Drooler

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Noxious Soldier

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One Eyed Willy

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Harry Warden Returns

My Bloody Valentine is one of my favorite slasher flicks. I enjoy movies where the killer could be anyone underneath the costume. I spent a good part of this year assembling the miner costume from the MBV 3D remake that was released earlier this year. Chris Carnel is the stuntman/actor who played the miner in the film. I absolutely loved his performance! I had the pleasure of meeting Chris at a convention last year and he is the most down to earth friendly guy.

Shortly after Halloween a friend and I drove to a county park with real caves, a perfect setting to photograph me as Harry Warden. Unfortunately most of the pictures did not turn out.
I've been wanting to go back to the caves and do a reshoot. This weekend, Ames and I set aside time but found out the park is closed for the year. Needless to say we had to find an alternate location. A week ago I discovered an old shut-down alcohol plant nearby. I spoke with the owner and was granted permission to take pictures there. We were not allowed inside the building as it was being rented, so we had to be creative outside. We talked our friend Julie into playing the "victim" in some shots. We had lots of fun and the shoot went very well. I wish we could have been there closer to dusk but we made the most of it. Here are a few of my favorite shots of the miner.

Settling In

Last night I was organizing pictures and came across this one I took in late September. I remember the fog was starting to creep into some of the lowlying areas. Thought it looked neat across the dusky landscape.

Giant Strawman

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Corn Cross

The other day I had Children of the Corn playing in the shop. It inspired me to make this corn cross. I snapped a photo of it in our field. Now all it needs hangin on it is a scarecrow....or a corpse.

Big Daddy

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Completed Necronomicon Stand

I finished this book stand yesterday. The next one I make I want to have more exposed bone and some extra flesh hanging down.

Zombie Pumpkin

Here is a new resin bust by Pilcrow Designs. I simply LOVE this piece. You can see more of his art and creations at his website:

http://pilcrowdesigns.deviantart.com/

Peculiar

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Tooth Decay

This guy is still hanging around our front porch. Will he make

it to December? We'll see : )

Brightly Lit

These jacko's look right at home on our front steps. We do our annual pumpkin carving about a week before Halloween. It's become a family tradition of ours to carve pumpkins, bake pumpkin seeds, and feast on seeds and pumpkin cider. We always have some sort of scary music playing in the background. My son really likes the Halloween 3 soundtrack. He must be a chip off the old block : ) When our son goes to bed we watch a scary movie, munch on some more seeds and drink more cider. Mmm yummy.

So I Like Masks

I have been fascinated with masks for quite some time. It started when I was a kid after I saw John Carpenter's Halloween, Halloween 3 and few of the Friday the 13th movies. My parents were the type that didn't really want me watching scary movies but at the same time they didn't forbid it. I loved how creepy masks looked and this really intrigued me. From that point on I wanted to wear a mask every year for Halloween. At that time I only knew of mass produced masks that were sold at retail stores during the Halloween season. As a kid you don't really know what a good quality mask is; you just know if you like it or not. My mother was nice enough to take me mask shopping every year and if I was to get a mask I remember it had to be creepy. Nothing nice or cute to her dismay.

The first mask I bought on my own was a Don Post Michael Myers (I still have it although it is in poor shape) at a seasonal costume shop. They had a lot of nicer masks that I didn't see in Shopko or Kmart. Then in high school a friend introduced me to Death Studios. He showed me one of their color catalogues and as I looked through it, I was captivated. I had never seen masks of their quality or selection before. My interest in masks grew and I started buying a few high quality masks. Later I found Darkside Studios, another fine mask company. Soon I was discovering other independent mask makers on the Internet. I remember frequently visiting their websites and spending hours staring at all their different masks. They all looked so good it was hard to decide what to buy. When I made the decision to start collecting seriously, I narrowed my interest down to scarecrows and pumpkins. There is something just simplistic yet creepy about them. In my opinion, scarecrows and pumpkins make up the essence of Halloween, just like witches, ghosts and goblins.

During this time I have had the pleasure of getting to know many of the mask artists out there. I have tremendous respect for their art and enjoy watching the new sculpts they create. I hope to collect masks long into the future and for as long as mask artists continue to make them!

My Array of Masks

Most of my collection I obtained from independent mask makers. I prefer to purchase my masks new as opposed to second hand. This is for several reasons: a new mask has not been handled by anyone other than the original maker and I can care for it properly from day one.

Latex masks won't last forever, but I want them to look good for as long as possible. This is why I take very good care of them...ok ok, I'm obsessed. I don't wear any of them except for a few. They are all kept in a locked room where I keep the temperature between 65-70 degrees. Every few months I powder the inside of them with cornstarch and dust the outside. They never see sunlight as this will dry out latex. I rarely need to vacuum the carpet in my mask room because it gets so little foot traffic. Plus vacuums can emit dust while they are running!

This is my collection as of now...

In Flames

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Return of the Sandman

Here is the trailer of a Halloween fan film by Southlan-Films.


Visit Southlan-Films site to watch the entire film
http://www.youtube.com/user/southlanfilmsusa

Jack

Tim Burton would be proud.

Scarecrow festival
Originally uploaded by Alic86

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Barren

This tree is growing next to our property line and it is HUGE. It has to be at least 4 feet in diameter at it's base. I can only guess how old it is, but I hope it stands for many more years.

Necronomicon Stand

This is a book stand I'm making that a customer ordered. I've painted a base coat and need to do some finishing yet. I haven't made anything since Halloween and am glad to be working on a prop again.

Wicked Mask

This looks like a scarecrow bust, but it's actually a mask. Talk about creepy. I found this while browsing a mask forum. I would love to get my hands on this.

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Pick

My buddy took a few pictures of me in my Halloween costume this year. I need to organize the rest of the pictures so until then here's one of my favorites.