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

Scissor man

Designed and made this costume for  music video for the song Dark Clouds by Adept- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHdUHyZVoZM
It's a mysterious wasteland wanderer type of character, considering it was done in a weekend I think it turned out good! The scissor hands are not cgi the rest is a dyed trench coat, a pair of goggles I made years ago and lots and lots of tattered fabric, I discovered the best way to distress it was by rolling it up, stretching it out and attacking it with a saw.

The Klaw

I made this claw for Ben Sargent aka Doktor Klaw. He will also be doing a 13000 mile journey from NY to Argentina, cooking delicious seafood as he goes, keep your eyes open for his kickstarter project.

The Klaw is based on a leather motorcycle glove, it's mostly made of  brass with glass gems, and a handpainded lobster under heatformed plastic. It was a fun project but, damn it takes time to hammer shape and sand 27 individual brass parts....

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

Fiji Mermaid

In the dusty corner of an ancient sailors  tavern in Port Moresby it sits, it's true origin lost among a century of tall-tales, the Fiji mermaid. Some say it's hoax, some believe it's a  creature of magic, some whisper of a Danish captain who once offered his entire ship and a casket of gold for it.

I been wanting to do a Fiji Mermaid for years, but I always thought it would have to involve a real fish, freezedried or something, and I never came about to acquire one.
Anyway, as it turned out I could make a convincing one from scratch anyway. I gave it a wig because I wanted a level of whimsy and hinted back story in there, same with the fishing hook in the necklace.

KUNG FURY

Kung Fury is a shortfilm in the making by my friend David Sandberg. I'll let the trailer speak for itself.

I had a blast making some props for it. mainly the costume and hammer of Thor, the god of thunder.

 Some quick sketches of the Thor costume.

I made two viking helmets for the film both based on cheap plastic helmets, I bulked Thor's helmet out with foam and cardboard, details where made in sculpey and  decorative pins. The whole thing was finished with filler, sanded and lastly cover with a layer of resin plastic for strength.

   

The helmet was spray painted with a bronze base,  and lightly with gold spray. The final patina was added by hand in several layers. The feathers on the wings are cardboard covered with a layer of plastic, surprisingly strong.

 The hammer was done with foam and MDF board. 

Finished costume (and excellent actor)-