We had started down a road to bring about an entirely new theme early on.
It’s one we’ve been looking at for years, really. However, it’s going to wait another year. We’re going to be going through a major remodel with the house this year, and I’m going to focus a lot of my energies into that direction. We’ll start tracking that process here soon.
In the mean time, there’s a could small projects we can still work on.
It’s taken more time than expected. (of course)
However, I’m happy to announce the Gallery is back in working order (though there are a few things that remain hopefully in the background until I can exterminate them). Without getting too awful technical, the old slideshows dated back to 2007, and little on the internet works quite the same as back then, so they didn’t work on mobile devices or play too nice with many browsers.
Unfortunately for me, this meant building new slide shows from scratch. This meant going through 12 years of pictures…
Good news is the new gallery is broken down, organized and mobile friendly (mostly, I think there’s an old video that’s still fussy).
As a side benefit, I stumbled on an old concept from 2007 I had abandoned because the early tests were less than amazing…
Not only has my own ability come leaps and bounds since 2007, so, too has available lighting.
This was just one piece of a larger concept, and though I don’t know how many years it might take for me to get the larger concept where I feel it’s complete, we’re going to be working towards her.
The Bone Mother.
It’s time, finally, for an Unorthodox take on a witch.
As my mother is often fond of saying, Life is plan B…
Well…I’ve been hit with a whole rash of ‘plan B’ all year long.
When the year began, I knew it would take me several years to switch over to my planned new theme involving Spider Woman. Heck, it took a good 3 years before I was happy with the whole Witch Doctor thing we had going.
I identified VERY early in the year that the plans for the front yard were a little too ambitious to be able to complete this year, and they were shuffled off to the back burner. Other plans were put in their stead that I was pleased with.
The Stele were started, but needing to finish up some improvements on the Laboratory, they were set aside till that was done…Then the Demons were created, and set aside as well in favor of the Laboratory work.
The last 2 weeks have seen fit to remove the Demons and Stele from the equation for the year in 2 storms. I was prepared for the rain in both instances. I was not prepared for the wind. The first, winds out of the north broke our gazebo and toppled the Demons into the rain. Worried most about the Gazebo, I secured it back upright with ropes, hoping to be able to repair the legs in time for Halloween. (the Gazebo is used as well) Storm 2 saw winds out of the south, collapsed the gazebo the OTHER direction. Securing that in the middle of the night, I failed to see that the Stele had been blown out from under it as well…They will be salvaged, but not this year.
So…here we are, the majority of the work to date ruined…
What does one do?
Well, we take stock of what’s available and move on. Plan B.
The Olde BYOB project is getting a makeover.
His legs amputated, as they really just got in the way for his purpose (but I needed to build them for the tutorial), and he’s been given the guts of one of those Christmas Reindeer to make him wave. He’ll get some fluorescent paint, and the wire to make the arm move painted black to hide it, then lit with a black light.
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| From 2010 Buildup |
And, all is not bad. A very kind soul heard my plea for a knife, and sent some along…
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| From 2010 Buildup |
Another busy weekend wrapping up.
First up, just an example of my chalk. Unassuming by normal light.
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| From 2010 Buildup |
It really comes to life in the black light.
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| From 2010 Buildup |
Next, the Demons got a quick wash to prepare them for life under black light.
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| From 2010 Buildup |
And I managed to discover a means to paint my skulls that is invisible in normal light. (ignore the blue and greenish tinged ones on the far right, done before I created the new paint)
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| From 2010 Buildup |
And, what’s even better is it brings out a range of colors under black light. From white to gray to tans.
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| From 2010 Buildup |
Finally, tired of black light work, I started work on the new scarecrows for the year.
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| From 2010 Buildup |
More will follow if the technique proves sound.
Also working on Kyle’s mask…hoping he can blend in with said scarecrows this year…
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| From 2010 Buildup |
With the discovery of the green flame torch kits, I’ve been re-envisioning the witch skulls.
So, taking advantage of the fact that green flame gives off very little visible light, we’re planning to use the green flame in the blacklight area. I wanted a minimum of 5 torches, which means 5 skulls. We tried a new way of staining the plaster skulls with a foam stain, which worked wonders.
Then, a little fluorescing paint later, they really came to life.
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| From 2010 Buildup |
A little summer time carving as well, in celebration of sign 3.0. But, a little more on that later.
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| From An UnOrthOdOx Halloween |
