ULLABENULLA

Bats Over Dinner Anyone?

The Sunset's Bat & Serpent design originates with Celtic mythology and symbolizes the triumph of science and modern medicine over witchcraft. A mere $1,887.00, puts it out of my price range, but a girl can dream... Link

Ossuary In Czechoslovakia

"By far the strangest tourist attraction in Kutna Hora isn't in the old town, but rather in a former town called Sedlec which is now a suburb of Kutna Hora. The local monastery's graveyard began to overflow during an outbreak of the plague and so the 14th century All Saints' Chapel was converted into an Ossuary, or bone storage building. Then in 1870 a woodcarver called Frantisek Rint came up with the idea of arranging all of those boring bones into various interesting patterns and structures, like crosses and the meter and a half tall goblets you can see on either side of the stairs leading down into the chapel. He even used the bones to spell out his name on the right-hand wall at the bottom of the stairs... With around 40,000 skeletons stored in the ossuary, Frantisek certainly had plenty of materials available to flex his artistic skills." Link

Origami and the Art of Bat Appreciation

Created from a single piece of handmade paper, Michael G. LaFosse's premier bat design is the big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus), which took eight years to perfect and requires 12 hours to fold. A project to try Halloween Eve???

So Tell Me Dear Friends, Was The Gentle Giant Actually Pinocchio?

Giant Skeleton at The Palazzo Reale in Milan. Link

Madame Crow Fortune Teller - Class Sample!

This Sunday I will be teaching the 'Madame Crow Fortune Teller' doll class at the Castle! Truth be told, this has been the longest 'prep' for a class yet! I hope I didn't bite off too much thinking we can do this in a day! As you can see, Ms. Crow looks innocent enough... Each one hand-sculpted of paper clay by me, on a 12 inch manniquin. I used a tin-foil mask, as shown, to make the clay weigh less, and help hold up the beaks. For sculpting I followed roughly the same technique used on a Crow head that I sculpted in the 90's.

Once finished, the little ladies looked more like sea-gulls then Crows, and quite naked at that! Flat black spray paint brought them back to their wonderful ol' trickster selves...!

So where does the 'Fortune Telling' come to play you ask??? See her skirt? It is made of 160, yes, 'One Hundred and Sixty' (no more, no less) cut and folded paper sleeves, and sewn into a skirt - each with a different handwritten fortune on it! (Don't tell anyone, but I am no where near having them done...) And there you see, is where most of Sunday will be spent!!!

Madame Crow was inspired by Victorian dolls, created just like these Crows, with delicate paper sleeves as skirts, given as party favors and used to divine young womens fate, luck and chance...

Haunted Paper Toys!

Need something fun to do this weekend? Try some of these toys from Haunted Paper Toys!!! Here you'll find DELUXE COFFIN BOXES, a MECHANICAL BAT and even THE ORIGINAL 13 PIECE HEARSE PLAYSET! Personally I am thinking of making a DANCING SKELETON MARIONETTE but may need THE HIDDEN CEMETERY for my tabletop! Care to join me in the fun???

Gnome Mask Shop!

Everyone should have one of these in their neighborhood! link

Yesterday's Costumes!!!

Talk about inventive! They just don't make them like they used to... link