Zinnia

There is a small cemetery around these parts that I have always been drawn to.  About 6 months ago, I found a story about it online that has now been burned in my brain.

It’s the story of Soledy, who was the first person buried in this cemetery.  She was born on the same day (not year) as my grandmother, and died 10 years later on the same day (again, not year) as my son’s birthday.  She lived from 1864 to 1874 a few miles up the road from my very modern suburban neighborhood, in a town that no longer exists, only the cemetery remains.  Why this is important, I don’t know, but it just stuck in my head as I tried to come up with a name for my first zombie. 

I named my first groundbreaker Frank, after Mr. Sinatra, and that was fine, but for some reason, I can’t seem to name this zombie Soledy, I guess because it seems disrespectful to a little girl.  (But apparently I am free to disrespect Ol’ Blue Eyes?  No rhyme or reason, I tell ya)  So I’m naming her Zinnia, after my favorite garden flower… but I bet I will always think of her as Soledy.

This is a much smaller pumpkin than I normally do, it would fit on a dinner plate.  I’m going for realism on this…. pumpkin… zombie…. yeah.  whatever.

And the cute little dress that Jaybo scored for us at the Goodwill for $1.50… I feel bad taking this gorgeous thing out of the hands of a cute little could-be-wearing-this-dress girl, but… its all in the name of the haunt, right?

 

It’s hard to tell from the picture, but the detailing on this is just amazing, down the arms, and the trip, etc.  Its going to be a shame to rot this one up.

Progress… Slow and Steady

I love starting on props in February, it allows for you to work on several projects at a time, going from project to project when you need a break or a fresh perspective, or your kid breaks your gargoyle and you want to throw it in the trash.  Don’t throw it away, just put it in the corner, promise to come back to it next week, when you can do it without cursing, and start on a pumpkin.

Having said that, I bet you can assume that the Gargoyles are currently in the “pissed off” category.  Another project in that (ever increasing) category is the cauldron.  I’m about to make the largest trash bin that our house has ever see out of that thing.

Never let it be said that I’m not an idiot who takes all the stuffing out of a mache project before its ready…. or strong… and that the bottom wont cave in, so that when you lay it on its side to keep from having the bottom fall OUT, it then warps into an OVAL shaped cauldron.  Ugh.  Jayson had it right when he wanted to go buy the garden bucket… NO!  I will NOT give up!  I will put it in the “pissed off” corner, and move on.  It’s April, I have TIME!  (right?!?!  oh dear.)

The candles, on the other hand, are coming along splendidly, I just forgot to take a picture of them.  I am just finishing up the wax drips, then a coat of paint, and then Jayson gets them to do some kind of LED magic on them.  I get to make a kabillion flames out of silicone, and stick a fork in them.  Sweet.  Something according to plan.

Pumpkins.  Did I mention we are doing Zombie Pumpkins as a theme this year?  I liked it because I had not heard of it being done before (and if YOU have, please, PLEASE don’t tell me, or I will wanna change, and then I WILL end up at divorce.com, haha) and the pumpkins could easily be reused in other themes in years to come.

So, I need a lot of pumpkins.  Not 100 of them like a fellow forum member is doing, but… still… a lot.  Its April, and I’m up to 4.  I think I should be concerned, but, nah.  Not yet.  (Have time?  Right?)

Since these are still in the “working” pile, I haven’t started on the angel in the background yet, or any of the new graves.  But I’m sure that I will get tired of pumpkins and want something new for a week or two.  That's the joy of April.

And speaking of the “joy of April”, I just want to say how appreciative I am to live in Texas, as these were blooming throughout my yard this morning, and I just want to share two of the shots with you, in case your roses aren’t in bloom yet.

Off to a make & take tomorrow, so we will talk to you soon!

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!

Death of Jack?

Ok, just a short video of me trying to figure out how to store Jack. Ultimately, I had to tear him apart.

But I’m actually excited because now I can rebuild him even better than last year!

Smilin' Jack Pt. 2

I'm back! Sorry to be gone for so long. Had a serious eye infection which made it next to impossible to look at the computer screen. Now, where was I? Oh, yes...a head with no body!

Well, since my newly created pumpkin couldn't really stand on his own too well, I decided to create a Monster Mud creature using Jack. I soon realized that to make Jack proportionate to his head, he was going to be quite large. Mwuahhhhaaaa! Excellent!

                                           

Off to Home Depot to gather the materials. It just so happens that the gentleman working the plumbing supply this night is a Scout Master with experience in making paper mache masks! Once I told him what I was planning to do, he came alive! Boy, I've never had so much fun in the plumbing section in my life! We literally spent two hours brainstorming on how to build the body, gathering materials, changing our minds, putting everything back, gathering different materials, deciding we were genius' for improving the original agreed on design, and solving world peace. I congratulated the gentleman on such a successful collaborative effort and told him I would save a seat for him in Geneva, Switzerland when we accepted the Nobel Peace Prize. At this moment I took my materials and headed for the lone open checkout lane.

I then changed my mind and put everything back.

Did my wife mention I'm kind of a fly by the seat of my pants kind of guy? Yeah, it drives her nuts.

Seriously. She's going insane.

Ok, this is what I got:

• 2   8ft metal T-Post fence posts (The kind used to build barbed wire fences)
• 2   10ft length 2" Schedule 40 PVC pipes
• 3   2" PVC T-connectors
• 2   2" 45 degree PVC elbows
• 2   2” 90 degree PVC elbows
• 2   2" to 1/2" PVC adapters
• 1   8ft length 1/2" PVC pipe
• 1  Can of PVC plumbing cement (Looks like purple goo)
• 4   Rolls of 3ft x 24ft Burlap (It's in the lawn and garden section)
• 3   Rolls of 3ft x 25ft Poultry Fence (chicken wire)
• 1   Roll of Duct Tape (Greatest invention ever!)
• 1   5 Gallon bucket of Joint Compound
• 1   Gallon of oops paint (this is actually mis-tinted paint I got from Wal-Mart)
• 1   Gallon of Thompson Water Seal Multi Surface Clear

Time for assembly! There really isn’t a hardcore way to do this part. In the pictures below you can get an idea of how I proportioned everything. Do NOT go nuts with the pipe cement on this thing. Just dry fit everything until you are ready for final assembly. Actually, you may not want to use the pipe cement at all. The cement will make everything permanent. No going back. If you look closely on the build of the frame, you will see I drilled woodscrews into all of the joints to lock them in place. This was probably all I really needed. I figured this part out a little too late. On a side note, the frame was extremely solid.

The hands were made from 1/2” PVC pipe, coat hangers, duct tape, and paper mache.  I admit the hands could have looked a lot better, but I was a little rushed at this point. Besides, after painting and in the dark…no one ever notices. The fingers are very thin and long, so they tend to crack and break a little. So, it looks like I might have to do a little repair work next season.

 

I now had the hands and forearms for Jack. These I did not cement into the PVC frame. They fit into the ends of the 2” inch to 1/2” adapters I used to cap the ends of the arms. This allowed me to reposition the hands whenever I wanted. I placed the 8ft T-Posts inside of the two PVC pipes that came down from the shoulders. It’s not rocket science. You can get the idea just by looking at the pictures below:

I played with the 90 degree and 45 degree elbows to get the arms positioned just like I wanted and then cemented everything in place. Once the cement had cured, I carried the fence posts and frame to the yard along with my ladder and drove the fence posts into the ground with a carpenter hammer.

Not the smartest thing I’ve ever done. My forearms were on fire! The neighbors thought I had lost it at this point. Which might have had something to do with the constant “PING! PING! @$!#? PING! PING! SONOFAB****” that was coming from my yard and my mouth! Next time I’m getting a Fence Post Driver like this:

Finally got the !@#$% fence posts in the ground and slapped Jack’s head on the top. The frame is complete! The neighbors are calling the police. The children have learned new exciting words. We are no longer anonymous in the neighborhood. Life is sweet!

At this point I am having a hard time getting any work done because EVERYONE is stopping to ask me questions! No one in my neighborhood does anything remotely like this, so I caused a little bit of a stir in the neighborhood. We are now known as “THOSE PEOPLE”, since no one actually knew our names after three years.

Chicken and Mud

This is where I got act like a three year old in the mud. Of course, the neighbors think I’m the eccentric guy next door all covered in suspicious brown “stuff”.

That up above ladies and gentleman is Monster Mud. It is nothing more than Joint Compound and exterior latex paint mixed together. It is a most wonderful, magical, and useful thing. Oh, and it’s very messy!

I covered the frame in chicken wire. I had to make a wire hood to cover Jack’s head, and then two wire tubes to go around his arms. I wired all of these together after I covered the main torso in wire. I then covered the thing with burlap the same way. I had to wire the burlap to the frame in places to keep it from shifting and blowing away in the wind.

Now all of the hard work is done and I can sling brown goo like a monkey and his poo!

 

I originally planned on painting Jack solid black or dark grey and then come back and dry brush him with white paint. But I noticed he showed up much better at night under our blue spot lights just like he was. Plus, he’s freakin’ HUGE! Do you know how long it would take to dry brush THAT?!?! I simply did not have the time.

It took him about a day to completely dry and harden. On the next day, I applied the Thompson Water Seal. Which was such a good idea, because we had a torrential down pour three days after I built Jack. He came through without hardly a scratch on him.

So below is the finished product posing with my boys during the day:

And here are two action shots taken at night. One with flash, and the other with a spooky blue spotlight.

 

 

Jack ended up being a HUGE success! My house is on the corner of a major road and everyone in town couldn’t help but notice Jack. I had several High School kids wanting to know how I did it. One guy showed up two nights before Halloween to show his Dad. I ended up talking with them in my front yard for a couple hours. All joking aside, this has been the best way to meet my neighbors!

The one downside to Jack? He was just too large. I had to destroy him after Halloween. I kept the frame and the head, so I can always rebuild him again.

I’ve seriously got the Halloween bug now! Can’t wait until 2009!! Bigger, better, scarier!!

What’s In A Name?

Jayson and I have been naming all of our props.  Even the small ones.  Silly as though it may seem (and will get harder to remember all of our “children’s” names as we continue to add each year) it really gives meaning to something that you work so hard on for days or weeks (or months if you get lazy in between like me!)

I am honored to introduce you to Penelope….    Penelope Pumpkin.  Must have come from my love of Penelope Pittstop. 

Click any photos for a larger view.

I guess drying on an unpainted grave is not exactly the way to do it, eh?

 Following Stolloween's detailed instructions, painted her black (it wasn’t until I took these pictures that I could actually “see” the spots I missed”

and then the dry brushing.. Which I *really* loved her at this stage, and may leave one of this years at this stage.

 

And all finished.  I’m not happy with the weird stalk, and Jayson thinks she needs a nose… but I’m ok with her being my first – I will practice a lot more this year!