Once upon All Hallows Eve, I sat idle, my aim to achieve
Something for a blog that would not so greatly bore.
While I sat, almost sleeping, there came a guilt, gently creeping,
Creeping like a ghost through me to my core.
‘Damn,’ Thought I, ‘why could I not have prepared myself before?’
‘Prepared myself for more Halloween decor?’
Ah, distinctly I remember, back in August and September,
When I should have begun many a design for Halloween art galore.
Instead I was busy crafting, with pen and paper busy drafting,
Other projects not related to the festival I so adore.
A festival I should have seen approaching at the fore,
Those months are gone for evermore.
The ideas I should have completed, and mediums I could have greeted
With the passion of one who treated All Hallows as a secret amour.
Instead I sit here much dejected, feeling guilty and rejected,
Because I neglected to make plans long enough before.
Because I didn’t pay attention to the calendar lore.
I can only blame myself for evermore.
So what will I share this chill October, when what is lacking makes me sober,
So sobered by the dearth of Halloween projects upon my floor?
At the present what I can relate are so few things done for this date,
Things not so well accomplished as in former days of yore.
Only a handful of sad little projects to explore.
So few things to share therefore.
The first such project I did conclude was one I thought a little crude,
A costume of a charming lion for a niece whom I do adore.
Crocheted mane, ears, tail and feet, for a child so naïve and sweet,
Who has nightly practiced her mighty lion’s roar.
She doesn’t know auntie would rather be arm deep in phony gore,
Or reading about a raven named Nevermore.
Then I turned a gloomy eye to a sweater I have long decried.
I must embroider this offensive garment so I do not deplore
The wearing of such a cloth, but might I not design a motif so goth,
Like the spider’s webs I sew upon the breast of this I wore?
‘Tis worlds better than it was before.
Although I wish it ‘twere much more.
Lastly in this Halloween farce I sought to carve a Jack so sparse,
Only something a comrade might not deem an eyesore.
A flash of knife on pumpkin rind, towards the bizarre I am inclined,
And so I shape this Hallow’s lantern with an alien door.
One, a ship and the other a twinned horror,
To light the stoop of my front door.
That is all I can now say, All Hallows Eve has come this day.
I was not prepared this year, although I do implore
Do not judge me by just one night, I still have much insight,
And there are many more crafts I can explore,
And come next year I will restore,
My love of Halloween, for evermore.
-Lyzard (Channeling Poe)
Most craft stores carry these inexpensive unfinished wood items like this one, but you could also try garage sales and thrift stores for even cooler finds.
Here’s where I learned a lot about painting on mirrors. Evidently the paint I bought at the craft store that is specifically made for glass does NOT work in an airbrush, even watered down. Oops. So I used a pearlized white airbrush paint instead. The only issue is that the airbrush paint I have is in no way permanent on glass. This was both a boon and a curse. I had to re-paint several times after I had smudged the “ghost” image with my hand while I was doing some later painting. However, the paint came right off with some glass cleaner which gave me the chance to perfect my airbrush/stencil technique. For now this mirror will have to be totally “hands-off” when it is finished and hanging on the wall.
I realize most people do not own airbrushes. One alternative would be to free-hand paint a face on your mirror with some glass paint or even acrylic paint and a brush. Another idea would be to make a stencil with paper or stencil material and using a sponge lightly fill in the stencil with paint. That could possibly give the “ghost” a very cloudy and insubstantial look. To soften up any part of the “ghost” use a sponge that has been lightly sprayed with a glass cleaner and gently daub around in a random pattern. You have to do this while the paint is still wet or you may have some very distracting dried paint flakes all over your image.
With the mirror finished the next step is to work on the wooden frame portion.
I used a combination of a clay extruder gun, an X-acto knife and my hands to fashion the individual designs. To make it easier to I traced the frame onto a foil-covered baking sheet. This eliminated the need to compare each design against the wood background before transferring it to the baking sheet and potentially distorting the designs. After the clay reliefs came out of the oven I glued them to the wood with an epoxy.
Finally, I got to do some painting. Although blue is not usually my first choice in furniture colors I thought a light silvery blue would give this piece a more antique feel. The paint I used was your basic craft-store acrylic paint in Wedgewood Blue, a pearlescent white, and a little black to grey out the color a bit.
After the frame was painted and had dried I decided to try a crackle finish to give it an aged appearance. I had never worked with this crackle medium before so I wasn't exactly sure how it would work out. After I painted on the crackle finish and let it dry I found that the effect was too subtle for my taste, even after two thick coats, so I had to take the painting one step further.
To make the crackling more dramatic and to give the frame an even more aged look I mixed black acrylic paint with water and painted the whole piece before going back over the frame with a paper towel to soak up the excess paint and water. From there it was just a matter of letting the paint dry and putting the mirror back into it's frame.
I'm happy with the result and all-in-all I can say the experiment was pretty successful. Maybe next Halloween season I'll try my hand at that more complicated build, but for now I'm satisfied with my ghost-in-the-mirror.
