Suspicious Disguise No. 1: The Gray Ghost

Need to hide your identity while demanding candy from the neighbors? Nothing could be more classic for Halloween than the visage of a tragic ghost bride. Here's a DIY costume idea that looks more elaborate than it is. A simple project with a distinct Victorian Gothic mood.

Eight DIY Projects to Decorate Your Mansion/Secret Lab/Fortress of Evil!

It's that magical time of year again! The time when it's not only normal to be dark and scary and wear silly hats, but it's almost mandatory! Ah, Halloween!

But like any holiday, it has its pressures. After all, be you a vampire, a murderous widow, or an evil super villain, you simply cannot be caught with your lair in disarray, or, worse yet, non-scariness! Honestly, no one will take your plans of world domination seriously if you leave your teddy bear out.

But fear not, my villainous friend! Here are some clever and simple ways to get that cutely little sewer lab you've got looking more like a lair worthy of Doctor Frankenstein!

 1. Rats! 
             Concerned about the plague this year? Don't be; these rabid little cuties are made of paper!

2. Goblins!
                Love all things whimsical and creepy-cute? And what about fun yet easy projects? This little guy takes the cake in both departments.

3. Burning Coals
                 The warm glow of a fire in the night is something that's been sadly lacking in the daily lives of most modern people. Of course, not everyone happens to have the luxury of a piping hot coal stove on a chilly fall day, but this decoration here at least looks like one.

4. Graveyard Fence
                    Problems with neighborhood kids and dogs coming too close to your secret experiments? Well, nothing says "you shouldn't be here" like a spiky iron fence topped with skulls. If that's out of your budget, this simple tutorial will aid you in making a purely decorative variety.

5. Spooky Curtains
                    Need some torn-up black curtains that flow in the wind and send chills down the spine of potential trick-or-treaters? Turns out, a plastic garbage bag and two simple steps manages that quite well.

6. Candle Cluster
                Given how so many "creatures of horror" are sensitive to light (ghosts don't much like sunlight, and vampires sunburn so easily, you know.) any considerate evil host would keep the lighting down to candles rather than pushing his or her luck with those ghastly electric things. Worried about those dangerous chemicals in your secret lab catching fire? No problem; this tutorial is made with false candles in mind.

7. Bloody Candles!
                 Hey, why not? This is remarkably easy, taking just a white candle and a red one, and incredibly atmospheric.

8. Raven Dinnerware
                A dinner display that Mister Poe himself would be proud of. It's simpler than you'd expect, and, although this tutorial is perfect for Halloween, the same method could be applied, with different artwork, to just about any occasion.

Machine: A Steampunk Horror Show

"Machine" is a live steampunk walk-through built by two guys in a garage, which takes audiences into a time machine and on an adrenaline-filled romp through time. Sadly, the show isn't open to the public, but they did make a video for the rest of us steampunks to enjoy.
It's quite brilliant, especially taking into account the low budget--this is a product of ingenuity rather than money, and, judging by the video, it's far more interesting than the majority of commercial haunted houses. My only criticism is the use of such a cliche as Jack the Ripper, who seems to appear in every Victorian horror or mystery story ever written, but I was on the edge of my seat for the entire section of that video, so I can only complain so much.

Costume Tutorial: Eyepatch/Monocle Combo

To begin with, sorry for my recent lack of posts; I've been feeling a bit lazy ill this past week.But anyway, as Halloween approached, I couldn't decide if I wanted a monocle or an eyepatch. So I decided to make both at once! I wore this to a recent Halloween party, and got lots of attention for it...But that might have been because I was the only one to show up in costume...

1. Cut an oblong piece of fabric large enough to cover the area around your eye. I used faux leather scavenged from an ugly purse I found at Goodwill.

2. Find a round piece of slumped glass about an inch in diameter. Cut a hole in the leather that's just a little bit smaller than the glass piece.

3. Cut two more pieces of leather, each about an inch wide and long enough to go about halfway around your head.

4. Punch holes along the outer edge of the leather oval and down the center of the straps, each about a half-inch apart.

5. Take a long hemp cord and whipstitch through the punched holes around the edges of the leather. Use the cord to stitch the straps to the main part of the patch.

6. Glue a piece of fabric over the back to the patch to prevent the stitching and the ends of the straps from poking your eye. The fabric should be just slightly smaller than the main part of the patch, also with the hole in the middle.

7. Attach the glass piece over the hole. There are two ways of doing this. If the glass is wire wrapped, as mine was, you can run several pieces of thread between the wire and the hemp stitching to sew it into place. If not, a bit of hot glue will do.

8. Add a fastener to the backs of the straps. I used an elastic piece from an old laptop charger, but, lacking any of those, you could also sew on buckles, hooks, or even magnets.

9. And it's done! By the way, if you can think of any clever names for this, could you leave a comment letting me know? I can't think of any. Whoever comes up with the best one gets an imaginary cookie. :)

Steampunk Haunted House

The Steampunk Haunted House is an interactive theater performance by Third Rail Productions--and it looks AWESOME! This year's theme is Then She Fell, a Lewis Carol-inspired romp through a former hospital. So it's kind of like that video game, American Mc Gee's Alice (remind me to play that and do a post on it later, it looks really cool), but in real life. I really wish I could go, but I don't think I could make it to New York and back, given the lack of vacation time in October.

Book Review: The Orphan of Awkward Falls

I've decided to add book reviews to this blog occasionally, since I've just read a really good book and I can't think of anything else to write. This is my first one, so it's probably going to be really awkward. The Orphan of Awkward Falls, by Keith Graves, isn't strictly steampunk, since it takes place in the modern day, but it does feature a robotic butler, a murderous insane asylum escapee, and a plethora of mad scientists. 

The Plot: After moving to the small town of Awkward Falls, twelve-year-old Josephine Cravitz expects her      life there to be dull--until she meets her next door neighbor, Thaddeus Hibble. Thaddeus is a brilliant but reclusive tween who enjoys performing bizarre experiments  in the basement of his decaying mansion. Upon discovering that Thaddeus in the intended victim of a mad cannibal, Josephine is determined to keep him safe--even if it means risking her own life in the process. 

The Good Stuff: It was mostly the title that made this book leap off the shelf at me. I mean, really, can you think of a better title than "The Orphan of Awkward Falls"? A good title is often a sign of a creative author, and this one does not dissapoint. While it features a whole slew of Gothic archetypes--mad scientists, boy geniuses, cloning, decaying mansions, etc.--the clever and lightly satirical details of these things make them feel as fresh and unpredictable as they are familiar.  

The blending of humor and horror was fantastic. Quirky characters and dark humor provide spectacular comic relief throughout the story. Some of the horror elements might have been done a little too well, considering that this is a children's book. While kids in their late preteens to early teens should be able to handle it, there are numerous gory scenes that could frighten some younger children. 

The Bad Stuff: The pacing in this book is downright weird. Nearly all of the mysteries are solved about halfway through, while the next hundred pages or so are filled in with well-written but too-long action scenes. I like fast-paced writing, but this early climax made me feel as though I'd been cheated out of time with the plot and characters. 

As much as I loved the characters, the portrayal of their personalities sometimes felt a bit forced. Some of the dialogue was exaggeratedly slangy, and just came out sounding goofy. The narrator would often state things about the characters that had already been shown through action. For example, he at one point writes that Josephine is nosy and curious immediately after a scene where she is caught peeking through a neighbor's window. All these bits of info really do is damage the suspension of disbelief.

The Overall: Although the few issues with this book were fairly large, they did little to distract me from the immense fun that this book is. Even though it's a kids' book, I had great fun reading it as an adult, and I wouldn't hesitate to read more by this author.