Project 3 Terra's Beloved Tombstone Students Thread

[Terra]

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Terra one of the things that I would like to know is what type of base would you suggest I use to build for this project to rest on. I remember you saying something about this in an earlier post.

Another question once the project is finished, what do you feel is the weight of the entire thing?

I used plywood as a base. It is about two inches wider all around the stone and extends under her dress. But, I thought it would look better if you didn't see the wood under her dress. Big Mistake! When it came time to move her, I discovered there was no way to get a grip on the dress side of her. See, you need two people to maneuver her. But, because I didn't have the two inch plywood sticking out from under her dress, there was no way to pick her up up on that side. The monster mud and Drylok make the dress pretty strong but not enough to lift from. I would have bent and/or cracked the dress. So, my suggestion, make sure you design the plywood base to have handholds.

She's not very heavy (guessing here - 35 pounds ?) but AWKWARD! If I were to do her over, I would have a hole drilled in each corner of the plywood base so I could thread a rope through so I could lift her up and carry.

[LV Scott T]

[QUOTE=Terra;651930]Sounds really interesting. So, you are going to show more of the skeletal structure of the woman from what I'm gathering. That is intriguing and a cool take...even more scary. I've never corpsed before so I'm a bit at a loss in advising you on that.

Oops, sorry about the confusion. Wrong "corpsing". Years ago, I learned a technique that was also called "corpsing" at that time. You mix equal parts of latex paint and a non-hardening craft glue (like Ailenes), saturate cloth or paper towels with it, and apply it to a skeleton or other frame. It dries in the color of the paint, so there is no need to start with a base coat when finishing. The finished texture can be made smooth by flatenning and blending the pieces of fabric/paper towel, or wrinkled by lightly bunching it up. Details like ears and brow ridges can be made by taking tissue paper and saturating it into a putty-like material. The mixture of glue and paint becomes very much like plastic when dry. It is rigid, but bendable. It is much lighter than Monster Mud and isn't prone to cracking. And, it smells way better!

Here are a few shots of some of my projects I've used this technique on:

One of our 2 full-size corpses:


GiGi (Our Goblin Greeter - with a built-in audio player, amp, and speaker):
Before:

After:


Pirate Ship Facade (this project used 10 gallons of the mixture!):
Mixture with fabric in it:

Saturated Fabric:

Panels Attached:


You see, I can't sculpt like so many of you can. So my idea was to first make a DTD of a woman laying across a table, then cover that (and, later, the dress) with the glue/paint mixture instead of MonsterMud.

[TheGothicPrincess]

I am really excited to see the variations of everyone's project.

Thanks Terra for the update on the base. I thought I remembered you posting that before.

[Terra]

LV Scott T, that sounds likes some cool stuff. So, you use it instead of monster mud and because it has the glue in it, it's already stiff. From what I can gather it doesn't have the bulkiness, it's thinner, right?

If that's true, the one drawback I can think of is that it you lose the bulking up that the mud gives you to help make her look like stone. When I was first looking at the Alice tombstone how-to Haunted Webby - Alice Tombstone it didn't use monster mud, it used Drylok as the dipping agent. She retained much more of the detail of the fabric. To me, I thought it didn't make her look like part of the tombstone. More like a dead woman on the grave. So, that could be an issue. But again, I've never seen your idea and I'm looking forward to seeing how yours turn out. I'm really liking it as a corpsing technique. Same philosophy of mudding but you get a more 'skin-like' texture. Plus, anything smells better than monster mud. It does reek!




I put together a short video of Beloved to help everyone get a closer look at her and see her scale:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ie0YfB4KZqI]YouTube - Beloved Tombstone Tips[/ame]

[TheGothicPrincess]

Excellent video Terra thank you so much.. I have downloaded it and have it on my harddrive...

Ok quick question.. Do you paint, then drylock, then monstermud, what is the correct order?

Could you lay the steps out 1.2.3.... for me.

[Terra]

Here's a quick and dirty 1,2,3... This will scare away a lot of people

1. Cut out foam
2. Assemble inside support
3. Dremel epitaph
4. Assemble stone
5. Shape stone
6. Spray paint stone
7. Drylok (gray Drylok) stone
8. Assemble chicken wire body
9. Make hands
10. Monster mud woman
11. Attach hands
12. Monster mud wig
13. Drylok (using gray Drylok) stone again and woman
14. Plug holes in hair with paper towels
15. Drylok (gray) woman again
16. Drylok(gray) woman a third time
17. Drylok (gray) hair until holes are covered
18. Paint dark gray detail (epitaph, crumbled stone) on stone
19. Tea stain entire tombstone (including woman)
20. Drybrush (gray) entire tombstone (including woman)
21. Paint raw umber details
22. Paint white lichen details
23. Seal up bottom platform
24. Add moss

[Muffy]

I just got back back from my trip & I wanted to say thank you for the great video....that helps so much. & yes this above list of things to do & the order they are done in helps a lot too! I hope I get this lettering correct. I have never put epitaphs that are made on my pc onto stones. All our tombstones were wooden cutouts the last 2 years. First year we cut them out, 2nd year we stenciled on very short epitaphs with stencils.

BUT I learned a lot this last NC Haunters group meeting on how to make tombstones out of styrofoam. SO I think I'm ready to go. Our next meeting will cover aging & air brushing techniques too! I plan on making stones of all kinds for my cemetery this year so this will be one of the projects I'm starting with. I Also wanted to mention that I am making Dave's tombstone that you guys did with the moving head.

I just absolutely loved the tombstone you made with the angel on it. I'm gonna attempt to make that one too. I have a slightly cracked angel I bought after xmas...very cheap. But Jer & I wondered if you could use resin hands & head on that stone because I see you used a barbie which I know is more flexible. I shopped & shopped the thrift stores around here for barbies but no one had any & I would not be caught dead using one of the 19 barbies I have in my Barbie collection!!lol (Yes at 51 I still have my barbie collection>>>no little girls in our family to pass it along to yet!)

BUT!!!!!yesterday on the way home from my trip I stopped in a thrift store down by Ft. Bragg & low & behold I found 2 barbies!!!!!Now I gotta find a dress or maybe can use the angel dress off this resin angel. Terra I'm not very creative or talented in making projects like these but I'm gonna try real hard because I so want these things in my cemetery & I think they are just beautiful! Thank You so much for taking this project on!

Muffy

[daddywoofdawg@hotmail.com]

How thick of foam are you using on the stone? what thickness can I get away with and not wish it was thicker?and how many sheets will I need? I think they come in 4x8" also is there any different between blue and pink?I have built many stones with blue because it was handy but if given the choice is there a diff?

[Terra]

How thick of foam are you using on the stone? what thickness can I get away with and not wish it was thicker?and how many sheets will I need? I think they come in 4x8" also is there any different between blue and pink?I have built many stones with blue because it was handy but if given the choice is there a diff?

No difference between the blue and pink that I can tell except Lowe's carries the blue and Home Depot carries the pink

I used 1 1/2" thick foam and it is plenty strong and allows a lot of room for radical shaping, if desired. I wouldn't feel comfortable using thinner foam unless you want to make a wooden frame.

I used about 1 1/4 sheets of 4' X 8' sheets.

A little warning here. I screwed up my original cuts for Beloved's stone so I had to do some fabricating. The measurements I gave in the tutorial are improved measurements but I have not tested them. So, I'm a little nervous that it will all fit together. It should but I'm not a geometry major

[Scatterbrains]

Well...don't know if I'm going through with building this....but got a wedding dress that meets all the requirements for $19.99 at Savers (a thrift store) yesterday. The only negative is its a size 13, so I'm gonna need a bigger tombstone