I'm doing a zombie rampage this Saturday, and as part of that, I want blood, in case any of the zombies want to have that freshly-had-dinner look.
Now, for Deadbacks, I experimented with sugar bloods, including cooking more sugar into corn syrup, to get a thick paste-like blood that would stay put. I also played with guar gum, but mostly just got nasty clots.
Note, using too much guar gum, and adding hot water to it, you get nasty clots. This is sometimes a good thing! Think lumpy gravy.
For this event, I don't want the blood to flow around much; I want a paste. Maybe even a solid.
My blood powder, though, does not dissolve in my silicons; so it won't work as a silicon tint and I'm too lazy to mix up silicon colors this week. And, well, silicon will NOT come out of clothes.
So, it's back to the drawing board.
I noticed a blood gel, or may I say, jello, on the shelves this year, so I decided to play with my (huge) bucket of gelatin, too.
Mmmm, blood gelatin.
Soooo, here are a few recipe tests I've made:
1tsp guar gum in 1 cup water (mixed with 1/2 cold, then add 1/2 hot, then nuke to a boil to cook). A thick fluid that glops rather than flows. Not solid. Has a bit of texture to it, not too smooth.
1/2 tsp guar gum in 1 cup water; almost slimy, a thick fluid. Would make a good... slime? Still a bit of a texture.
1 tsp gelatin in 1 cup water; almost sets, kind of runny/chunky gelatin.
2 tsp gelatin 1 cup water; definitely sets, into a fairly soft gel.
For a solid blood, I could go whole hog and do something like 1/8 cup gelatin in 1 cup water... woohoo!
Instead, I'm going to test a combination tonight -- 1 tsp guar gum + 2 tsp gelatin. I wonder what that will do?
For any of the gelatin-based bloods, you heat it so it flows, apply, and as it cools it sets.
I'm still not sure what texture I actually want tomorrow.
I'll let you know, though!
Tonight was (still is, for another 45 minutes or so) Friday the 13th ... in October!
My very first date with Marla was Friday the 13th in October, so these are special days for us. That first night, we went to a haunt, and that is what we did again tonight.
Tonight we stood in line at the House of Torment for a while, and then went through the haunt with a nice group of kids, the girls of which were quite satisfactory screamers.
We, of course, are _terrible_ haunt patrons... boooorrring for the actors! Poor things. We like to look at the props, the costumes, the makeup, the set decorations, everything; the technical stuff.
This is what comes from working haunts for many years.
I won't say it sucks the fun out of it, but it does swap the traditional scare fun for a more cerebral enjoyment.
Anyway, House of Torment is very nicely decorated, and they put a lot of effort into their costumes and makeup.
It's a traditional haunt, where you walk through and there are a bunch of startles (boo!)... but they also have some creepy places too. It's not all startle.
No story, and not over-arching theme, but internally, the haunt has several themed sections.
More use of pneumatics this year. Saw at least two trash can traumas (or variants), and there was a nice little dancing doll thingy.
A _lot_ of Bucky's (skeletons), some not modified hardly at all... but there was a _lot_ of nicely modified and redecorated stuff, too.
The space it is in was an old paintball arena, so it's multi-level, with high places, low places, and an amazing twisting path through it all. It takes a good 20 minutes to walk through, and longer if you get trapped by the boo-scares, I'm sure.
All in all, a very well made haunt.
And a fun date.
I wasn't going to let Mambo beat me... I'm far to stubborn for that.
So, risking brain damage, I downloaded (legally!) some 27 tracks of mambo and mambo-esque music (mostly Tito Puente) and spent about ten hours Thursday and Friday pumping it into my brain during work.
By the end of that, I was getting so I could kinda-sorta follow along with the music, and some of my mambo-hating nerves were numbed by the assault.
This paid off on Friday when we had Mambo 1, first week: I didn't totally suck!
I'll have to keep up with the Mambo innoculations, I think, and eventually I may even come to enjoy this thing.
Richard said this was the only way... listen to lots and lots of Mambo.