Store Bought Items and Clay Recipes

Have been watching the thread at Halloween forum where Terra describes the her version of the 'Beloved' Tombstone, and absolutely fell in love with the way the dress pleats, creases, and curls underneath the monster mud and Drylok.  I decided to start drawing up some sketches and doing some online research of Cemetery Statuary to be able to incorporate a dress, while coming up with something completely different from Terra’s version.  I also started hunting dresses, looking in thrift shops, Craigslist, etc.  and believe it or not, found my gem on Ebay.  After a few tense days, I won this one for $10.00.  Bet the seller didn’t like me too much, heh.

I never knew how hard it is to photograph a white dress in a white house.

 

 

             

Sorry I can’t post some of my inspiration cemetery statue pictures, but I steal from ALL over the internet, and heaven only knows what kind of trouble I would get into for throwing some of those out there without the proper permission, haha.

Another find was at Michaels, while picking up a new glue gun and some Sculpey. 

7 inches tall, made of resin, 5.99 full price, but I used my 40% off coupon to get her for 3 bucks.  (Made Jayson use his 40% off coupon for my new glue gun – he got the crap end of that stick, lol).  Now she just needs to get dirtied up…. fast.  :)

A note on my clay.  I have gotten some emails asking the recipe for the clay.  I’m going to post it, but with a word of caution.   This is NO WHERE NEAR as good as Creative Paperclay, or Sculpey or anything… it is pliable and easy to work with, using water as your smoothing solvent, but if you put it on too thick, it cracks.  It also breaks if your 13 year old son accidentally kicks a gargoyle over and it hits the garage floor…. hypothetically, of course.

Lost the tip of his ear, and a chunk at the base of his ear.

BUT.  Having said that, it is also cheap, easy as pie to make, smoothes out pretty nicely, and can have a purpose, as long as you know its short comings.

Showing cracks during the drying process.  I found a solution for this, see below.

 

One Of Many Homemade Clay Recipes:

3 1/2 – 4 Cups Flour (depending on humidity.  I tend to use 4)

1/2 C Salt

1 TB Cream of Tartar (powder in a small jar, found on spice aisle)

2 C water

2 1/2 TB Oil

1 TB Vanilla Extract – Optional.  Kinda makes it smell like Play Doh, and it’s just for fun.

Boil the water.  Place flour, salt, and cream of tartar in a large bowl.  (I use my largest Tupperwear bowl).  Measure out your oil and vanilla, and have it ready.

Once the water is boiling, pour directly into flour all at once.  Pour the oil and vanilla in, and stir to combine.  It may seem a little bit dry at first, but don’t add more water yet.  Wait a minute or two for it to cool if you are a pansy like me.  Once cool enough to touch, start kneading.  This is SOOO therapeutic.  If I could knead warm dough ever day that I don’t have to worry about baking and having it be too tough, I would be a happy girl.  If it is still too dry after kneading for several minutes, add a bit of water a few drops at a time.  I have never had to do this.  Knead until it is no longer sticky at all, and has the consistency of, well, clay.

Stores in a plastic container with a lid.  (This size batch fits PERFECTLY into a large Cool Whip container.  I’m just sayin….)

If you apply this to a prop, and notice hairline cracks the next day when it is drying (it is air dry, not to be fired) you can cover those pretty well by using a brush, and painting some papier mache paste over them… this smoothes it out.

I have another recipe to try that involves glycerine, so as soon as I find that at the drug store, I will be testing again.  Will let you know how that goes.

If anyone uses this clay on a prop this year, I would sure like to see it… hint.  hint.

Paper Mache Assembly Line

I am quickly finding out that I am not going to be one of those amazing people that can post daily, or even every other day.  I get too busy working on props, and the other time is spent in the forums, so I get overwhelmed with the blog.  I promise to work out a time management system… (and that, I will!)

Ok, I can’t speak for Jaybo, he has his own section of the garage, and I have mine… but here are some of the things I have been working on… I have just been strip mache-ing anything and everything… getting it all built up and dry enough to get to the FUN part! 

 

 

  

 

These candles were inspired by the PVC Flicker candles found on all the forums….  I always have Jaybo cut the PVC for me, and one day I didn’t want to wait (patience has never been a trait of mine) so I decided to paper mache them… that would also allow me to have varying widths, as well as heights.  I used some Plastic Rain Gutter Guard that I had lying around - (thought it would be handy with monster building, but was apparently wrong) and rolled it into various true to life candle sizes… then wrapped in foil, mached, and am now adding clay to give it less of a straight edge feel, and more like well used wax.  I am still going to do the hot glue drips, but after looking at some of my old real candles, none of them had a perfect straight column shape anymore, and got a little warped as they burned down…  I know it sounds like a lot of work for a detail that probably no one will notice, but somehow I do a lot of that.  Plus, it gives my hands something to do while watching The Amazing Race or Survivor.  (Don’t judge, I like reality shows, and will proudly admit it.  Here.  Only.)

 

The cauldron.  I know, it looks funny so far.  Well, other than the fact that in that picuture it is sitting in a green lawn chair.  But this is one of those projects that will likely take months because I get so sick of it, and come back to it.  I actually have finished the mache on it (contrary to the pic above) and have removed the 450 thousand tons of wadded up newspaper… but am having trouble with the bottom now… it was not as stable as the rest of it, and I didn’t know that until *after* I removed the stuffing and made more pumpkins with all that newspaper.  It is now sitting upside down, trying to figure out how to mache the bottom up to strength without it buckling in.  I will get it right, oh yes, I will.  Then I will work on shaping the top, and adding all the awesome detail that is in my head, but will likely look nothing like it on the actual cauldron.

*Note.  I have had to stop Jaybo from running down to the garden center and buying a huge bucket like 10 times, just to put me out of my misery.  I keep telling him that I want to do this from scratch, and he doesn’t believe the “I WANT to” part.  But if this works out, I am really going to love it much more than a hot pink bucket with mache on it.  :D

  

Playing with my new homemade clay, and having a ball… another thing to do while watching TV, making various tombstone embellishments.

And last but not least…. while speaking of this homemade clay that I am in love with – here are one of the pumpkins, (Judy) and my two gargoyles (Brian and Jenny) that are past the mache process, and I am trying the clay on them.  The Pumpkin doesnt really need it – can definitely use pulp mache clay next time, but I was just testing it out. 

 

 

But it is on the gargoyles that I am loving this stuff…. it is smooth, and working with it is a dream.  Easily made with household ingredients, I am super digging it.

(Pardon the gargoyles…. I swear, they will look like gargoyles in the end.  Ok, I don’t swear…. I *hope*.  hehe)

 

So, that’s the status of the garage as of March 24th.  Will update as more items turn up!