Miskatonic Antarctic Expedition Patch Now Available

In 1930 an expedition from Miskatonic University arrived in the Antarctic. Shortly thereafter a remote survey camp began exploring a newly discovered chain of mountains and radioed back the details of an incredible discovery.

Hours later, every man in the camp was dead.

The controversy over what happened to the poor souls in that isolated outpost still rages today. Where they killed by a freakishly powerful storm, as the official inquiry ruled? Or were they the victims of a mass, homicidal rage induced by tainted food, as some have suggested? And what of the mysterious discovery they claimed to have made shortly before radio contact was lost?

Those questions may never be answered, but now you can own a small piece of that ill-fated expedition's history: the famed "Wings Over Antarctica" Miskatonic University Expedition Patch.



Each 4"(10cm) diameter patch has an iron-on backing so they can easily be attached to the garment of your choice. The price for European customers is slightly higher because of the increased cost of shipping.

Things In A Bottle

"I Make Projects" has a great how-to posted on creating things in a bottle:

It can be really fun to see what can be made! Jars can be saved and washed, or purchased cheaply at thrift stores. Old toys, plastic animals, fishing lures and all sorts of other things offer great possibilities.

A good talent to develop is what to show and what to cover. Colored or murky water can be used to shadow or otherwise obscure specimens that you don't want seen in too much detail. Strategically-placed labels can cover up bits that don't look quite right. Adding things to the inside of the jar (like sand, rocks, fake plants, etc) can also conceal or highlight things on the inside.

Knowing what to highlight and what to conceal can go a long ways to making a good specimen great! Have fun, and remember that if you don't like how it looks you can always start over!

I think the best part is that the results look great while being amazingly cheap to produce. There's a place for high-end props that take time and money to create, but quick-and-dirty is equally useful.

Madness!

It's not quite as nice as a full-blown movie, but I finally finished my faux trailer for the Hollywood version of "At the Mountains of Madness".



Hopefully, this will also mark the start of a project that I've been slowly building towards over the last couple of months. Next week I'll begin taking orders for the ATMOM Antarctic expedition patch and after that I hope to produce one limited edition Mythos-related item every six weeks.

There's been an explosion of "Call of Cthulhu" and Lovecraft related merchandise over the past year, but I think there's still an under served demand for limited-run props and Mythos paraphernalia. I know I'm not going to get rich serving that market, particularly when I intend to keep the price of anything I produce under the $10 mark, but there's enough demand there to justify production runs of items what would be cost prohibitive to produce individually.

Old And Ancient Wood

I came across a great tutorial on artificially aging wood over here at Xrestore, a clock restoration site.

New wood looks a lot different than old wood. Old, unfinished wood often has a dark, dull gray color resulting from oxidation over time. When stained and/or finished, new wood will continue to look noticeably different than old. In order to cleanly integrate new parts into an old case, the new wood needs to be aged.......

Aging of wood cannot be achieved with stains or finishes. What is needed is a means to actually oxidize the wood fibers, but in a much short time than occurs naturally.

There are products on the market for aging wood and they all work to one degree or another. As an alternative to commercial products, I have found that some common household products can be used to very effectively oxidize and age wood.

The needed solutions are simple to make an use. The results are very impressive..............

Combine this treatment with some careful physical distressing and you can convert a cheap craft box from Michael's or the Hobby Lobby into an ancient coffer suitable for all kinds of eldritch artifacts.

Behind the Pallid Mask

While I appreciate the link from Behind the Pallid Mask, I do have to admit I found some of his dreams somewhat disturbing. Then again, that's rather the point of his blog. If his planned scenario is half as good as some of his dreams are it's going to be a must-have.

At The Mountains Of Madness Expedition Patch Sample

Here's the final sample of the ATMOM expedition patch in physical form. The project was slightly delayed because there were some small problems with the initial embroidery patterns, but those were easily fixed thanks to the great folks at the company that's actually producing the patch. Just click on the picture to see the full-sized scan.

"At the Mountains of Madness" Expedition Patch

I'm getting ready to dive into the massive "Beyond the Mountains of Madness" adventure for Call of Cthulu and one of the props I'd like to produce for the party is the embroidered patch from the original Miskatonic expedition. Is this something anyone else would be interested in? I'm going to need about ten copies, but I'd prefer to put in a larger order since the price per patch goes down significantly as the order size increases.

This is the design I'm leaning towards right now, but I'm open to any suggestions you might have. Do you like it? Hate it? Any way I could improve it?

Update: Here's an alternate version with a touch more color. I'd already filled in a bit of the southern and eastern bay area of the continent, but as several commenters have pointed out it would be more realistic to have a less-detailed coastline.



Update: This is the current version.