Sawtooth Jack

There are things living in this field that will, by rights, be dead by tomorrow morning. One of them hangs on a splintery pole, its roots burrowing deep in rich black soil. Green vines climb through tattered clothes nailed to the pole and its crosspiece. They twist through the legs of the worn jeans like tendons, twine like a cripple's spine through a tattered denim jacket. Rounded leaves take succor from those vines like organs fed by blood vessels, and from the hearts of those leaves green tendrils sprout and the leaves and the vines and the tendrils fill up that coat and the arms that come with it.
A thicker vine creeps through the neck of that jacket, following that last few inches of splintery pole like a backbone, widening into a rough stem that roots in the thing balanced on the pole's flat crown.
That thing is heavy, and orange, and ripe.
That thing is a pumpkin.

 Text from Norman Partridge's book, Dark Harvest.

Image from Spooky Blue. Make your own pumpkin-headed scarecrow here.

Dapper

Via My Rant blog.

Goddess 'Crow

Image via Mount Pisgah Arboretum Facebook page.

Spectral

Image via Ruth's Coastal Walk (UK).

The Scarecrow Bash

I was browsing around for scarecrow images to share, and ran across this article about the Scarecrow Bash. The author seems very nostalgic of the idea of the village and the sense of community it once had, and I think those of us in the States-at least those in the larger cities-can sympathize with his feelings, though we have likely never lived in anything as small as a village.

My own town boasts between 60,000 and 70,000 people, a big change from L.A. County's 9,848,011. We have more of a sense of community here. At last, Folsom has a FallFest, complete with a pumpkin carving contest. I'm hoping to talk someone into doing a food drive like this one here in town, to encourage Halloween decorating and help the food bank just before the holidays. Let's face it, though, it's all about getting people to decorate, because Spider Rider and I just can't represent the Hallowe'en Spirit all by ourselves!

Seeing 'Crows



Image by Diana Price



Image by Purple Monkey Feet



Image by allhallowsghost



Image by SGade





Etsy Addition

I've added Pumpkin Head to the ShellHawk's Creations Etsy store, and there will be more of his buddies joining him later today!

Enjoy!

Rot's Crows Redux

Strublay was kind enough to send be the URLs for a couple of Pumpkinrot's works that were made into Demotivational posters. Thank you, Strublay!

'Crows

Source.

Source.

Source.

Source.

Making Stewie, Part 2

Yesterday, I began part one of how Stewie got built. I gave credit to Spookyblue for the design, and I want to mention today that he was very patient about my e-mailing with questions. Thanks, again, Spook!

On the left is a pic of the beginnings of Stewie's hatch. I stuck some foil over the hole I cut in his head and began the first of many layers of shop towels and glue to create the flap that would cover it. My first layer was just Elmer's glue (bought at Lowe's in a big jug) and water, and from there on it was shop towels and carpet glue.

At this point, Stewie had been papier mached with newspaper strips and a mix of Elmer's glue and water. I had added his ridges and bumps, some vein/vines on his chest, and a wicked grin. Now for the next step: carpet glue and shop towels.
For those of you unfamiliar with "corpsing" techniques, SpookyBlue has a great tutorial here. I want to stress how important it is for you to tear all the sharp edges off your shop towels before you use them for this. I spent an hour or so just tearing edges and creating different-sized strips before I even opened up my carpet glue. I also bought several boxes of latex exam gloves to protect myself from the sticky carpet glue.
I laid down two layers of carpet glue and shop towels, taking a toothpick to the tinier areas around the corners of his eyes and mouth to poke the shop towel around the edges. I seem to remember a lot of cursing and grumbling while I was going through this phase, as the carpet glue really does stick to everything. I went through a lot of gloves because eventually, the glue would start drying on the gloves and creating strings that would stick my fingers together. It was also the week we had 100+ degree weather, and I'm pretty certain that had an effect on the drying time of the glue.
After each layer of carpet glue and shop towel, I took a 2" chip brush (known in the industry as, "cheap brush") and painted a thin layer of carpet glue over Stewie's entire form. This is an important step, as it will prevent the texture of the shop towels from messing up your paint job (and cover up the "made" look, as opposed to creating the illusion of "grown in Hell's pumpkin patch") later on. I love chip brushes. They're perfect for this task, because once they get too gummed up, you toss them.
Once I finished that, it was time to add the stalk. I really wanted it to look very "root-y," and I needed to add some counter weight to Stewie's forward lean. I made the main stalk out of chicken wire, and after some thought, added a second chicken wire stalk down his back as a counter weight. After that, I added rolled-up newspaper wrapped in duct tape, and taped rolled-up paper towels wrapped in duct tape to the ends of those, so I had a gradual reduction in the thickness of his roots.
I added arms, made out of PVC and screwed to his shoulders. For "muscles," more newspaper. I was starting to run out of time, so after I made the hands and got them screwed on, I added several different sizes of plastic tubing to create more vine-like details on his arms. All these details got the shop towel/carpet glue treatment again. And once again, two layers, with a brushing of carpet glue in between layers.
The hands took a while to make. My husband suggested really long, root-y fingers. I had started the pumpkin patch in the front yard (alas, too late for the pumpkins to be ripe in time for Halloween) and thought this would be a great way to tie him in to the suggestion that he had grown there. Wrapping each separate finger took forever, and my fingers were sore from the duct tape attempting to yank my skin off and from wrapping each finger so tightly.
After that, it was all in the paint job.
I used exterior house paint, getting a couple of gallons of "oops," or mis-mixed paint at Lowe's and OSH in different colors for my primer and my first sponged-on layer of green. Unfortunately, nobody had the decency to make mistakes in the shades of orange I needed for my final two layers, so I had to go to Home Depot and get two quarts mixed of two different shades of orange. I chose a darker orange for my first orange layer, and then an orange several shades lighter to dry brush the highlights in. I also added a little glow in the dark paint, though it didn't show up all that well. After all that dried for a couple days, I added two layers of clear waterproofing sealant, some black feathers in his mouth to suggest he eats his crows instead of scaring them, and the terror of the pumpkin patch was done!

Making Stewie, Part 1

Some folks wanted to get a clearer picture of Stewie's creation, so I'll do a two-parter with what pics I took.


I want to give full credit to SpookyBlue, whose design I followed here. Spook has a far better tutorial than I will cover here. This will be something of a quick overview, complete with my beginner's mistakes.


I put on my thick gardening gloves and some eye protection and wrestled the chicken wire head into a roughly spherical shape. As I said before, there were a few spots in Stewie's build where I didn't quite follow the directions exactly, and this was the start. Stewie's head wound up more football-shaped than round, hence the name Stewie. Oh, well. As I said in a previous entry, I'll fix it in post. I took a few feet of 3/4" PVC pipe, drilled a hole through the pipe towards the top (leaving space to attach a stalk later) and one farther down the pipe so I could wire the chicken wire "sphere," now reinforced with duct tape, to the pipe. If I had realized at the time that I was building Stewie larger from the start, I would have chosen a thicker pipe to support the weight. I did mention SpookyBlue's tutorial was better than this one, right? We also wired a light socket with an orange fluorescent light bulb I had picked up at Walgreen's into his head for an evil flaming effect later.

At this point I rolled up more chicken wire into tubes to form breastbone and ribs, drilling holes along the pipe to run wire in order to secure the ribcage, etc. My husband came up with the great idea of taking heavy-duty cable ties rather than wire to add stability. Worked a treat! I then stuffed the ribs with newspaper and wrapped the whole lot with duct tape.

This was truly where I mixed up Spook's instructions and made the ribs way too large. In addition, the way I placed Stewie's head on the pipe (looking for a relatively good spot for his face later on), and placed his ribs created forward-heaviness as the project went on and I added more elements. If I had thought about it, I would have wrapped the ribs more towards his back.

Up to this point, Stewie had been small enough to be supported by a clamp on my workbench. Now I needed to be able to move around him as I started his layers of papier mache. I asked for my husband's input on the issue, and he came up with the idea for a bucket with a post set in cement. I got 1" PVC with the idea of sliding the 3/4" inside, but had to go back to Lowe's and get a coupler to make it work. I added wheels to the bottom before the concrete was poured, so I could move it around easier by myself.

Later, as Stewie's rapid weight gain put him in danger of face-planting almost daily, we got a galvanized tub, a 1 1/2" galvanized pipe, and a 50lb bag of concrete. The tub spread the weight out nicely and gave him a more stable platform.

I was ready to start the first layer of papier mache. For people who just want to knock out a prop fast, this is not for you. This takes time and patience, and if you focus on what you're doing, you can achieve a sort of relaxing, Zen-like state. This 

was around the time I bought a cheap stereo system from Big Lots and brought my laptop out in the garage with me to act as MP3 player and reference to SpookyBlue's site. It made the 90+ degree weather more bearable.

After I applied three layers of newspaper strips to Stewie's head and body, I cut out his eyes and mouth, going for a really big, evil, toothy grin. Then I started with real papier mache. This is an art form, and since it was my first time, there was a learning curve involved. I soon got the hang of it, doing my best to keep the mixture on the dry side. It took me a couple of days to work out where I wanted ridges and the details for his teeth, but once I had a clear picture in my head, it was pretty easy. I also used rolled-up newspaper to form ridges and duct-taped them to Stewie's head.

I made sure to cut an access hatch in the back of his head so I could change the light bulb when needed. I also made sure to continue the ridges and details I had started on the front to the back, so that he'd look finished on all sides.


More tomorrow!

Halloween Recovery

Halloween has been known as the Pagan New Year, the Final Harvest, the time when the fields, at last, will lay fallow, awaiting the plow and the planting of next year's crops. I begin my New Year with my first foray into blogging, and with great hopes of pleasant surprises, love, and new creative endeavors falling on rich, ripe soil.
Halloween came and went, leaving me with that post-wedding planning feeling. You know you didn't get everything done you wanted to, and if you're smart, you also know that you're the only one who knew you didn't get that last flower perfectly displayed. In my case, it was my "monster eye" from Dave Lowe's blog in October. It got finished Halloween day and never made it into my front window. Oh, well. Unlike (you would hope) weddings, I can make another run at it next year.
Here's a few shots of the house and "Stewie," my scarecrow from Spookyblue's website. He's got a few other projects on my list for next year, too.

We had hoped for the same gorgeous weather we had last year, but got rain and wind instead. Good turnout for our party, though there weren't many TOTs. What was fun, was the older kids sending other kids our way to see our yard display. I took a couple of pictures for a group of kids on our lawn, Stewie looming over them in the background. I hope the shot turned out o.k.
I put out both my fog machines in spite of the weather (I bought 'em, dang it, I'm gonna USE them!), and the lightning machine worked beautifully. I stuck a 4th quality Bucky skeleton in my 1969 Dodge Dart and parked them in the driveway with a battery-powered led flashing blob (thanks again to Spookyblue). Everyone loved it, though I was thin on props and didn't even get to carving pumpkins!
I have great dreams for Halloween 2009. Maybe a Headless Horseman, and absolutely a graveyard. And more New Year's resolutions.