The weather is all blustery last night/this morning, making the finish work I had planned on getting done a little difficult. And, with a threat of rain the entire weekend, things had progressed a little slower than initially planned. But, such is the fun in needing to build stuff outside. Can’t wait till I have my own workshop…some years in the future yet.
3 additional ‘tombstones’ built Thursday night. Base coat painted up Friday morning. I was standing there in the store, terra cotta in my hand and heading out the door, but then ‘Desert Bisque’ caught my eye. How fitting…
Now, for the grave mounds, we’re going to make an artistic interpretation to make them fit more into my own ideas. I want them more to resemble a stone slab covering a tomb. This will allow for me to add some special Halloween flavor to these later (the prototype did not work, but proved the theory, so more on that later).
So, the two prototype graves were made with a chicken wire frame, over which was placed a cloth that had been dunked, and kneeded in joint compound. The decision to use pure joint compound instead of monster mud was for the intended finish I will be applying to these. You can see the frame work here.
Burlap or other looseweave fabrics are the most ideal suited for this kind of work, but we’re using what we have, which is a WHOLE BUNCH of that black stuff. And, it’s working just fine. The tops of these will have more mud added to smooth them out, but are working just fine for this prototype work.
If the weather clears up this afternoon, I’ll build more graves to get a total count and finish up the ‘tombstones’ we have painted. Need to go shopping to finish the final pieces of the graves.