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All posts for the month October, 2016

So I splurged on a fog machine this year. A cheapie.  My memory of fog machines is: so loud you have to yell over them, and basically ineffective. That was many years ago.

Before I even plugged it in, I looked for ways to make a cheap chiller. I found this:

Yep, just frozen water bottles and dryer duct. But does it work?

Well, here’s my test version:

fog-chiller

I fit three bottles in there. If it works, I’ll paint the duct black. Here’s a before and after video:

Wow, does that ever work!  Also, this fogger is much quieter.

What I didn’t know is that it shuts off after about 30 seconds to cool down. That’s fine, it produces more than enough fog in a few seconds. I wish I had a timer for it, but I’ll just have to peek out the window and start it every once in a while.  I’ll have to make sure it has a dry box for outside, and that the transmitter is visible. Small challenge. I’ll figure it out.

I have also started gluing mausoleum walls. Woohoo!

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Sorry about the earworm. Okay, not really.

I used to fuss and measure and measure and fuss over tombstones.  These days, I just draw half of it, cut it out carefully, and use the cutout to make the other half. Easy-peasy. Just had to even up the sides a bit.

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I am wobbly with a wire knife. I tried the mini wire knife table I have, but didn’t do much better. Is okay, looks good after sanding.

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ALWAYS USE A RESPIRATOR WHEN SANDING. For pretty much anything.

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Because there’s a gouge through the other side, I thought I’d use the printed side for the front. A little white paint will lessen the confustion from the printing…maybe.  Now I’m thinking I may use that gouge as a crack.

After this, I went to print a lettering stencil on my Cameo, and discovered I didn’t pack the cables with the machine. Very weird for me, but oh well. No idea where they are, so I’m overnighting replacements. They’ll probably get here late, so tomorrow I’ll occupy myself with cutting the rest of the stones, and maybe getting foam for a small mausoleum.

scrim-test

So, in our adventures yesterday, we ruined something that worked really well, and discovered there were no other options in the house. Today I went adventuring at G Street Fabrics with a flashlight. For those who didn’t follow the link yesterday, you use the flashlight to see how well your projected image will show up. You want something dense enough to keep the edges of the light beam sharp, yet thin enough to be virtually transparent. I found a rayon/nylon blend that fit the bill well. Because I have a couple yards of it, I have more size flexibility, too.

The idea here is to light things behind her, to increase depth and highlight the floating effect.  I think she’s lovely. Now I have to build something for her. Maybe I’ll do a small mausoleum?  Yeah, because I can knock that out in a day. Ahem.

This is Ray. He adopted us.

This is Ray. He adopted us.

Not really. That’s just my way of saying it was a mostly good day.

The good: went to Home Depot for more birthday shopping (yesterday was a big wardrobe spree) to get some lighting. Along the way I picked up a fogger. I know, I may regret it, but I thought I’d give it a shot again, after many years without. I also got a Projector Kit for a surprisingly reasonable price. I was glad it had a USB hookup as well as the included SD card, because I figured the stuff with the projector would be kitschy and awful. Well, no. The videos were done by AtmosFX, and they do some lovely work. The “Beckoning Beauty,” which is a ghost bride, is so scary I wouldn’t play it for youngsters. So naturally, I’ve been using it as my testing video.

Thing is, I had a hard time getting anything done today. This is why:

My studio.

My studio.

More horrible mess.

More horrible mess.

Workshop isn't so bad

Workshop isn’t so bad

I can’t even find my scissors, so I’ve been carrying the one pair we have up and down the stairs.  Oh, and there are more studio boxes in the garage.

I want to back-project on to mesh, but I don’t have anything suitable. It was working really well on some thin plexiglass, but there were flaws, so I noticed there was still protective plastic on it, and that’s where the flaws were. So I removed it. You know what happened, don’t you? It’s the protective film that was picking up the projection.  So now the plastic is all clean…and useless. The screen mesh I have doesn’t work well, so I guess I’m heading to the fabric store tomorrow with a flashlight, to see what will work.

Having struck out there, I tried to find my hot wire knives to get started on a tombstone. Nopers.

So yay on acquisitions, nay on getting any work done. Tomorrow the Spousal Unit leaves early in the morning for a short business trip, so I’m gonna bury myself in the studio and see if I can churn something out.

PS: Another thing that happened during the hiatus: we lost our beloved KC, our kitty companion of 21 years. We didn’t plan on getting another cat. I’m allergic, and cats can be a pain in the ass. Well, on the last day we were in the hotel before we moved to our house, on literally the last trip in to get our stuff, I spotted a kitty on the grounds. He was a teen, starved, and came right to us. We took him to the vet to check for a chip, we registered on all the databases, we did everything we could to find his people, because he was obviously someone’s pet. But no people appeared. Except for us, I guess. Ray is an awesome cat, and as you can see from the picture, he’s filled out nicely. And yes, he’s totally a pain in the ass, but we love him.

 

ghostie

Not all store-bought props are bad. In fact, I quite like a lot of them. I’m only buying a few things this year, but this ghost from Target had to be one of them. All by herself, she’s pretty cool. She has a fire/ice lighting effect, and makes good sounds. And this from someone who usually hates sound in Halloween props.

Of course, she needed a little help.

First off, she only had two settings: OFF or SENSOR. That means she could only turn on via the motion sensor.  I looked up how to bypass the sensor, and the posts were all ‘solder this,’ and ‘short-circuit that.’  I went for something a little simpler. Since I knew she’d be in motion all the time, I found her sensor, and hung a little piece of balsa in front of it.

sensor-hack

It has enough play that it moves with her, and activates the sensor on a regular basis. Usually 10 seconds or less.

Why is she moving? The owner of the place we’re renting left an oscillating fan for us. I stopped the oscillation, and tipped the fan on to the floor.  I just had to shorten some of her shroud so it would pick up the air better.

Add a blacklight, and it’s happy prop time!

The light effect doesn’t show up well on video, but trust me, she’s lovely. I may put her in a downstairs window to take advantage of her sound effects.

md-house-sep

The canvas. Look at those dormers! And those trees!

Usually, this place is a lot busier, starting in August. Yes, I did say I was taking a break, but I didn’t mean for it to be this long. What happened?  Maryland happened. The Spousal Unit got a new job in Maryland, so August found us packing like maniacs, getting movers, and driving up.  Then we had to find a house, move in…well, you get the idea.  We’re still not entirely unpacked, and my studio is a disorganized wreck.

When the annual email from the Countdown to Halloween arrived, it seemed like a good excuse to get back in the saddle, organized or not.

I’m probably not going to make any elaborate stuff to give away this year. My plan is to bring all of you along as I decorate the house. It’s a largish colonial in the ‘burbs. We may even get trick-or-treaters this year! I don’t expect many, but not many is better than none!  The local Home Depot carries the foam I use for tombstones–I could never find it in Florida. I’ll be pulling out all the stuff that kinda sat last year, and doing the house up in style, inside and out.

The owner of the house (we’re renting) left some things I may put to use, like a fan and a couple of turntables. So many ideas!