Graves and "stones"

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.

Coming together.

Bought some more rigid wrap last night. There’s now enough for 6 “tombstones”. Time to figure out just how many graves we can actually make.

Normal graveyards on halloween, it’s perfectly good to throw out just the tombstones. For these, however, no one is going to associate an overturned pot on a stick with a grave marker without the mound to make that connection.

Chicken wire, cloth, and joint compound, possibly turned into monster mud, will be the tools used to make the graves. I just need to see how much chicken wire I have left, and how many graves we can get out of it. But, more on that later, for we have a few surprises in mind for the grave mounds, to give them that special Halloween menace.

I also went back to Guild Wars and took a tour of some of the more prominent locations for these graves to get more reference photos. A very special thanks to the folks of the Last Platoon Alliance for pointing out prospective locations.

I went here on a hunch. The place was named “cemetery” after all. Only 3 lonely graves, however.

The rest here were located in a beautiful canyon, pointed out to me by Boid Ronseyder of the Last Platoon, in a place I had never been before.

A shelter and some offerings.

The 3 ‘tombstone’ designs represented.

In some site news, I have been getting some requests to make all the links pop in new windows. This post has thus been enabled. However, looking over blogger, it’s not immediately possible to edit the HTML in the links on my sidebars, so I’ll have to rebuild them as an HTML piece, deleted the templates, then add the HTML code back in. That’s going to take some time as I’m not all that quick with the HTML quite yet.

"What’s with that thing outside?"

You’ld think that, by now, my Father in law would just chalk up anything wierd to Halloween. But, he had to ask. Followed by “Are you just leaving it up till Halloween, then?”

No…but the rebar holding that thing up is down pretty tight, and I’m needing some help getting it out. So, I figured the ‘thing’ was better than a bare piece of rebar kids might get hurt on. Besides, it’s fun to mess with people. I did take off the banner and skull this morning, though, as we’re supposed to get some weather this afternoon. Just a bamboo pole up, now.

Also began work on the “Tombstones” for Project Nightfall.

Now, Guild Wars showed them as rather nice pots overturned on the grave markers. While I’m not entirely sure where they got that specific idea, Nightfall was based on some African traditions, and I’ve seen enough documentaries on various tribes to recognize the general idea there.

The grave is for the body, the pot is for the spirit. Some tribes use plain rocks, some pots, some more ethereal means. Essentially, the body is buried, but the spirit remains for a while. Sometimes years. When that spirit fades, whatever item represented it is taken to a resting place as well for the spirit to continue it’s journey. Sometimes that place is with the body, as we see in the GW picture, sometimes it’s somewhere else.

Chances are decent that Arena.net didn’t put that much thought into their art for the gravesite. However, that’s the backstory in my mind, for my graveyard. A mix of authentic African tribal culture (Tribal Secrets. Great documentary series! Not for the faint of heart.) and Guild Wars. In my mind, such backdrops are essential prior to building anything.

Now, GW was depicting a rather refined culture in the surrounding area of this gravesite. And, it is reflected in the symmetry and beauty of the pottery. (yes, I read all this into a little artwork) My yard on halloween, however, most definately depicts a much less refined area. To make these work in the bigger picture for ME on halloween, and not just for this contest, I need the pots to reflect this lack of refinement.

Thus began what looks to be the most laughable model for our ‘tombstones’. Utilizing all the clay in the house, I managed to build a neck and start on the vase portion. Not willing to go buy more, or wait, we finished off the bottom with….wire clothes hangers covered in duct tape.

Can’t get more ugly than that…

To make the first pot, then, we covered the model in tin foil, covered the tin foil in duct tape, cut it off, and taped it back together.

This was then covered in Rigid Wrap for a cheap and easy ‘pottery’ feel.

It’s taking me 1 3″ roll of the rigid wrap per pot right now, and they look nice and rough, and unrefined. Need to purchase more rigid wrap, and figure out how many graves we’re making.

Announcing Project Nightfall.

I have spoken before about Guild Wars, and it’s influence on some of my designs for Halloween.

Well, turns out Guild Wars also runs an annual Halloween Art Contest. I have decided to go ahead and enter it this year.

I had considered keeping this decision, and some of the stuff I’ll be making for this contest private. But, that’s not a lot of fun, now, is it. And, if just one more person decides to deck out their house and enter as well because of this, I’ll be most happy. Time to get a few yard haunts into that contest with all the costumes, drawings, and other art, to be recognized as art in and of itself.

The rules state:
Create a concept and bring it to life:

Carve a pumpkin—real or not—and take a photograph.

Create a blueprint for other pumpkin carvers.

Sketch a costume by hand or on the computer. If you’re extra creative, stitch up that costume, add some makeup or temporary tattoos, and model it in a photograph.

Design a desktop image to share the joy in your home, school, or office.

Decorate a cake, bake some cookies, compose a menu, build an edible haunted house—put your culinary skills to the task.

Spruce up your homestead and send a photograph.

If there is one thing yard haunting does, it’s create a concept and bring it to life. And, thus far, the 3 years of contest has been devoid of yard haunters.

I wasn’t actually planning on entering this year. But, in making The Bloodcloth, it was one of the Guild Emblems that ultimately inspired the handprint design. Sure, I modified it a fair bit, but it was a Guild Emblem to originate the idea.

That got me thinking of the contest. Which in turn got me going through screenshots. Thus, Project Nightfall has been born.

An opportunity to do that one Halloween oriented theme I’ve always KINDA wanted to do, but could never bring myself to do something so ordinary.

A cemetery.

Guild Wars. Specifically Nightfall, offered me a glimpse of how to make one, most uniquely. And as I began work on my first ‘tombstone’ last night, Kyle gave me a befuddled look. “But Tombstones are supposed to be straight.”

Not anymore.

Stay tuned for plenty of how-to’s to create your own Guild Wars Graveyard, with a few special Halloween twists I’m planning to toss into the mix as well, as I shall keep you all up to date with Project Nightfall:

No rest for the weary.

After the fun movie night late into Saturday, I was struggling to fall back to sleep after my initial waking at 5AM, and forego the swap meet trip. See, I’ve woken at 4-5 most/all my life, and I don’t even need an alarm clock anymore. I was just getting back down into that state on the verge of sleep when Indy decided it would be most fun to use my toes as a chewtoy.

My cats are used to me being up by 5 as well (after showering), and he wanted to play. So, after dragging me out of bed, and playing fetch with the cat for an hour, I figured I may as well head off to the swap meet as long as I was awake.

It was fortunate I did.

It’s 5 ft ‘wide’. I got no idea how much is left on this roll, other than to say “a lot”.

One can never have enough black cloth laying around, anyway.

Alec also bought a remote control car. This has some history here. Santa brought both the kids remote control cars. However, Alec’s never worked. I think it’s our direct TV receiver jamming the actual remote, because it works sometimes in some places. Anyway, it’s always been a problem that Kyle’s works, and is faster, and etc.

Most kids might think of a remote car and relate it to toy story, or maybe stewart little. Something like that…

Alec? Riding home, he exclaims “Now it will be just like Gizmo!”

“Huh?”

“You remember on Gremlins, when he gets in that car and goes grrrrrr! Rrrrrrrrrr!” driving with is air steering wheel.

I didn’t even know Alec had ever paid attention to Gremlins. But certainly a proud moment.

In other news, we’ve put some work into the banner.

I was considering keeping this under wraps as it will be going to part of a project I’m working on to enter a contest. But, may as well get many enteries into the contest and show them us house decorators deserve more attention. But, more on that later.

The symbol was agreed on by the entire house. I had a small ‘monster handprint’. I always have said, I CAN’T DRAW. But, I copied it to be as large as my own hand. Then, covered my hand in ketchup (hey, it’s what I had, and cleans easier than paint), and slapped it right over top. This gave me a ‘real’ handprint over the monster one.

I then TOTALLY FREEHANDED the result into this larger print on a piece of paper. Taking plenty of measurements to ensure relative scale. Cut out the shapes from the paper, and use it as a template onto what the kids have dubbed “The Bloodcloth”.

The result being this massive print that measures more than 2 ft tall, over 18″ wide.

Then, we had to get it up and flying.

The upright is actually 2 bamboo poles, the top section removable so that I can fiddle with things and throw it back up. It is quite tall…

Adding a skull and some firelight.

I actually left this up today. Just to mess with neighbors a bit.