Countdown to Halloween - Oct. 15 - Sharon Bloom Designs

I recently interviewed Sharon Bloom of Sharon Bloom Designs. She does great ceramics with neat Halloween scenes and imagery that are evocative of Vintage Halloween. You can check out her Etsy Shop and also she has a Blog.

VH: How did you become interested in Ceramics?

SB: My background is in painting and one day I met another artist that became a good friend. She was a potter and encouraged me to try making some pins out of clay. At that time, I was not familiar with the medium. So, with rolling pin in hand and a block of clay I made my first cut out pins. They were thick and blocky and once in a while a customer will show me a pin from those early days, still intact and happily loved. Since then, I have branched out into painted plates and sculptural work.  

 

VH: What defines your style?

SB: I like to create a mix of a what I call a retro vintage Halloween style with my own twist. I love the old imagery from the paper decorations and find myself pouring over collector books and my own finds for inspiration. I want my style to evoke a sense of nostalgia, yet have appeal in the modern world.

VH: Tell us what inspires you to create?

SB: At this time of year, black and orange. A a lot of it! Halloween is my favorite holiday and season. I get really excited when I begin to see Halloween decorations popping up in the stores and driving by local pumpkin patches and seeing those little orange globes. Most days, I have a never endings flow of ideas that just seem to continue to cascade out of me. I am fortunate to have a fertile imagination that is stimulated by the world around me. Colors, pattern, and texture are a big part of that idea factory.

 

  

VH: Do you have a favorite Halloween memory from childhood?

SB: Sitting in our little kitchen nook in my childhood home and anxiously peeking out of the shuttered windows to see if it was dark enough to go trick-or-treating. It seemed like forever for the sky to darken on Halloween Eve. I loved running through my neighborhood with my older brother, without parents when we were older, and the freedom I felt on that night.

VH: What is your favorite Halloween theme?

SB: I love jack-o-lantern themes the most. Anything pumpkin really catches my eye and warms my heart. Although I am an avid cat lover, and have many black cat themed pieces in my own collection, the pumpkins win hands down. There are so many expressive Halloween pieces with pumpkin faces.

 

Some of Sharon's Vintage Halloween Collectibles 

Jenn:)

Countdown to Halloween - Oct. 14 - Halloween Parade Lanterns

I've always been intrigued by the Vintage Halloween Parade Lanterns. They are metal and had a place inside (see below) where a candle could be inserted. I imagine these looked great lit up at night! One of my favorite Halloween postcards features a veggie person, devilish character, witch and black cat carrying parade style lanterns. There have been quite a few of these at eBay recently selling in a range from $672 on the lower end on up to $1316 on the higher end of the spectrum.

 

Jenn:)

Collecting Vintage Halloween - Vintage Halloween Plastic

Vintage Halloween plastic decor can still command some high prices--especially for the much scarcer pieces like this one which sold for $2082 at eBay recently!

Jenn:)

Countdown to Halloween - Oct. 13 - Spooky Scarecrows

Spooky Scarecrow Project

Today I worked on craft project #3 for the annual Nancy Drew Halloween party - putting together 2 spooky scarecrows to put outside the front of the house - they will be really tall too--close to 7+ feet. I purchased 2 pumpkins that light up that have particularly spooky features and at night they look so neat all lit up! I took 2 x 2 boards and painted them black and have 2 black buckets to put these into with sand to keep them in place.

At JoAnn, I purchased some filmy black fabric to attach to the cross bar--which was just some garden stakes zip-tied onto the 2 x 2s.

I slit jagged cuts into the fabric to make it look tattered. With a little more fine tuning to go and setting them out later this week, they'll look great. I also have some crows to attach to the arms.

 

 

Jenn:)

Countdown to Halloween - Oct. 12 - Vintage Halloween Images on Fabric

I was at JoAnn today getting some black fabric for some spooky scarecrows and ran across this super piece of Halloween fabric! They had 2 pieces left on the bolt and it was on sale this week, so I took them both. I love the images--vintage postcards, sucker boards, cutouts and more! Great imagery. The name on the fabric was AKO. It would make a great apron and super table cloths and napkins! I'd get some of this if I were you :)

 

 

Jenn:)

Countdown to Halloween - Oct. 11 - Bruce's Halloween Collection & Decorations

Bruce showcases some of his collection and decorations here including quite a few pieces he has made himself including the grand Beistle JOL lantern, fireplace screen, and box lanterns. Clever!

 

 

 

Jenn:)

Countdown to Halloween - Oct. 10 - Vintage Style Postcard Sayings Contest

It's Time for a Halloween Blog Contest!

Vintage Halloween postcards often had little poems or sayings on them that were clever and fun, foretold witches coming or your fate in a mirror, or spoke of mischievous acts. 

In the comments section, post your own short and sweet made up poems or sayings that would fit the style of those on vintage postcards! If you need some inspiration, check out my Vintage Halloween Postcards board on Pinterest. For every one posted, you'll be entered into the drawing for a set of Johanna Parker's favor/treat cones - set of 4. I'll do the drawing on Halloween! Please be sure to sign your name to your posting.

(PLEASE NOTE: Comments are moderated for this Blog to weed out spammers - so once you submit your comment in the upper left area of the page it will have in small print a message stating that comments are pending approval--no need to post twice if it doesn't show up right away--it's that I haven't approved the comment yet.)

Jenn:)

2013 Halloween at Hobby Lobby #4

I was at Hobby Lobby today getting some tulle for my ghost costume this year and noticed these plates in the Halloween section with the Vintage Halloween postcard imagery--thought they were neat!

Jenn:)

Countdown to Halloween - Oct. 9 - Richard's Vintage Halloween Collection

I love it when other collectors share their collections! Here's some of Richards's Vintage Halloween Collection and how he displays it. If you'd like to share pictures of your collection, e-mail me at webmaster@vintagehalloween.com.

 

 

 

 

 

Jenn:)

Collecting Vintage Halloween - Vintage Halloween Party Decor

Vintage Beistle is among the favorite of Halloween collectors due to the imagery and the styling of it - pieces had such crisp and definitive artwork overall and are highly coveted - like this honeycomb tissue decoration which recently sold at eBay for $510.00.

Jenn:)

Countdown to Halloween - Oct. 8 - Spooky Ghost Window Silhouettes

Ghostly Window Silhouettes

Another project I worked on today for my upcoming Halloween party was putting ghost silhouettes into the front 3 arch windows on one side of the house that's a studio. I was going to do my usual black window silhouettes backed with a yellow tissue and then immediately ruled that out--ghosts should be white I think, they're more effective that way, so I decided to cover the window with the black and cut out the ghosts and back the cutout area with the white tissue paper. I think this effect is much more spooky, after all I'm trying to "haunt" the house!

I had 3 windows and used 4 poster board sheets for these - One solid piece and then a part of one to make it taller. This is a very inexpensive project to do and has such a great effect. The poster board was .99 cents at Michaels and a little less with a discount I had on my total purchase and the white tissue I had on hand in the Christmas wrap drawers, but a package is generally around a dollar or more at most stores. 

I put the 2 pieces of poster board together and taped along the seam--I didn't worry about removing the sticker on the back since I kept that side as the backside which no one will see. Then, I drew on my ghosts with a pencil and then cut them out--I cut them out within the poster board, leaving borders all the way around to keep it one sturdy piece, then taped white tissue on the back, flipped it over and added some tape underneath various areas onto the tissue to stabilize it. Then I cut out features and taped those on. Luckily the windows were as wide as the poster board so I didn't have to trim up and down on those. Now I need to do several of the upstairs windows and the front window to go along with the theme. This was a method that was much quicker than my usual black silhouettes and then taping loads of tissue all over the window.

Here's how the windows turned out:

 

 

Jenn:)

Collecting Vintage Halloween - Vintage Halloween Diecuts

I love the look of this vintage floating ghost diecut by Dennison - it's a ghost--yet a skeleton at the same time. So neat to see. It's creepy but has an elegance to it. I like that it's not the gory freaky stuff you typically see in today's modern Halloween market with an object like this.

It recently sold at eBay for $325.00.

Jenn:)

Countdown to Halloween - Oct. 7 - Vintage Dennison Collectibles

Collecting Vintage Dennison

Collectors of vintage Dennison cutouts, crepe, party goods, and Bogie books appreciate the old-time nostalgic look of these collectibles. The Bogie books can be very expensive to collect, though some have been reproduced if you want to purchase something less expensive to get the vintage party ideas and suggestions.

I've always liked the pumpkin above with the cats for eyes and nose and the bat mouth. A great thing about the Bogie books too is that they list the available products for that year, so you can see a nice sampling of what was available at the time.

 

 

Jenn:)

Vintage Halloween 2014 Calendar Betwitching Witches

Celebrate 2014 With 

A Bewitching Year of Hallowe'en!

Calendar features vintage postcard images of witches and then clever and festive old time postcard quotes and sayings - click on image below for preview. Purchase at The Vintage Halloween Store.

Jenn:)

Countdown to Halloween - Oct. 6 - Halloween at Pinterest

Do you Pinterest? We've got 65 Halloween Boards at our Halloween Pinterest on a variety of topics from Halloween weddings to Vintage Halloween Collectibles to Witch Parties and cool Halloween party favors. So many ideas for just about every theme party, vintage collectible, and spooky idea. Check us out and do some spooky pinning!

Jenn:)

2013 Halloween at Target #2

I'm liking all the goodies at Target this year! Poison and owl pillows were cool. Check out the skeletal treat bowl stand below. Lots of good stuff, so check out Target this season.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jenn:)