Mandragora- The Mandrake Root

"Find a root of the plant called bryony. Take it out of the ground on a Monday (the day of the moon), a little time after the verinal equinox. Cut off the ends of the root and bury it at night in some country churchyard in a dead man's grave. For 30 days, water it with cow's milk in which three bats have been drowned. When the 31st day arrives, take out the root in the middle of the night and dry it in an oven heated with branches of verbena; then wrap it up in a piece of a dead man's winding-sheet and carry it with you everywhere"

-The History and Practice of Magic

Mandrake root, I wrote a little about how I made it on my Facebook page- Link

Finngilliam the Leprechaun

They say if you stand on your head with your vest put on backwards drinking a glass of Irish whiskey, Mr Finngilliam will appear, dressed in green with golden buttons.

You will drink and sing with him until he asks three curious questions, answer them to his liking and your pockets will grow heavy with Leprechaun gold.

Should Mr Finngilliam be displeased with you or your answers the consequences will be creative in the worst of ways. Either way it ends he is always thankful for the company.

Rusketus the troll

One summer, when your great grandfather was plowing the small field near the forest, the iron plow hit something very hard beneath the ground and split in two. Your great grandfather cursed, he bent down and saw a small formless stone, when he grabbed the stone it started to move, two small eyes opened, the stone had arms and legs and mouth, the stone was quick. it broke the hands of your great grandfather, then it borrowed itself deeper beneath the black soil and disappeared.

He called the troll Rusketus (sunburn), for it was not the iron plow that had awakened it from it's slumber, but the rays of the spring sun. Your great grandfather never plowed that field again, it's part of the forest now.

Family tale noted in a Finnish diary from 1820.

  

Dirty Old Gnome (Slightly explicit)

"Ragnvald? He wasn't just a gnome, he was a Swedish housegnome, came with the Scandinavian immigrants back in the old days, He probably was the only one of his sort mad enough to cross the pond. A real bastard I tell you, he used to piss in peoples drinks, use his weird magic to start brawls for his own amusement, damn sure it was he who torched old Finnegans place back in 59'
 No taller then my boot you see, but hell, he could still drink me under the table and rob me of my wallet. He's a legend now among the drunks and lowlifes in the bad parts of town, the kind of people who's stories you would never believe anyway... Last I heard he was impaled by a stiletto shoe when he crashed a private Christmas party in 1975. Dirty old bastard" 

(interview with "Jerry" Ann Arbor Sun magazine No5,1979)

To be clear the explicit theme was not my own idea, but it was fun to cross the line of what fantasy sculptures usually are. I wanted him to be the polar opposite of the gnomes that appear in children books, the one who went bad, the black sheep of all good hardworking housegnomes, banished to another continent. His full name is Rangnvald Ulfrik Svartgöl, but his "Friends" call him "Raggy".
The sculpture is 38cm tall

Exhibition

Converted my bookcase into an improvised cabinet of curiosities and had a small exhibition at Ume Obscura- Alternative culture festival a while ago , Showed off mostly old things, but it was fun to put them all together. Also made some dodo skulls to sell. Met a lot of interesting people and overall had a great time.

The Bigfoot print.

Indisputable evidence of the creature known as Sasquatch or Bigfoot, collected between the years 1979 to 1993. Found in the home of the eccentric Peter "Mad Al" H. Albronda. Following his disappearance in 2001.

Another Bigfoot themed piece, going away overseas to a new owner soon. This is the most modern thing I've done in a while, had fun making the Polaroids, the "Bigfoot" in them is actually photoshopped versions of  the apes from Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.  

The Redcap of Balwearie Castle

Thady Langan, son of Patrick Langan, stood alone among the ruins of  old Balwearie castle. He imagined himself a king, with servants and meals with roast pheasant and honey. The air was still and damp with mist.
 There was a sudden sound of heavy iron-shod boots on the broken-up stone floor. Thady Langan turned his head in fright for he knew the tales of Prowies and Dunters. A small creature, no higher then a foot stood before him, black eyes and sharp teeth gleaming under the red cap. Thady laughed, pointing his stick sword at it, "Be gone, least I take you home and feed you to the dogs little goblin man!" Those were the last words of Thady Langan son of Patrick Langan.

 

You might remember the mummified Redcap I made some years ago- Here. It was great to get the opportunity to make a live one this time. Especially with this level of exposed flesh and anatomical correctness. He is sculpted in Supersculpey and painted with a mix of thin airbrush coats and by hand. I wanted him to be evil and wild, a bloodthirsty ugly little goblin, his clothes crudely sewn together trophies from his unfortunate victims. His red hat rotting with centuries of dried blood. 

      

Lulin

I was asked to do a mysterious forest creature for a short horror film called Lulin. It should be big and as far from human as possible, blending in with the surrounding forest. It was an extremely  limited budget, most of it is construction foam, styrene, foam mat and fabric. Built up from an backpack armature. (Also, I gave this old blog a face lift, about time.)

Concept sketch

Construction underway!

Lulin