September 6th, 2010
Good old Charlie has been outside braving the elements for 57 days.
Fifty-seven days of rain, wind, heat and humidity.
The Spar Urethane has done the job, there is absolutely no sign of water damage, the papier mache is still rock solid and all is good.
The only problem I noticed was a couple of chips on the bottom of the pumpkin but these are due to the fact that he has been banged around a little as I have moved him from location to location.
Charlie’s new location is in the back yard on our woodpile.
I’m confident the weather won’t be an issue but our back yard is filled with some rather ravenous squirrels.
Good luck Charles!
September 5th, 2010
You’ve heard of the Davis Graveyard right?
Have you heard about SpiderFest 2010?
The Davis Graveyard SpiderFest 2010 is a group prop idea where anyone can build a spider, send it off to the Davis Graveyard and it will be displayed in a big old willow tree during the month of October.
Sounds fun right?
Well after seeing a couple of incredible spiders that were created for this festive event I thought it would be fun to participate.
For some inspiration you can check out Mr. Chicken’s very cool spider or Pumpkinrot’s creepy creation.
I’ve got a few more days of work to go before my entry is complete, in the meantime enjoy a couple of teaser pics.
Yes it will be a spider and no I’m not just blowing steam, you have not been punk’d.
One final thing.. it’s made from papier mache.
August 30th, 2010
All the pieces of the undead pumpkin are now completed and drying.
The pumpkin dude consists of eight pieces that when joined together can be posed in a variety of positions.
Thin strips of newspaper were rolled into vines and papier mached to the arms and chest but in order to make the whole piece cohesive bundles of twine coated with latex paint will be wrapped around the arms and hands to hide gaps.
The vines will be painted to match the color scheme of the pumpkin which will be muted oranges, greens and browns.
Once the pumpkin is painted and sealed he will need to dry and air out a little before shipping.
August 26th, 2010
So what does an undead pumpkin chest look like?
In this case it looks something like this.
The chest and collar bones were made from recycled cardboard and rolled up newspaper tubes built onto a 1 ½ inch piece of PVC.
The method to display this piece is deceptively simple.
The PVC with the chest is slid over a small fence stake that has been sunk into the ground.
The pumpkin head simply sits on top allowing it to be posed however you like and the arms and hands (claws) will be “hinged” together, again allowing the creature to be displayed in a variety of ways.
Another great thing about using a fence stake is that it can be pushed into the ground on an angle making the undead pumpkin seem to lunge forward.
August 24th, 2010
It’s that time of year again when the kids go back to school. The temperature is dropping and so is the price of school supplies namely white glue.
Check around some of the big chain or office supply stores for some incredible deals on small bottles of white glue.
Do the math and in many cases it is cheaper to buy the small bottles versus buying a gallon….and once they are empty just think what you can build with all those little plastic bottles.
August 15th, 2010
Here are some photos of the “Undead” pumpkin during the construction phase. The design was drawn onto the papier mache shell then the eyes were cut out.
Lately I’ve been leaving the stuffing (newspaper or in this case polyfill) inside the pumpkin until all the work is completed, this prevents any sagging or collapse issues.
Recycled cardboard was used to make the facial armature then covered with additional papier mache strips.
Crumpled newspaper and aluminum foil were used to create the eyeball and the stem features a unique design similar to the one in the concept sketches.
Teeth made from homemade papier clay were added then additional clay was used to define the facial features.
I’m pretty happy with the progress although there is still considerable work to be done on the pumpkin and the body still needs to be created.
August 10th, 2010
Congratulations go out to Scott Alan Dimmick, the winner of the “Build Me A Pumpkin” contest on the STOLLOWEEN Facebook page.
Scott’s name was randomly drawn from over 90 entries scoring him a custom built pumpkin of his liking. Scott’s concept was a “ground breaking, undead pumpkin, pushing itself out of the ground with its rotting vine arms.
Work has begun on the undead pumpkin including the first layers of strip mache and some concept sketches rendered in Photoshop to help guide me in the building process.
The illustrations are for reference only as during the construction more elaborate details will be added specifically the gnarly vines on the arms.
Building a prop for another Halloween enthusiast is sort of cool and you can check out Scott’s love for the holiday on his website called The Never Moor.
August 6th, 2010
Took a couple of new photos of some pieces for sale on Etsy….shows them in a creepier light which of course is a good thing!
August 3rd, 2010
These three pumpkins were started a couple of weeks ago and are the result of mixing three of my different projects into one…the trash bag pumpkins, the new cardboard strip pumpkins and the screaming ½ skulls.
The progress so far is promising…these guys will eventually have eyeballs and get painted with an airbrush.
July 28th, 2010
I really hope Charlie packed his Speedo for the duration of the summer because it’s been hot, humid and wet.
The past couple of weeks have been unseasonably warm with temps in the 90’s and a a lot of pop up thunderstorms.
We have had rain about every other day since Charlie ventured outside and the great news is that the papier mache shows no sign of damage.
The bad news is that this makes for some very boring posts.
The Spar Urethane is repelling the moisture, after getting wet the water beads up on the surface of the pumpkin and the papier mache is staying hard as a rock.
At this point I think Charlie is more in danger of being stolen, vandalized, blown away by the wind or shot with my boy’s Airsoft guns.
To prove the point Charlie (sans Speedo) posed for this picture of him getting soaked with the hose, he’s a trooper that Charlie dude!
