beadyeyedbrat

Halloween 2012

On 11/11/11 I started getting ready for Halloween 2012

And no, I can't do just one project at a time

Tombstones

Starting with the stones from dollar stores

and half-off after-Halloween sales.

In a nutshell: remove any doodads you don't want, sand the area, glue on

some foam if necessary. Paint with a dark color, and if you like, add sand.

Repaint with "stone" color, embellish as you like and seal.

As it came from the store.

Foam added, "RIP" removed and sanded.

All done but sealing.

Laid store tombstones on

foam to create pattern.

Outlined, ready to cut.

Tombstone sandwich.

Weighted so there will be no

gaps when the glue is dry.

Glued together and cut out.

The stone on the left was

handmade by us. The rest

are from the group from

the store. 

Two more re-done

store tombstones

Why all the trouble you ask?

 1. They are thicker so we can put  pvc pipe in through the bottom.  Then slip them over rebar and they won't go anywhere.

2. They are thicker so maybe they'll last more than one year.

 3. Store paint jobs aren't  always very realistic.  

Filling in the "RIP" with papier mache. Nisha, who just got spayed the day before, is supervising. EeEsH the

gray hair is sure coming in fast. Oh yeah, that IS a hand attached to the bottom of the stone.

- - - - -

Cemetery

Sign

March 2012

Design laid out on paper,

starting to trace it out.

Traced out, started

removing excess foam

with Dremel router.

(contrast enhanced for detail)

Playing with composition. Pattern pieces are printed out or drawn, then cut up and put on foam

with rubber cement.

A needle tool was used to press over the outlines. The green part

is paint I dabbed on to make

it easier to see the lines.

Dremel routered out

the detail.

Hadda use a hobby knife to get in

all the little spaces, then CAREfully

finished with the router.

Holes drilled all the way through

the base so we can  thread LED wires through to the batteries.

All carved out and glued to base.

The candles are toilet paper tolls

cut down and hot melt glued.

Getting paint into crevices and imbedding sand into paint for

more of a stone look.

Sand imbedded in paint. Candles painted and dry brushed.

Dry brushed and wired.

All ready for next Halloween.

Wiring. It will be held in place

with a plastic container that

used to contain lunch meat.

All high tech here lol.

Lit with flicker circuit. We may

make the lights yellow.

Dr. Izzy Gone

Cut out and part of unneeded

background removed.

A layer of black/brown paint

with sand added.

Not thrilled with this, but

done with it.

Halloween Stacker 2012

Papier Mache

etc.

Vines

Using papier mache

and corpsing techniques

Take some wire (I use steel fence wire) and twist into a vine shape. Add branches until you like it. Twist paper around the wire to build up the vines. Use more wire to wrap around the paper. Here I use brown craft paper.

Use thin plastic disposable drop clothes to wrap the wire/paper  This is .07 mil thick. As you go, hit with a heat gun. Once it looks like all the plastic is melted to the vine, you're done.

Use some of those drop cloths to protect your work surface and stain the plastic. I used MinWax Red Elm gel stain. Add sparingly and wipe off what you don't need.

Here is how it looks wet.

Kinda gorey.

How the stain looks dry.

Added in some green for mossy effect. The light has changed while I was working, so the

color appears lighter here

than it really is.

Toxic Waste Bucket

Using an old, warped cat litter bucket. Filled the bottom with crumpled balls of newspaper

and stuck in a few pieces from

a cheapo skeleton.

Fairly thick layer of papier mache

on top of newspaper.

Polymer Clay

Burnt Shadow box scene. This is what happens when you fall asleep with a piece in the oven. There is

a lot of translucent Premo in

it and most of it browned.

Hope to save it with some Pearl Ex.

Skull Mosaic

This piece is going to be framed. I got the idea for a driveway in a table top village with a pattern in it.

Then I counted all the pieces I

have for the village and realized I already had all I needed. Still like the idea, so here 'tis.

Progess Day 2

First I made all the little colored bits, then baked them. Using a pattern I made on the puter and printed out, I lay it on the clay in pieces and trace the outline with

a needle tool, then fill in with baked clay pieces.