Painting & Updates

So how are you surviving the Earth's sudden descent into the sun? I've sold off all my bones and live in an ice cream bucket myself.

But before that I did manage to make a new painting, a tree one no less.

It's for sale in the usual place, mostly because I'm too lazy to give up fully on Etsy.

I also listed my old mantle paintings which has been replaced by new ones.

I've also started work on the All Hallows Read posters, if anyone reading this is champing at the bit, I have the previews below. They need some cleaning and what not to do. I am never happy about fonts.

And that's what's been eating up my time before I became a puddle.

Dribbley Candles

This weekend I decided it was close enough to fall I could break out the Halloween mantle and my little wizarding end table. It had a skull, a couple spiders, a dragon's claw, and a mummy hand, but something was missing.

Luckily, I had an excess of 2 inch PVC pipe, and piles of glue sticks.

Time to make my own dribbly wizard candle.

This is incredibly easy. 1 start with PVC pipe, at least 2 inches or wider to hold the tealight. Cut it to whatever height you want your candle to be.

Cut out a small foam section to place inside your candle and hot glue that inside to hold said tealight. Put it low enough that only part of the light is viewable to keep it looking more realistic.

Now lay out a section of wax paper and put your pipe on top.

Using one of the better and bigger hot glue guns, dribble streams of glue starting at the top and slowly piping lines as low as you want. You can even add pools of glue at the bottom.

Go back over the top a few more times to create layers of dripping wax.

Let that dry and harden, then go through the annoying task of picking off strings. This will make you question humanities place in the cosmos, that's normal.

Now spray paint your candle white.

If you wanted a pristine looking candle, you're done. Good for you. But if you want an older looking one, break out the brown acrylic paint, some yellow and your brushes.

Using water and layers, add brown to the edges then wipe it away with a paper towel. This will take some playing to get it down to the look you want, don't be afraid to screw up. You can always paint it over again.

Once your happy, just pop in a tea light and boom, instant wizard scenery.

Now you are no longer a slave to Big Wax. Don't forget the stuffed crocodile.

Dwarves in Space

Here's a little preview of a scene from my current novel where I put typical fantasy trappings in space so I could really mess with them.

Skull in the Garden

Thanks to the ever encroaching hand of Christmas, if you want to get any good stuff for Halloween you have a narrow two week window. For most places this is the first two weekends after Labor Day, after that, all the good stuff's gone and you're left staring at a pair of plastic wings and a half warped Homer Simpson mask.

Point being, if you take this stuff seriously, you should have started haunting around this past Saturday. Which is exactly what I did.

At Michaels I found a very heavy good sized plaster skull and hand. They had a display hinting at using the skull for Dia de los Muertos, but thanks to it's weight I had a different idea what to do with my skull; Garden Decor!

First thing I did was put down a heavy layer of white spray paint, mostly to stop the plaster leaching and to give me a nice flat canvas.

Then I sponged on a slightly yellow-tan color and shadowed some of the lines/eyesockets etc. All in all it took me around 2-3 hours as my husband finished up Bioshock Infinite so we could finally talk about SPOILERS.

To protect the skull from the elements I put on a heavy coat of clear acrylic, which I also doused my little outside gargoyle in as well. I have a gloss coat, but you can get matte or go heavy acrylic coat then matte after, but I sort of liked the skull super shiny.

The hand was a bit easier, much of the same painting lines with a darker brown then sponging with the lighter tan shade.

For a final touch I went digging in my old box of lights and stuff what I got on sale because you never know and stuffed a set of orange lights into the skull's hollow head. These are on a timer, so I don't have to fumble every night flipping them on and off.

Hi new neighbors. We're pretty much the Addam's family without the cool butler or unexplainable wealth.

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