New revelations.

The redneck mother mold was a success.

We pulled the crystal skull out in all it’s gooey glory Teusday night. Damn rubber gloves busted but I managed to get the stuff off before we got any chemical burns. the skull is now drying in the garage. Still. The stuff we used is REALLY not meant to cast things this large, so it’s a slow process. Teusday it was down right gooey. Yesterday it was sticky. This morning, just a little tacky. We’re getting there.

Once it’s all dry we’ll get some pictures.

And, went to work on the pinata again last night, to be greated with yet another nugget of info about that paper mache glue I made…

In addition to fermenting, it freezes rather easily… as I had the second batch in the fridge to prevent it suffering the same fate as the former. Nothing else in the fridge is freezing.

On the plus side, it heated up just lovely. So…if I have leftover I may just purposely freeze it for a later date.

So, with the weekend approaching, our goals include finishing this pinata so I can get back to full time Halloween focus, finishing the mold of the little wooden skull, Getting some work on that next batch of shrunken heads, tending to my precious little Halloween grasses in the garden, and getting Kyle going on skull production.

I was also notified of some broken links off to the right. They are now fixed.

The room that will never be.

Haunted houses are typically broken up into ‘rooms’.

You’ll have the clown room, then the graveyard room, then the chainsaw guy room. Etc, and so on. I still think in that mindset quite a bit, but I like to get things to flow better, and up till now, it’s been basically one “room”. However, this year we are trying to get a slight seperation between the front yard “room” and the back yard “room”, and eventually, I have a theme planned for many ‘rooms’.

However, the other night, I came up with the room that will never be. It’s still vivid in my mind, and I’ll incorporate parts of it, I’m sure. Last night, as I was pulling my crystal skull from the mold, and soon laid up as I got a wee too strong a facefull of the vapors coming off the thing, I was thinking once again how best to use it. And I kept going back to this room…

Picture a hallway. Black walls, and making your way through some cobwebs. At the end of this hallway you can make out a circular room. The center of this room, is a human sized crystal skull, glowing in a white light. (lit from leds underneath from a technical standpoint. Around this skull are smaller crystal skulls, that are glowing differing colors. (color changing led’s probably) This is the only light in the room, these skulls glowing.

Walls black, floor and cieling black. Maybe a few statues around. No obvious exit. As you enter into the room, maybe about halfway, a switch in the floor is triggered. The skulls stop glowing, the room goes black for a few seconds.

Then, on pops a blacklight or two along the walls. And both the ceiling and floor reveal a magic circle. No, not a pentagram, though if it helps you to imagine one in the absense of knowing no others, it’ll serve the purpose for this reading. Painted in flourescent paint to line up with all the skulls.

A big, booming, reverberating voice also come on saying something about disturbing the place, or sacrifice, or something. I’m sketchy on the best script right now, as that would be tailored to fit whatever is out the exit. Just know it’s gotta be a big voice. And a moment later, a light comes on in the exitting hallway, revealing the exit. (a scrim would keep that exit invisible till the light comes on)

The room is great. Interactive, and would serve as a transition from one theme to another. Plus gives a leadup to whatever would be coming out the exit. Something many a haunt is lacking. (yeah, it makes perfect sense to come out of the dimented circus and walk right into a graveyard with no transition…)

So, why it will never be:

I am NOT building a walled hallway or room.
Giving that I somehow had the hallway and room already, it would be a considerable investment to get all the lighting, switches, relays, and etc set up.
I’m not sure how a magic circle will play in this neighborhood…people are equally likely to not understand and/or be offended/concerned about it’s inclusion.

One of these days when we’re rich and I have much more time to devote to this stuff.

More experimentations…

There’s always some little test going on at the house.

The green fire is coming along nicely.

I still need to figure some way of making it renewable. Soaking paper in the solution burned up too quick and was overpowered by the orange flames too quick. The next idea comes in the form of soaking wood chips.

Half-assed soaking of a lava rock gave a satisfying green burn for a surprising length. But, as it does not get consumed, it’s really not plausible to keep piling on more and more rocks…

The second experiment will likely begin this evening.

As spoken of previously, we’re looking for a means to make some nice suitable clothing for Fred. And, the first trial there was based on following the tutorial linked to over in the how-to section on the sidebar.

However, I’m a little wary of the fact that I don’t really have the pond water specified, and it may not rot quite as well.

Then, when looking up info on my grasses, I found this tutorial on clearing out grass for a flowerbed.

Sheet composting. Specifically the following section caught my attention.

“Sheet composting under a tarp works because the tarp traps both moisture and heat. Hot, dark moisture is one of the very best conditions for rotting.”

Hmmmm….that sounds aweful usefull…

Since we’re clearing a section of the backyard for a patio anyway, I may as well run a couple tests. I’m going to grab some more clothes, and run a test on what I belive will be the best depth for this rotting of the clothes. But, I also have a bunch of pants of Alec’s that no longer fit and have holes in the knees. We’ll place them at varying depths for testing purposes.

So, come fall, I’ll have 2 sets of clothes for Fred, and a bunch of pants. I’m sure we’ll have a difinitive answer as to the best means of rotting clothes by then.

And just who is this Fred I keep mentioning?

He’s been hanging out in the garage for a while now. Needs lots of work still. If you get the joke with the name, good for you. If not, you’re not missing anything.

Then, we have the Crystal Skull experiment going on in the garage…

This is THE most insane mold I’ve ever tried. If it works, it’s likely to be the only full size one I make, just from cost of the acrylic resin. But, here’s the redneck mother mold in all it’s glory…

And finally…

I was in Michaels this last weekend, getting the aforementioned acrylic resin. I always check the Model Magic just in case it’s on super special price or something. And, there on the shelf next to it was this “new” tag, and a bucket of Crayola Air Dry Clay. The stuff was much cheaper than other airdry clays, so I picked up the small tub.

First test, I just rolled a coil and let it dry overnight. It was pretty solid in the morning, but not completely dry. Jen tossed it out, and I can’t blame her for thinking it was just trash.

The second test was using it to add in a bit on a new model for yet another mold I’m making. Adhered great, pleasure working with it, but thinner portions cracked. Fortunately, the model in question, cracks just will add to the end item.

Now, the stuff is superior to model magic in that it’s cheaper, dries stronger, and tools and works like a traditional clay. However, it is a touch heavier when dried, and more prone to cracks, and might shrink a tad more.

Meanwhile I look at my ole powergrab. Needs a base to apply onto, cannot sculpt from the ground up. Strong and flexible…

The wheels are turning…Clay + power grab kneeded together….hmmmm….results coming soon…

Thar be booty!

Another commercial has caught my attention lately.

Family grocery shopping, the mom mentions BBQ, and the dad races off to grab the sauce, son in the cart. They round a corner, the son picks up some paper towels on the way, and the father shouts “YARRRR! Booty!!!”

No idea what brand of sauce the thing is for. But, it’s wonderfully entertaining. Almost as good as the one where the heart jumps out of the lady’s chest and stumbles down to the bosses office to quit.

Anyhow. We have booty!

First of all, Kyle finished off the schoolyear with the scholar dollar auction.

Selling skulls be profitable, it seems, as he made out fairly well, coming home with a nice poster of (fittingly) Jack Sparrow, and a grundle of toys.

And that’s not even counting all the junk food he ate over the sale days.

It’s been a curious little project. Among the course of making these little skulls, we came across a store who’s owner honestly wants to sell these things, and the full size ones, and the shrunken heads if I’m willing…for REAL. Interesting prospect. Bears some looking into.

And, it’s been a rough week in our personal life. This is not the place to go into detail on that, but as you’ll learn, I deal with rough spots by burying myself into making something for halloween. However, it happens to also be a rather slow patch right now in what I’m needing, and able, to actually do.

So, it was a blessing to come home from the movie Thursday night, and find a most wonderfull gift left on our porch with no explaination. A box full of skulls, and a bunch of staffs to put them on.

Now, clearly, they are a differing style than what I’ve been using. But, it doesn’t take long for my mind to come up with ways to factor them into the plans. And, as such I have a new project going just for these skulls. Just when needed.

It took me a moment to remember the discussion that led me to recall where they came from. However, the timing was truly inspired.

In other news. “Shrek”. My new mask. Not liking the painting job right now, but not much I can do till I get an airbrush.

To give you an idea of what’s going to happen after I get it painted right…(the skull won’t sit quite so high on the head there, it’s cut to fit, lower, but won’t stay without me gluing it on, which I can’t till it’s painted)

And, GROW little wierdo grass from Michigan!

Finally, Alec says ‘hi’.

The Crystal Skull review.

Spoilers ahoy.

I am an unabashed Indiana Jones fan. And, as spoken of earlier, Temple of Doom was my favorite among them. After seeing Crystal Skull, Temple of Doom is in no threat of being replaced. In fact, I’ld go so far as to say Crystal Skull is my least favorite of Jones movies.

That is not to say it is bad. Just, that where the previous films are held as the epitome of action movies, Crystal Skull falls to a level more closely resembling recent competition.

There are 2 distinct areas I think that Crystal Skull falls a little behind the former Jones movies.

First, the villains.

Raiders even gives us the great Beloq. The image of him holding up the idol and maniacally laughing as the Hovitos chase Jones through the jungle is a villain at his best.

Temple of Doom gave us Mola Ram. Let’s face it. It’s hard to top a picture of evil than that of Mola Ram holding up the beating heart of a poor sap being lowered into a pit of lava.

Crusade left us with a lot of villains, but none that truly have a great moment of villainy. At the least, we are presented with the eternal icon of evil in the hordes of Nazis.

Crystal Skull gives us Irina Spalko, the Russian super agent. Cold and calculating, never once losing her cool in a given situation, she is on the cusp of being a real badass. Quite arguably, the villain with the most potential of any of the Jones movies yet. Somehow, she never quite achieves that, and never gets her moment of high villainy, something sorely lacking. I would have loved to see her triumphently standing over the defeated heros in villainous glory. But, it was not to be. The rest of the villains are faceless soldiers we are told are evil Russians. While fitting to the film’s story, they are just not as iconic an evil as the Nazis.

The second area Crystal Skull falls flat, is in the ancient traps and puzzles.

Or, rather, lack thereof.

In Raiders, we got the whole “stay out of the light”, floor traps firing poison darts, pits, boulders, snakes…

Temple of Doom, we got the whole “WE. ARE. GOING. TO. DIE!” room of spikes.

Crusades had the Breath of God, Word of God, and the Leap from the Lions Mouth. Not to mention choosing poorly.

Crystal Skull…well…um…there was some quicksand. Completely unrelated to the quest/temple/anything. At one point, you see Dr Jones scanning the floor looking for clues/traps/something. I was SURE Mutt would trigger something accidentally there…nope. Nothing there to trigger. There wasn’t even the satisfaction of watching them struggle to figure out the clues to open a door, as all the figuring has already happened. We’re just carrying out the motions.

So, there is the disappointments.

It’s an enjoyable film in it’s own right. Indy seems to have wisened with age, and become a more wily fighter in the process. Seems to hold his own a bit better than previous iterations at the fisticuffs. Yet, is not quite as limber at some of the acrobatics. Mutt has potential. It’s nice to see Marion.

I see a lot of complaining about the CGI in reviews. As with I am Legend, I really don’t think there’s much to complain about. Doesn’t look perfect, doesn’t look BAD. I honestly don’t get what people expect from effects these days…

If you like Indiana Jones, and adventure films such as Sahara, National Treasure, etc, it’s sure worth a viewing. For me, it just doesn’t quite live up to the former ones. And that may well be due to my having them on too high a pedestal.

Now, as for Halloween potential. There wasn’t a whole lot to draw on here. The Mayan were pretty cool, but not quite as memorable as the Hovitos. The rest of it was pretty standard from a Halloween prop point of view.

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