Busy Labor Day Weekend

Despite the heavy rains on Saturday and Sunday we got a LOT done over the last big weekend before Halloween. Our good friend Dan dropped off a big tent we used to keep things dry and stay out of the rain between downpours.

We built 2 additional mud men for 2 people who couldn't make the workshop. With Chris and Ellysa helping it only took a couple of hours. But the weather was so damp and cold that we waited to paint them until Monday afternoon. One of our students stuck around all day Saturday and helped us paint stuff. She was great help! We finished painting them on Monday afternoon when it was dry.

We painted a lot of the props and finished them. Chris didn't like how the Angel monument looked with the short dress so we decided to add a leg coming out like she is kneeling on one knee. It took quite a bit for me to cut into that nice prop and mess it all up. But it will look good when it is done. We also finished the sword for her too.

Got a lot of technical projects done too. An animated skull, some devices to move the bushes, new UV painted footsteps and a few other projects off our list. Things are looking pretty good. We even had time to drag out all the tombstones and touch them up before setup this year!

New monuments

We worked on the Angel and Bowl Mourner monuments this weekend. They are coming along nicely. Thanks to Tony, Elyssa, and Mike for all their help.

Comment box gets a facelift

We decided to overhall the comment box using the new great stuff technique. We painted it and made a few repairs. I also made the slot much bigger and put a metal border on it to make it easier to see. Thanks to Karen and Mike for all their help on this one.

New spikey monument

This is a monument based on a real one we saw in a cemtery. It is over 7 feet tall. It comes apart into sections for storing. We are thinking of making it be a eternal flame monument with a flickering flame in the middle. We'll finish it next weekend if we can. Thanks to Andy and Jason for all their help on this one.

Donation box is done!

We finished the donation box we have been working on. This is the first time we have had a donation box but judging from the number of donations that get stuffed in our comment box without us asking and the number of people that ask if we take donations we thought this might be worth it. Of course we don't do anything simple so our donation box had to meet our standards. Turned out great. This project, as usually was the work of many creative people.

Last Tombstone Class of the year

We held our final tombstone class on Saturday. We had 15 people attend. it was a few people over our limit of 12 but we couldn't turn people away and it is too much fun to do.

Concerts in our neighborhood

Besides all the Halloween stuff going on. We are in charge of the neighborhood concert series in August. So Jeff gets there every Thursday at 4:00 to help set up and it is the one day Chris actually leaves work at 5:00 pm. So about 9:30 we leave the sound guy to finish up and head out to happy hour for dinner.

Very long day, but a lot of fun and we love seeing all our friends and neighbors.

Nice poster, huh? :) Did we mention that Chris designed that :)

Over engineered base

Sometimes I can overthink things a bit. I was trying to do a tapered base for the mourner with the bowl. I was going to cover it in foam but wanted it to be sturdy. I couldn't come up with a cleaver way to do the angles so I just built it up until it worked. Probably a bit too much and strong enough to withstand an elephant standing on it. But it worked! Chris thought it was funny enough to quickly snap a photo before I hid it with foam.

New monuments

We are working on 2 new monuments this year. A mourner holding a bowl and a new angel concept. The bowl mourner was inspired from a monument we saw in the graveyards while playing fable 2 last year. The new angel is a half skeleton angel. Sort of a death vs life image. It was inspired from some images we saw while viewing real cemeteries. We have the frames done and we just cast a left hand for the angel. We need a foam sword for the angel and then we need to mud and paint them. More pictures to follow.

A new spider

We came up with a new idea for our spider this year. Here is a photo of the new body and leg shapes. More about this project later.

The angel is now Joan of Arc

Chris converted our wingless angel into Joan of Arc with a little help from her friends.

We made a Treasure Chest

Our good friend and resident artist Chris Reid sketched us an idea for a donation box this year. The main part of the prop is a large treasure chest. So I bought some fence boards at home depot on Friday and started work this Saturday. We got the box built and aluminum strap on it. Then Sunday our friend Elyssa textured and painted the aluminum. I also cast a latch and padlock using some quick cast resin. The basic concept is 2 small mud guys holding a chest. The chest is fake with a real latch and padlock in back to hold the donations. It is looking good!

The Mud Man Workshop weekend was a success

We had 4 pairs work on building their own mud man like the ones in our driveway at Halloween. Starting Saturday at 10am they finished forming the frame with chicken wire and then cut the burlap and then soaked it in mud and made the mud man. We let it dry for 24hrs and then came back on Sunday and painted them black, dry brushed them and applied some polyurethane. They came out great and we were very impressed with everyone who attend and well they caught on to the process.