Halloween Buzz-Part Five

Ok, I’m pretty much done with the Autumn/Seasonal Brews….pumpkin is pumpkin and they all are starting to taste the same.

The last sample was Arcadia Ales’s Jaw-Jacker Ale.

This last consumption of the seasonal brews proved to be better than some but not great.

Subtle hints of spices but I will be honest when I say that the artwork sold me on the purchase. Good stuff, nothing against the brewery but I’m pretty much done with the October brews.

My attention needs to turn to papier mache and finishing a shitload of props that are waiting in the wings.

Cheers!



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Dem Bones

Cleaned out and reorganized the garage.

Here are a few pictures of some of the bodies that will be repainted and reused for my pirate section of our 2008 Halloween Display.

The bones were originally made in 1996/1997, plastic resin cast in silicon molds….knew I was holding on to them for some reason.

Skull and bones everywhere…oh my!


C

Halloween Buzz-Part Four

Ichabod Pumpkin Ale.

My fourth sampling of pumpkin ales from the Holland Brewing Company, bought the six pack because I liked the name and the artwork on the bottle.

Weak spice flavor, basically it didn’t taste a whole lot like pumpkin beer. Maybe I’m getting tired of the autumn brews but this didn’t quite cut it.

Love the artwork and the name.




Judge for yourself at: http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/335/1567.

Not a bad beer, just not as good as some of the previous pumpkin beers I’ve sampled…ok, gotten a good buzz off.

September WIP (Works In Progress)

I swear I’ve been in a crap ass mood the last couple of days thanks to the weather which has been mostly cold and wet. I’ve had a couple days where I didn’t even look at my props let alone think about working on them…but I have managed to get about eight pieces ready for paint and about six more close to being done.

Tree Faces. These are designed to be attached to a couple of very large trees in our front yard, a spooky greeting for our TOT’s. The challenge will be to paint them so they match the colors of the bark on the real trees…I think they will look pretty cool when done.
Working on three large Cyclops skulls…this is an exercise in weirdness as I’m not sure where they will finally end up...a fun process regardless of how they turn out.
Some ancient skulls I finished a couple of weeks ago. I wanted something that would look like they just came out of an archeological dig…an Indiana Jones prop. They feature a very interesting texture that was the result of coating the prop with a flour and water mixture then blasting with a heat gun until the paste bubbled and cracked…should look nice when painted.
Finally one of three large spider props complete with eight eyeballs and some bristly hair made from strands of an old broom. My stuff in the works…lot’s more to come in the following weeks. Here’s hoping the weather and my mood improve!

Halloween Buzz-Part Three

Ok, so I need to quit drinking the Pumpkin Ales and get back to building props. My third taste test of the autumn season was Buffalo Bill's Pumpkin Ale from Hayward, CA. "The only good thing about the end of summer," I agree with that except for the fact that Halloween comes with the end of summer...but of course you already knew that.


Good beer, not too sweet, not too spicy, one of my favorites of the season and I also like the vintage looking artwork on the bottle. If you see BBPA in the store pick up a six pack and give it a try, good stuff and a great way to celebrate the end of summer.


http://www.buffalobillsbrewery.com/beers_bottled.asp

Terror Tree Art

The idea of making some evil looking haunted trees has been rattling around my head for a couple of years. This weekend I finally quit thinking about it and got off my duff and started making two sets of faces for a couple of large trees in our front yard...perfect to greet TOT's.

The idea was rekindled by Patrick Nottingham (The Ravens Barrow) after he mentioned his plans to work on an evil tree...thanks Patrick for getting me started on another project this season :)

My concept is simple, cut the eye, nose and mouth shapes from some very thin paneling and make three dimensional using pulped papier clay.

The process started by designing the face and making a pattern from poster board.



I tacked the templates to a tree in our backyard to see how they would look. Note that the trees in the front yard are much bigger so there is no issue with the pieces not conforming to the tree, especially the mouth, it will be flat against the large tree in the front yard.



Next the shapes were traced onto an old scrap piece of wood and cut with a scroll saw.



Pulped papier clay was used to create a three dimensional shape. The eyes were created by molding the clay in a large plastic Easter egg to get a nice clean shape.




The first phase of the clay has been applied to the wood base, really just a rough layer to create the basic shape. Once dry additional clay will be used to refine and texture the pieces.

The game plan is to use some pieces of real tree bark pressed into the wet clay to give a realistic texture. The teeth are the handles from plastic forks cut into a jagged “V” shape. The overall style of each piece will need to be very rough to match the texture of the real bark.



Stay tuned…..

Halloween Buzz-Part Two

Another trip to Valley Produce and I left with a six pack of Screamin’ Pumpkin Spiced Ale from Michigan Brewing Company in Webberville, MI. This beer was recommended by one of the knowledgeable guys at Valley Produce. Pumpkin pie in a bottle was his take. The artwork on the bottles was cool also.

Pumpkin pie in a bottle was right. Besides the obvious spices (nutmeg and cinnamon) there was the underlying flavor of pumpkin. The beer was very good but also very heavy on the flavor, not a bad thing but also something I wouldn’t want a lot of in one sitting. This is what pumpkin pie in a bottle tastes like.

http://www.michiganbrewing.com/
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