Halloween Buzz-Part One

Halloween Buzz-Part One
Tis the season when the pumpkin ales hit the store shelves and I get the chance to sample as many different kinds as my wallet allows. My first purchase was O'Fallon Pumpkin Beer made in O’Fallon, Missouri.


After venturing into my favorite store (Valley Produce here in Midland, MI) and surveying the collection of twenty or so autumn brews I chose O’Fallon Pumpkin Beer because I liked the simplicity of the artwork on the bottle and box.

The beer was extremely pleasant with nice flavors of cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. Not too strong, not too sweet. Good stuff. A nice treat on a cool autumn day.

http://www.ofallonbrewery.com/ofallonbrewery.html

Evil Tree Art

This idea has been rattling around my head for a couple of years...make some evil faces for the trees in our front yard, a great and spooky way to greet visitors to our display.

This photo represents what I'm thinking, only a little more (you guessed it) evil. I'm thinking of making the pieces from papier mache clay, possibly adding texture by pressing a real piece of bark (protected with a layer of plastic wrap) into the sculpt.

Lots of possibilities.

This photo is from a site called Genuine Tree Peeple, they sell about a dozen different styles. Check it out, the possibilities are sort of cool.

http://www.genuinetreepeeple.com/default.asp

Email Backlog

Meet Luigi, a very cool toad that is hanging around our backyard this summer. What does Luigi have to do with Email Backlog? Nothing. I just thought Luigi was one handsome dude and I like to post photos in my blog entries....so....

Just a short note to say this is a very busy time of year and I receive quite a few emails everyday asking questions or just commenting on my work. Thanks to all that write me, I appreciate and love to receive mail. As things get busier I get a little slower in my response time. I try very hard to respond to every email or comment I receive but between now and Halloween a few days may pass before you hear back. So keep writing, I'll get back to you...it just may take a little bit.

Keep creating!
-Scott

Templates

There have been many requests for copies of the templates I use to create my props.

For the record I do not supply the templates.

The techniques used to create the templates can be found at http://www.stolloween.com/?page_id=29, the technique is simple and straightforward.

Supplying templates would result in everyone creating identical looking props.

Learning to create your own templates allows you to make props with your own unique style and flair.

Papier Pumpkin Palooza

The new pumpkins made their way out to the art studio in order to promote my upcoming papier mache pumpkin building workshop happening on October 17th, 18th and 19th.

The pumpkins will be on display at Space Studios until October 19th at which time they make their way home to put on display in our front yard.

Happy Labor Days (60 Days Until Halloween)

Hope everyone had a great Labor Day. As the name implies I spent the entire weekend laboring, not on Halloween props but rather putting a new roof on our garage.

Now we should have a safe and dry means to store our ever expanding collection of Halloween props.

Here We Go Again!

Work on the final pumpkins began last week, several of the pumpkins are very large…got some new interesting things planned for these guys.

Stay tuned.