Future hauntings...

In the studio again watching Hallowe'en 2015 designs materialize...

 This will be a small party-good table-piece with a honeycomb base, inspired by paper ephemera designs for the 1920's-1930's.

October

Just a little autumnal whimsy (vintage-style) on the eve of October... (as Bindlegrim tinkers with some additional imagery perhaps for some lanterns going to The Halloween Trunk Show #9). Lots of activity here in the studio preparing for that show and the Bindlegoods seasonal hiatus (taking final orders for Halloween 2014 no later than October 17th)

A very happy 31 days of Hallowe'en everyone!

PS If you dig the font, it's by Sinister Visions...

Crawling Out of the Woodwork

As design materials for Halloween 2014 start filling up the workspace for the new Spooklights series, seems like a good time again for a sale... to bid a final farewell to the work of 2013, and here's just a quick revisit of some of the work that's been lurking about in the dark forgotten crevices of the studio (pictured below) here gussied up as an orange crepe-paper gift-basket of vintage-like goodies.

Perhaps you caught last year's summer sale that wiped-out the remainder of all 2012 six-sided lanterns? Well, I wasn't sure there would be enough from 2013 but, after some rummaging, discovered there are actually limited-edition packs and some artist-proof singles of Creeps (both candy-boxes and special edition 12-sided lantern), Spirits (candy-containers), Cornish Litany postcards, and signed copies of Tall Tales Stranger Days.

There is no definite date for the beginning of this, (which could perhaps be as soon as this Sunday the 13th). Stay tuned, and I'll do my best to get the message out through the various Bindlegrim channels - facebook, twitter, the newsletter, the blog here, and the news blog now on Bindlegoods.

A Halloween Tree

As of today Bindlegrim has packaged and mailed the first dozen Bindlegoods  orders and ran out of posted stock. So I checked materials in the studio and made sure it was okay to stock another 12 of both the Spooklights lamp shade and the candle holder for further availability of these vintage-style decorations on the Halloween store. If you missed the announcement from the Bindlegrim facebook fan page - the Bindlegoods storefront is open for business.

One of the things I love about the maker process is the challenge of designing not only the puzzle-like components to a single Halloween lantern, but making all these various completed objects, (like the shade and base), fit together to create expanding display possibilities. And there were a couple in the Future Release section of the website that needed a little extra work...

This weekend the daunting task of re-designing the "octopus lantern" was finally approached, and happy to report the mock up is even more sturdy than the first. As well, the lamp post, expiring on the drawing board, had a newly hand-cut mock up created today. While it had been originally designed solely  as a lamp post, its similarly formed component structure also allows it to be used with the lamp shade. I envision a forested table display of Halloween trees...

Springtime Devils (Bindlegoods Update)

A fourth and final image has been created for proposed pane content of the upcoming vintage-style Spooklight lanterns, and its a devil of a thing... that has me wondering, is there a pumpkin heaven (?) because the afterlife looks rather grim for this classic 1920s/30s German-esque Jack O'Lantern.

I regret the new artwork (inspired by last year's Creeps candy containers) helped delay the Spooklights release but I just couldn't bring myself to revisit previous 12-sided lantern imagery which feels special to those releases. However, I am still toying with an idea that a few select images (not all) could by popular demand be re-released in a Spooklights version? Any requests? The Haint House? or maybe The Space Witches? or perhaps Gruss von Krampus? There were 8 limited-editions released previously - so there's quite a bit of content to choose! (Below is last year's unexpected release of a Creeps 12-sided lantern - see all the Creeps on flickr).

Anyhow, I am making some small tweaks to the newest as-yet un-named series, and will of course remove the annoying text from the final lantern panes... or on whatever format these images are lent - because I'm now thinking these might be fun as cards or on other products? What do you think?

Finally, some store updates (aka Bindlegoods) progress is still occurring there if a bit slowly.Test products seem to be processing fine, and I'm trying my best to get this one-man show up to speed. I need to 1) finish the pane content, 2) get that content printed onto pane material, 3) put a few sets together for sale, 4) verify the content will process on the live site, and 5+) let you know it's all good to go while writing up some sale notices and getting photographs, etc... etc.

Thank you all for your interest in the meantime, on facebook, flickr, twitter., and I do hope the wait is not too long! Best to all this Spring season!

Springtime for Bogles and Halloween

Alas, still no cute bunnies with chickens, nor any sign of colorful Easter eggs... well, maybe this Bogle is scaring them away... or ate them... ;-) In a follow up companion piece to the previous Spooklights promo (of one sad pumpkin with a black cat), this happy JOL is now held by a mouse-tached scarecrow as it shambles through the whispering corn shucks beneath a full moon...

Bindlegrim is also on flickr and pinterest...

Fangs for Spring

Bindlegrim appears to be having a hard time working in the spring pastel palette this season. No bunnies populating this blog. Instead this classic-style German Jack O'Lantern has been snagged by some not so welcome company --- when a black cat joins the latest promo art for the upcoming Spooklight series.

Bindlegrim is also on flickr and pinterest...

Spooklights Promotional

Bindlegrim is working on some art for the panes of the new vintage-style Halloween lantern decor.... and here turns it into a bit of promo art for the upcoming Spooklight series. Check out Bindlegrim on facebook and twitter.

Halloween Gives Me the Creeps!

There has been a big sigh of relief here in the Bindlegrim labs - as the Creeps have walked off the production slab, and nestled snug in sealed packages ready for new homes. As of tonight there are 3 listings at 3-day auctions on ebay for your consideration, just in time to arrive before Halloween week! Oh, but what shall it be? There are Creeps (Shadow Edition), Creeps (1st Color Run), and Creeps (12-sided lantern). Well obviously the main idea here appears to be giving you the Creeps! Links are listed below in order of first to the last listed.

1: Creeps (Shadow Edition) Full set JOL, Witch, Bogle, Cat, Devil, Clown, as stark soot-faced minimalistic design versions. Silhouettes lend to their mystery and fit a classic to modern Halloween decor style... with translucent facial features that glow in the dark. The diecut characters are made of 2-play acid-free museum board (same as Bindlegrim 12-sided lanterns): Vintage-Style Halloween CREEPS SOOT FACE Candy Box Lantern WITCH CAT DEVIL CLOWN

2: Creeps (Color Run) is a first edition 5/5 print run of this artist-designed diecut series .This is for the complete set of six characters, on vintage-style slot-and-tab candy container/lanterns offering printed imagery on front, sides, and back, and of course those translucent eyes for that after dark glow:  Vintage-Style Halloween CREEPS Candy Container Lantern Set WITCH CAT DEVIL CLOWN

 

3: Creeps: (12-Side Lantern) - A very special limited edition return of the Bindlegrim 12-sided vintage style Halloween lantern with Creeps imagery! If your counting this very special 5/5 limited run is the eighth Bindlegrim 12-side lantern and was unplanned but the idea spilled over from the candy container/lantern project seen above - here re-introduced on full-color translucent vellum scenes: Vintage-Style Halloween CREEPS 12-Side Lantern WITCH CAT DEVIL CLOWN SCARECROW

So that's all for now all you autumn-minded folks! Please accept the deepest of apologies for squeezing these in so close to Halloween... but auctions will end Wednesday, October 23rd, and I can be sure to ship on Thursday in time for next week's celebrations.

Happy Halloween from Bindlegrim...!!!

Snow Glow for Halloween Scarecrows

Bindlegrim is very happy to say that here at Ichabod's Cottage the snow from the 26th has been slowly melting away and that the plans to spookify the garden scarecrow moved forward today...(much to his relief I think because that big cors-shock bow-tie was rather emasculating before that burning flame-lit head was set atop of it).

Well, it seemed worthwhile shooting a few dramatic photos of the event, (to make up for all those wintery-appearing photos in the previous blog), to get back to the classic look of autumn.

Brrr, okay, some of these shots still show snow in them... but it's supposed to head back into the sixties the next couple of days, and while part of me is relieved at the disappearance of snow - I'm a little bit intrigued by the thought of a snowy Halloween (and have visions of pumpkin-lantern parades traveling through a snowy forest).

Well, again, it has been fun watching the change in seasons here in Colorado (after being in Seattle for the last ten), and I have posted the above photos with more from this past snow-filled week together with photos of the various seasons here at Ichabod's Cottage gallery on flickr.

9 Halloween Greeting Cards

I will be bringing some new old stock of a greeting card series produced back in 2004 to the Bindlegrim booth for this year's 6th Annual Halloween Trunk Show in Denver... Thought it would be fun to post images from that series of 9 cards, here on the blog, as a sneak peek of what you can find at the show. There are 5 vertical images....

And 4 horizontal images...

About the cards:

Images are high quality digital collage on transparencies. Scenic photographs were taken from the 1980's to the early 2000's with either traditional emulsion film or digital cameras. The cards were printed at home, cut, and hand assembled. Cards are no longer in production and were a limited batch run. Find out more, and purchase these cards, available at the bindlegrim etsy shop or see you at the
6th Annual Halloween Trunk Show in Denver!

Sketchy Beginnings...

By way of brief introduction, (jumping past the last few years), some time ago I was searching for a subject that would give my fine art ventures a lighter side, and perhaps stoke my wan business sense toward an area that more strongly interested me... which, to make a long story short... turned my wandering eye toward one of my all-time favorite realms --- holiday arts, (especially Halloween).

To cut forward to today, my most recent goal (among a few others) is to now publish an illustrated Halloween poem. The artwork is done, and the editor is combing over the text... and I'm guessing my main subject matter here will now be the adventure of production, and beyond...  with news on some type of publishing result.

As for now, I just wanted to get this initial post pushed forward, and to post a couple of rough sketches from the project's early days of conception:

The first is a pencil drawing scanned from the sketchbooks, and the second is a vector version using Illustrator CS5. While I really enjoyed these (and wanted the vector version to be seen), the look of the art took a different stylistic turn. And, since I want to venture occasionally into various processes, I thought these made an appropriate start for future subjects that may concern the development of the book and my holiday art in general...

Thank you for stopping by, and I'm welcoming of any thoughts concerning DIY publishing, experimental book formats, and/or 3rd party publishers.

Aaron