Ghost Writer

Three weeks since the last post! I guess ol' Bindlegrim has been spending the energy of writing elsewhere, and hopefully for a good cause which to be told is finishing up the first slim volume of spooky short stories - Sketchbook of Straw (A Collection of Tall Tales for Slippery Tongues). And it is hoped this collection will be out early next month.

With such a long absence, happy to have this Bindlegrim interview Halloween Art, Decor, and More with Bumble Bindlegrim show up today on Happy Halloween on squidoo. Please stop by for a quick read, and afterward spend lots of time on their website - amazingly packed full of Halloween ideas and goodies!

By the way, if you have been tuning in Bindlegrim Halloween radio on live365.com for those old Halloween tunes, I may have mentioned in a couple of tweets, since the last blog post, the addition of three more tune, this time with a most devlish theme.


First there's a rollicking jazz tune called Putting Salt on the Devil's Tail by Jack Teargarden with fun lyrics such as "I'm going to throw salt on the devil's tail to slow that old boy down." (Anyone have an idea what that might mean)? Second, is an upbeat tune There's Gonna Be the Devil to Pay performed by Willie "The Lion" Smith. (And while I will likely include the version by another stride style artist Fats Waller (for the lyrics) in future, the raucous instrumental by Willie Smith is just too amazing to pass up). And then finally, third, a much quieter tune, but with a ton of slow strolling attitude, is Pagin' the Devil by the Kansas City Six. May the musical selection bedevil ya!

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Oh, and one final note. There also was some fun to be had recently playing curator on etsy since the last blog post. Bindlegrim played curator finding Halloween themed items that went beyond the standard colors of orange and black. If you get a chance check out the artists collected here that expand the typical Halloween color schemes:

The Shoppe of Ghastly Designs

It could be said the poor ol' Bindlegrim is burning the cucurbita candle at both ends... trying to cram a whole host of those pesky doing verbs into a few short months since the studio moved. And after a bit of an exhausted crash (this past week) fortunately found a second wind this evening to get few things done before the day starts again early tomorrow...

First and foremost, was to add some lanterns to the Bindlegrim Etsy Shop, for a total now of four Horrid Decor paper lanterns in a variety of color schemes and material types.

Shown above is The Horrid Decor #2 in colorway Pus and Bruise on Ghost Skin (uh, ehr, known to most mortals as onion skin paper). The paper mentioned has a great crepe-paper type surface (though more durable) and the lantern here was photographed during a desert sunset, hanging out with a recent-era ghost from Hobgoblin (left) and a vintage German Jack O'Lantern (right).

The Horrid Deocr #3 in colorway Hitchcock Blue on Ghost Skin (is also available now) and is show here in a similar shot with the Pus & Bruise lantern above... while tonight two more were added in the more usual autumnal color palette of orange and black.

Above is a collapse view of The Horrid Decor #4 in colorway Classic Orange on Ether (vellum, that is), and below is a same colorway, but on parchment for a more aged look - The Horrid Decor #5 in colorway Classic Orange on Tome Parchment. Five photos of each lantern can be seen in the Etsy listings...

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There were also a couple of older projects re-added to Etsy on some remaining stock, and hope you might be curious to check out the entire shop at your leisure. In the future I hope to do more stepping outside of the digital world, and do more shows, maybe even perhaps Halloween & Vine which would be absolutely awesome, but sadly that will have to wait until year 2013. 

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In a couple of side notes, Bindlegrim actually got a chance to peruse the internet for some olde tunes to add to the existing playlist on Bindlegrim's vintage Halloween radio station.

Added to the now 3+ hours of vintage Halloween jazz oldies are the following tunes: Hush, Hush, Hush, Here Comes the Bogey Man by Henry Hall, as well as The Haunted House Blues by Helen Gross (which starts off comically enough but don't miss that blood-curdling scream at the end). Also added are 2 version of The Little Man Who Wasn't There. The first by Glenn Miller has some appropriately spooky-themes light-hearted banter, yet the second by Teddy Grace takes on a more sarcastic tone that sounds like she's trying to forget a bad relationship.

And finally a big thank-you to Pumpkinrot (also on etsy as Pumpkin Hollow) for their recent blog entry noticing the above image. Would you have guessed the styling for this October scene was occurring in the middle of summer? Alas and alack, it's not autumn quite yet... but Mr. Bindle sure seem to be enjoying the spirit of the season amidst all this heat!

The Horrid Lantern Labels

Just a quick note, (following up on posts The Horrid Decor (Unlimited Bindle) and Colorway: Pus and Bruise) that the label for this particular series has been altered, to differentiate it from any limited editions. This new label features a motif of appalling pumpkins faces, bats, mice, falling leaves, and draped black crepe paper, (as well as removing any edition numbering and instead stating the "The Horrid Decor lantern design is available in standard and custom colors"). The very first of these is ending today on ebay.

While this first one get's ready for it's trip across country, somewhere, there's a batch of pane ready to create more - in a variety of window colors and window materials (on vellum as well as other specialty papers). Be sure to find more of these in the coming weeks in the Bindlegrim Etsy Shop.

While I must admit I sorta miss the ol' tattie bogle with glowing bindle slung over shoulder, I'm 100% positive his ugly mug will once again hop upon some slow moving project as it crosses the desert.

Colorway: Pus and Bruise

Follow up photos for the last entry, The Horrid Decor (Unlimited Bindle), with photographs taken as both moody night shots, and as revealed by the light of day --- and with the actual lantern now constructed adding a link to availability of the first produced in this style posted on ebay.

In the first few photographs, the purple, green, & black color scheme of the lantern is lit with an LED tap-light that was purchased from the local hardware store, and this type light really matches the ectoplasmic tones of this colorway, much better than an orange-tinted flicker bulb.

And to reveal the structure of this vintage-style Halloween lantern, here are some images during daylight (with random backgrounds). I may have to spend some time arranging this lantern the way I might picture this, fabulously styled for an olde Halloween party --- hung in the center of a room, above a table, with streamers radiating in all directions into the room like a huge spider web.

And finally just a couple of image showing how this lantern compacts flatly for storage. And it's a good way to see the imagery created for this lantern (all at once) that features six vintage-styled pumpkins (based loosely on a design by Dennison) each repeated twice.

For more images of this item, be sure to peruse The Horrid Decor on flickr. And when these lanterns arrive at the Bindlegrim shop on etsy, I'll be sure to post another entry. In the meantime, are you entertaining any thoughts about your most horrid Halloween decor this year?