ShellHawk's Nest: how to make tombstones

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Tombstone Workshop

The tombstone workshop went really well yesterday. I opened it up to the folks from CalHaunts, and The Garage of Doom was filled with people, flying foam, and the sounds of Dremels and palm sanders.

Because the complexity and lengths of the epitaphs varied so much from person to person, some folks left with completed tombstones, and some folks left with partially completed tombstones.

I approached the class assuming that most people didn't have Hot Wire Foam Factory tools (which I want desperately for my Great Pumpkin gift this year!), so I had people use X-Acto knives and Dremels (if they had a Dremel, that is) to carve their epitaphs. Believe me, I think most people wanted those foam cutters to make the job faster!

In the picture below, first-time-tombstone-creator, Kim, of the Kimberly Michelle crafting blog makes her own Haunted Mansion type tombstone. Direct quote: "I just copied it!" She said she'd blog about her tombstone make and take experience. I'm interested to see her pictures!

Below, my neighbor, also a first-timer, worked her tail off to get her tombstone done. Her epitaph was a bit longer, so she could only complete one of the two, but she was very pleased with her results and appreciative of how much time and effort it takes to make a good tombstone. As you can see, she took her lunch out into the garage to keep plowing through the epitaph-carving phase.

Robert and Stacy of Necrotic Creations were on hand to supply everyone with tombstone embellishments.

I hadn't actually planned to make a tombstone, but I realized that it would be better to demo for people to be able to see the technique done. I had this old white foam board insulation tombstone cut out from three years ago that I hadn't had time to finish, complete with epitaph already drawn on it, so I just carved the epitaph and went to town!