Swamp Foetus

You can find the man of Rot and his darling of a wife, Bean at the following locations:

PumpkinRot Website

PumpkinRot Blog

Pumpkin Hollow on Etsy

Halloween Theme Greeting cards by Rot

So I check my Facebook this morning and there is a post from Melissa McKnight about a rusting technique that has been posted over on HauntForum, which I have been sooooo neglecting due to all of my own goings ons. Yeah, I know…spank me later. Heck, spank me three times, I have also ignored HalloweenForum and Garage of Evil.
So back to rusting… I run on over to HauntForum to see exactly what the oxidizing iron is all about and lo’ and behold Jaybo (also known as Jayson from Nickols Manor) has written up a How-to on creating a realistic rusting technique. Seriously folks… you could make your Grandmother look like she was made from iron. Mine, rest her loving soul, would have switched me for even thinking the thought. ::: looks up ::: Love ya Grandma. You guys think they have switches in heaven? I can see it now… “So you like creepy tree’s huh little girl, lets go take a walk to find us a switch.”
Digressed… I’ll explain later. So the rusting technique that Jaybo has shown, has been done by others and is a combo of techniques really. Jaybo isn’t taking ownership of the technique, so slow your roll on thinking he is claiming it as his own… just showing us slow boaters how to do it when we need it. I would hug him for it but Dixie/Dawn would kick my butt. I have a girl crush on Dixie/Dawn… I think she is my good twin…me being the evil one of course. We have a love of the same things. She just doesn’t know how much… NO I don’t mean Jayson! Dang people! Whimsy Halloween stuff… ::: rolls eyes ::: The girl mentions spanking and that’s it for the rest of the post…

Digression… again… So this rusting technique… simple really and most of you may have the ingredients laying around the house…and in the kitchen!!! Can you imagine Oatmeal? Oatmeal! of all things is one of the adds to the mix for rusting. If you live in an area that your worried about varmints, eating what ever it is you have rusted, including nibbling on Grandma, then use Sawdust instead. Smaller, Oatmeal sized chunkies, down to the little stuff I would imagine would work better.
OHHH!! Read the comments from Jayson’s blog entry at Nickols Manor. One of the Davis Graveyarders piped in with suggestions on GreatStuff foam being used for rusting… I won’t say her name, ::: whispers CHRIS ::: mentions how they use it for rusting at the Graveyard.  They learned the technique from Bad Boys Scenic Design while at HauntCon last year. Chris mentions something about the using of GreatStuff foam and this being the only worth while thing to use GreatStuff Foam for… If any of you home haunters even attempt to stone her or Jeff… I will send my Grandmother after you!!! You don’t know the meaning of switching until a southern grandma has done it up right.

So if you have read this far… wow… you’re A.D.D. too!!! or… your just waiting for the pictures.
First let me summarize the links a bit. I think this is the most links I have put in one blog post.

Jaybo’s post on HauntForum – This link has total How-to
Jayson’s post on Nickols Manor – This link doesn’t have the Oatmeal addition

Now for pictures:

*** My grandmother was a wonderful southern lady and actually never switched me. My mom learned it from her though!! I only had to be switched once, to my knowledge, so she learned it right! ***

As for the long post… I’m home sick today nursing my shoulder. I have Thoracic Outlet syndrome, I have had it for many many years and somehow have pissed it off again. Basically your hand goes numb and it starts hurting from shoulder to hand. I get the tinglies in my fingers when it starts to wake up a bit and that’s when the pain starts.  Nutshell… makes for an angry girl that gets frustrated that I can’t do what I want to, when I want to, which includes painting the dang shelving unit I’m looking at in my living room that should be done and in the Skullery! Also makes it very difficult to sculpt anything cause my hand gets sore and hard to grasp stuff. Typing can be done if I sit the keyboard in my lap, along with the mouse, which at can’t seem to do at work. So…hence the home’ness today.

Now go rust something!!!

I remember Grim mentioned that he typically doesn’t like to create ‘classic monsters’ but luckily for us he decided to tackle the classic Frankenstein’s monster.

I can’t put my finger on what my favorite part of Franky’s parts are but I can say, his box is brilliant!

You have got to check out all of the progress pics of Frank. Clicking on the image below will take you to Franks final blog post, there are several blog posts on Frank so check those out once you jump over to Grim’s site.

I was going to add pigtails to her but until I figure out a way to make them not look so ‘cutesy’ I will leave her be. She warned me that if I made her too girlish, she would sit and stare at me when I’m sleeping.

I only had time to snap one photo of her so far…

Jump on over to the Grimvisions blog and check out how you can go about winning, while I try to figure out how to cover up my coveting the artistes monstrous creativity. ::: stomps off mumbling :::

In my hermitage lifestyle, I have soooo got to get out more, I have totally missed the fact that we have a newer Haunted House attraction here in Alaska. It isn’t in the same city as I am so that would be why I had missed it, and due to being cooped up with my own creations…creating.

I recently joined Facebook, in an attempt to network myself so that I can start selling on Etsy. What I didn’t expect was that it would connect me with locals. Frankly I had given up on their being any  local Halloween’heads and lovers of the spooky arts.  Well, by joining Facebook I found Michelle, owner of Gateway to Darkness.

The Gateway to Darkness opens October 2nd at 7pm, all times and dates can be found on their website. The admission is $12 and their locations is:
1241 W. Melanie Ave, Unit 4, Wasilla, Alaska 99654

With fingers crossed, mine that is, I’m hoping that we can connect other locals to the oh so wonderful world of spookiness and the Haunt. Alaskans spookites where are you? It’s ok to come out now… we won’t judge, unless you show up with a bloody cleaver with real blood… then we will have to run, run really fast.

Although they reported back to me that he tends to sleep odd hours and that he is in his workshop a lot. Which they also reported is a nice and cozy place with lots of creepy spooky things, they felt right at home.

Check out my winnings (the exact prize may look slightly different):

Mauly is covered in paper towel mache now, I still need to build her left arm, her right hand, add some rooty’ness to her base and then covered her with TP mache. I’ve already covered her foam pumpkin head with TP mache to give her some wrinkles.

More photos of Mauly and photos of Cucur can be found in the Gallery.

Here are a couple work in progress pics:

So the paint went: Black base coat, dark brown heavy dry brush, lighter brown dry brush, grey’ish dry brush (didn’t like that layer, had to much blue tint), Antique white light dry brush over grey. I’m not putting a sealant coat over the paint. I did seal the mache with Polyurethane so I’m not worried about him falling apart. Why am I not sealing him? I can’t find a sealant that is not shiny, even though it says ‘Flat’ or ‘Matte’ it always tends to be shiny.

Oh, and I attempted to use tissue paper on this guy, not toilet paper but the tissue paper that you use in gifts. It doesn’t absorb for nothing and is so slick it is hard to get a texture.

I’m posting all the pictures I’ve taken so far over in The Gallery, I need to get some night shots but since I live in Alaska and its not fully dark until about 10pm,  it’s a bit difficult.

He stands 5′ 6″ and will either stand with the wooden stand or can be slid over rebar.