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My witch kitchen display includes many bottles with the labels similar to the ones in my shop. Some of them can be seen in this picture:

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I took very few pictures of this guys being made, but here is one pre-hair picture I found of him in my camera’s internal memory. This is during painting…

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This project began with a polyurethane skull, but I cut it and carved at it so much I might as well not have used it to begin with. Pulp mache base and some Paperclay on the main face features. This is the first project I’ve applied Paperclay to. I have to say, it sure is nice to work with.

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I had sculpted her face last year before Halloween, and then she sat in the basement… bald, grumpy, and only half a body… collecting dust for MONTHS. Originally I thought I might make 3 of these hags, and this one was going to be leaning on her broom. Then while camping one of my kids found a nice walking stick and we decided to bring it home for the hag to use.

I didn’t take many picture of her as I made her. Her face was pink because of the mache pulp I was using.

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I sculpted a head for it recently.

I will make it some hands later today as I want to take it to a local Halloween gathering this weekend. Before Halloween I’ll probably add some sculpted arms, but for now he can wear a long sleeve shirt. I’ll post the finished crawler at some point.

Quick run down on how it was made:
Cast a foam skull
Carve a foam skull, adjust jaw line
Paper mache basic form, let dry
Add pulp mache, let dry
Apply a sealant to mache
Paint
Apply finish sealant
Add some hair.

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I made these shelves to replace the broken one

I picked up some old metal shelves from a lady who was throwing stuff out. These shelves desperately needed some help… they looked nothing like what I wanted.

I decided I would first cover them in cardboard. I am a cardboard pack-rat, so I had plenty to use. I fitted the shelves with it using masking tape to adhere each piece to the shelves.

Next I added cheap dollar store night-lites to the top of each shelf of each unit. As I had made a cardboard ‘lip’ on each shelf, these were completely covered from view. I am not electrician – and do not know enough about such things to trust tampering with cords, so I bought small dollar store extension cords and wired up all the lights, taping down the cords to the cardboard along the seams to hide them all.

Then I used a roll of black paper and basically wrapped the shelves in it. I used packing tape on one shelf unit, and then ran out. For the second shelf unit I used masking tape. It worked much better, as the paper had a bit of a waxy finish. I made sure to secure ALL seams with tape.

The shelves then got a light coat of flat black spray paint to cover the masking and packing tape – again the masking tape worked better here as it takes the spray paint easier, and shows less after painted.

I now had a set of black shelves….. really plain black shelves. I decided they needed to look like old wood.

How to paint wood grain:

For this process I used a spoonful of white latex paint, and about 2 cups of water, mixed together. Then taking a 2″ paintbrush dipped into the watered down paint, I painted out the shape of my wood planks. Using the technique pictured below:

Brush dipped into paint mixed with water.

In some planks I added knots in the wood by twisting the paint brush in a circle over the still wet paint. Run paint brush along each side of knot lightly.

Next dip brush into the watered down paint, right to the bottom of the container where the paint has settled. Use shop rag to dab off excess water and paint. Starting at outer edges lightly brush inwards to create wood grain. Turn brush sideways to get more defined lines.

Let the paint dry

Using a sharpie or other black marker, outline and add some detail
this makes the board stand out.

Thats it. All done!

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I very much enjoy the looks I get from people who come to see what I am working on and find these on the workbench. Side long looks, raised eyebrows and comments like ‘thats so disgusting! Why would you make that??’ and ‘that’s so wrong’. It’s quite entertaining. These particular hands pictured were sold.

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