Lab – Page 2 – An Unorthodox Halloween

Weekend wrap up

Busy weekend.

First of all, we proceeded to embark on a major upgrade of last year’s Jacob’s Ladder.

Not only did that one get wet and fail to work for the show, it was a little rough, and lacked some polish.

With my brother handing me a number of neon sign transformers, a new one was a no brainer.

This one is 7.5-8′ tall. 5′ ladder. Nice, copper, on a discarded telephone stand. The entire thing can now be dismantled for transport to keep the critical pieces dry should it be raining this year.

The stand needs some paint, and maybe some other touches still.

From 2010 Buildup

Then, our little demon collection doubled in size.

From 2010 Buildup

And, finally, we got around to some more work on the Stele. #1 got a good start on the front portion, though it collapsed while drying, we’ll have to fix some of that. #2 got the sides up.

From 2010 Buildup

Of course, what would the weekend of the 4th be without a little celebration

The Laboratory

Fun day yesterday.

Lots of things went wrong.

The rain….oh…the rain…

Well, some things just weren’t working thanks to the rain. (got wet in transit) Most noteably, the Jacob’s ladder. I didn’t feel like tampering too much with it, water + 10,000 volts isn’t something I try to mess around with…

And, we had a minor accident, losing one of the lamps. Fortunately, we were able to mostly fix it to where it was more or less unnoticeable, but not before giving me a good jolt first…

We sprung a leak in my homage to The Brain That Wouldn’t Die, and just scrapped it. We lost a lightbulb in the serum tanks that forced me to use a backup set of christmas lights that just weren’t bright enough.

All this lead to not really enough time for me to dry off and get the makeup on properly. Only got the bald cap on, not my appliances, and it came falling off about an hour in, so we just mashed makeup into my hair and kept going.

Add in a faceplant on our first run due to the chains being longer than I had planned, and not catching till it was too late…

All in all, just about everything that could, went wrong. And, we still pulled it off in the end. A lot of fun despite the troubles. And, room to improve for next year.

So, just before we gave up on the bald cap:

And…just after.

Quick note

Just a quick note to say thank you to all who came out to see the Laboratory tonight.

We had a lot of fun, hope you all did too.

For the rest of you folks, pics and video coming soon…but Youtube is down right now.

Somehow fitting.

TOMORROW IS THE CARNIVAL!!!

Which means, it’s showtime for the lab. Somehow fitting there’s a thunderstorm outside now, and it’s due to restart tomorrow night.

You just have to LOVE doing a Frankenstein show during a thunderstorm. You also have to love the whole traditional Halloween festival being moved to a september ‘fall carnival’ so it can be OUTSIDE getting rained out.

I’m wanting to be out doing my best evil laugh in the middle of the rain…

Anyhow, a last minute addition that will not be completely finished, but serviceable:

From Lab

EXTREMELY fortunate score on Labor day there. A VERY OLD G.E. console TV cabinet. The OLD kind where the whole TV is built in and everything. But, someone had already done the dirty work, removed the old tube and speakers, and converted it into just a TV cabinet. And, it had some water damage.

Well, I took advantage of the Savers 50% off Labor Day sale, and snagged that sucker for $3.

The jars of goop light up, and an aquarium air pump and a couple airstones make them bubble and brew.

From Lab

I’ve also begun work on yet another tutorial. A kind of beginners guide to some makeup techniques. Nothing earth shattering, or state of the art. Just things you can do with that cream makeup and liquid latex your likely to find down at the local party store. Been getting some questions how I do some things in that department, and I realize that a lot of this info just isn’t out there these days. Instruction books used to come with the makeup itself, but not anymore. Maybe I can take some of that fear away from a few folks new to the medium.

Crunch Time!

Well, some unexpected news in the last week.

First, the lab has been pushed up. WAY UP. It needs to be prepped and ready for a show in mid September!

So, as you can imagine, I’ve been a wee bit busy attempting to get that all accomplished.

We have some work yet to be done on Bob, and I REALLY want my tribute to the Brain that Wouldn’t Die prepped as well before the thing goes live.

Otherwise, most other items just need a coating of paint to be ready, fortunately. I’ll be catching up on the pictures and blogging on all that when I get the chance, in the mean time, though, know I’m just very hard at work prepping my lab.

I do want to give a special plug for a new show on the History channel.

Clash of the Gods.

In reality, there is no earth shattering information being spewed out from the show to anyone with even a cursory study of Greek Mythology. What really bears mention, however, is the art direction.

Absolutely fabulous. VERY unique takes on most things mentioned. Behold Hades and Carrion.

Refreshing, unique representations. Greek voodoo dolls and zombies in that particular episode as well.

DVR it for some interesting viewing.