff competition and many great entries. Good luck everyone!
Tags: Parkfield Cemetery Morgue Mad Lab Party Prop Drink Embalming
Now that September is here, we are all furiously planning and creating some goodies for Halloween. Every year I throw a big "adults only party" and this year is no exception. For the food at the party this year, I wanted something different than usual. I've done the creepy names with the gross looking food thing and I really wanted to amp it up this year. From this idea, Victor the Edible Corpse was borne.
To set the stage for you, the serving dish that I made will go with the larger theme of the room. The theme is "the Morgue" and specifically this serving dish will be a part of the Medical Examiner's lab. The serving dish will sit on a steel gurney with an embalming apparatus next to him. Victor is a corpse that we literally will eat from during the party. Since Victor will be sitting out on display more than when he'll have food on him, I wanted him to look the part even when there were no tasty edibles on him. So, without further ado....
Only five ingredients were used:
-newspaper -- and lots of it!
-water
-plaster of paris
-paint
-and Richard's Acrylic Urethane Clear Varnish
The overall measurements are:
6 feet long by 3 feet wide by only 6 inches tall at the highest point of his body (which are his feet).
Total cost for this project: $0. I had everything already and recycling newspaper is as cheap as it gets!! I think you can buy a big bag of Plaster of Paris for about $13 if you don't have any.
This project took between 24 and 28 hours total to make (couple hours here and there with drying time in between). It's a pretty simple process:
-shred newspaper in a paper shredder.
-in a good blender, add water and some shredded newspaper and blend to a pulp.
-using rabbit wire to support the pliable black screen over a large bowl, strain the paper pulp.
-squeeze as much water from the paper pulp as you can without going crazy while it is still in the pliable black screen.
-repeat this process ennumerable times until you have enough mulched newspaper to complete your project (depends on the size, of course!)
-have your work surface set up and ready to go. I lined a large work table with aluminum foil, taped it together, and made the outline of my body double to use for Victor.
-in a small bucket in small batches, mix some plaster of paris, water, and some newspaper mulch until you have a consistency you can work with. (follow the mfg's instructions)
-THIS STUFF DRIES FAST! work quickly and don't stop until you've used the whole batch! start filling in the body outline with a nice 1 1/2" thick layer of the plaster and mulch mixture. be consistent as humanly possible in this step. this layer will basically serve as the bottom of the serving dish.
-also, I built up the areas of the feet (as a corpse on a table would be) and left a ditch in the toe area that will hold 5 Lil Smokies Sausages during the party.
-once the basic body shape is formed, now add the lip of the serving dish by making more plaster and mulch mix and building the edge around the body outline. my outline ended up being about an inch and a half wide by about 2 inches tall. once the body is completely outlined, LET IT DRY THOROUGHLY!
-once dry (the sun is our friend in the drying process) begin to papier mache but use plaster of paris instead of the typical papier mache goo. the plaster dries a bit harder and is sandable. concentrate on all of the seams where the border connects to the base and slightly round this area for easier cleaning in the future. allow this layer to dry completely (gotta love that sun!)
-once the papier mache is completely dry, paint a priming base coat around the whole body/serving tray. then paint the interior of the body in a bloody fleshy body color and paint the exterior skin area and ridge in a gross green color. let dry.
-now comes the time for detailing the interior of the body. start with the organs and finish with the bones. let dry.
-now detail, highlight, and low-light all of the areas inside the body. mix a watery purple color and dabble it on the skin areas on the outside of the body, over the ridge, and into the inside of the body. let dry.
-after the body is completely painted and dried, use the urethane liberally on all side of the body, let dry, and repeat at least two more times. this final finish will allow food to be place upon the body and then cleaned with a damp cloth after the party.
here's a picture of him lying flat in the grass so you can see just how flat he really is. his feet are on the left....
ok... I said I was going to fill him with food. here's a few pictures of the Lil Smokie Sausages that I mentioned before. Does it make you hungry??
Since my actual entry is the serving dish, I thought I should show you my concept drawing of what foods will go where so you can get a better idea of how Victor will be used.
So, there you have it -- Victor the Edible Corpse. Thanks for taking a look!
~ArtsyChiqua
(Victor was entered into Mad Lab's September contest)
Tags: "Paper Mache" "Papier Mache" Victor "serving Dish" Party Food Parkfield M.E
The last two weeks have been really busy for me. Last week was the deadline for the Mad Lab contest. I was so anxious as the Minwax top coat was taking SO long to dry on Zeke...
The cool result of having to wait, however, was the fact that when I photographed Zeke at night, there was a full moon behind him! Creepy and cool!!
He's really gonna be a great addition to my cemetery. For now, though, Zeke moved into my kitchen for Tropical Storm Fay. Not that I mind a zombie in the kitchen, but this storm has delayed my Halloween production!!! I had to totally break down the workshop area I set up in my garage so I could protect my car from the storm. I run a 17,000 square foot furniture store and EVERY PIECE of furniture had to be put onto blocks since we are in a flood zone and this storm came right in to our area! We have no significant damage (whew...) but it takes time and tons of physical labor to install all those storm shutters and to lift all of the furniture. Then there's the preparation at home. Everything has to be put away! It's funny because the coffin cart actually came in handy as an oversized wheel barrow!
I was able to use the coffin cart to haul our 7' tall Dracula inside and away from our Halloween countdown display.
The cart was nice and heavy and I put it into a protected area so there was no chance that it could blow away if Fay became worse that what it was.
My real problem is with the media. The freakin' media sensationalizes storms like this and tries to scare everyone. "Watch out for high winds!" "Watch out for storm surge!" I know their job is to prepare everyone for the possibility of a greater storm, but come on!! The flunkys standing outside reporting from streets during the storm last night were ridiculous! "The wind is really kicking up now!" Yeah, right... gusts were 50 miles an hour about six hours after they reported that the wind was kicking up and the puny palm tree they were showing moves that much on any given day. Storm surge! Ugh! Since they really couldn't tell us to 'hunker down' this time, they repeated storm surge so much that we made it a drinking game! Well, I couldn't really drink as often as they said storm surge because that would simply be alcohol poisoning! The storm surge after the horrendous Hurricane Donna in the 60's (I wasn't alive for it, but my family lived through it) was a true storm surge! That was a massive hurricane! This little storm and the ridiculous pictures the media is shooting out now is just sad. The media hasn't had a storm to report on for two years and all the equipment and staff that they've accumulated since that terrible year when we actually did have many hurricanes have sat idle -- waiting to be used. Talk about crying wolf! One day, when we really do need to take the media seriously, no one will be listening because we simply don't believe them anymore! And quit interrupting my Halloween production!!!!
~ArtsyChiqua
Tags: Coffin Cart Zeke Zombie Fay Storm Halloween Preparation Production Mad Lab
In July of 2008 I made the Compendium of Forbidden Knowledge. What is that, you ask? Well, it's an unabridged encyclopedia of a spell book on steroids -- of sorts. I needed a book where I could put all of my concept drawings, ideas, party pictures, menu lists, music choices, and so on. I had too many lists! I needed one place to put everything and the Compendium was borne out of necessity as much as falling into specific requirements of the Mad Lab's July contest.
So... this monstrosity looks like this:
She's a huge book...
First you start with an old wallpaper sample book and you completely disassemble that puppy:
Next, you reinforce all hinged areas with Tyvek and reconstruct the spine in sizes you want with mat board:
Then you take paper grocery bags or craft paper and crumple and uncrumple, drag water-based inks of various aged colors all over and spray generously with water and repeat again and again and again:
Cover all of the exterior with the new "weathered leather" paper and adhere with spray adhesive:
I've skipped some basic steps, but drill your holes where you need them and use carriage bolts and flat connecting cap nuts to bind everything together:
I love using these shipping tags. I've aged them with walnut ink and bloodied them nicely. These will become the chapter tabs:
Right now this massive book sports about 300 pages or so. The table of contents lists the various chapters:
The inside fly leaf shows a hand-cut leather cross and you can see the chapter tabs sticking out on the right. There's also a bit of wood wired to the edge of a page:
The backside of the fly leaf captures my original sketches for this book:
Masterfully Macabre is a chapter of my props that I've imagined. The front page of this chapter showcases the fabulous mural made last year:
Scream Cuisine sounds just like it is -- menus and food ideas for that perfect party:
One interesting page in the Masterfully Macabre chapter is that of the Woodland Fairie. Martha Stewart featured this idea in her magazine and I wanted to recreate this item for my Witch Kitchen and spell department. Here is my concept drawing:
And here is the finalized Fairie:
So those are just a sampling of what is contained in the Compendium. This book will always be in use in my home and it will continue to grow and change.
So far, I've only spent about $28 on this whole project. Most of these items I've used I already had! I bought the cap nuts and bolts and some of the pages inside. I couldn't begin to guess how much it would cost to buy each and everything I used and will use in it!
I think I've spent about 30 hours so far on the book, maybe a bit less. When I do a project like this, I believe in mass production to save time. I love this book and I'm proud to display it all the time.
The following is a blog that I wrote a while ago. I'm reposting it here so that I can continue adding things to my to-do list and crossing off the 'yeah, it's done!' list. Today is Wednesday, July 16.
Since the original blog was written, I've completed the tarantula, bubbling cauldron, and the Compendium of Forbidden Knowledge ( my spell book of sorts on steroids). On the work bench right now is the toe-pincher coffin cart. The coffin was finished last year and needed a cart. We could not find any spools to use for the wheels locally so we cut two 28" plywood disks and the planking has begun. Tomorrow the wheels should be fully constructed and the axle will be in place. We are form fitting this cart for the coffin we already made. A funny note: someone bequeathed us another coffin so we'll have to figure out how to incorporate it with what we already have. On the studio bench we have the miniature haunted mansion. Someone threw out this handmade two story doll house in the beginning stage of completion. I like it just the way it is and now it can become haunted! We've been collecting things for the haunted mansion including small coffins, skull head beads, and even a very large dead beetle! That will be a cool addition to the indoor decor this year. I've also made about 8 hot-glue skulls so far and I'm making them when I can. The collection of skulls looks cool on top of the large iguana cage in our house! When I have a huge pile of skulls (that just sounds so cool -- huge pile of skulls) then we will paint them all. Since I started making the skulls, now I can visualize them in even more places than when I first started. I'll just have to make more! Oh, btw, the skull that I bought from the Skeleton-factory.com has been great. It is very easy to use and alter before I duplicate it with hot glue. Definitely worth the money! I have a whole ton of other things on the to-do list, but right now, this entry is done!
~ArtsyChiqua
Here it is, May 20th, and I've started my annual Halloween preparations. I have had a lot of inspiration this year and now I have sooo many ideas of things to add! Let's see, there's the Vampire emergency kit, enumberable skulls, a super large and freaky scarecrow, rotting corpses, and a coffin cart to start.
To begin with, I've started accumulating items for my emergency Vampire kit. The new, unused shadowbox was already in my possession so that was a great start. Quite a while ago I had purchased this very cool and large cross with Jesus nailed to it. I was going to use it for another art project I had in mind but this is soooo much better! My struggle has been to find a bottle for the Holy Water that is not too deep that will fit into the shadowbox and still look old and creepy. I have a few resources for that bottle, though, so I'm not worried. If the bottle didn't fit, garlic heads may not either. Maybe I can find a plastic strand of garlic heads somewhere. Where's a good Vampire supply store when you need one?? I'm sure that I can find a kids gun to use with some silver bullets I already have. Just need to make sure the caliber is correct for those of us who pay attention to the details.
And then there's the skulls -- mountains of skulls. Skulls everywhere! I need stacks of skulls in the graveyard, on the fence, as table decorations, in the lavatories, in the witch's kitchen, and so on. I need skulls!! I did a test run already with my favorite skull that I have now and some hot glue. The end result is great with only one exception: when I cut the dried glue and foil off of my original, the razor knife touched my skull and left marks. I simply cannot have my skull damaged in this process as this is my absolute, number one favorite skull. Now I'm thinking about making a cast or finding another skull that I wouldn't mind if it got damaged but who sells skulls in May? The fine folks at SkeletonFactory.com sells many different skulls and I just bought this skull: http://www.skeleton-factory.com/-strse-32/Budget-Two-dsh-Piece-Skull/Detail.bok. We'll see how this skull fares with mass reproduction.
I'm working on the coffin cart as we speak. I have friends. Lots of friends. I have friends who know people and I know my friends will come through with a cable spool for me. Have I told some of them that I'll hack the spool into pieces once I get it? No, but my friends know me and they know not to ask. If the spool doesn't surface soon, I'll have my favorite workshop guy Keith fashion me a pair of rustic wooden wheels for the cart. He made my toe pincher coffin for me last year and he's excited to hear that the coffin will be highlighted even more this year on the cart. Not only will the cart be a cool addition to the graveyard, but it will position the coffin in such a way that it can be truly shown off for the creepy greatness it has already. And that brings me to my next project: corpses.
Ah, the decomposed corpse. What graveyard would be complete without a legion of corpses? I have all of these wonderful gravestones and no dead bodies to go with them. Stella Live, Phil Dirt, Ben N. Balmed, Myra Mains, Izzy Gone, Pierson DeHart, Betty Kildher, and the baby of the bunch Wee G. Bord (just to name a few) all have headstones but no corpses for any of them. What's a girl to do?? Well, research, for one thing. I gotta know what will hold up to our tough tropical conditions here in sunny southwest Florida. While mold and rot are what we try to duplicate on our projects now, that same stuff can quickly destroy a great prop and hard work that went into whatever has that creeping crud on it!
Last, but certainly not least, is the scarecrow. This biotch has to be the biggest and baddest mofo around. I want it to scare death itself. I've done a bit of research on this and I've found a site that made a rocking scarecrow not just once, but twice! The creepy folks at Spooky Blue http://www.spookyblue.com/halloween/scarecrow/scarecrow.htm did an outstanding job with their first scarecrow and then came back the next year with this monster: http://www.spookyblue.com/halloween/scarecrow/grumble/. How can you not love these guys?? I just GOTTA have one! I'm looking now for the choir robe as this is proving to be a harder task that I originally thought since the choirs down here don't use the robe much anymore. Bummer! Well, I'll keep looking. Let's go for the grads now. I'm afraid, however, of the paper mache` idea because, as I've said before, mold, rot and mildew.
So, there you have it. That's my Halloween Preparation Agenda. I have four months to finish these projects and whatever else my twisted mind can conjure up before then. I know that Spike the Spider needs to be fed this year so I'll need a victim there... The witch's kitchen is low on supplies and will need replenishing and perhaps a new spell book... OMG, time is running out! I gotta go!
|
