Great to be Back!

After months of hard work and stressing out about having enough at the show to sell, Midsummer Scream finally arrived! 

Everything got loaded in and set up, and let me tell you, the work Dave Lowe did to make my new booth design happen really set the tone for the whole weekend! Everyone loved it! 

My pumpkin people were a hit, with five of seven finding new homes! 

The little guy at the top, above, was the first to go!

I made a few new things, too. Skeleton wind chimes, witch bells, and new designs for some nice coffee mugs!

As you know, I've been playing with new colors for my jack-o'-lanterns.

All the bowls sold, too! But one sale, in particular, made my day!

Me, Bob Gurr, and friend/booth goddess, Sherri Miranda

Original Imagineer and Doom Buggy Creator, Bob Gurr, came by my booth specifically to tell me he thought my work and my booth were the best at the convention! I swear, I could have died happy at that very moment. I gave him one of my haunted house mugs, and he came back a little later to buy one of the jack-o'-lanterns which had caught his eye earlier!

I am still just floating! (We all float around Bob!) What a great show and what a great time we had!

Now, onwards to make for my Open House!

Haunted Mansion News

Via Creepy Cupcakes. Thanks for the heads-up, Carrie Mae!

Haunted Mansion

One of the things I've been fascinated with is the idea that in order to create one effect, you often have to create it in layers. A perfect example of this is the Haunted Mansion singing busts. Thurl Ravenscroft (a.k.a. Tony the Tiger) was one of Disney's go-to voice actors, and his is one of the voices on the Haunted Mansion ride. The song is done with three actors, video taped at the same time. Their facial expressions are wonderful, and looked fabulous on the final busts... Here's Thurl, who we'll call actor #1:

And actor #2:

And actor #3:

Here's the result with everyone singing their parts:

I think the technical term is "composite," but don't quote me. Isn't composite work part and parcel of what we do as haunters?

For those of you who love the Haunted Mansion, a little of "how they done it." Part one:

Part two:

Coming from a visual effects family, I love seeing the background and development of these marvelous ideas that became the basis for so much inspiration. It's neat to see the sculptures behind the "imagineers," and know they were a step towards such a creative and enduring endeavor. I am so inspired, every time I see this kind of behind the scenes work. It makes me excited to fire up my kiln, really soon...

Hurry back!