Plants

I was able to finish all 43 of the little plants by Saturday night, which takes a lot of the pressure off me as the countdown to Friday continues.

I've been working non-stop the past week or so, and will continue to push through until Thursday. Still have to paint the eyeballs for the 3 large plants, and finish the 3 Plague Doctors who are waiting for their faces to be sculpted.

In between, I'll be gathering the other million little things you need to have at a show. And I am absolutely itching to post pictures of some of the new little minions for you, but there just isn't time right now.

I'm excited for Festival of Fear. I'm also really looking forward to the relaxing Monday that follows it.

Can't sleep. The plants will eat me. Can't sleep. The plants will eat me.

That's what it's been like for me for the past several days. Or has it been weeks? I've lost all track of time in my dark garden as I cultivate 43 little plants and 3 large ones.

People often ask me how long it takes to make these, especially lately when I mentioned I was making such a big batch at once. To entertain myself, I've decided to measure it by my Twin Peaks collection (as this is what I decided to watch each time I sat down to work on them).

Turns out it takes longer than the entire series of 29 episodes, plus a few hours of bonus features, plus the movie Fire Walk With Me.

I had guessed I'd be in the special features by the time I was working on the pupils. Man, was I off.

Must go. I have a week left to get these puppies done, and I still have the crazy notion I might be able to get a Plague Doctor or two finished before the 27th. *twitch*

Plus, I need to get to the store. I have this weird craving for doughnuts and cherry pie.

No watering, no replanting, no trimming. No need for sunshine.

Apologies in advance for their awful staring habit. I've tried to break them of it, but there's just no use.

I'm offering up 3 Peek-A-Boo Eyeball plants for sale: red eyed, green eyed, and yellow eyed.

Each one is made of...well, a hodge podge of materials covered in paper mache and presented in a plastic pot with a mold motif.

I know a number of my readers now make their own (as evidence of the fantastic pictures I've been sent over the last year or so). But perhaps there's one or two (or three) of you left who haven't been able to make it to my shows and would love to have a ready-made one ;)

They are the big seller at Festival of Fear which is only 3 weeks away, which means I won't be able to offer any more at this time. I actually have 28 stems waiting to be tended to and 3 large plants half finished, and I'm hoping to make an additional 28 plants for the show (yes, that would be a total of 59 plants to make. Yes, I've developed a twitch in my right eye just thinking about it).

Each plant is being sold for $30 CDN plus shipping and handling. See each one for size details as they do vary.

Click the images below for a larger view.

Here they are. The first 18 mini peek-a-boos.

I would love to come out and find them with my other plants on my porch each morning.

I decided to make an entire gallery in the Art Ghoullery just for my plants. If I ever get around to building for this year's Halloween, there should be more to come.

As you know, me and my black thumb have been working on 28 Peekaboo mini plants. Well, 27 (I spoke too soon when I said I had enough to finish them all in my last post).

Yesterday was spent securing the styrofoam bases and stems to the pots using newspaper strip mache.

Once that dried and all the items were stable, I applied toilet paper mache to the sections of wire that were wrapped around the stem. I didn't want them jostling position when I got to the more delicate task of creating the foliage.

Now that the book is done, I can get back to prop making. One of the final things I'll be making for the Festival of Fear is a collection of 28 mini peekaboo plants.

I spent the morning cutting out circles of styrofoam to fill the base of each pot. I gathered some sturdy little branches for the stem support, and - while standing in my diningroom - used hedge clippers to cut them down to size. Nothing like chasing after projectile bits of tree launched off garden tools first thing in the morning.

Luckily, Yetch was still sleeping at this point.

They say imitation is the highest form of flattery. If this is true, I am humbled by the flattery that has come as a result of my Peek-A-Boo Plant prop.

The first came from KellieG on Haunt Forum. She used ivy leaves for her plant.

The second (seen later in this post) can be found on Haunt Space by Spookymulder76.

I think they are just great, and I love seeing someone else's interpretation of the same item.

If you have done your own version of Peek-A-Boo, I would love to know about it. Send me a picture or a link and (with your permission) I will add it to this post.

And hey, let me know if you happen to spot one too! Added Sept 17th 2008: by ghost37.