We took a drive to Sleighbells in Sherwood, Oregon today. It’s a fabulous Christmas shop that is open all year “and” it has a room dedicated to Halloween collectibles. So far my short description doesn’t do justice to this shop. It is a HUGE farmhouse that would comfortably house at least four or five families, stocked full of every kind of Christmas collectible you could imagine and ornaments of all shapes, colors, and sizes. They have a counter where they sell homemade fudge, in a variety of delicious flavors, and a cute little café where you can enjoy lunch and rest your weary bones after all that shopping. But wait there is more. The shop sits in the middle of a U-Cut Christmas Tree Farm with the most well-groomed trees I have ever seen. Customers are transported to various cutting areas in a tractor-pulled hay wagon and come back to a fresh cup of hot chocolate in the shed while their personally picked tree is wrapped for a safe trip home. If that isn’t enough to make you wish you lived close enough to visit this shop, here is something else… they have live Peacocks who love to strut and show off their colors. Very close in proximity was a pen with turkeys, so homely in contrast to the Peacocks. I think perhaps we should go back after Thanksgiving and check on those fat turkeys. So if you find yourself in Oregon, near Portland, a trip to Sleighbells might be a fun side trip Website: www.sleighbells.biz.
Vampiress Morbidia
©2008 Laurie Franklin
This is the fourth article in the series featuring the work of Laurie Franklin of Diamond Bar, California. If you want to read all posts related to this series, click on the link for Vampiress Morbidia in the Category drop-down menu in the sidebar.
Today we will take a look at the process Laurie used for applying Vampiress Morbidia’s hair. Her hair is made of a product called Silky Yaki Weaving, 20” long that can be purchased from Sally Beauty Supply. It is 100% Toyokalon, which is cheaper than human hair and does not easily tangle. Laurie uses a vent brush on the hair and says it draws through quite easily. The hair is sewn onto a binding material and is attached to the sculpture’s head with Super Glue. As you can see from the photos below, Laurie just started wrapping the strips behind one ear and ending at the other. She continued to add more hair strips until she reached the crown. After all the hair was applied, Laurie cut the bangs. Laurie used 3½ lengths of the product at $6.99 per length to give Morbidia the nice full head of hair you see in the finished pictures.
Tomorrow I will post more details about the support system for the sculpture and the process for making the arms…
Thank you for being our guest at the House of Shadows.
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