My, what a large chest you have

why thank you. It is where I store my treasure. :D

Here is the unfinished donation box. People are always stuffing money in our comment box, which is kinda small and hard to get change out of, so this year we decided to create a donation box.

Toph came up with a sketch of a cool wooden box held up by two small mud monks.

So, husband made this wooden chest out of cheap wood from Home Depot and then he remembered that he had some molds of metal chest pieces.

Really you ask? Seriously, how many of us have mold for casting faux metal chest pieces? :0

My uncle had made these years ago, I guess he used to make trunks and sell them at craft markets....well, my brother got them....and then gave them to me thinking that I might be able to use them for something someday.

And someday arrived a few weeks ago.

We cast the front pieces (that would get touched the most) out of resin (when we were casting the hand) and the back pieces (that will likely never be seen, in expanding foam.

We used the heat gun to make both the resin and foam pieces bendable and then attached them to the box with polyurethane construction glue.

We used a bit of caulking to fill some of the gaps in the top of the chest to keep it from filling with rain.

We then took the Great Stuff we used to age the metal bands and put it on all the resin and foam hinge and lock pieces.

We then sprayed it black and got it ready for painting.

Finished pictures on the way.

FQF

Not your usual Halloween

magazine. This is the October issue of Nuts and Volts, not something you are likely to find at your local newsstand :)

Learn how to make your very own "Dungeon Keeper"

No cupcake decorating, felt cut crafts or hot glue candles here.

No, lots of diagrams of semantics, example code and parts lists that likely need to be ordered from Jameco or Ramsey.

For the record, I learn this through osmosis; live with a programmer long enough and you will be amazed at the things you actually understand. :D

Husband being the geek that he is, has a subscription to this magazine that has articles on how to build all kinds of cool electronic stuff. Most of this is way over my head, I understand the basics, but this is pretty technical. If you know who Parallax is and the the Basic stamp, this is kind of a fun publication...that has bits that might help you with your prop controller. Or give you great ideas of how that will actually work for a Halloween prop. Or like me....you read (or try to read) about a project and your brain starts to melt.

I have to immediately go out the shop and carve something out of foam before the melting takes over the whole brain.

I have on occasion asked husband to explain something to me, only to get the look that says "how sweet honey, but no, go back out in the garage and carve some foam." :D

Our friend Jon Williams from EFX TEK writes regularly for this magazine, so it is always fun to see what he is up to.

Anyway, just had to share, likely the oddest Halloween themed magazine you will see this season.

If I was a South Park

character....here is what I would look like. I know it is an alligator costume....but I would stomp around and pretend I was Godzilla.....in a graveyard :D

Lots of fun in you have some spare time....check it out

http://www.sp-studio.de/index.htm

I was having a hard time saving the file. This image is from a screen capture.

Now, back to prop making!

During all the prop building

going on in my life I got another blog award. I almost forgot....and it is a cool one too!

I don't know how "domesticated" I actually am, but I will take the award as proof to the contrary :)

Thanks so much to my fellow blogger at the Enchanted Cauldron.

Check out the clock she is working on.

Oh, my that is a work of art!! It would look amazing in my house :D

Now for something completely different

:D I have always wanted to type that as a blog heading :) This should really be a Frog Queen folly.....but no, not tonight.....it has been a long day. So humor me.

This is not at all Halloween related....unless you consider Labyrinth a horror movie - no, not even I can make that stretch. A little dark at times....maybe.

Someone posted an image of David Bowie on the LOLcleb site.

Being a huge fan of the film Labyrinth (and Bowie, especially in tights) I had to read some of the comments. Here is a thread of a few of the comments that made me choke on my iced green tea.

After a whole run through to the lyrics of Magic Dance line by line....groan, I was and singing in my head too :D

It started with someone saying
......Oh look, there is god! :) followed by

......If all major christian religions would concede that this is god, I'll become a nun.
(In my head I quickly agreed :)

then

......Amen to that!

:D If I was only that clever!!!

Took me back to Catholic school days....yeah, none of us girls would have ever, ever, ever missed morning service if that were the case (I know my sister and I would not have :).....nope, in fact we would have shown up early!!

Okay, back to prop making I am currnetly downloading Magic Dance to my iPod. Just for the record. It is the song that the Angel of Death will be built to - a bit of inside info.

To glue or not glue?

That is the question for the Frog Queen.

I am dying to play with papier mache - looks like lots of fun. I tried it once years ago on my very first spider. I made it out of flour and water boiled, then dipped newspaper in it. Looked good. Did not last a through. October here in the Northwest is rainy, despite me covering it with paint and sealer, a small amount of water must have got in, cause it turned to mush.

Which in fact, left unattended in the garage through the holidays, grew a nice yellow-green color. At least that is what it looked like the last time I saw it. It disappeared in the night.

I swear sometimes I can see it peeking out from behind the compressor.

It looks angry.

And hungry.

I am not going to try to catch it.

I think we can live together

if it stays out of my way, I promise not to beat it with a broom....or burn it with a blow torch :)

Okay, where were we?

So, learning that I cannot rely on my grade school recipe, I scoured the interweb and found many of you that make fantastic pieces. And many of you have shared your recipes. Thank you, thank you.

Wait, what is this?

A common ingredient is glue.

Easy enough, I know where the store is, comes in big jugs and I have the means to get there and bring it home.

But I am vegetarian, and I know what glue is made of.

It has been what has kept me choosing foam over papier mache for years. But all there is so much cool stuff to be made!!! It is killing me.

I know that foam is probably overall worse for the environment...so why do I worry.

(BTW - I do go out of my way to take all the foam we don't use the foam recycling place in the middle of nowhere, by the river in the industrial area of town, where I am sure lots of people go "missing"....every time I make it back alive, I hope the environment appreciates it.) :D

I could solve all my problems if I would just learn how to carve foam. That has proven to be harder than I thought....remember these angel wings!! :(

So I am back to flour and water....and a bit of clove oil, which I read is supposed to deter mold. At least that is what Wikipedia says....and they are always right. Right?!? :D

Oh, yeah and whole lotta sealer and paint and more sealer and paint...

I use zinc powder on my roof every year....I wonder if I can mix that in with the flour? No, wait, that is for moss.

Living in the Northwest it is hard to tell on green fuzzy/fluffy thing from another.

Or, I could just tell myself that the cows are already dead and no matter if I use the product or not it is not going to bring them back from the dead.

Oh, but zombie cows would be cool!

Anyway, can't do the glue thing. I know some of you are rolling your eyes at me and I know. I am being silly. But how is that different from any other day?

FQF

I try not to make it easy

for myself or anyone involved when making a prop.

Challenges bring out the best in you?!? Right!?!

Okay, in my case, this might just be the proof that the Frog Queen has indeed gone over the edge.

I could have replaced my old angel with another angel. A simple, sweet angel, something right out of a forgotten graveyard, forlorn and sad.

But, no, why do that when you can make it twice as hard and create a angel/demon statue instead.

Yep, the new angel will be half skeleton with flaming sword (angel of death) and half quite, simple angel.

But in no way a simple prop.

Here she is with her half wig head, half foam skull face and her chicken wire body.

She has "shoulder pads" because if this does not work....she is playing American football. :D


What?!?

No the pads are because we are using sheets to create her gown and if you do not put something over the shoulders and other parts of the body where the fabric lies, you will see the shape of the wire.

Actually, this one would be more of a cheer leader, it is hard to see on this picture, but my angel has some serious curves going on. Yes she does! After transforming the last angel into Joan (yes, I know I owe you pictures of that one....they are coming I promise.) I realized that she really had no figure.

My friend Elyssa who helped me with this one imagined the Angel of Death would have an awesome rack and some serious pa-dunk-a-dunk! Sorta the Anime Angel of Death - I mean what is not to like about that :)

On the skeleton side she will be holding a flaming sword, and one skeleton foot will be showing from under the fabric. Very cool!

Then we are on to the wings. My new friend Mike came over and carved out a nice wing and a manky wing. Below is the manky wing. I added a few bone pieces to it and poured some expanding foam over them to seal them in. We are going to sand it out so it looks like bits of bone are sticking out of her wings!!


Awesome!

We will sand out this nice wing and make it look smooth and clean for the good angel side. We have PVC in the wings so that we can take them off when we are storing her.

She is on our project list this weekend. If the weather cooperates, we should have pictures by Monday.

Stop what you are doing

and get yourself a subscription to Haunted Attraction Magazine! Trust me on this one.

Go over there...Right now.

This very minute.

Don't worry, I'll wait. :)

. . . . . . . . :) . . . . . .

Got it, good!

I just got ours the other day and I was completely blown away by the new layout and features. A-m-a-z-i-n-g.

Not that was anything wrong with the old design...I always enjoyed the magazine, Leonard did a fine job.

But WOW, seriously, you need to get a subscription today! This new layout is very eye catching and easy to read. I hear the website is getting an update too!! Can't hardly wait!

Wait a minute, some of you that subscribe are probably thinking......does this have anything to do with the fact that The Davis Graveyard is the first featured home haunt? And on the cover it says

"and the Davis Graveyard one of the best home haunts ever!!!" in big bold letters across the bottom.

:)

Ah, not really. Though, because they are now going to feature home haunts in each issue is the main reason we recommend this magazine.

You will not regret your subscription, we have always loved reading all the articles about other haunts and seeing what cool products are out there!! Husband and I fight over it when it comes in :)

Anyway, this issue, beside the fabulous article about the Davis Graveyard, also features a few of our friends and fellow haunters - both Eastern State Penn and Woods of Terror on Church Street. There is a great article about the changes in IAHA by a big supporter of the home haunting community, the lovely Deanna Roberts-Morton. One of our favorite vendors and friends, Bert at MiniSpotlight is the featured vendor.

Oh, and if you are a Dr. Horrible fan (and seriously, if you have not seen it, right after you subscribe to the magazine....check it out. I dare you to stop watching after 30 seconds) you need to check out Attire by Von Charon. He is a great guy that makes lab coats. We say him at the last Hauntcon in the perfect Dr. Horrible outfit. We were blown away!

Great reading all around - do yourself a favor and subscribe today. Be sure to ask them to start your subscription with the current issue....I mean you would not want to miss the article about the Davis Graveyard, right? :D

FQF

I have to apologize

to my friend Travis. I am really, really sorry I missed your wedding.

We did it to ourselves. We overbooked our Tombstone class last weekend.

How much more work could 3 more people add to the process.

A couple of hours it seems. Enough to make you miss a wedding.

I feel terrible....but here is my excuse :D

Here are the photos from our very large tombstone making class.

I want to send a big thank you out to all the friends that made this happen. We could not have done it without you. We would likely still be teaching this very moment if it was not for:

Dan
Elyssa
Dawn
Mike
The Babbling Banshee (aka Karen)
(a special thanks to Max, Gabe and Lex for letting us borrow your parents!!)

You guys are the best!

We had a great time with everyone. Not only did we make 15 tombstones, meet new friends, but we went over:

Molding and casting basics
lighting with Minispotlights
monster mud/papier mache
How to cleanup and age a Bucky
foam carving
facade building
and answered endless questions.....

So as the last person is leaving I take a look over at the clock, which says 3:30 pm.

3:30!!!

No way!! Really!!

Oh, I am in BIG trouble!!

I missed a friend's wedding!!! The class was supposed to be over at 1:00 pm and the wedding was at 2:00 (only a few minutes away) - I am so going to have to buy him an additional wedding present!! So, sorry Travis!!

Valuable lesson learned. 12 is a good number for a tombstone class - that is going to stay our max class size. And we really should do a Davis Graveyard overview presentation like we did at Hauntcon a few years ago, it was a crash course overview of how all the props are made. Bring your notebooks for that one boys and girls.....we can cram a lot of information in one hour! :)

Sounds like a class for 2010.

So I finished

Season 3 of Tales from the Crypt. I have two words to sum up the scariest part of the whole series so far.

Crypt Jam - The Music Video

I found myself screaming and crying.....don't look, seriously, don't....I am not joking...(bleeping) scary that is.

Guess I cannot work today

since the finger scanner that logs me into my computer no longer recognizes my fingerprint.

I am headed home....I wish.

So, the fun people in our IT department decided to add these nifty scanners for logging in to your system. They read your fingerprint and automatically logs you into the system...some very cool magic if you ask me.

When they set us up they made me catch an image of the index finger on each hand. I thought that was kind of weird and overkill.

That was until Monday morning.

I go to login to my system and a little question mark comes up over the thumbprint image. That cannot be good. :(

I try several times and it will not recognize my fingerprint....what is up?

I look at my hand. Ah, yes, I have been making props all weekend and despite a lot of scrubbing with different chemicals and brushed, there is still some glue and/or Great Stuff left on my fingers....(I know I should have worn gloves!!!)

I get out a nail file and try to "sand" some of the residue off my fingers and try again.

??? Yeah, not the brightest idea I have ever had. To my defense it was early...and a Monday. Have I mentioned that right after spiders....I hate mornings :)

Nope, still will not work, now, likely from a lack of fingerprint :)

After all this, the system prompts me to manually enter my password.

Okay, the downside to having this cool fingerprint login is that I no longer have any idea what my password is since I don't have to type it several times a day.

Then I remember....I can use my other hand!

I give that a try, and yep, that works, I am in the system!!

Damn, that was close :) Definitely wearing gloves this weekend. Or I need to make a good rubber cast of my fingers and just keep them in the drawer.....mind you, this likely violates several security protocols.......but it sounds like fun!

As the EMTs and the ambulance driver

come up the driveway during the tombstone class.

I will give you all a moment to take a collective "gasp"

Everyone sitting down? Good. Here we go.

I live on a very busy street. It is residential, but it is an artillery between two major highways, so people like to cut through the neighborhood, going much faster than the posted speed limit. So, several times a year someone is not paying attention and we are treated to what we affectionately call, metal sculptures.

So, on Saturday in the middle of the very busy tombstone class, we hear a familiar crashing sound. Now, husband and I are not too worried, heard it before, the sound quickly runs through our heads and we register that, no, that one did not sound fatal....but I pop my head out up to see the street and notice that there are several cars involved.

And I think sh*t, normally when this happens everyone pulls their cars out of the road and in front of mine and my neighbors house............which on this fine day is full of the cars of the students for the tombstone class. Double sh*t! :)

I ask one of the helpers that does not have paint all over his hands to call the police because the cars are not moving out of the road and people are honking....it is getting ugly fast.

Let me divert a bit here and let you know something that is constantly going on in the back of the Frog Queens mind. Because I live on a busy street, I know that it will only take a looky-loo or two gawking at my yard that causes and accident - that will likely get me shut down.....or in this case, and event in the house that leaves accident victims no place to park. (This is why we are so nice to the Milwaukie Police department :)

Well, with us doing our good neighbor part, we go back to tombstone making. In the blur of 15 people asking questions and working away I glance up to see a police car in front of the house...no worries, glad they are here.....then later and ambulance....I hope everyone is okay....but back to working.

Then I look up and see men in blue uniforms coming up the driveway with my friend Dawn. Great, I think of ways to convince the officers that

the hearse parked out in front of my house could not possibly have been the distraction that caused the accident......

or how all the people walking around with tombstones could have in no way distracted the drivers :)

I expect them to walk up to talk to Jeff and I, but she walks right past us and over to where everyone is painting.

Appears that they saw people walking around with tombstones and wanted to know what was going on. They are laughing and commenting on how fun this must be, and one of the guys knows the yard well and was telling the other what it looked like set up. Everyone was sharing their tombstones with them and thought it was great fun.

big sigh of relief

My favorite was when one of the EMTs thought he would love to make a tombstone....and he knew exactly what to put on it.....the name of his ex-wife :D

The only thing I regret about the day is that I was going to get our camera to get a picture of these officers standing in the middle of the tombstone class, but I got distracted by someone asking me a question, and before I knew it....they were heading down the driveway :(

I hear that people that were in the accident were talking pictures of the class while waiting to fill out the police reports.

Never a dull moment at the Graveyard. Yes, we know how to keep it interesting. :)

Looking forward to doing this next year - sans the metal sculpture!!

Have I also mentioned

that you blogger friends are the best!!! I got two offers for moss!! Both Full Moon Industries and The Captain have me set for this season.

And I even got my own blog entry on The Captains blog. Damn, talk about making the Frog Queen feel special.

Look, here is a picture from his yard!! Wow, it really does grow on trees!!!

Both of you guys are the best!! Happy Halloween everyone from a very Happy Frog Queen!

I have mentioned

that husband is a computer programmer right? If not, husband is a computer programmer. This is important to know later in the post.

So, to be fair and no one could accuse me of playing favorites if I picked the winner of my latest giveaway, I asked husband to do it for me.

Of course we got busy with the class and many other things and I completely forgot about it until last night. So I ask husband if he drew a winner yet.

He looks at me funny. I know that look, it says "you mean draw as into write the names on little pieces of paper and pull one out of the hat.....silly girl, I wrote a program to do that."

He rolls his chair over to my computer grabs the mouse and finds a file on the computer. Gives me back the mouse and says "click on that exe"

Okay, "click"

A small screen comes up and there is a box and a button that says "spin".

He tells me to put the number of people that entered into the box and hit spin.

The number "18" appeared in the window. I start to count down from the top 1, 2, 3 . . . when I hear from husband's side of the office....."you should count from the bottom, it would be faster." Ah, yeah, I suppose so :D I hate when he gets all logical on me! :D

24, 23, 22, 21, 20, 19, 18 is Carl. No one is going to believe this!

So, husband's little program picked Carl from ILHM blog.

I promise you it had nothing to do with the fact that he just posted and interview about me this weekend.....technically...actually, literally technically.....husband picked him!!

Congrats Carl, I will get the stuff in the mail to you in a few days.

Did you know?

Do you want to know more about the Frog Queen and Davis Graveyard you can duck on over to I Like Horror Movies (and I mean who doesn't)...the blog and the movies) and check out the interview that I did with Carl.

Thanks, Carl, that was lot of fun.

Off to teach a tombstone class.

How many people

Can you fit in the driveway for a tombstone making class, 12, 13, 15...16??!?

We are going to find out tomorrow. I have a lot of people coming tomorrow am that expect to leave with a damn fine tombstone and the knowledge to make more. Oh, and one of them is a acquaintance who writes for the local paper.....I think she wants to write about the experience.

Wow, really, okay, how many people are in the class again.....16? 16 tombstones in 4 hours.....and it has to be fun and memorable and newsworthy experience! Sh*t!

Some of those people have some "difficult" epitaphs. If you have never carved before, more that two lines is a difficult tombstone. :) Wow, was I too honest there? I think I was, did I mention I was stressed?

Anyway, that means we are going to have to double team the carving process......."you start carving at the top and I work my way up from the bottom." Always a fun experience. Note to self for tomorrow...Must resist the urge to push them out of the way carve it myself to save time :D

No, I am not feeling any pressure.....has nothing to do with why I was up at 5:00 am this morning and could not go back to sleep. Went into work early, I had a fire I need to put out anyway, so then I can just leave early......wait a delivery driver got lost and I have to stay late to met him?! So much for the leaving early idea.

I hear this ticking in my head.....I think it is a clock, do you hear a clock? Please tell me it is not a time bomb....I am looking for some place to hide :)

Everything is going to be fine. :) Because I am going to go home and have a martini and pass out on the couch watching Tales from the Crypt....after I get everything set up.

Be luck you do not live close to me, because to pull this off I am calling in a lot of favors. The Frog Queen knows who her real friends are. :D

It is cheap because

it is the lowest quality skeleton they sell, and thus, the cheapest :)

But man, those budget Bucky and Bart's are a mess. So if you want a close-up type picture, of one of them, you have some work ahead of you.

Have I mentioned that almost as much as I hate, a Blucky just propped up with no additional painting or corpsing...I hate to see a Bucky in the yard with that silver skull holder with the hook still attached.

:(

I takes a little work, but you can greatly improve the look of your Bucky with at little time and materials. In this case I am using two-part "Fixit" to cover up the holes and hardware on the Bart that is going in my latest Frog Queen Folly in my garden.

First you dremel out any bits of the mold that over cast, and try to match up the two parts of the skull and dremel out the lip. Then you take two-part Fixit and mix equal parts of the putty together until they are the same color. Then you put the Fix-It in the holes, on the seams, or cover any wires and hardware. Then you smooth it out and use a little water on your fingers to smooth it further to blend into the skeleton. I am using the same process to clean up the hands we cast for the new angel to fill a few voids in the original cast.

When the Fixit dries it is as hard as the plastic on the skeleton. You can sand it an paint it how every you want. Cool stuff. I know this is an extra step, but it is worth the time.

It would be funnier

if it was not so true. :)


see more Lol Celebs

Time to change out the horses

Or in our case the "cats". Dorie (Door) has been on my blog a lot because I am taking pictures in the house....and she likes cameras.

But she has nothing on Hal (Halloween Cat) - this is his time of year. He lives outdoors with us all weekend and "supervises" the prop building.

We even built him a "supervisory perch" off of the top of the stairs in the shop - just so he is comfortable while doing his "job"

You will notice him in a lot of pictures between now and Halloween. He LOVES the camera, any camera - TV cameras, regular cameras, camera phones......he is a Diva! So much so that a few years ago we gave him the honored spot on our 2007 DVD as the "Easter Egg" - if you have a moment, check out

Ode to Halloween

Got moss?

I usually pay someone on eBay a ridiculous amount for 20 lbs of Spanish moss each year for my display decor.

So this year, I thought I would see if any of my fellow bloggers have a source for that lovely hanging Spanish moss?

I hear stories of people that rake it up by the bagfuls and throw it out.....wow, I could do that with that regular green spongy moss, clean several bags full off the roofs each year! Anyone wanna trade? :D

Any suggestions on where to find it besides eBay?

Oops, I am in trouble

with husband (again.)

See I am helping someone with a fun project. :) So, during lunch, I cc'd an email to my home email that I sent to someone else, just in case that person gets back to me tonight when I am at home.

Husband is checking our home emails and then emails me back.....

So where are the epitaphs for the class?
name tags for the class?
the sign for the class?
the design for the sign on the donation box?
and those bullet hole graphics for my art committee project?

Oh, and I think you owe Carl and interview :D

Ah, well, honestly . . . . . the wedding invitations were just more fun to work on :)

This is what happens

When you make the mold the right way :)

Here is the algenite with resin (plastic) poured in. Funny, plastic does not seem to absorb as much water :D

We only needed one hand, so we did this the cheap way. When we cast something for multiple uses we use a higher grade of algenite and use hard plastic to cast the positive. We are big fans of the products from Smooth On. They have great kits to help you with any job you have in mind and if you have a chance to go haunt conventions they are always helpful and are a great wealth of knowledge on casting. If I can't find husband at the show....he is likely at their booth :)

Anyway, these came out much better. We have a bit of patching and sanding to do and one of them will be the hand that the new angel is holding over her heart.

Mutant rootbeers/mushrooms

(That is what Ghoul Friday called it and it kinda stuck.)

yield this bit of nonsense.

I promised a picture, so here it is.

Here is the whithered hand that we pulled out of the mushroom mold.

We call it the Incan Mummy hand.

Soft and fragile, but very cool! We will find a purpose for it. I will keep you posted.

In honor of

the birthday of one of my favorite authors and definitely a profound influence on my life. I do love Ray Bradbury, I really do. But my first love in horror is still my favorite....

H.P. Lovecraft

Someday, when I have the cash...this is a book that is currently missing from my library, will be mine. It is always on my Christmas list :) I know there is a cheaper paperback version of this set. But I have an library in my house, one of my favorite places....full of hardcover books. They feel so nice sitting in your lap while you are reading, they are heavy and bare the weight of the words so beautifully.....curled up on the couch with my glasses on and a nice cup of tea.

Which is what I hope to be doing with this book someday :)

For those of you that don't know the history of Lovecraft, he, like many at the time, was an avid letter writer. It is presumed that he wrote upwards of 10,000 letters ("they" say) and I have several other books of his letters and they are endlessly fascinating!

Could be the fan in me talking. But either way. I have to make a special toast to one of the greatest horror (and sci fi) writers ever on his birthday.

The not so itsy-bitsy

spider is coming to life in my garage. You saw the fate of spider #3 - he went out with the garbage this week :(

So I am working on the new spider based on a whole new perspective. Thanks to Toph's idea we are chucking the traditional crank spider out the window and going with a hanging spider.

His back two legs will be attached to a long piece of web (where we will hide the power cord) tied to the tree and the bottom two legs will hang down, resting on a cocoon. Instead of the legs moving, we are just planning to spin the cocoon and with the legs touching it they should move to look like the spider is cocooning it's victim.

Oh, and we do have a special victim planned, but that is another blog entry. Here is the progress on the spider so far.

Glued four pieces of 2" foam together and carved out a basic spider shape. Taking the large corners off with a hot knife and then using a rasp to create the shape.

Next I coated the spider in foam coat to see if I could smooth out the surface since I am painting it shinny instead of the muted colors in my yard, the surface needs to be real smooth (should have used the extruded foam :) He is drying in the arms of the "bowler" prop.

I then took eight pieces of steel rod and bent them at angles for the arms.

Here is where the prop always goes wrong for me. The arms; either they don't look right or don't work right. The last spider had more of a swimming motion rather than a walking motion.

So, after much debate, my idea of papier mache was quickly replaced with a new product called Friendly Plastic. I know, I had no idea there was a even a "non" friendly plastic. :)

Basically this is a plastic substance that you heat up, dye and then mold into any shape you want with your hands. One of my favorite minions really loves the stuff and is eager to play with it, so I gave in and handed the project over to him and am having him make the legs out of wire and Friendly plastic.

The stuff should arrive this weekend, I will let you know if he makes any progress.

BTW - now that I see that spider shape. The abdomen is too wide. I guess I know what I am doing tonight.

Good thing I picked up a fresh can of static spray :) Look for more pictures tomorrow.

It dosen't look like

candlelight does it? But it will, here is Frog Queen Folly #5 (not to be confused with my new blog - this is a real - folly.)
Does not look like much, and very few people will likely notice what it will do.

But I am ecstatic!

This little EFX-TEK set up will flicker the flood lights in the stained glass windows of the church. That way it will look like candle light in the church windows rather than just, well, what it is now. Flood lights aimed at the panels.

We tried it in the garage, pretty eerie.

Husband took two outlets, removed the connections between them so that they are four separate plugs for the four window lights. He wrote a program that works with the Prop 1 and RC-4 (I think, husband reads this so he can correct me if I am wrong) controller board from EFX-TEK and voila! I have candle light in the church.

I am very happy....even though no one but me will likely notice this detail.

Yes, I know, I am crazy. I am okay with that. :)