Since it is raining outside

right now, and it will likely be raining at least once or twice in October.  I thought this would be a good time to cover "weatherproofing your spider"

Some of the stuff I type these days just baffles me....never in my life would I have thought "weatherproofing your spider" would appear from my keyboard.....anyway....

Here is what i know.

We use foam for a reason, it is naturally water resistant and lightweight.  Our larger spider is a foam body and friendly plastic legs.  Both water resistant on their own.  A little paint and we are good to go.

We paint almost all our props with a complete coat of black exterior house paint, using a sprayer.  This way we are sure that the paint has gotten into all the nooks an crannies and is creating a waterproof seal.

Interior house paint will wear off in the rain and provides no rain barrier.  Regular exterior house paint on the prop and we are golden.   No other weathering needed.

Monster mud - well, since it is partly paint, it is fairly waterproof, but we paint all those props with a couple coats of exterior house paint anyway.   Since mud props are not foam, you can also use spray paint on them, which is even a better waterproof coating.

In the case of the mud men, where we use burlap, I also put a coat of polyurethane on them each year.  They get a bit soggy, but they stay in tact.

Electronics, prop controllers and power supplies.  They go in those sealed sprinkler boxes.  You know the ones that have the door that opens and the rubber gasket seal?  They come in various sizes and they usually have a key lock.  We use those for the controllers for props like the preacher and coachman.  Just remember to close them when you are done....otherwise they are worthless.  (Speaking from experience :D)

Clay - we have used a bit of Crayola Magic Modeling clay, it seems to hold up okay, but I would paint the sh*t out of it. :D  The bigger problem with clay is that the pieces separate, more from temperature fluctuation than water damage.

Papier-mâché- I am little help here.  I don't create with it  for the yard because of the rain and we leave our props up for so long; our display is out for just over a month.  That can be a lot of rain.  I imagine with a few good coats of varnish it should last the season.  I am going to invest in a few cans of matte and semigloss varnish and spray the spiders with an extra coat on dry days.  If a spider looks particularly delicate, I will try to cover it in a "cocoon" of plastic when I know it is going to really rain.

We are resourceful crew and if we see that any spider is having difficulties we will bring it in the shop and do our best to bring it back to life.  When I say "we" I mean the crew....cause I am not touching them :D

Big thanks to Ghoul Friday for letting me know that I really needed to share this information.  She is the best - and if you have not read her interview over at Zombos Closet of Horror blog...get yourself on over and check it out.

Any specific questions?  Ask away!

So I just looked up

banana spiders.  Holy hokey pucks Batman!  I had no idea what they were and that was a much happier time in my life that I will always look back on fondly.  I will remember that as a time in my life I got more sleep and less nightmares!

Their webs can catch birds and mice....and probably small cats and children.  They are aggressive and not afraid of people. They have one of the most painful bites!! What the?....devils indeed!

Pumpkinrot used to be my friend :D

.......I just know there is a black widow or wolf spider on the way......cause you are all evil (and I do so like evil.)

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE Mr. Chicken's smiling happy blue spider.  It may have a lot of teeth and still scares me.....but it seems the least likely to kill me in my sleep.

BTW - Duh, that is not the real spider (I am not even touching a picture, no way! Do you really think I was was going to post something that terrifying? That picture is still scary though, the FQ hates bananas :D

So it is official

I will no longer open any boxes that come to the house between now and Halloween.  Nope, not going to do it.  My friend Daniel agreed to be my official pack inspector....kinda like the personal taster for the queen.

Because you see, there are monsters coming to the house.....scary eight-legged monsters that look like this.

I am going to keep them in my garden room.....cause I know I cannot sleep knowing that they are in the house.

BTW - this is not a picture of a real spider....Rot is just that good :)

This is the only picture I could bare to put on the blog.  Head over to his site and see the close up of the face......it made me faint :)

It is even better

in person!

Check out the first spider to arrive for SpiderFEST 2010!  Here is Dorie checking it out to make sure it is not eatable :)  He did mention that the spider has not eaten the whole trip and that I might want to keep it away from the cats....he does look like he is contemplating Dorie for his next meal. :D

Here it is in pieces with very detailed instruction on how to attach the legs.  Something we will do this weekend.

I kinda set him up on the table to give you and idea of how he will look! 

Oh and check out his "death certificate" - what a nice detail.  You haunt people are so amazing.

Thanks Mr. Chicken, we are looking forward to getting this up in the tree and taking pictures.  I will likely take it down until October....but I cannot wait that long to see how cool it is going to look.

My mind is a scary place

trust me...you don't want to know how this stuff happens.  But over the weekend I had talked myself into using any spiders that are left from Spiderfest 2010 to decorate my office.

Since husband moved to the basement, I have the old office to myself.  It really needs a lot of work, but with everything going on, I am not going to get to it until December....and I have been trying to figure out how to decorate it.

Then when I heard someone say that they would hang Mr. Chickens awesome spider in their living room (or something like that) - I thought, I should bring the spiders into my office when I am done.

I can paint spider webs on the walls and hang the spiders from the picture rail.

I will still send back any spiders to their creators if they request.  No problem sending spiders away from the graveyard.

It is going to be awesome!  And I think it is official....I am insane. :)

The first spider

of the season.

Look at what Mr. Chicken has created for SpiderFEST 2010.

He is awesome in pictures......I cannot imagine how horrifying...er...I mean fantastic he will be in person.

He has got that whole Alice thing going on....creepy....I am so excited!  

Wait.....look at all those teeth!!!  Did it have to have so many teeth?!?!?!?

Thanks Mr. Chicken!!!  You are the best!  Made my day!

Head on over there and check out all the great pictures.

So where do you put

a lot of spiders?

Just to clarify, the tree that this whole production is going in, is in my back yard.  We thought about the front yard, but the tree in the back is just perfect.

During the day when you can see into the backyard, you might see some of them.You cannot see it from the street when the ghost kid effect is running because of the backdrop.


I really want to make this a separate piece where we can get great pictures of the props since most of you are far away and cannot see it in person.

What I will do if I get several of them from people that can make it to the house is a little wine/beer appetizer type event on Friday evening so everyone can come see them up close and hang out on the patio with the skulls.

I was also thinking of making t-shirts with the lovely logo Guy created for me for anyone that donates a spider to the display.  Anyone interested?

Here is the

tree in question.  This is the willow tree in my back yard that we will hang the spiders from.  Where Hal is sitting is where I plan to put Little Miss Muffet.  I will try hanging a spider or two in the tree this weekend and snap another picture.

I think they are my friends

they say they are.  We seem to get along, they even made that big spider for me.  But behind my back I hear whispers of the creation of some terrifying (pants wetting) spider plans.

When then ask if they should get matress out and lay it on the grass when they show me the spider....I get worried. 

Yes I do.

Since the crew has to help

hang all these spiders, they went for the "hang them as they arrive" approach.  So we are going to start hanging them in the tree as they arrive.  I will take a picture every day and post it on this blog so we can see the progress.  Likely work some video in to, just have to clear that with the IT department :D

So, any spiders that arrive after the first weekend in October will go in the tree as soon as I can get them up there.

This is going to give me nightmares....I can tell :)

I know at this point

in time it is hard to think past October 31 for even a second.  But I just want to add that part of the vision for this group prop project is to pass it along to another blogger next year.  Find a way to pick one of you talented people to host the next group prop making event and continue this year after year.

Just letting you know in case you were thinking you were going to get away with only participating this year :D

I am thinking that in the beginning of October we will have a way for bloggers to sign up to be the next "insert prop here"FEST 2011.  So while you are thinking of your display keep in the back of you mind of what you would do for a group prop display.

Questions?  Suggestions?  Let me know.