Here’s a knockoff that I think I like better than the original. Kirsten of Studs and Pearls was inspired by this silver-and-crystal brooch to create this far (far!) cheaper alternative. She’s posted a tutorial, which could hardly be easier: Spray-paint a plastic skeleton hand (available at party and craft stores around Halloween or year-round at Pushin’ Daisies) in the desired color, glue on rhinestones, and attach a brooch pinback. This is a super-cute fastener for a scarf or decoration for a tote bag.
You could go further and cover the entire hand with rhinestones, or do the “blood dripping” thing from the original using a string of little red seed beads. If rhinestones aren’t your thing you could spray it with glue and coat it with glitter, or decorate it with puff paint.
Since the plastic is lightweight, you could decorate several hands in different styles and mass them together on a sweater or run them along a purse strap. It’s certainly an arresting (and inexpensive!) way to make a statement.
A while back Bonni Reid mentioned this peculiar vintage ad for “voodoo kits” which contained, quote, “Haitian doll, hand-carved mahogany needles to stick in doll, chicken feathers, voodoo dirt, list of awful voodoo curses.” After being rendered momentarily speechless by the ad copy, it occurred to me that a DIY kit would be sort of fun to put together.
Although popular culture nearly always depicts voodoo dolls as being used for evil purposes, actual practitioners generally use them for positive goals such as healing illness or sparking romance. A kit with a doll (or components to make one), pins, and other accessories would be a novel gift to celebrate someone’s new job or other life-changing event. (Depending upon the amount of stock you put in the efficacy of “magic,” you may wish to include a note indicating the belief that using the doll for malign ends will result in karmic backlash.)
Starting with the doll, you can either sew a simple cloth rag-doll or make a more “traditional” one from sticks and Spanish moss.
For the former, either hand-draw a basic human shape for use as a pattern, or look around for simple cloth doll patterns such as this or this. Fabric can be anything from basic muslin to silk brocade, depending on how primitive you want the doll to look and/or the tastes of the person you’re making it for. Add facial features, a heart, and optional “targets” with embroidery or fabric paint, then sew, turn (optional), and stuff. For the one in the photo up there, I wanted a very rustic look so I used a rough natural cotton and ran the seam along the outside so that the edges would eventually fray.
(No prizes, but if you can answer them all without googling you get bragging rights.)
In the 6th installment of A Nightmare on Elm Street, Freddy Krueger’s father is seen in flashback. What singer portrayed the father?
Will-o’-the-wisps are also known as corpse candles, friar’s lanterns, and spook-lights. Their Latin name is ignis fatuus which translates as what?
Death-rock band Skeletal Family derived their name from a song by what well-known rock star?
This 1953 play by Arthur Miller is a dramatization of the Salem witch trials.
Complete the title of Lord Dunsany’s most popular (and most gruesome) horror tale: “Two Bottles of ___”
This Swedish film focuses on the relationship between a child named Oskar and a childlike vampire named Eli.
The scary clown prop from the movie Poltergeist is now prominently displayed in what Las Vegas hotel/casino?
Burke and Hare were two “resurrectionists” who eventually turned to murder to supply fresh corpses for anatomical dissection. What was the name of the doctor who bought their merchandise?
Who played Septimus Pretorious, the sinister doctor who promised Frankenstein’s Monster a mate, in Bride of Frankenstein (1935)?
“Every nail, claw-scale and spur, every spike
and welt on the hand of that heathen brute
was like barbed steel. Everybody said
there was no honed iron hard enough
to pierce him through, no time proofed blade
that could cut his brutal blood caked claw”
This is from the Seamus Heaney translation of a work that is extremely important in Western culture. What is it?
This looks like fun. Troll Hunter is a Norwegian Blair Witch-esque “mockumentary” about students hunting trolls in modern Norway. It will be available in the U.S. in limited release in June, and apparently available on DVD soon after. Here’s the English-language version of the trailer:
Ghost Osama – Faux-celebrity Twitter account of dead Osama. This appeared about an hour and a half after the announcement of his death. Black comedy never sleeps.
“From the Deep” Dinnerware – Pretty dishes patterned with sea life, heavy on the cephalopods. I love that the teacups have tentacles for handles.
Here’s an oddly charming little time-waster: Developer Tomas Eriksson has several simple Flash-based activities on his site, including one where you interact with a realistic-looking spider.
It drops from above when the page loads, and you can drag it around the floor by clicking on its body or legs. Double-clicking on the floor will drop “bugs” for it to eat, and once it runs out of insects it will scamper after your mouse like a friendly puppy hoping for more treats. I sort of want to hug it.
I wish there was a way to enable this on my computer desktop; I’d enjoy having a big hairy spider come to greet me whenever I closed a window.
Bonus link: A zillion years ago (give or take), a company called Virtual Creatures offered a couple of desktop “pets,” including a tarantula. They’re long gone, but you can still download a trial version of the software.
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The Brooklyn Limestone blog is primarily devoted to recording the renovations being done to a Brooklyn limestone (duh), but they also have a healthy interest in Halloween.
A couple of their parties have included wonderfully elaborate invitations. Their 2009 party invitation was a box which included a “creature survival kit:” Wooden stake, silver bullet, holy water, and so forth. They followed up with a circus theme in 2010 with invitations featuring “preserved Siamese twins” in a little specimen jar. I don’t know if I’d have the energy to come up with any other party details after devising the invitations.
These really are a brilliantly effective means of immediately creating an atmosphere. They probably wouldn’t be practical for a very large gathering, but they’re just perfect for small-ish parties or weddings.
Here’s a nice way to add a subtle touch of gothiness to a room: Ameroonie Designs has instructions for making a throw pillow covered with bats.
Since the bats are made of felt their edges won’t fray, so there’s no need to worry about seaming the edges. The tutorial unfortunately doesn’t include a pattern, but searching “bat pattern” turns up plenty of suitable candidates, such as this one.
The pillow is made from the same felt as the bats, but there’s no reason why you couldn’t just decorate a pre-made pillow instead.
The blogger also did a “sequel” pillow using pumpkins, and the two together are a lovely matched set.
B-Movie Bags – A whole collection of handbags painted in the style of B-movie posters. The artist doesn’t currently have an outlet for sales, but welcomes enquiries.
Anya’s Ghost – An intriguing YA novel that begins as a story about a girl having trouble fitting in at school and ends as a straight-up ghost story. There’s a review over at BoingBoing.
Spiders Are Wonderful – Entertaining “children’s” book extolling the beauty of spiders.
Heretic – Utterly gorgeous (sadly, limited-edition and sold out) sofa made from a casket. (Hat tip to Maven)
gothgardener – A LiveJournal community devoted to…just what you’d expect.
Here’s a knockoff that I think I like better than the original. Kirsten of Studs and Pearls was inspired by this silver-and-crystal brooch to create this far (far!) cheaper alternative. She’s posted a tutorial, which could hardly be easier: Spray-paint a plastic skeleton hand (available at party and craft stores around Halloween or year-round at Pushin’ Daisies) in the desired color, glue on rhinestones, and attach a brooch pinback. This is a super-cute fastener for a scarf or decoration for a tote bag.
A while back Bonni Reid mentioned 
Here’s an oddly charming little time-waster: Developer Tomas Eriksson has several simple Flash-based activities on his site, including one where you interact with a realistic-looking 
The 
Here’s a nice way to add a subtle touch of gothiness to a room: Ameroonie Designs has instructions for making a 
