2016 Walk-In Crypt Project: Part 1

So technically, part one of my 2016 walk-in crypt project started all the way back in April, when I revealed the Blood Moon Raven stained glass window art. This stained glass window will be the center piece of the crypt, illuminated from behind. It will be the first thing you see as you walk up into the crypt (my front porch).

Since then, I had the art produced and the framework for the window completed. As of now, the completed window is still sitting in my dining room...

To say this massive project has slipped away from me would be an equally massive understatement. An inordinate chunk of time has been devoted to creating the three modular walls that will fill in the crypt.

But I'm happy to say that all three wall frames have now been built, the foam sheet facades for each have been attached, trimmed, routed and sanded, all trim pieces have been attached and the first coat of paint has been applied. We are so close, I can taste it...

On either side of the stained glass window wall will be the walls containing the interred remains of the Highbury family. Each resting in their own exposed burial cove, two horizontal coves per wall...

And while I will be putting the final touches on these pieces this weekend, I can now share the images of the inhabitants of the Highbury Crypt...


Baldric and Agnes Highbury
Patriarch of the Highbury family, interred upon the crypt's completion in 1829. Baldric died mysteriously in his manor home on the late evening of October 31st. Crude autopsy reports from the time revealed that Baldric died from an "unspecified perinatal asphyxiation." His wife Agnes was interred two years later, after an accidental drowning in a lake on the manor property. She was discovered on the morning of October 31, 1831.

 


Thurston and Beatrice Highbury
Younger brother to Baldric, interred after his suicide in 1835. Thurston was found dead in his room on October 31st, by hanging. His wife Beatrice was interred five years earlier after a grisly death in a carriage accident...

After Thurston's suicide, it was noted that all four members of the Highbury family met their untimely deaths upon the same day—October 31, and quickly thereafter, hushed talk of a curse began to circulate. Unfortunate ends for all members of the family, and all dying on the same day of their respective years. The "Highbury Curse" took hold and cast a dark shadow upon the family name and the cemetery that the unfortunate laid their final rest in...


When I decided upon building the crypt, I immediately knew that I wanted to have exposed bodies on either side, visible in the old-style open arched coves. I knew that I wanted the entire crypt dimly lit in a flat, cold, blue light, so I ended up getting the Pose N' Stay skeletons with red LED eyes from Home Depot. I knew the overall light would be dim, so I wanted to add highlights and a focal point to the faces of the corpses.  And glowing red eyes would work perfect for that.

I took each of the skeletons and did the tried-and-true "plastic drop cloth and a heat gun" corpsing technique to create the grisly rotten flesh of the face, neck and arms.

Next, I distressed the clothing of each by tea staining all of the garments and then sanded, stretched, ripped, cut and mangled each piece. And again, because of the low lighting, I decided to keep a bit of color in each corpse to provide a recognizable form for each cove.

And for a final accent, I decided to use purple LED pinlights inside each cove, positioned above each corpse. The pinlights will illuminate the head and chest of each corpse and should make each figure really pop out of the dark coves.