Highlights of HalloweeN 2008

This scene was based on the pub 'The Slaughtered Lamb' from "An American Werewolf In London"



This came about after watching "Sleepy Hollow" recently, and I thought it fitting, since I'm of a Dutch heritage, and the wind has always been our biggest enemy in the front, so why not a windmill.



Our Dutch Settlement. Dumpster diving paid off with the findings of unused closet doors, which were then painted.




This character was created by chicken wire and a thrift store bought jumper and sewn burlap head. He represents the character of Sam, from the unreleased, already classic Halloween movie "Trick R' Treat"


One side of our simple maze.

This was based on the character of 'The Judge' portrayed by John Astin in Peter Jackson's "The Frighteners"




Childlike corpses based on the 'School Bus Massacre' story told in the unreleased movie "Trick R' Treat"


Jack Pumpkinhead stands tall (character from the film, 'Return to Oz' originally created by L. Frank Baum)



Here lies Karen Alywood. This scene was originally based on the disowned Disney film, 'The Watcher In The Woods.'



The witch in her element.

The Werewolf, almost hidden at night (he wasn't finished).

And finally me, the last surviving settler.

Village Troll

Finally on deciding this year's theme, it was proposed we would deal with all Halloween's traditional creatures, the demon, the witch, zombie, troll, ghost, werewolf, scarecrow....etc.
And set them in an old Dutch settlement.

And here is the details of the Troll and his kitchen.

Step 1:
This was my second attempt at shaping objects with chicken wire, the first being pumpkins.
I was surprised how easy it was, though I did have an advantage of watching a master at it over the past two years. So due to others schedules I need to get this guy going, so within two hours I managed to shape the guy.
Now this isn't as difficult as people make it out to be. It's like me with drawing, it's very trying to sketch something I haven't seen, even something from head, but if I have an image next to me, and can study it, I'm better at make a close copy of it. Same thing here. Thanks to the work of Brian Froud, I had an image to work with as far as the body goes, which I based on the character of Hoggle from Jim Henson's 'Labyrinth.'





After that was done, I gave a real basic inside frame of wood that reached from his neck down to where the feet would be, it was in the length of two grown-ups legs, and I screwed on 6 inch pieces of wood to simulate feet so that at this stage it could support it's own weight. And placed his 'feet' into a pair of giant boots, that we fortunately had picked up at a thrift store some years prior.

Step 2:
Skin.
We were in a rush, and thing worked out in the end, but if you want to keep it together for a long period, use expanding foam(Great Stuff) on the inside, I haven't used the stuff, but I've seen the result and makes for great reinforcement on things. But it is extra money, and I didn't have it.
Foil seems like a flimsy tool, but it does maintain the shape and cover all the holes of the wire pattern.
You may elect to use one of the following for the 2nd tougher skin, duct tape for a tough sucker or taping paper onto foil(don't recommend but if your restrained on money..), either way you go the next step is paper mache.

Step 3:
Details.
Originally the idea was to get our make-up man to use latex on the head area and build it up with skin and warts, but time was running out, so we decided to paint the face and hide the rest with rags. Under dim lighting noone ever pointed out that it was merely painted, if you did it cheaply just place the figure somewhere with low lighting, candle or fire light and it'll look real.
The trick is really to focus on features, our guy already had real boots, so we also gave him monster gloves, that were store bought previously, if we had gone with latex it would of been more fitting, but like it's been said "time is the fire in which we burn."
We had bought an old man mask for the hair that we were using on our witch, so we just glued some of his white hair around the face and gave him a beard and eye brows.
By chance, I had picked up some eyeball painted and shaped candles that I thought stood out amongst the cheap stuff at the 99 cent store, and boy did they pay off, by just sticking some pens into the back and taping around the eye to give a more lifelike stare these really paid off!
I did paint the pant area brown, and we would've painted the body, but we just ended up covering him with sheets.

Step 4:
Surrounding.
And the only other detail I care to mention is his fireplace.
This was done by finding a massive HDtv screen box in the dumpster of an electronics store(dumpster diving saves money kids) flipping it on its opening, cutting the front open in a stylistic way, painting it black and then drop spots of grey paint around the front and use the brush on them in a circular fashion to create a rock shape.
Firmly and tightly taping a white garbage bag on the inside covering the gap of the new hole and lighting it with an special colored lamp bulb.



Believe it or not, this was the quickest thing that gone done in a record of one day's time.

The Halloween Tree

Well this piece made into our local paper this year, and it certainly is a group effort and a beauty, eh?
Based on the Ray Bradbury's 'The Halloween Tree'

Step 1:
Framing.
I don't have pictures of the chicken wire frame, but that's all that it took. So basically you just have to learn to shape, which I did this past year on something else. Just get an image in front of you and start working that thing. It's something everyone can do, I had my whole resistant team working on those pumpkins, so I know you can do it too. Underneath the wire was a kickboxing bag which had a water filled based, which made it extremely heavy, thus the tree will never fall over. I'm sure a simple wood beam running up the middle would do this the same effect, with cross pieces for support of the branches.
We used PVC pipe for ours and just crunched the chicken wire around it and had em long enough, so one pipe would serve as two branches, follow?
Also, if your going for this exact same model, and if you are, remember who showed you the way, add the chicken wire pumpkins during this point and attach them firmly via wire, it will give it a more natural look. We somehow overlooked this part at the time, and added them via yarn later.

Step 2:
Mache.
This could take you a day, or maybe two weeks depending on your time.
Noone wanted to do this in my camp, so it got put off constantly. Thank the maker I have a determined gf, who got it done.
Now mache doesn't like staying on basic framing, so you either need to foil the entire tree, or roughly tape newspaper all over it with masking tape.
Or good luck with with paper and gaping wire holes.
Do all this mindful of your detailed knots of the tree, so that you don't lose your work.



Step 3:
Painting.
Well this is simple.

Step4:
Pumpkins.
The tree is sturdy to a point, but you don't want to use real pumpkins. So What we elected, since we had tons of chicken wire on hand, to make em out of that. Make a bowl shape, duct tape it all around. Then draw your face on with marker, use scissors to cut the tape only, and then wire cutter for the second round, I recommend doing the two steps, because of details, you might cut too long, if your cutting both materials and your faces won't wind up as you desired.
Then mache over the tape and paint.



Since I'm sure you don't want to burn your tree down, I highly recommend battery operated candles(Big Lots, 4 for $3).
If you didn't attach the pumpkins at the earlier stages, then poke holes on either side of the top, and guide the yarn through and tie em tight to the branch, maybe glue the yarn too for extra measure.
Also, for more pumpkins if 10 handmade don't do it for you, I went to the 99 cent store and found little pumpkin 'candy holders' 6 for $1, and glued those all over.

And well,..there it is.

Mr. Boogedy's Statue

Pilgrim Statue.

Unfortunately I didn't document this whole process
step by step, but I trust it's not that difficult to follow.
At first, this idea came from wanting to re-create a haunted statue I had seen in Disney's 'Bride of Boogedy.' The character of Boogedy, had been residing inside a statue/grave marker, and it was a very striking image indeed. So I set out to put this sucker in my front yard.

Step 1:
Making the body.
This portion might be done other ways, some may be simpler, as it has been done elsewhere, but we took the faster route as always.
Making a complete duplicate of one's self to maintain and human form, as you can see on the right.
This is done by foiling individual parts of your body, or someone else's and then duct taping over the foil. The only real trick to this is not taping it too tightly so that the model underneath may still keep his/her blood flowing.

After the part of the body has been covered, simply be gentle and use a pair of dull end scissors(as to cut the tape but not the person under) and cut along in a straight line, until the person is able to wiggle out of the newly formed mold. Due this as slowly and patiently as possible to maintain the shape.
Repeat all over.
Then tape over the open cut, and you have a rough recreation of a body part.
Now here's where things can go different ways..



Step 2:
Filling that body.
Since we had 10 cents to our names at the time, the cheapest way, and I don't recommend it is to stuff the inside with paper and pour paper mache in and let it sit. This process doesn't fully workout.
I would recommend filling it with Great Stuff expanding foam(found at Home Depot).

Step 3:
Rise.
This part comes down to what you have and if you want it to last. I had found a fairly decent hat rack. A simple tall wood frame for this statue. When it came time to do my legs, we did it so they were together without a gap, so that we could slide the body down over the beam.
And fortunately found a pair of steps in the dumpster from a school of sorts.
We screwed the base of the hat rack onto the steps, and there we had a statue before us.

Step 4:
Details.
Again, paper mache is the cheapest cover to do anything, and you can later paint it easily instead of just attempting to paint duct tape, which doesn't really have the same effect.
For the face, since that part of the body copying will turn out the less detailed, we bought a cheap ghoulish mask and just simply placed that over the head. Most people didn't know that was a bought mask, they had thought we painted it, ha.

The hat that I had, was a lot shorter on the top and was cheap flimsy foam and I needed a tall pilgrim hat, and those are over priced at stores, so I decided to use a small portion of chicken wire to build it up, and then duct tape it all over, and then I had a decent Pilgrim hat. Which fit snug on the statue because it was the shape of my own head.

We attempted other things with this cheap creation, but I'll stop here.