House of Shadows

Living in the rainy Pacific Northwest can be a challenge for home haunt builders who enjoy working with mache. Hours of crafting a prop can literally be washed away by seasonal rains if the prop is not properly sealed. So making the right choice for sealing Morti will determine if he has a future as an outdoor display, or his fate will be sealed as an indoor prop.

Canadian artist, Angie Hill (DeadSpider) displayed her wickedly wonderful mache’ props outdoors on a rainy Halloween night this season so I felt confident she would have some expert advice for me. Angie’s advice was to seal mache’ props a with marine-type varnish. Her mache props, which she describes as “artistically suited” to rainy weather, survived the seasonal weather without damage.

My next step was to review a study of waterproofing methods for mache conducted by Jackie Hall of the UK. Results of her unscientific twelve-month study support the use of marine varnish as the best option for sealing mache for outdoor use. Jackie also found the most vulnerable point of the test objects was the thin edges of their base. She recommends rounding surfaces to avoid sharp edges on objects intended for outdoor display.

Laurie Franklin (Lauriebeast) used a product called Sculpt or Coat to seal her props, The Bride and the haunting beauty, Vampiress Morbidia. Since the weather in Southern California is perhaps a bit less soggy than Canada or Washington State further exploration of that product for my area might be a good idea. I will review Sculpt or Coat in more detail in a future post.

With these great resources at my disposal it leaves me with the devilish task of making decisions. How brave am I? Will Morti be an outdoor menace… or an indoor wimp? Stayed tuned for more of Morti’s Halloween adventure and I promise the answer will be revealed before October 2009.

For more information about waterproofing mache see: http://www.papiermache.co.uk/articles/waterproofing-papier-mache/

A Visit DeadSpider’s website is well worth your time…it’s like a candy-shop of inspiration http://aranamuerta.com/

My current work in progress, Morti, started out as a real pumpkin left over from Fall 2007. He has been imortalized by using paper mache’ and celluclay to form the head of a free-standing sculpture that will include a corpsed rib cage and vine-like tree trunk. The inside of the head is painted fluorescent orange and will be illuminated with a red light for an eerie bright glowing affect.

Many thanks for the inspiration and encouragement for this project which I credit to my dear friend Dave (Spookzilla) and the fabulous work of Laurie Franklin (Lauriebeast). Morti has been sitting by patiently, waiting for me to transform his pale pumpkin head into the dark and menacing presence I hope he will become.