This file is one of the Wolfstone archives of the Halloween mailing lists. You can find out more, and reach the entire collection here: http://www.pobox.com/~wolfstone/_r/HalloweenArchive.html This is a copy of Don Bertino's archive from http://www.calweb.com/~bertino/halloween.html on the subject of "Skeletons". Minor changes have been made, mostly removal of E-mail headers and signatures, but the germane content is unchanged. - - Date: Mon, 5 Jun 1995 13:14:43 -0700 From: Scott Axworthy Subject: Re: Cheap Skeletons One of my earlier developments was cheap skeletons. I had been shooting foam insulation into some cracks in my house and had some extra left over. I started playing with it and made a couple of things. I first took a plastic bottle and started running lines of the insulation all over one end. This stuff expands and the final result was a great looking cerebral loaf. After it dried, I sprayed it with gray paint and it has an incredible brain look. I kept playing and extruded a few bones. This stuff sticks to anything so I got some wax paper to shoot on so that it would hopefully come off. These bones turned out great. It is a little tricky to master, but once you get the hang of it you can turn out bones by the dozens. The wax paper makes a good release agent and you can draw on the back of it to make templates. I ended up with an anatomy for artists book and measuring a real skeleton to make a complete set of templates. The tricky part is making all the curved pieces and oddball shaped bones like ribs. As the foam starts to dry, it gets to a point where it is no longer tacky on the outside, but is very tacky and full of air on the inside. At this stage you can handle it and flatten, bend, squash, shape, whatever. Once you have all the pieces out comes the hot glue gun to connect them together. Flexible joints get wired together. For the skull I use the human skull model that they sell at your local Toys R Us. Run wire down from inside the skull to your spinal column and the skeleton is complete. The foam takes paint so it can be aged if desired, otherwise it is a bleached bone white color. The skeletons are pretty fragile, but if something gets broken, just whip out the hot glue gun again. One regular sized can of insulation will make a whole skeleton. $5.00 for the insulation and $15.00 for the skull = $20/skeleton. They are very labor intensive but it is a pretty fun project. One caution is that the foam is very caustic and nasty when it is still curing. It will stick to your fingers and take a layer of skin with it while you try to get it off. Always were plastic gloves when working with it. It would probably not be a good project for kids. Since it has such good insulating properties, the hot glue is a little slow cooling in the joints. Be careful as you are waiting for them to cool, hot glue really is hot on your skin. I have three of these skeletons. The original two are showing their age now. Every year they do something different. I have given up for a while on automation of the skeletons. I find that the movements are much more realistic if I just hook up a bunch of strings and pull them as necessary. It has added a performance element that I somewhat enjoy. The first time I used them one was in shackles and the other was in one of those human sized cages that you see in dungeons. There I could control their mouths and some other slight body movements. I also had this row of three pumpkins that I had given articulated jaws. These guys and another skull and cross bones (that also talked) were all set up in my shop (which was worked over in somewhat of a dungeon motif.) This was the year that the movie Beetlejuice came out and I used the Harry Belafonte tunes from the movie (and a few others I was able to find) and had the skeletons, with pumpkin chorus, singing. I guess you had to be there but is was pretty cool. The next time they were shackled again, but they were doing selected Opera tunes. And this last year, the shop was somewhat of a speakeasy/bar (for the dead, of course) and the skeletons were reciting poetry. They were sporting berets and soul patches and little round sunglasses. The main fellow was rigged in a sitting position, head down in contemplation. As I brought the lighting up, I could pull him into an upright position and his head would raise. As I pulled him more his head would turn as if looking over the audience. Then, in pauses, he would lift his arm with a cigarette to his mouth and the tip of cigarette would glow red. I really wanted to add smoke blowing out of him at this point but I ran out of time. The beatnik skeletons were a big it, I don't know what to do next time. Halloween gives great inspiration for weird stuff like this, I am not a poet but I wrote one for this guy to use and it was also the text for my invitation. Maybe I'll yank it out of Word and include it in another posting. I also wrote a small book for another invitation, but that is yet another story. I take great interest in the invitation process. - - From: robwk at owlnet.rice.edu (Robert William Kimbro) Subject: skeletons Date: Tue, 1 Aug 1995 17:27:39 -0500 (CDT) Hello, My employer, a Houston-area costumer and theatrical supplier, is looking for a buyer for some old halloween props that she has rented out in the past but no longer wishes to keep in inventory. Specifically, she has five life-sized model skeletons. When puchased, these were apparently pretty high-quality models and they still look extremely realistic. The skeletons range from fully intact to missing a few limbs (implying a nice gruesome demise, I suppose). If you would be interested in acquiring one or more of these skeletons, call (713) 681-8688 or e-mail to pasco23 at aol.com and we can negotiate price. Shipping to locations outside of Houston is possible. - - Date: Fri, 11 Aug 1995 07:27:50 -0700 From: milwiron at ix.netcom.com (D.D. ) Subject: Axworthy skeletons Anyone looking to add some pretty creepy looking skeletons to their collection should look into Scott Axworhty's instructions in the archives for making them from "insulating foam in a can" from the hardware store. Follow safety warnings on the can. While I already own a couple of medical classroom type skeletons, I wanted more, I needed more, I had to have more. Here at the Home For The Artistically Deficient it took me a few tries to get the hang of it and they won't fool any first year med. students. They do look very creepy and alot better than the store bought blow-molded ones. A five skull recommendation. Denny P.S. Gonna miss Jerry Garcia. Puttin' long miles on the Hog and filling the headphones with road tunes just won't be the same. Damn... I thought we'd all live forever. - - Date: Mon, 14 Aug 1995 10:27:33 -0700 (PDT) From: Don Bertino Subject: Re: Axworthy skeletons On Fri, 11 Aug 1995, D.D. wrote: Hi Denny & Scott! > Anyone looking to add some pretty creepy looking skeletons to > their collection should look into Scott Axworhty's instructions in > the archives for making them from "insulating foam in a can" > from the hardware store. Follow safety warnings on the can. > > While I already own a couple of medical classroom type > skeletons, I wanted more, I needed more, I had to have more. > > Here at the Home For The Artistically Deficient it took me a > few tries to get the hang of it and they won't fool any first year > med. students. They do look very creepy and alot better than the > store bought blow-molded ones. > A five skull recommendation. Great! I have played a little with it. I think I am going to try to insert banding wire in the middle or have the wire an 1" off the ground and spray the foam over it. This hopefully will give me a little more strengh. Its a great idea and fun to do! > P.S. > Gonna miss Jerry Garcia. Puttin' long miles on the Hog and filling > the headphones with road tunes just won't be the same. Damn... I > thought we'd all live forever. Ain't it the truth... - - From: Scott Axworthy Subject: Re: Axworthy skeletons Date: Mon, 14 Aug 1995 11:47:19 -0700 (PDT) Don, > > On Fri, 11 Aug 1995, D.D. wrote: > General skeleton stuff deleted for brevity > > Great! I have played a little with it. I think I am going to try to insert > banding wire in the middle or have the wire an 1" off the ground and spray > the foam over it. This hopefully will give me a little more strengh. > > Its a great idea and fun to do! > I'm glad you brought this up. In my original skeletons I just made the bones and either hot glued the joints together or wired them to be flexible. As the foam ages, I find that it is getting more brittle. I have had to mend some major broken bones (hot glue gun.) When I started using bones in my flying ghosts, I needed a better skeleton (in my skeleton.) I found that a stiff wire (my original was wire hanger wire) inside the bones works well. At first I just poked it through the finished bone and shot some glue in the ends to firm it up. I found it easier to insert the wire when the foam was about half cured. When the "bone" is curing on the wax paper, the outside cures first. At the right time, you can pull it off and press the wire into it from the back side and then pinch the back closed. It works very well as long as you do it at the right time. The next skeleton I make I think I will put wire in all the long bones as they tend to warp over time. - - Date: Mon, 14 Aug 1995 12:14:04 -0700 From: milwiron at ix.netcom.com (D.D. ) Subject: Re: Axworthy skeletons Don wrote: >Great! I have played a little with it. I think I am going to try to >insert banding wire in the middle or have the wire an 1" off the >ground and spray the foam over it. This hopefully will give me a >little more strengh. Hi Don, On some of the longer bones like the upper arm, I slid a bamboo shish-ka-bob (sp?) skewer into it to give some resistance to bending. Any kind of wire like coat hanger or music wire from the hobby shop would work. I also used tooth picks to hold things in alignment while the hot melt glue cooled. I just freehanded the first one, having patterns drawn on poster board and under the wax paper is the next goal here. These things really look good when they're done. - - Date: Tue, 30 May 1995 10:56:33 -0700 From: milwiron at ix.netcom.com (D.D. ) Subject: RE:Cheap skeletons Oops, Dang!, I didn't make myself very clear. The skeletons I've been using are $300.00 classroom types (I have two). They are molded solid and have all the bones as a real one would. Obviously these look great and very real, but at the price I'm very limited to what my wife and mortgage co. will accept. I'm looking for a realistic full size skeleton made out of plaster, resin, paper mache'...anything that will take the abuse of handling and storage. Are there any movie prop companies or such that anyone knows of? I've checked around Chicago without luck. - - From: RoboJay at aol.com Date: Tue, 30 May 1995 19:40:29 -0400 Subject: Re: Cheap Skeletons One can get one of those big plastic skeletons for half-off at any party store AFTER Halloween. If you can't wait that long, try Big Lots or some discount odd-job place like that. - - Date: Tue, 5 Sep 1995 15:38:39 -0700 From: Andrew at Evermore.com (Andrew Crawford) Subject: Re: More sources... Well, I gave the "Axworthy Skeletons" a shot this weekend. I can see where I might get decent results with a little more work and practice. However, being a little short on time, I may not be able to get a decent one done before the end of October ... So, I'm considering getting a ready-made prop skeleton. I found one cast in plastic (for artists) for $400 through Dick Blick. Tombstone Productions offers a $200.00 "Skeleton Kit" and a $600+ "Real Human Skeleton." I'm not sure of the quality of the kit. Has anyone seen it? $400-$600 seems a little high so, I'll probably pass on the others. Any suggestions on where else to look? BTW, I found a web site for "Bone Clones" that has a replica human skull for $160.00. They also have some interesting animal skulls (including a Tasmanian Devil!) Looks like pretty good quality. "http://emanate.com/boneclones/" - - Date: Wed, 6 Sep 1995 13:33:28 -0700 From: milwiron at ix.netcom.com (D.D. ) Subject: Re: More sources/Skeletons Andrew Wrote: > Well, I gave the "Axworthy Skeletons" a shot this weekend. >I can see where I might get decent results with a little more >work and practice. However, being a little short on time, I may >not be able to get a decent one done before the end of October >... So, I'm considering getting a ready-made prop skeleton. It doesn't really sound much different than my first tries. My being "criminally un-artistic" resulted in pieces of wax paper covered with strange expanding foam objects laying all over the house on every flat surface I could find or commandeer. I wasn't happy with anything I had done but decided to glue some of the more bone-like parts together with hot melt so my wife and daughter would think I actually knew what I was doing and not just wasting my life away. I should have been doing something useful like changing the exhaust on the Hog for the 50 millionth time (my choice) or painting the living room (her choice). I was honestly amazed and surprised how good the effect was when it was assembled. Working with the cans of foam takes a lot of practice (for me) but I can get a good shot put down most of the time now. Just one hint... remove the clean tube from a can and use a cigarette lighter to heat and stretch one area of it. Let it cool and cut the tube where it necks down, use this new nozzle to do finger and foot bones. Home centers have the cans of foam on sale around here for $3.99 right now. > I found one cast in plastic (for artists) for $400 through >Dick Blick. Tombstone Productions offers a $200.00 "Skeleton >Kit" and a $600+ "Real Human Skeleton." I'm not sure of the >quality of the kit. Has anyone seen it? $400-$600 seems a little >high so, I'll probably pass on the others. Any suggestions on >where else to look? > BTW, I found a web site for "Bone Clones" that has a >replica human skull for $160.00. They also have some >interesting animal skulls (including > Tasmanian Devil!) Looks like pretty good quality. The classroom skeletons I have came from American Science and Surplus a few years ago for $299.00 each. The last time I was there they had gone up to $320.00 I think. They look very good and the molds were probably made from real skeletons. I did stain them to make them look old though. Later, Denny I better get busy and do something useful around here... Hmmmm, maybe change that exhaust again. - - Date: Sat, 16 Sep 1995 22:08:31 -0700 From: Scott Axworthy Subject: Re: Skeletons... Whoops, sorry about the bad reply to on the skeleton thread. My mail program fooled me. Here was my real reply: ----------------------- > > Okay, folks...I've got a literal skeleton in the closet! > ...deletions.... > > The skull was the hardest part. After futile attempts to build a skull > by variously spraying the foam on the inside and outside of balloons, I > resorted to paper-mache'. Its features are modeled after a combination of > Mexican "day of the dead" figures, the Grateful Dead rose-wreathed skull > design, and Mickey Mouse. The result turned out looking something like > Jack Skellington, in fact. You need one of Denny's foam skulls, he really needs to mass market them. > > Inspired by some of the "Black Theatre" shows I saw in Prague last year, > I'm painting the skeleton with florescent paint, and lighting it with UV > against a black backdrop. It'll be controlled by rods from the back; > I've experimented with various arrangements, and found that it works well > to support the weight of the skeleton with a wooden rod in the middle > of the chest, with stiff wires connected to the knees and wrists to > control them. I'll be standing behind the rig, and it'll crudely mimic > my movements. I thought about this same type of thing when I made the first skeleton. I was going to take it a little further though. First, I was going to be dressed in black from head to toe. I made some body-to-skeleton attachments that were made from 4" sections of heavy cardboard tube, cut in half, with about a 5" wooden dowel that protruded out from the convex side of the tube. These attachments would connect my arms and legs to the skeletons arms and legs. The tube side would curve around an arm or leg and be tied down. The dowel would then attach to the corresponding arm or leg. For the feet, I just used dowels attached to my shoes. I also supported the main skeleton with a similar attachment at my waist. The final result was a skeleton that mimics your every move. It was very awkward to do anything but the effect was good in the dark. Unfortunately I didn't have a good lightweight skull at the time and my setup had a lot of skull related problems. For my parties, I have just been using good old string and pulleys to give the skeletons some action. It actually works quite well. One of these days it will be time for some animatronics though. I would like to have a little more automation. > Current thinking is to put this setup on the front porch. Mr. Skeleton > ("Waldo?") will be watching TV in his chair. (TV, coffee table, and chair > made out of cardboard and also painted florescent.) When the kids come > up on the porch and look at the skeleton, it stands up and walks towards > them holding out a bowl of candy. Kids flee in terror; Andy eats candy. :^) > > Now let's see if I can make this all work....Any suggestions will be > welcomed! - - From: sao at MIT.EDU Subject: Mr. Skeleton will be handing out candy this Halloween Date: Fri, 15 Sep 1995 10:33:30 EDT Okay, folks...I've got a literal skeleton in the closet! Many thanks to those folks who came up with the spray-foam skeleton idea; I've now foamed myself a life-size skeleton puppet, which I'm planning to have hand out candy on Halloween! The skeleton is about 5' tall; I didn't want it to be TOO intimidating. I've also jiggered the body proportions to make it look "cute" instead of terrifying. (We'll see how well that worked; I may have kids run screaming from the door, in which case the money I've spent on building this setup will be offset by my savings in the candy budget!) The skull was the hardest part. After futile attempts to build a skull by variously spraying the foam on the inside and outside of balloons, I resorted to paper-mache'. Its features are modeled after a combination of Mexican "day of the dead" figures, the Grateful Dead rose-wreathed skull design, and Mickey Mouse. The result turned out looking something like Jack Skellington, in fact. Inspired by some of the "Black Theatre" shows I saw in Prague last year, I'm painting the skeleton with florescent paint, and lighting it with UV against a black backdrop. It'll be controlled by rods from the back; I've experimented with various arrangements, and found that it works well to support the weight of the skeleton with a wooden rod in the middle of the chest, with stiff wires connected to the knees and wrists to control them. I'll be standing behind the rig, and it'll crudely mimic my movements. Current thinking is to put this setup on the front porch. Mr. Skeleton ("Waldo?") will be watching TV in his chair. (TV, coffee table, and chair made out of cardboard and also painted florescent.) When the kids come up on the porch and look at the skeleton, it stands up and walks towards them holding out a bowl of candy. Kids flee in terror; Andy eats candy. :^) Now let's see if I can make this all work....Any suggestions will be welcomed! :Andy Oakland sao at MIT.edu - -