"21"

Twenty-one very creative pumpkin designs entered in the "Build Me A Pumpkin" contest on Facebook and www.torturedpumpkins.com.

Deadline is August 11th, two winners each receiving their own custom built pumpkin from your's truly.

Click the picture above to see the entries and contest rules.

More Treasuries

More collections of Etsy goods all with a common theme. 

Its Got Bite

Braiiins!

Enter The Lab

The Tangled Web

Sleepy Hollow Bookshop

Anyone that follows my blog knows that I adore both books and art.

The planets must have aligned last Thursday because one of my favorite places in Midland featured not only an incredible selection of used books but also some terrific fantasy artwork rendered in chalk.

The favorite place in question is Sleepy Hollow Bookshop located at 22 Ashman Circle in Midland, Michigan.

Our city has a large Barnes and Nobles in the mall which is a great place to hang out…but…if you desire something a little quainter you need to visit Sleepy Hollow Bookshop.

According to the owner the store contains at least 55,000 books at last count.

The shelves go from floor to ceiling and there isn’t a spot in the entire store where books don’t fill your entire field of vision.

The selection is diverse and chances are pretty good you will find what you are seeking.

My previous trip was to purchase a copy of Frank Herbert’s Dune so I could read it again for the umpteenth time and sure enough they had several good condition copies to choose from all at very reasonable prices.

Now what about that unicorn in front of the store?

Seems every now and then during the summer months a couple of artists will create some beautiful fantasy artwork on the cement in front of the store.

Chalk is the medium and the artwork will remain until the next downpour.

Sleepy Hollow Bookshop has been buying and trading books since 1996.

Visit their Facebook Page or Website for more information.

Treasury Treasures

I’ve become a big fan of Etsy, besides it being a venue to sell my papier mache wares it is  also a great showcase for creative ideas.

One of the Etsy features is something called a “treasury” which is a collection of items all belonging to a singular theme.

You can browse the treasuries or create your own.

Lately I’ve found creating treasuries to be a very relaxing and fun pastime, sort of like playing Sudoku with images.

The treasuries can contain 16 images arranged in a 4 x 4 grid, the theme can be anything from color to emotion.

Here are a few treasuries I have created; clicking on the image will take you to the treasury.

"Nothing Rhymes With Orange" 

"Like Dust In The Wind"

 "Demons In The Shadows"

 "A Very Wise Treasury"

 "Verge Of Darkness"

"Shiver Me Timbers"

Doodle Flapper

Been looking for a way to add a special" thank you" when I ship orders. 


Considered throwing in a small bag of candy corn. 


The problem with that idea is that if I have candy corn I eat it. I'm a candy corn pig.


So instead......I've started to write my thank you notes on the inside of the box lids. 


One thing leads to another and pretty soon I've doodled all over the box flaps.


Guess it makes me a Doodle Flapper.

New Site-New Contest

A new blog all about pumpkins and the home of the new "Build Me A Pumpkin" contest where you have until August 11th to design your dream pumpkin and if you win I will build the pumpkin out of papier mache and send it to you before Halloween. 


Two winners this year, one picked for creativity and one randomly chosen so get out your crayons or markers and start drawing. 


At the time of this post there are two wonderful entries. In the next couple of weeks this site will be filled with wonderful pumpkin concepts....I hope to see you there.

Spread the word and share the fun!

Insidious

Still of Lin Shaye and Leigh Whannell in Insidious

Typically I shy away from giving my opinion on movies because my taste usually does not reflect the opinion of a lot of other haunters out there.

Trick or Treat is a prime example…I really didn’t care for this film but most of my online friends raved about the movie. 

Everybody is entitled to their opinion which is what makes the world great.

I saw Insidious in the theater with my two sons and really liked what I saw.


(pun intended in the previous sentence)

It was solid, it was creepy and in several places it was just plain odd.

Odd is good, kudos to those that have the balls to do something different.

I liked the story, I liked the scares and I liked the cast.

The film felt small, intimate and aware of its purpose which was to scare you silly.

It worked.

Insidious is a small film loaded with an arsenal of creative ideas especially when it shows the way psychics translate what they are experiencing.

Lin Shaye plays a psychic which helps the family with their crisis and I must say I completely adored the character, she was my new Zelda Rubinstein.

Add a gas mask to the equation and you have genius.

The movie played as well or even better on Blu Ray as on the second and third viewing I saw how all the pieces of the puzzle were well thought out.

Insidious is a well crafted film.

I want more of these types of films.

Forget the remakes and give me original ideas that deliver the goods.

For a film that cost about 1.5 million it showed that good ideas trump everything.

Insidious now ranks up there with Poltergeist as one of my favorite scary films.

Add Drag Me To Hell and you’ve got a kick ass triple feature. 

Boris Sees The Light

After a month of being displayed on the corner of McDonald and Larkin in downtown Midland my troll finally has some lighting, Comerica Bank got the entry light to the bank working, now to get the streetlight on the corner working. 

Perpetual Motivation

The last couple of days have been spent working on some new Etsy products, more tortured pumpkins.

Twenty plus pumpkins are nearing completion, it wasn’t my intent to make more pumpkins this year but it seems that my Etsy customers like these….so I have to make what works.

Some new twists with these pumpkins and I’m finding myself sort of excited to see them completed…and as always the process has generated a lot more ideas.

More ideas and more motivation, more creations and more ideas and so on and so on and so on…perpetual construction. 

Blood Cankor

The Blood Cankor features some really awesome textures around the eye sockets and on the skull. Add a "brain clamp" and the result is pretty hideous. The Arsenic Asylum Collection offered me a blank slate, a chance to just create without a predetermined destination, sort of like three dimensional sketches. 

Inmate #015 was confined to Arsenic Asylum in 1908. Surgeons removed his eyes and used an experimental “brain clamp” in an attempt to alter his aggressive tendencies.

Arsenic Asylum Characters are made from papier mache and miscellaneous recycled materials. Each character is unique and created by hand. 

The Blood Cankor was designed to be used as a hanging decoration and measures roughly 24 inches from the top of the head to the bottom of the cape.

The cape is made from recycled fabric which has been distressed, dyed, painted and layered with painted cheesecloth.

A wire loop is embedded in the top of the skull to allow #015 to be suspended from a hook or cord.

Arsenic Asylum Characters are designed for interior use only and should be kept in a dry environment. The Blood Cankor weights approximately two pounds.

Visit www.arsenicasylum.com for the dark and horrifying history of Arsenic Asylum.

Available at the STOLLOWEEN Shop on Etsy.

Venom Twister

I guess I've got a thing for cyclops having created three large mono-visioned creatures for my yard and a cyclops pumpkin. For whatever reason I always associate Cyclops with having telepathic powers. My main inspiration is Ray Harryhausen when it comes to single eyed beasties. This creation is a bit odd and won't cater to everyone's tastes but I sort of like him.

Inmate #026 was confined to Arsenic Asylum in 1934. Experimental surgery resulted in a single ocular socket; the surgery also damaged a portion of the frontal lobe giving the Venom Twister extrasensory ability.

Arsenic Asylum Characters are made from papier mache and miscellaneous recycled materials. Each character is unique and created by hand. 

The Venom Twister was designed to be used as a hanging decoration and measures roughly 24 inches from the top of the head to the bottom of the cape.

The cape is made from recycled fabric which has been distressed, dyed, painted and layered with painted cheesecloth.

A wire loop is embedded in the top of the skull to allow #026 to be suspended from a hook or cord.

Arsenic Asylum Characters are designed for interior use only and should be kept in a dry environment. The Venom Twister weights approximately two pounds.

Visit www.arsenicasylum.com for the dark and horrifying history of Arsenic Asylum.

Available at the STOLLOWEEN Shop on Etsy.

Beetle Snout

I really like characters with no eyes, it gives them a sense of mystery. This creature features barbed wire wrapped around his skull which may explain the screaming, gaping mouth. Fangs round out the look, something fierce and aggressive.


Inmate #446 was confined to Arsenic Asylum in 1940. Doctors were perplexed by Beetle Snot’s level of pain tolerance which caused them to push the limits and expose #446 to excruciatingly painful forms of torture.

Arsenic Asylum Characters are made from papier mache and miscellaneous recycled materials. Each character is unique and created by hand. 

The Beetle Snot was designed to be used as a hanging decoration and measures roughly 24 inches from the top of the head to the bottom of the cape.

The cape is made from recycled fabric which has been distressed, dyed, painted and layered with painted cheesecloth.

A wire loop is embedded in the top of the skull to allow #446 to be suspended from a hook or cord.

Arsenic Asylum Characters are designed for interior use only and should be kept in a dry environment. The Beetle Snot weights approximately two pounds.

Visit www.arsenicasylum.com for the dark and horrifying history of Arsenic Asylum.

Available at the STOLLOWEEN Shop on Etsy. 

Brain Ripper

I've always wanted to create a character with an exposed brain and I found the process to be fun. The final painting technique was simple but resulted in a gooey looking mass of tissue. Screws and coiled wire gave the Brain Ripper a hint of being a laboratory experiment gone wrong. The bulging eyeball completed the look, not sure if I should be scared or sympathetic.

Inmate #066 was admitted to Arsenic Asylum in 1901. Arsenic Asylum surgeons had a field day subjecting the Brain Ripper to over one hundred surgeries designed to alter the subject’s homicidal behavior.

Arsenic Asylum Characters are made from papier mache and miscellaneous recycled materials. Each character is unique and created by hand. 

The Brain Ripper was designed to be used as a hanging decoration and measures roughly 24 inches from the top of the head to the bottom of the cape.

The cape is made from recycled fabric which has been distressed, dyed, painted and layered with painted cheesecloth.

A wire loop is embedded in the top of the skull to allow #066 to be suspended from a hook or cord.

Arsenic Asylum Characters are designed for interior use only and should be kept in a dry environment. The Brain Ripper weights approximately two pounds.

Visit www.arsenicasylum.com for the dark and horrifying history of Arsenic Asylum.

Available at the STOLLOWEEN Shop on Etsy.