Hauntcast Is Here!

Just in time for your Memorial Weekend drinking and BBQing fun, it's... Us!

http://hauntcast.net/

The Superspectaculariffic Davis Graveyard

I can hear it now:

"Enough about the freakin' Davises already! Can you please post something else?!"

Not today. And I'm not sorry.

They posted their handouts for the seminars they did at West Coast Haunters Convention to help all y'all out with your haunts: How to Design and Build a Better Cemetery, and Using Video Effects in Your Haunted Graveyard.

I think it's great that Jeff and Chris have all this written out so we can escape at least some of the learning curve that is part of building your own stuff for the first time. As I've noted before, my normally patient attitude towards creating props ends abruptly when electronics are added into the bag, so I'm really looking forward to reading through the projected effects handout to see what trouble I can get into.

You think Mr. ShellHawk will notice if the grocery budget seems a little thin?

More Pics, as promised! Here's Jeff Davis getting prepped for a great seminar on how to improve your cemetery-and the guy should know!

I was glad to see the Davises had such a great turnout. Everyone was paying close attention, and since we were at the School for the Deaf, there was a gal signing the whole seminar, too. It was pretty cool!

Of course, as far as Christmas Ape was concerned, he was there to mingle and terrorize people with his mysterious caped ghost costume. I think he may have pooped himself a little when Michael Myers whipped out his knife, though.

I got a nice photo op with Freddy and Jason, pre-dance-off.

The Hauntcast crew, wiped out after a long weekend promoting the show! Ape was particularly tired.

West Coast Haunters Convention

Here are a few more pics from WCHC. If any of you have some, please contact me so I can post them.

Night one, I had the privilege of meeting up with the Davises for Thirsty Thursday. They took me to a neat little wine bar across from Dark Horse Comics, where I took this pic.

The Hauntcast booth, our little cave and home away from home.

Chris Davis and lovely minion (whose name temporarily escapes me, because I can barely remember my own name... Chris-help a girl out, would ya?),  Elyssa. (Thanks, Guy!)

Bloodshed Brother Zack kicks it in his old-school Hauntcast shirt. It was great to hang with both Zack and Jeromy. Keep an eye on these two guys, everyone. There will be great things coming from them in future years. Just you watch!

Davis minion and all-around great guy Daniel, doing the catwalk!

Hauntcast art director and winner of the Vanguard award for the Resurrection of Rose, Guy/House Bloodthorn, trying on his inscrutable look. Good luck with that, Guy. Great prop he made in the background, huh? Big thanks to him for all the help he was and schlepping his reaper into the show!

More pics tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Freddy and Jason Dance Off

While waiting around for a seminar to be finished at the West Coast Haunters Convention so some folks would come to the vendor floor, I whipped out my iPod.

It was Sunday. We were tired and hung over, but damn it! We were Haunters, most of all! I put the young cutie next to us up to talking Freddy and Jason into a dance-off. To Abba's Dancing Queen. This isn't the full video. I'll post that one later.

Because It's Funny. That's Why!

Will start posting pics and vid of WCHC shortly, but in the meanwhile, go here to educate yourself about the terrible plight of Ronald Mc Donald.

Lordy, Lordy!

Lord Vader and Lord Ape met up at the West Coast Haunt Convention.

After sharing his plans for world domination with Lord Vader, Christmas Ape decided he was exhausted and needed a snuggle.

Later, when he was recovered, he hung around with me and the Bloodshed Brothers at the Hauntcast booth.

More pics tomorrow!

I'm Here! West Coast Haunters Edition

After a long but lovely drive from my house to Oregon, I am here in the home of the new West Coast Haunters Convention, and I am flippin' excited!

I got to meet the gracious and very cool Chris and Jeff Davis last night. We shared a couple of glasses of wine and talked some shop and overall had a great time. Today promises to be more of the same, only I get to meet Guy from House Bloodthorn and possibly some of the haunters we've all been looking up to for a long time. I can't wait!

I hope to do some posting this weekend, but don't hold your breath! It's going to be busy all weekend!

Good News, Bad News

So the good news is that I have some new Raku pots out of the Tuesday firing. The bad news is that some of them cracked and a couple need some repair. The good news for people going to West Coast Haunt Convention, is that I'll be selling them there as seconds, at a discount, with full disclosure. They still look cool, and I hear that damage that happens during the process of making art makes it more valuable. But what do I know?

Come out and see them, and me, and Guy from House Bloodthorn starting on Friday. Be there or be square!

Season's Greetings, or: In the (Convention) Mood

Why, because I haven't seen this in far too long!

Datamancer's Matryshka Muertos

I ran across this the other day. It looks like a fun project to do.

Datamancer's Misc. Art page here. Matryshka Muertos are around the middle of the page.

Countdowns

As I published a comment this morning (Thanks, Jay. Wouldn't that be a great thing?), I noticed the countdown widget on the right side of my blog.

I didn't really see the thing as a whole, just the seconds ticking down: 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

It gave me a bit of a start to see those seconds trickling away. While the countdown is for Halloween (which I have not even started building for, bad me!), in a very visceral way I felt certain events drawing nearer and, of course, my Lifetimer running just a little lower.

Image Source.

Don't get me wrong. To my knowledge, I'm not dying of a dread disease (unless you include life, in general, in the dread disease category), and I don't do high-risk things like skydiving or driving in Los Angeles. I'm not depressive or suicidal (except for my predilection for optimism beyond the bounds of reality).

No. I just had a moment when I realized that regardless of what I'm thinking about doing, my time to do it is very definitely finite, and I'd better get on with doing it! Regardless of what it is. (Visiting my hundred-year-old Grandma is at the top of the list.) Thinking about it does not get it done. The Countdown continues, in spite of all.

Of course, that's when nasty old reality steps in. There are only so many hours in the day, and sooner or later, sleep needs to be a part of that day. There are demands on my time: husband, dogs, family, friends, new business (and all the licenses I need to get). I'm starting to teach at the end of the month, so there will be a bit of shuffling around of the schedule to accommodate this new thing.

I know I'm not telling you anything you don't already experience on a daily basis. Everyone is overextended, and has more on their "to-do" list than can ever get done.

I'm just thinking about my Countdown.

Wow!

I have to say, I'm quite overwhelmed! I've had my work posted by Halloween Greats Pumpkinrot and The Frog Queen in the same week!

Above is the Raku pot Rot bought from me, made within the last month and finished only last Friday with the Raku glaze and firing. Below, you see two of my earlier forays into pottery. I can't believe how much my style has changed since then, and it was only a year ago! I love how she set this shot up with the frog I gave her on a pumpkin I made. Frog on the Pumpkin. Get it? Har!

In any case, my humble thanks to both the Frog Queen and Rot for featuring my work on their blogs and recommending that all of you immediately spend every dime of your next paycheck in my Etsy store.

O.k. They didn't actually say that. But you could still go with the spirit of the thing...

Treasure Found!

I was going through my email-box and found a notice that there was a dvd collection available from John Carpenter, and I thought I'd share.

It includes classic Carpenter flicks The Thing, Prince of Darkness, They Live, and Village of the Damned.

Of course, I ordered it immediately, 'cause it's cheap! Can't wait for it to arrive!

Just in Case...

Not that any of my readers are sinners, or anything like that, but for those who may know one, I have something for you!

Here's the product description:

Burn away your sins with our set of seven deadly sins scented candles.

Got that morning after the night before feeling? Woken up not just on the wrong side of bed, but in the wrong bed altogether and in the wrong part of town? We all know that life is full of its little sins, not all of which are worthy of a visit to the confessional box or sharing with Ricky Lake.

So for each of life’s naughty sins, we have created a candle. Simply light each one after each little sin, and feel assured that the process of absolution is well under way.

Whew! I was worried for folks who are sinners. Now all you have to do is wash with this soap or burn a candle, and you're all good. Available soon...

Candles. Soap.

A Few More Jackos

I've added a few more pumpkins to the shop! Click on the Etsy widget to see!

West Coast Haunters Convention

It's official: I'm headed to the West Coast Haunters Convention May 21-23 with Hauntcast. I owe a big thanks to Mr. ShellHawk for graciously allowing me to make an appearance so soon after the last convention. What a guy!

I'm very excited to have the chance to meet friends of the show Chris and Jeff Davis and Leonard Pickel. I'll be joined by honorary Hauntcast member, House Bloodthorn, who has been kind enough to work with us on our website redesign. (Har!) He will be helping me out at the Hauntcast booth, so be sure to stop by, say hello, and congratulate him on winning the Haunter's Video Vanguard Award for The Resurrection of Rose.

I'd like to encourage everyone on this end of the world to make an effort to come to support this new convention so it returns for many years to come! There will be many haunt legends among the teaching staff, so it's worth it to come out and gain some knowledge from their years of experience.

In the Shop

Pumpkin love has hit the shop. Click on the Etsy badge to go to the latest shop listings. I just finished a Raku firing on Friday, so there are some Raku Jackos available.

Haunter's Clothesline

I did laundry today and noticed a certain similarity in clothing, both human and dog...

Artist Clayton Bailey

The other day, I received an email from some clay friends of mine that artist Clayton Bailey would be giving a lecture on his work at a nearby college. While I hadn't heard of Mr. Bailey, I was up for hearing anyone discuss ceramics and their techniques. My friends and I went to the lecture last night.

I don't know if any of you are familiar with his work or his style, but to call this a "lecture" would be putting the visit we all had with Bailey into the wrong perspective. While he discussed his inspirations and touched on his techniques and history, his style of discussion leaned more towards chatting with friends and sharing some of his favorite jokes while he was at it. We had a blast!

Bailey is a whimsical guy. Some of his work is kinetic and some is wired so it can be lit from within, and some of those techniques can certainly be seen in some Haunters' yards. I asked him where he got the "tinkerer" gene, and he said from his dad, who restored cars while Bailey was growing up.

He has a bit of a dark side, though he expresses it in a more comic than sinister manner. For instance, his piece, "The Revival of Uranium Man," shows an orange critter on the laboratory table, awaiting a jolt of electricity from the electrodes attached to his head.

As Haunters, the Mad Doctors' Laboratory has a certain pull.

Bailey told us this was a self-portrait of himself and collaborative artist Peter Saul. Everything you see is ceramic.

The Murder Victim is another dark project.

Bailey is quite well known for both his fully functional pop guns which he glazes with luster glaze.

Haunters can appreciate his robot series, which came to life through numerous trips to local junkyards.

There's a bunch more stuff about Clayton Bailey to see, as he's been making art for 50 years. (The Bigfoot Skeleton is da bomb, and be sure to visit the Wonders of the World Museum!) I really wish he were still teaching, as a teacher like that would be fantastic to learn from...

Roadtrip America article here. Clayton Bailey's website here.

I Won! I WON! IWONIWONIWON! HEHEHEHEHE! Part 2

You may remember that I won the Skull-a-Day Iron Fist Giveaway, possibly because the random number generator recognized my inherent coolness. Yesterday, as I was throwing some new pumpkin pots, the UPS guy showed up with my winnings.

Happy dance!

Here's what arrived: one pair of shoes, two t-shirts, and a bathing suit. Now, when Noah contacted me about the bikini, I expressed concerns about my age and the viability of a two-piece bathing suit for someone of my vintage years. (Seriously, only my husband gets to see the slight martini paunch any more!) Apparently, he was kind enough to pass that on to the folks at Iron Fist, and they sent out a one-piece bathing suit. Yay for me!

From left to right: Robo Wishbone t-shirt, Man's Ruin swimsuit, 99 Dead Balloons t-shirt. Top: Mombassa Punk Platforms.

Since I'm a shoe whore, you get both pics of the shoes I am currently in love with.

I also got several very cool stickers, one of which Mr. ShellHawk all but snatched out of my hand and put on prominent display on the front of the hard hat he wears when doing surveys out in the field.

Again, big, sloppy kisses to both Skull-A-Day and Iron Fist for my winnings! I simply love them!

More NHC Pics

In case you haven't seen some of these elsewhere, I thought I'd include some pics here.

Our neighbors were the crew from Professor Nightmare, Inc., and were a bunch of very cool ghouls. They even helped me out with my new camcorder when I needed a little clue about what I was doing...

This delightful artist was an inspiration, too. I'll have to dig out her business card and post her name to give appropriate credit!

I really enjoyed The Gemini Company's booth. I got some brain-shaped lavender soap while I was shamelessly pimping Haunt Cast and my jack-o-lantern pots, and can't wait to use it.

They seemed open to doing an interview soon, so I'll have to jump on that. Very cool people, too!

There were a couple of booths that sold some pretty cool steampunk stuff. I really wish I had gotten more pics of the stuff!

I was disappointed that I had to leave this behind, since I already had enough stuff to take home on the plane. I'm pretty sure I can track these folks down online, though...

Of course, I got to hang with a couple of the boyz from Haunt Cast, and had a great time! Pictured above is the one and only Johnny Thunder, and if you were wondering, yes, he really does laugh like that!

G-Host Chris Baker, Johnny, and minion/roadie Denhaunt took great care of yours truly. Some of the fans that stopped by the booth were surprised that we hadn't me in person before the Convention, but it was true. Though I had tix for the haunt tour, I blew it off to spend the evening with the guys, since I don't get to spend time with them. What a blast!

Denhaunt did a truly impressive job of making Skully, our official Haunt Cast logo, come to life in toxic 3D. Great job, Denny Darling!

Who wouldn't want this book? It's actually a clever puppet-the mouth moves when you stick your hand in. Very well made by Rotten Jack's Creep Shop.

I was very impressed by the time and effort that some folks put into their makeup effects. Top notch job, All!

That's it for now. More soon!