The Late Reveal of My Halloween Project

I have not made a blog post since August, when I completed weaving a denim rug.  That project took several months to complete, and I felt like I had hit a burn out point.  I needed a break before going on to something new.

Also, I developed a problem with my thumb and wrist.  I have arthritis, and I thought that the weaving was causing an arthritis flare up.  I thought that if I rested the wrist for a while that things would settle down eventually.  After resting my hand and wrist for a long while without relief I went to my doctor.  My doctor recommended that I see a hand surgeon.  I put off going to the surgeon for a while because it was autumn and we travel a frequently at that time of year.  So, after Thanksgiving, I made an appointment with the surgeon.

Over using the joint was a part of the problem, but it was not the problem that I thought it was.  I had a metal plate in the wrist from an old injury.  Moving and twisting my wrist was causing the metal plate to damage the tendon.  So essentially the hand quilting and weaving I had been doing for the last year was aggravating the situation.  After making the appointment, and having an MRI, it was determined that I needed surgery, which I had mid-December.  My thumb and wrist are still in a cast.  Hopefully, the cast comes off at the end of the month. 

During the fall, I was working on a Halloween project,  but did not post anything about it.  I could only work on it for about twenty minutes a day or my wrist hurt.   I was at a point that could work on my project or I had could blog, but not both.  I chose to work on my project.  By the time it was completed, just before Halloween, I really did not feel much like typing at all.

So at long last, here is my Halloween project.  At least part one.  I plan to eventually turn it into a centerpiece by adding leaves and skulls around it.  One of these days I will get back to it.

For those interested in crafting their own piece the basic highlights of how it was created are as follows.

I covered a foam head from the craft store with Press and Seal.  I found that Press and Seal (available at most grocery stores) works well with paper mâché.  The Press and Seal allows the layers of paper to be released without damage to the original form.  My only caveat is that the material is difficult to cut.  I found that cutting strips of it using a craft knife and a cutting board worked much better than scissors or trying to tear small strips using the sharp edge on the package. 

I only wanted the foam head so I could create a basic head and neck shape.  After adding three layers of the paper mâché, I removed the head from the form.  (Specific instructions as to how I removed the paper head from the foam substrate can be found on previous project on my January 21, 2018 blog post.  Scroll through the year 2018 to see how I made a life size doll from paper mâché.and PVC.)

Once the head was removed and put back together, I began to build and shape the head.  I started out thinking that I was going to make a witch head for a centerpiece.  However, the more I worked on it the more it seemed like it should be a devil.  So I went with it. After the face had taken shape I made rings of paper and tape and stacked the rings on top of each other, sloping them backwards to get the curve of the horns to curve.  A word to the wise is sufficient here:  use a level and a ruler frequently to make sure that your horns are staying even on both sides.  It is easier to catch a mistake in the angle early than to try to correct it later.

After the horns, it was only a matter of painting the head.  I wanted the head to have a glow to it rather than being a flat red.  I under painted with two layers of acrylic metallic gold and used three layers translucent red paints to achieve the effect.   In some ways the red seems uncomfortably bright.  I decided to leave it as it is rather than trying to dull the reds.  After all, a devil should make you feel a little uncomfortable.

My burnout phase is over for the moment.  I am ready to get back into my studio and get some work done,  I will be blogging again next Sunday on my projects for 2020.