Grimvisions

For a contest at Hauntspace.com the requirement is to use a pumpkin be it a real pumpkin or a fake one. I decided to use a fake one so I went and bought a fake pumpkin. I then got a plain wooden plaque, a lamp socket and cord a switch and a Feit 13 watt blacklight bulb.

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1. I mounted the lamp socket on the plaque, and added some rubber feet to the underside of the plaque. The socket was on the front 1/3rd of the plaque. I used vinyl staples to attach the cord to the underside of the plaque, I then added an inline switch to the cord.

2. I then added a PVC “T to the back 1/3rd of the plaque for mounting of my figure later on, I used screws and epoxy to adhere it to the wood.

3. I then went about sculpting the head of the figure and molded my own hands and cast them in resin using the same technique listed here at Deadspiders site

4. For clothing I used an upholstery remnant from the fabric store.

5. I used Undeadvoodoomonkey’s fake knife How-to from Hauntforum.com to make the knife

6. For the UV highlights on the face and hands I used glo-it UV paint from Deco-art mixed with Liquitex airbrush thinner.

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Tags:   Airbrushing · Clay-mache · PropsNo Comments.

I have finished my graveyard audio for 2007. This year I am selling them. You can listen to a sample and purchase it here

Graveyard 2007
10min 128kbps Dry Wispy wind, Monks droning, Copper chimes, Lamenting cries of the damed. LoopableGraveyard 2006
11min 128kpbs Strong heavy wind, Crows, Church Bells, Cries of the undead. LoopableI use sounds from Sounddogs.com, As well as sounds I record myself

Tags:   Audio · For-Sale1 Comment

I have started working with commercial mache products almost exclusively. Its saves a lot of time and gives a lot of consistency to my work. The two I have started using a lot are Celluclay and Creative Paperclay. They are both very different products.

Celluclay is a fibrous mache that is a very traditional pulp mache. It is bought in a dry form and comes in 1lb and 5 lb bags locally, 5lbs of dry mache is a large amount. It is mixed with water, I usually use warm water and mix it in a bowl and then take the blob of mixed pulp and roll it on a board under a sheet of wax paper like dough, I roll it, then lift the wax paper then fold the mache and continue.

As noted below

From http://home.eol.ca/~props/papier.html

“While not written in the packaged instructions, the manufacturer suggests that once you have mixed the dry Celluclay fiber with water, it is best to roll it out between two layers of wax paper with a rolling pin. This “mushes” the fibers together and will result in a very strong material.”

I have started doing this recently and I have noticed it makes the Celluclay a bit more sticky and more clay like.

Paperclay is a very fine mache type product similar in texture to Sculpey its main ingredient is volcanic ash. It is very smooth when applied and so fine in texture it will show your fingerprints if you are not careful, it dries rather fast relative to pulp mache like Celluclay. I have used it as a laminate on top of a Celluclay base. This is an interesting technique because Celluclay is much more inexpensive than Paperclay and is much stronger than Paperclay. This allows me to create a strong substrate and then add a smooth topcoat which I can detail as I wish without wasting lots of Paperclay.

Additional findings

I dont much like Celluclay as a top coat, as it dries and the water escapes the pulp it ends up looking like wet oatmeal. I have taken to using either Paperclay as mentioned above. Or brushing the Celluclay with Sculpt or Coat and then laying in a layer of tissue paper and then brushing in more Sculpt or Coat on top of the tissue. This gives the surface an appearance of skin.

Tooling of mache pulp. I use things such as a sharpened chopstick, a bamboo skewer, a finish nail driven into a paint brush handle, a very wet cheap watercolor brush. The biggest problem is when the fibers accumulate in the tool tips and then start attracting other fibers, if you keep the tool tip moist this isn’t too bad of an issue.

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I stopped by PNTA today and picked up some more Sculpt or Coat. While I was there they had some samples of Roscoe Foamcoat and Roscoe Flexbond, So I now have 2 new things to experiment with.

I assume that Foamcoat is a lot like Sculpt or Coat but I could be wrong. We will see.

I also picked up some new foam wigheads for carving at the display supply store around the corner from PNTA. I got some male ones as well as female ones this time.

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