House of Shadows

Dedicated to Sophie

May 1993 - Nov 2007

It’s been a restful day and we have started putting up the decorations for Christmas. My husband is a huge fan of Christmas and loves to have the house decorated as soon as we can. I always feel we should at least wait until after Thanksgiving…but if he had his way we would have the house decorated for Christmas all year long. I have a useful tip for the ladies of the house; guys if you are reading it can just be our secret. I don’t like to decorate for holidays until I have done a thorough house cleaning. So in exchange for my agreement to get the Christmas decorating done, my husband cleaned all the hardwood floors, so ladies don’t forget to negotiate for those good bargains at home. Now before you guys feel too bad for my husband let me tell you our floors have a Swedish oil finish and all you have to do is mop with water mixed with a touch of vinegar…and I have an electric floor cleaner that makes it a snap. But even with those conveniences, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate his help around the house.

As I plan my Halloween projects for the year, I can see some of my ideas will work for both holidays. And I have promised my hubby I’ll make a large Nutcracker prop for next Christmas and a life-size Santa for the year after. I have a beautifully illustrated book with a Nutcracker on the cover that will be my inspiration for the first project. I can see I’m going to be very busy in the studio next year.

When we put up the tree we always light the fire and drink hot chocolate. Our canary, Shakespeare, loves listening to Christmas music, especially if Bing Crosby is signing. Shakespeare adds an extra touch of festivity at Christmas by signing along with the music. We picked him up from the breeder right after Thanksgiving, eight years ago. His first experience with music at our house was the music of Christmas I think that’s why he enjoys it so much. Although Shakespeare loves classical music, and Frank Sinatra, his signing is always most animated when he listens to Christmas music.

Our dog Alistair is a Jack Russel Terrier with boundless energy and more than enough love for everything in life. He is nine years old and spent his first Christmas without his older sister, Sophie, last year. Sophie, our beloved Schnauzer, was six years old when I brought Alistair home. She was absolutely befuddled by this little creature. We had to follow her around with a towel to wipe the drool from her beard for two weeks because she was just so excited and confused by this puppy that all she did was constantly hover over him and drool. They were the best of buddies and it was difficult to put her down. She rests in a special place in my garden. We’ve watched the strangest phenomenon for over a year now. I planted a yellow pansy over her grave. It flowered all that first winter and into the spring. It continued to flower in the hot summer when all the other pansies died out. Sophie’s pansy gets full sun all day long…it should not have survived the summer sun. However, it’s never quit blooming since the day I planted it. In fact, as I write this Blog Sophie’s pansy is blooming just as bright and sunny as her personality was. I like to think it is her way of saying thank you for caring enough to do the right thing for me. She is missed but will never be forgotten.

Now on to the topic of the day. This is the second post of pictures I’m using to evaluate the expression of grief through body language to plan my “Beloved” project. If you are just joining us and want to catch up with this series you can go back to November 28 to start reading from the beginning. The pictures I’m posting today show the mourning figures in a horizontal position, which is the traditional position used for “Beloved” props I’ve seen. I find looking closely at pictures helps me develop a vision in my mind’s eye for how I want my project to look. I may see a hand gesture I like in one, ornamentation in another, fabric draping in another, etc. If these pictures provide a reference for you sometime in the future, then I’m meeting one of my goals for this Blog.

This series will continue tomorrow with a few more pictures of statuary and Tuesday I will begin to look at details of ornamentation. Until next time ….

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This is the first post in the series exploring cemetery art to evaluate expression of sorrow through body language. I will be using this study to plan the design for my Beloved project. If this is your first visit to the House of Shadows Blog you may want to read the explanation of this series beginning on November 28.

Traditional Beloved props show the figure of a grieving woman laying horizontally over the tomb of her of her husband. I may go that direction, however, I want to explore other options as well. The purpose of the pictures that will be posted today and tomorrow is to study various positions of the body, hands and fabric draping.

I have more pictures to post in this series; however, tonight I look as weary as the woman at the top of the page. As I continue to work on page design and explore the explosive number of plugins available for Wordpress I’m continually living in a world of exploration, and that translates in English to “trial and error”. Today I tried my third photo management plugin, which I find all have advantages and disadvantages. Posting these pictures was an exhausting process for someone new to Wordpress and plugins. However, I’m still a strong believer in learning by doing and once again I won the battle! Tomorrow’s post should be a much easier process.

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As you can you see, my dog Alistair is busy recovering from his turkey dinner so we took the day off today. I will be starting a new series tomorrow focusing on cemetery art. I chose this topic to assist me with some decisions about how I design my “Beloved” prop to make the best use of a vintage dress I bought on eBay for the project.

If you are not familiar with the “Beloved” tombstone it simulates a woman mourning over the tombstone of her beloved husband with the inscription “Beneath this simple stone, my precious darling sleeps alone”.

There are several examples of the beloved project online that I find are useful references. It’s one of the benefits of being attached to a community of friends that is as sharing as the network on the Halloween forums. Each person adds their own unique elements to a build or tries a new technique which they share. My friend Terra used the examples of others when building her beloved project and I think she added some steps that are outstanding. I feel so fortunate to be able to gain knowledge from her experience and add features that will make my project a unique design built from the concepts of others. If this project progresses as I think it will, I should be incorporating some of the techniques I have learned from Laurie Franklin (Lauriebeast) as well. Before summer arrives I’m sure lessons learned from others will also influence my finished project.

In the upcoming series I plan to post photos focusing on fabric draping, different ways of positioning a mourning figure, aging stone, and ornamental elements. By the end of this series I will also post a variety of methods for creating faux stone, texture, and shading. My beloved project will not be started until the weather improves this spring or summer, but some of the concepts I’m reviewing will be incorporated into finishing the body for the build of the “Immortal Pumpkin” that I’ve named Morti. I hope you find concepts that you can apply to your current or future projects as well. Until next time …

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Here is something I pulled out of my idea files today. It’s a simple way to create a faux leather finish on paper mache. It is also a good technique to use on old books you want transform into a Witch’s Spell Book for your Halloween props collection.

Materials List:

• Black Acrylic Paint
• Sienna Acrylic Paint
• Crackle Medium
• Cordovan Shoe Polish

1. Paint your mache object or book with black acrylic paint; let it dry
2. Apply the crackle medium according to the directions on the bottle
3. Let the crackle medium cure according to directions on the bottle
4. Apply a coat of sienna acrylic; let dry before moving to next step
   
5. Finish with an application of cordovan shoe polish (wax not liquid); buff.
   

Important Tips:

• Paintbrush strokes should only go in one direction
• Do not overwork the paint, you will loose the crackling
• Apply as many coats of polish as you want to get the finish you desire

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This beautiful example of moss covered grave art comes from a grave at the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, France. If you love grave art then a visit to Père Lachaise Cemetery is something that you should definitely put on your life list of things to see and do. It is the largest cemetery in the city of Paris, France at118.6 acres though there are larger cemeteries in the city’s suburbs.

Père Lachaise Cemetery is one of the most famous cemeteries in the world and it is reputed to be the world’s most-visited cemetery, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors annually to the graves of those who have enhanced French life over the past 200 years. It is also the site of three World War I memorials.

Of course in today’s economy, the cost of traveling to Paris is beyond reach for most of us. But the internet provides an alternative opportunity to view the history of the cemetery, look over the impressive list of people buried in the historic cemetery, and even take a virtual tour. Read more at this Wikipedia Site:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%A8re_Lachaise_Cemetery

As I have said before on this Blog, one of the things I love most about old cemeteries is the aging of the stone and the mosses that provide such beautiful color and contrast to the stone. The picture above is just one example of what every home haunter tries to simulate when building tombstones. Looking at this picture made me wonder if it is possible to grow live moss on tombstones made of foam insulation if a rough finish texture was applied. Perhaps applying monster mud with a bit of sand mixed in. I’m going to do some experimentation this summer to test the application of a Moss Milkshake on the surfaces detailed above. Instead of risking the loss of a finished tombstone.I will make a few small test boards.

If you want to do your own experimenting, there are several recipes on the internet for Moss Milk Shakes; this is the one I’m going to use:

Moss Milkshake Recipe

Place 1 part fresh, clean, green moss with 1 part milk-based culture (yogurt, buttermilk, etc) in a blender; blend to the consistency of a milkshake. Paint or pour mixture onto the object you wish to age, wrap it in plastic and place it in a warm place that is sheltered from sunlight. Open the cover and spray your piece with water periodically to keep it moist but not wet.

If you decide to experiment with aging your tombstones with moss, let me know what kind of results you get. Either post a comment or contact me at: mail@houseofshdows.net

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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.