Hallowe'en Mantle 2015 - I almost didn't do it.

Since last mid September I have been dealing with prostate issues; surgery will be happening in a couple of months. I also had a hernia occur at the same time and the surgery for that will happen after the other surgery, unless God heals those two areas like He healed my back almost two years ago. Needless to say I am moving around at a somewhat slower pace.

All of this makes me sound like a total wreck! I'm not, life happens!

I was so late this year with taking down Thanksgiving that I almost didn't put up any of my Hallowe'en decorations. I did put up decorations but it happened in three seperate stages, each time saying, "Well, that is all I am going to do".

This year's Hallowe'en display is slimmer and very different. I began taking down the Thanksgiving items five days before Hallowe'en. As I was doing this I decided I would do a token display.

I left the wooden stool and all of the leaves and flowers in place. Canadian Thanksgiving is two weeks before Hallowe'en so October 31 for me has included coloured leaves, flowers, berries as well as pumpkins and squash of all sorts.

Fireworks were definitely a part of Hallowe'en growing up in Victoria. More and more people are setting them off in their yards again. I love it!

I went into the garage and brought out the prop fireworks that I made many years ago for a Hallowe'en window display.

These were arranged on the hearth section and on the mantle. The raku pots were added and that was all that I was going to do. I was exhausted.

The raku pots are always on the hearth, the colours are muted and autumnal, that is the only reason that they were included in the display.

This metal tambourine was a gift from a friend for repair work done on some of her vintage Christmas items; I am glad that she had doubles of it. Thank-you Karen, I love it. It was added later along with the other Hallowe'en collectables.

A day or two later I was in the garage and remembered the ebony vanity set that I had bought at Salvation Army for about $8.00 and a turned ebony/teak candlestick that I had bought for about $4.00; out they came and were arranged on the marble side table, $15.00 from Sally Ann. I love shopping at Salvation Army!

My bottle of Carter's mucilage, an old oil can, a vintage marble, a piece of a broken saucer found in the garden, and feathers were added. Two purple and one orange candle finished off the vignette.

I was done.

When the few Hallowe'en items were introduced to the merry mix I added this wonderful Japanese ceramic pumpkin candy dish.

right click for a larger view

Two days before Hallowe'en I decided that I would put out the few items that were in an antique cupboard in the garage; everything else is packed in boxes and stored away.

The hand-carved farmer and the squirrel nodder were part of the Thanksgiving display, two of my favourite pieces. Those two pieces and the fireworks were all that going to be in this years "sort of" Hallowe'en display;  and then the few Hallowe'en items were brought out.

right click for a larger view

These were the fortunate items to be displayed this year.

Here is a close-up of some of my owls. The egg cup is Japanese. I picked it up at Salvation Army about two months ago, I have never seen this design before. The owl beside the eggcup is a tape measure. His head, wings, feet, and branch that he is standing on are brass and his body I think is bakelite.

The little pumpkin head in behind is a stickpin.

The chenille witch is sitting in front a burgundy fez so she is a little difficult to see clearly.

right click for a larger view

The rest of this year's display; party hats, Gurley candles, a fairly new plastic pumpkin whistle, a celluloid witch lantern, a wind-up black cat, and three pumpkin cups each with different glaze combinations. The pale peach pumpkin cup I picked up in a thrift shop in Sydney, a town about thirty minutes drive from us.

Oh, I forgot to mention, the pins that you see marching along the front of the mantle were supposed to hold lights in place with some sort of garland or leaves to disguise the wires. That never happened, I was just to tired and busy to do it or even care about doing it!

Hand Painted Japanese Rice Paper for the Fireworks Shadow Box

I suppose you could call this post a bit of a tutorial, that is without giving a complete step by step process!

I use acrylic paint to paint the paper. I brought down a selection of paints that had been premixed for other projects, this is a great way of using up old paint.

The shadow box is in the background. I decided to attach wire mesh to the outside of the shadow box and then wire the fireworks to the mesh. The back and sides have been painted with the same paint that will used as an undercoat on the paper.

Our trusty garden work table, the remains of a picnic table that I disliked very much has been turned into a work station. I grabbed a piece of coreplast plastic to lay the paper on while I painted it. Once it is painted it has to be carefully lifted so that it won't stick to the plastic; then set on the table to dry. When the paint is dry then the other side is painted.

This long sheet of paper was the remains of a roll of heavier weight rice paper. This paper is so much easier to handle when wet than the lighter weight rice paper.

These small sections of ricepaper were from a pad of paper for brush painting. The paper was a little thin and would easily tear when it was wet.

The finished long sheet of rice paper. Both sides were painted with the undercoat of olive/khaki green. Once the paper was dry I dripped and daubed autumn leaf colours onto the paper, then blending them with a large brush and a sea sponge.

I didn't mention but that green paint was created quite a while ago for this sculpture. I wanted a generic packing crate paper green. I used some of my jars of paint from previous sculptures to create the colour. I ended up with quite a lot more than needed but most of it was used for this project.

This shows the base colour and the finished strip of paper with the variegated autumn leaf colours; both sides were painted. When the individual leaf is cut from the paper it will have the colours of an autumn leaf.  I will cut the paper into long strips of small leaf shapes that will then be crushed, opened up, and then wound around the wire stems holding the fireworks in position around the frame. I want to hide the wires but also add background interest and suggest the time of year that the fireworks will be used.

I much prefer using hand-painted papers because they are sturdier so they will not crush or tear as easily as crepe-papier. The paper colour is permanent and will not fade; something that I have noticed to my horror with very early items I had made many years ago when I used crepe-papier.

The party horn that the snowman is holding has a yellow painted paper frill and circles punched from painted paper to create the design on the body of the horn. The rose, green tutfs and yellow coils at the base of the rose are all painted paper as well.

This pickle's Hallowe'en party hat was created from hand painted papers and a large antique paper fastener. Buy him here in my Etsy shop.

A Last Good-bye to Autumn.

I love Autumn. I love the colours of the leaves and flowers. I love the colours and shapes of squash, gourds, and pumpkins. I love the crispness of the autumn air. As a last hurrah here are some of my favourite images from this year. They range from late summer/early autumn to the end of October. Good bye Autumn and hello Winter.