"The lid of the coffin allows viewing of the inner passenger to those who look closer. The lid is also hindged and opens up to reveal the chains that keep the bone in place. The whole thing (minus the bone) was Patinated black. I went back with a brass brush to soften the finish, and used a polishing wheel to wear down the edges. The idea was a worn piece that has been around for a long time."
"I played a “Cthulhu Live” session back in 2000, and I had the opportunity to create a cthulhoid puppet representing one of the flutists who play blasphemous melodies before the throne of Azathoth. Ten years later, the live and the puppet are back, revised and corrected.
The costume is mounted on an armor constructed of PVC pipe and scraps of metal mesh usually used for fencing, all held together by glue, string, and hopes ... Hopes fortunately well placed, since the structure has held up without collapsing on one of my friends who heroically volunteered to drive the beast (thanks, Luca !!!).
The head and front of the creature are made of papier mache on a base of foam, kept in shape with string tension. The eyes are two frisbee properly painted, which are glued on the two half-spheres (found in potato chips years ago). The wattles of the beast are in cloth, with the addition of some detail in paper mache. The many tentacles are made from transparent plastic bubble-wrap. Everything was then painted with the dry brush technique.
Unfortunately, due to the limited space available and the difficulty of transporting the costume, I had to opt for simple pieces of cloth dyed with bleach to cover up the armor and the "pilot" of the creature, giving up (even due to time matters) the idea of making a more defined body shape.
The final effect, considering also the low lights during the game, was still great.
The face of the beast and its tentacles are painted with a layer of phosphorescent paint, completely transparent to light but glowing in the dark."
"At Archaeology Now there is an article with accompanying photographs describing archaeologist James Henry Breasted's 1919-1920 journey through the Middle East. Accompanying this is a set of photographs of Visa and entry stamps, letters of introduction etc that I thought you might be interested in – I see a great Jackson Elias passport prop in the offing!"
Cool, cheap nesting boxes obtained at Michaels craft store circa 2000. Clasps are a little on the “non period” but they work. The leather and strapping is faux as well but very good at a distance. Michaels usually obtains huge lots of craft items like the set of 3 of these boxes and when they get sold, don’t offer them anymore. I wonder if they are still out there….watching…..somewhere.
The Paternoster was…not at all cheap. I commissioned the nice SCA ladies here at http://www.etsy.com/shop/paternosterladies and they did not disappoint.
The Candelabra is unknown and not truly old but it did patina-up nicely, no?
And now the “Money”. Scouring eBay, like I do……I was lucky to get the smaller bottle with awesome crafter tin topper as well as the Holy Water Sprinkler – which absolutely does work to provide a good shower of water easily directed and shaken at someone….or some….thing. I used a TINY bit of blue food colour added to the water just to be theatrical and give the viewer a little more to look at and show off the wording on the glass a little better.
The small black candle was a recent Michaels craft store purchase and it “bleeds” black – hard to find black candles that truly produce nice black tallow.
And finally….the small glass bottle that I filled with little granules from a water softener that looked like tiny metallic copper spheres – really weird up close and I think it photographs well.
I found 8 or so of these little green coloured bottles with corks at the local thrift store for .89 cents each. The green “colour” soon revealed itself to be cheap paint and my thoughts of “made in china” and how they arrived in the shop were soon evident but…I made Lemonade. I used matte non gloss fixative spray and gave them all a really good multiple spray coat and with some scuffing and scratching, they come out pretty well at a distance.
"I've made my first couple of bottled specimens and attached a couple of photos to so you can take a look. I hope you like them.
What a learning experience that was. In hindsight I can see a couple of things I could have done better and I made a couple of observations to remember for the future. Things to improve include buying a better pen in order to give me a nicer cursive script, I was amazed at how many of my pens are not truly water proof too. :/
Observation wise I noticed that the longer I left the latex, the smoother the worm. If it's still quite tacky I found I got holes that resulted in a more degraded tissue effect, that's useful of course, sometimes a degraded tissue effect looks better. I also found that chalk dust and colored chalk dust gave a different effect. Not so dirty but more dusty if you see what I mean. The colored dust gives a more chemical environment look.
I had to use a walnut ink pad for the label as I couldn't get the crystals but I have them on order and they will be in this week. I look forward to that.
Wax microwaved well too I found , no need for a double boiler but the pyrex jug I used does get a bit hot and it needs stirring every 30 seconds or so."
"The fan of both horror and theatre is sure to have heard of Grand Guignol. Though a producer of a variety of works, the infamous Parisian theatre is best known for its horror plays performed in the years leading up to World War II. Founded in 1894 by Oscar Méténier, Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol offered up stories such as Le Laboratoire des Hallucinations, by André de Lorde: A doctor performs gruesome brain surgery his wife’s new-found lover. The man is turned into an insane zombie and plunges a chisel into the doctor’s brain. Anyone familiar with EC Comics will recognize the kind of plots this theatre performed.
When a theatre regularly displays amputations, burning in acid, eviscerations, stabbings and all other manner of violent actions, a prop person may ask: how realistic were these effects, and how were they pulled off?"
"As to the comments about the accoutrements on the table:
And the Mysteries of the Worm Tome -it was indeed an online auction purchase.I am a collector.....
VINTAGE PORTABLE FOLDING SMITH-CORONA No. 3 TYPEWRITER
Serial # 453976
This typewriter is unique not only because it folds up, but in that each key is capable of typing lower case, upper case, and a symbol. Yes, that's right THREE different functions for each key.
OK, I know you collectors out there are well aware of this, but I was impressed when I saw it, as well as the fact that the shift key raises the carriage instead of the striking keys. This is really a magnificent example of early 20th century engineering and manufacturing.
According to the serial number, this unit was manufactured in 1922 - This could have been used to type shopping lists for Al Capone, or the peace agreement between Joe Masseria and Umberto Valenti right before Umberto was gunned down in the street. Heck, maybe Calvin Coolidge or Herbert Hoover penned speeches with it, or perhaps Groucho Marx read scripts that were typed on it, or maybe W.C. Fields spilled a drink on it while Mae West serviced him? Of course, it could have also simply belonged to a regular Joe, but who knows?
1924 EVEREADY 2 “D” cell black painted flashlight. Domed fish-eye glass. On / off push button that also slides forward to lock into the always on position. VERY similar design style to the Yale or vice versa."
"I used Photoshop to make the text with my laser printer on the form - I then took the form, attached a photo I printed out on photo paper to it, and then ran the whole shebang through an inkjet printer to get the 'stamp' effect. I was going for a really textural feel with the medical file - I tried as much as I could to work through the 'process' of how a file would be treated and the physical feel of it different papers used for different documents - a lot of times I see pictures or stamps and the like that are all printed in one layer...there's no sensation there."
