It's October, and that means it's time to put out my Halloween
decoration. Yes, decoration; a single item. A couple of years ago I
wanted to do more than just display a few pumpkins, but I did not want to do the
normal yard full of tombstones. I stood in front of my house and tried
to picture what would be dramatic and make an impression on the neighborhood kids. So I thought of this:
I started with a picture of my house, printed it out, and began figuring out the contact points for the web. I wanted the kids to be able to walk under it, so that meant it needed to go near the door and go into the yard as opposed to being flat against the house. Then it was off to the hardware store. The center point is a 3 inch steel ring. The web is clothes line, about 600 feet of it, with cable ties, around 250, piercing the horizontal and vertical runs to hold the intersections together. I had to build most of it in place; I'm sure the neighbors were a little puzzled when I started.
The spider itself is styrofoam from a craft store. I glued layers of them together and cut and sculpted the body of the spider. He has 4 eyes and fangs also carved out of styrofoam and glued on the head. I coated the whole thing with Mod Podge to smooth out the surface and to help the paint adhere. His legs are PVC pipe, 4 feet each. I used a heat gun to bend them at the joints. There are connector pieces attached to the body so I can remove the legs to make it easier to store. I put a small tea cup hook at the end of each leg to attach it to the web. The paint is UV so it glows with a black light.
Besides the black light, I used a green flood light shining on the house. I changed out the bulbs in the front porch lamp with flicker flame bulbs. And, finally, I added the pumpkins in the upper window. These are store bought faux pumpkins that I stack together. I get just as many compliments on the stacked pumpkins as I do the spider. (This window gets a lit Christmas tree in December, and a lamp the rest of the year.)
I knew the kids in the neighborhood liked our Halloween decoration when a group of teens asked if they could have their picture taken in front of it. It may not be very scary but it still says "Happy Halloween".
