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Yeah, another base. Shocker, I know. It's one I've been thinking about for years, basically, since I bought the beads that are in it. So, the premise: I use the air-dry clay hexes from the previous project as well as these beads I bought at Walmart so long ago. The Bugle Beads are hex-shaped and iridescent. The color on the tube is labeled as "black iris." I build a flat of the hexes and use the beads upright on a portion of the base to represent an unusual terrain. I use a pill bottle shell along one edge to build the terrain upward on that edge more easily. I'll peel that off later. So here's the bottom layer of the piece. The front layer is as high as it will go. The next layer will go to the top of the beads and also be flat. The last layer will be more like a hill on the other side of the beads. Now if this was for a mech it would look like pilings holding back the earth. I will use more of them here than just along the fronts. Stay tuned. Enjoy. Please, stay safe.

Another month another batch of Mushrooms & Associates. This month is a bit lighter than last. I started it toward the end of last month's Gang...which is still waiting on some Show Off photos. I am also hoping to squeeze in some Pumpkinheads & other Halloween strangeness elsewhere. More of that later. For now, The Mushrooms: With the ever popular Leo Sizechek for comparison: I got the idea to do a Mushroom/Goblin Wizard from this illustration: Mine is a bit seedier: A Goblin Faerie sidekick seemed appropriate. Appropriate or not I wanted to try out some paper punch butterfly wings with a foam coating inner layer: AND base coated & ready for color: More whenever.

Halloween always gets my mind going with spooky thoughts...rather like the rest of the year, but more so. Now I have been making Pumpkinhead/Jack O'Lantern Folk for quite a while...here's an album of them: https://photos.app.goo.gl/KbDNTNRCMYcchlRn2 Then I stumbled on this illustration on Pinterest, AND I had to try that sunny smile: I was fairly pleased with the test results: I did a second one with what I had learned from the first: ...with a closer look: The second is closer to the size of the Reaper Jack O'Lanterns that I usually use for the Pumpkinheads. The first is a bit larger. I may wind up using a GW Orc torso like this one from 2017: The legs are GW Zombie legs. This another possibility: OH THE POSSIBILITIES!

A few days ago I started a new type of Mushroom based on some Pinterest polymer clay pieces like this one: This one & his kin are quite a bit larger than the ones I make, but the detail is something to aspire to. Here is a step by step of my Mushroom in progress up to yesterday. This is the plumber's epoxy dolly: The Kneadotite (green stuff): I use the left over green stuff to make smaller versions of the Big Mushroom...you probably already notice that: There will be more of this type in varying sizes AND their bases coming along soon...or eventually.

I found a wonderfully bizarre illustration of an armored Rhino by James Christensen. It is just my kind of Beasty: AND I just happened to have a toy Rhino grazing in The Vault: SO I started working on making my own version of the illustration: At this point the green stuff work is done with the exception of some touch ups & embellishments: The Rhino in his prime...so to speak: I thought I would be more motivated to finish painting the Big Guy if I post here as well as in The Last Hurrah Thread...I have a lot of strange thoughts. Today I started adding some colors to the base. Photos are likely...sometime or other.

Our Own Glitterwolf posted a photo in my Last Hurrah Thread: I loved it. I knew I would have to make a version of my own (there were some liberties taken...a lot of liberties). Once more I had the base all ready for her...or some other hapless miniature. AND here is the result: There you go.

I have been wandering through the wonderfully inspiring photos on Pinterest. The Mushroom pictured there have created a need to make some new Faerie Folk Mushrooms of my own. I put up pic on my Last Hurrah Thread, but since this may be a protracted effort, I thought I would post here as well. These are a few of the ones I am doing versions of: The first stage dollies were made on Wednesday: Green stuffing & additional dollies on Thursday. Friday was lost to H&R Block, AND yesterday was a daze. Today my enthusiasm clicked into high gear. The result was the Two Tall Mushroom got their green stuff done, along with some work on the supporting cast: Since these pics were taken, I have done a base coating of black on the Tall Fellows, & finished the green stuffing on the medium sized mushrooms. Have I mentioned that I have a tendency to get carried away?

SO I have been hoping to get Enigma's Oz-zuh moon Face; AND I have been waiting almost patiently for a restock of Enigma at C.M.o.N.. Realizing that I just might not live long enough to see that happen I decided to make my own version of the Guy. This is what theirs looks like: This is my version: Oz in the Spooky Woods: I still would like to do Enigma's, but I am pleased with my own attempt...it might be a lack of taste issue.

SO, SisterMaryNapalm came across some Beastes to stick into flower pots: AND thought my Mushrooms would be just the thing to enliven his Mom's flower pots. Here's where they stood as of Tuesday: He wanted them to be somewhere between 10" to a foot. The BBQ skewers were just the thing: The stems & eyes were done by Tuesday evening: Losing a day to World Series Game 7, the green stuffing started earlier today: More later...later being a nebulous term.

For those that put beads in their paint to help with shaking what sized beads do you use? I was looking at some 8mm hematite beads but I want to be sure I get something that won't stick in the tip.

There is something strange afoot at the Cemetery of St. Lascivious...stranger than normal if that is possible. "Did you hear something?" "NO! And I didn't see it either!": ...over there something moved: ...It is coming to get us!: There now that wasn't SO bad; now was it? With the story told here is a better look at the Reaper: AND with The Ritual: ...for continuity & size comparison. Sweet Dreams!

I need more Mushrooms; the sort with faces & attitudes or, rather, I NEED to make some more. I do have some all painted up & ready to add that certain touch of NUTS to a base of vignette: ...AND I haven't quite run out of the Ready-To-Paint Types: ...but I NEED to make more nonetheless; it IS an addiction without a twelve step program. All that aside, I thought I'd do a log of the development of various strains of Mushroom. Stumps, et al. This is the first batch in the "dolly" stage: While I'm not planning on this being a How-To-Make-Mushrooms thread, you might get the idea of how it's done as I go along...or not.