The Malleus Family is Expanding!

Yes indeed! I'm getting married in October. Fortunately I met my Fiancee working at a Haunt, so she totally puts up with all my costume and mask making in our apartment. The most exciting part about his however is going to be our Honeymoon. Since we live in Louisiana, we decided that a trip to NOLA would be a fantastic way to celebrate our marriage. On our agenda is of course House of Shock and The Mortuary, both of which I haven't had a chance to visit since 2009 so I'm super pumped. On our way home we're also going to try and stop off for a night in Baton Rouge to go to 13th Gate (hopefully there won't be an LSU game that night that will sell out all the hotel rooms) which should be really exciting since I've never managed to visit it despite it only being 4 hours away.

My bachelor party is not surprisingly going to revolve around Haunts as well. We're going to take a trip over to Dallas for the weekend. That agenda is going to include Graystone Haunted Manor (which is a fantastic haunt in Longview thats run by my friend Sue Gray), Thrillvania, Cutting Edge, Zombie Manor and Haunt House for sure. I also want to try and make it to the new Haunt that one of my personal heros (Allen Hopps) is working for this year. My brother who is going to be my Best Man worked with me at the sadly now defunct Edge of Madness in Monroe and will hopefully be able to fly in from his college for the Bachelor Party. My other groomsman and best friend I actually met working there as well (he's also the official Malleus Make Up Artist) so we're going to have a blast over there for sure!

Rocking and Rolling

Been a while since I've done this....but I'm still alive and kicking! I've had a good burst of energy and creativity here lately and I've been hard at work detailing costumes and casting a mask so since this blog is supposed to be about the process I use to get work done...here are some pictures.

So...this is a trick for aging and distressing clothing, I just did it on a big scale since I had multiple items to do tend to. I filled my tub with steaming hot water and threw around a dozen or so tea bags in. Then I just stirred it around a bit and let it sit for two days. The nurse costume and the lighter gowns got a nice nasty brown/yellow stain from the tea...the robe unfortunately resisted the tea for the most part.

After I took the stuff out of the tub and dried it, it was time for the fun part, slinging blood and slime everywhere!

That was the fun part...then I mixed up a different blood mix that would be thicker and heavier and applied it, it leaves a more scabby look. Then I made green zombie goo or vomit or whatever and plastered that all over the place. Then all that was left was letting things dry!

So with that knocked out, I was ready to call it a day but then I got called out by a Haunter that shall remain nameless about my slow mask making...so I decided it was time to cast a mask, right then. My impulsiveness and haste resulted in me not using a mold strap like I should have...which cost me half a bucket of spilled latex. But whatever, I got the mold sealed and successfully pulled the mask after a decent 24 hour cure.

Thats probably enough for right now...I also did some updating and freshening up details on my Slaughter Fiend costume...so next time I'll have to show that off!