Chivalry is Undead Series by Kira Shaimanova.

Hi Frightners!

Hope you guys like this post because I know I do! I've come to find that while writing this blog I am always keeping my eye out for cool and interesting content to post about other than my own haunt related stories but sometime it is hard to keep everything in the haunt/halloween/horror genre but I do find those gems sometimes like today!

Today I was reading the latest issue of CMYK MAG and they are presenting 100 works from some of today's most talented and emerging artists and to my delight I came across Kira Shaimanova. I was so impressed with her series "Chivarly is Undead" that I had to write about it on the blog.

Sculpted out of Clay, her "undead" characters are both disturbing and sweet at the same time. Each photo shows a zombie interacting with a human or animal. The scenes are fun and well set up and I think it is just amazing how much detail and life she brings to each of these little vignettes.

If you love these pictures and want to learn more about the Kira's process behind making her characters and shooting the photos than please mosey on over to her BLOG. She explains everything and seeing the creative process of any artist is always a real treat.

Enjoy the pics, get inspired and stay Frighful Frightners!

The Works of Thomas Ott

At least once a week I head up the block to my favorite comic shop to take a peek at what's out and what's new. There are a few main stream comics that I love to follow but I do like to take a peek at the Indie section and I am always looking at the art books to find inspiration.

Today I found the awesome works of Thomas Ott and I instantly became a fan. Thomas Ott is from Zurich Germany and he draws wordless scratchboard comics which in my opinion are pretty awesome. He most always uses silent cinema as a motif and his plot twists will delight fans of classic horror and will haunt you long after you've put the book down.

I invite you to go to his WEBSITE and take a look at his art (it's in German so you will need to use bablefish.) Also he has a FACEBOOK fan page that you can stroll on over to and see more of his work.

If your interested in buying any of his books you can at FANTAGRAPHICS I suggest R.I.P Best of 1985-2004 which I have pictured below. It's one of my newest favorites!

You never know when you will find a good suspense/horror story that will get those gears in your mind turning but today I found a whole book of them by Thomas Ott. I hope you will check them out and if you do please let me know what you think. There is some good stuff in there and for all you Halloween and Haunt fanatics I am sure you will both enjoy these stories and find some inspiration in them.

Grave Grabber Prop Build.

Hey Frightners!

Well yesterday I went to my NJ/PA Make and Take groups build for a one armed grave grabber. It was a great build and fun prop to make. It was my first prop using a motor and it was a great learning experience. These deer motors that we used for the props are great little motors. They are very durable, weather proofed and inexpensive which make them great for use in a number of props.

If you have a make and take group and are looking for a new build to do or even if you yourself are looking for a new prop to build I do suggest this one.  If you have all the material (listed below) tools and knowhow this could easily take you no more than 5 hours to build. I had a lot of help by some very handy and talented people but if you have some skill you can surely do one of these in less than half a day.

I will post a parts list below if your interested and I hope you enjoy the video. Once this guy is fully detailed I will do another video so you can see but for now this is what he looks like fully working in his bare bones!



Grave Grabber Parts List:
1 Piece of scrap 2” X 8 ” wood at least 12” long -Base
1 Piece of scrap 2” X 4 wood at least 7” long -Arm Slider
1 Piece of 3/16” X 3’ round Steel rod (Lowes or HD) -Skull support, Skull Prongs, Pivot, Stop.
1 piece of Aluminum Flat 1/8” X ¾” X 4” long (8’ Makes 23 pcs) -Linkage 
1 Piece of Aluminum Flat 1/8” X ½” X 16” long (4’ makes 3 pcs) -Grabber arm
1 Piece of ½” “CPVC” at least 12” long (10’ makes 10 pcs ) -Grabber arm
1 White Bic Pen -Arm Guides
1 Foam Skull (Group Buy if Necessary? Most of us have one already) -Scaryness
1 Section of Pipe insulation 1” X 12”-14” (6’ length makes 6 pcs) -Shoulder
1-Roll Duct Tape (Most of us have it already, (Have?-Share?) -Fingers/hand
1 5' section of Heavy ceiling wire -Fabric Guards
1 Pkg Cotton balls (Only need a few, Most of us have already, share?) -Hand texture
1 Small tub Latex BlackCat has some -Hand texture
1 Can Black spray Paint (1 can probably paint 10 Grabbers. Buy Share?) -Camouflage
1 paint for your hands (personal preference, White, Grey, black, red? -Finish touch
1 Burlap, Netting, or whatever you want to dress her in (Jeff said he has a TON of burlap) -Finish touch
15- #10 Washers @ 4 cents each -Various applications
1- 5/16” Washer @ 5 cents -Motor arm Linkage
4 Thumbtacks or short roofing nails ` - Fabric Attach
1 ¼” nut -Extra Spacer for Pivot arm height
Parts List Continued: 

1 Deer Motor From Kindy's -Motion =$10.00

1 Piece of scrap Finish grade wood about 1” X 2 “ X 3” long. -Skull Pivot -Free
1 piece of 1/2” square steel tubing X 7” -Pivot Linkage =30 Cents
4 – 1 5/8 “ Deck screws @ 5 cents each -Motor mount & Arm Guides = 30 cents
4 - 2 1/2” deck screw @ 6 cents -Head pivot & Guide Block = 24 cents
1- 12” piece of thin Picture Hanging wire Head Movement = 03 cents
1 Section of Thin Ceiling hanger wire 6’ long (Have or Buy and Share?) -Make Hand
1- 6” 1/8” Auto-vac tubing Retainers = 15 cents
4 – Fence Staples-Free from My stock Secure 3/16” rod to wood = 00 cents
3- # 10-32 X 1 ½” @ 5 cents Linkage and Arm attach = 15 cents
3- #10-32 Lock nuts @ 5 cents Linkage and arm attach = 15 cents
2- # 7 X ½” Hex screws (Black) @ 5 cents Motor Mount = 10 cents
1- Small dab of automotive grease Arm Slider Lube = Free
1- Few drops sewing machine oil Linkage lube = Free

It's Grave Grabbing Time!

Hey Frightners!!

Well tomorrow I am headed to the NJ/PA Make and Take. We are working on a one armed grave grabber prop that uses a deer motor to move the arm and head of the prop. I am pretty excited to start building and getting into some props and this one is perfect to start off the season. This will be a nice addition to the Grimlock Manor Graveyard this year which I am looking to really revamp.

I am building thicker more durable tombstones this year because the past two years the weather has not been favorable for us NJ Haunters. This past year we had winds of 40-50mph which did a lot of damage to my cemetery so I need to pay extra attention to the props I make and ensure that they can withstand a nuclear explosion! AKA..Wind and rain.

I am going to take a lot of video of the build tomorrow and should have shots of my finish prop for everyone to see so be sure to check back in tomorrow night for all of that.

In other news.....

I bought two new albums the other day for this years haunt.

The first is by the ever popular (and rightfully so) Nox Arcana with their 2010 CD "Theater of Illusion." It's a great CD that I already listened to a few times. The music invites you to enter the realm of magic and dark fantasy with melodies ranging from haunting piano & harpsichord to music box chimes and dramatic orchestrations.  It's a total of 67 minutes long and I highly suggest it. To read more about it or to buy it check out Nox Arcanas page HERE.

The second CD is from In A World and it is titled "Hallows' Eve, The Horror Vol. 2" At a little over 30 minutes In A Worlds Hallows' Eve CD provides a great selection of music ranging from Seance themed music, Dark Carnival and various dark soundscapes. I am particularly fond of the Funhouse tracks which remind me of Danny Elfmans Beetlejuice Tracks but I hate to really make that exact comparison because Danny Elfman is just amazing! For more on In A Worlds CD offerings check their site HERE.

Overall, both are great CD's to add to your collection or even if there are a few specific tracks you need you can head on over to iTunes to purchase just the few you really like. Either way check them out!

Well it's time to round up my supplies for tomorrows build so keep it scary frightners!!

Great Stuff Foam Casting Failure!..Kinda...

So I think the video will say it all and I am sure there will be a few laughs here! I am really trying to "expand" (no pun intended) the use of Great Stuff foam insulation. We all use it for vines, guts, slime and even a skull cast here or there but I really want to try and perfect some sculpting techniques with it and I know that is going to be hard given the expanding qualities of great stuff, it's just tricky to work with as you can see in the video but I am dedicated to trying to break the mold of what we use it for currently and come up with some really cool stuff..some "Great Stuff" god I am a laugh riot huh!

Duct Tape Body Form

Hey Frightners!

Ok...I have to say this next video makes me laugh with it's techno music and all but every video I looked up on this subject I thought was funny. The video is on how to make your own duct tape body form and I think it's a good thing to learn how to do for us home haunters especially if your building your own characters for your haunt.

The process seems pretty simple though it is time consuming but hey...what isn't time consuming when building a quality prop for your home haunt right?!

Now it seems all you will need an old shirt, Duct Tape, some scissors and some Great Stuff but I have seen people even do papier mache over the form when it was done which is also a good idea and alternative if you do not want to use great stuff. I suppose you could just stuff the form with old shirts or paper as well. If you really want to go nuts go check out FX Supply which supplies and expanding foam mixture which is two parts. You can get 2 pints of this mixture for $20, 2 Quarts for $36 and 2 Gallons for $130. Remember this stuff REALLY expands when it is activated so I doubt you will need more than the 2 quarts to do a torso mold but do not take my word for it because I have not tried this just yet but I will do so this year so expect that video down the line.

If anyone happens to make a form in the near future please do share but until then I hope you enjoy this video and hopefully it will spark the creative fire to get you to make your own full body or half body character prop....these could be great for groundbreakers! Add some liquid latex and paint and Ta-Da!

NYC Library Tour

Hey Frightners!

Finally was able to upload my video of the NYC Library which I did a quick walkthrough of. I have been going there a lot these last two weeks to just do some haunt research and think in quite while I concept the haunt this year. This library is really an amazing place. It's the third largest public library in North America and is one of the largest most significant research library systems in the world. The cornerstone of the library was laid in 1902, but work progressed slowly and eventually costed $9 Million to complete the library. There are 75 miles of shelves and it took over a year to move and install the books. The library itself was opened to the public on May 23, 1911 under a ceremony presided over by President William Howard Taft.

It's not every day that I can take a trip out of the country to see some pretty amazing things but sometimes I forget that I work in one of the most amazing cities in the world which has some pretty amazing sites to see and luckily this one is right up the block from where I work. The romanesque architecture coupled with the amazing statuaries and beautiful wall and celling paintings that are intergrated into the structures are beautiful to look at and from a haunters perspective there is so much great reference that you can put to use into your own haunt. I can imagine in the right lighting with the right soundscape that the library could be a perfect haunt atmosphere!

If you live by or are ever taking a trip to New York I highly suggest adding the NYC Public Library to your list of landmarks to go se while in N.Y. They do offer tour and you can take pictures and video of the majority of the inside however the reading rooms and main halls are off limits to pictures though I was lucky to find a few online to share with you just so you can see the enormity of the entire space which again is quite amazing.

I hope you find some haunt inspiration in this video and these pictures below as I know I did and if your interested in learning the full history of the library check HERE or if you want to learn a little about the part the library took in the making of the original Ghostbusters Movie you can read about that HERE.