Once again, Bob was left...
...holding the shovel. That's when he finally realized...martinis and graveyards don't mix.
This post is all about the making of a display. You see, I recently realized that I secretly want to be a window display artist in the nineteen forties. But we all know that can't really happen, because I don't have a window to dress. When life gives you a courtyard though, run with it! This is how the "pond" looked before I started. It was breeding mosquitos because it had still water in it. So the first step was to drain the cesspool and fill it with dirt. Sterile dirt.
Once I filled in the gaping malaria trap, I rearranged the rocks to look more random and then placed a couple of gravestones artfully around the area. Realistic, no?
Mannequins are strange fixtures. They aren't real, but they're made to look real. So undressing them, especially when they are the opposite "sex" as yourself can be completely surreal and honestly...I wish I had had a camera crew there to film the absurd dance and gripping that ensued just to get BBQ Bob off of his handy stand. Yep, I felt like a cheatin' wife. The thing is, they aren't flexible, so trying to get clothes off and on is a complicated affair. I almost (I said ALMOST) felt bad for Bob, if he had been real he would have had a very bruised ego, or thought we were having an affair. I'll admit that I fell over a couple of times while wrestling with his legs. 
Mannequins have a way of looking like corpses or really lost people. I have a real fondness for them and am excited to get a BBQ Sue. (I've chosen the girl for bob based on her hair, but she's rail thin which I completely disapprove of. I haven't ordered her for two reasons: mannequins are expensive so I'm scared to press the red "buy" button, and also I keep hoping I'll find a really cute plus size girl for Bob. Men, even fiberglass ones, like a woman with something to hold onto. Women are pretty stupid not to realize that time and again, the good men almost always prefer the medium to plumper sized girls over the really bony ones. I am not saying men like fat, I'm just saying they like breasts and butts and curves. Which disappear when you get really thin, unless you surgically enhance yourself. It's amazing how off-topic I have suddenly gotten. The only reason the skeletal girls of Hollywood ever get dates is because the men there have no choice.)
I broke out in a sweat dressing Bob. I finally got him situated in the grave yard but the next step was to sew him into his trousers because they didn't fit him well, since, unfortunately he is too thin. It's difficult to see in this picture, but I would like you to observe that I have finally put some shoes on Bob. How weird is it that he fits in Philip's shoes and not mine? (I guess I assumed that such a girly-man as Bob would have small feet because he came with eyelashes longer than mine. I tried to shove his feet into my Dexter men's shoes, and was surprised they wouldn't fit. So he's been barefoot all summer. There have been comments about it.)
Bob is wearing Philip's 1940's tuxedo. It was difficult to track down the shirt and tie though. We finally got him rigged out by visiting Elite Tuxedo on Baker Street. I wanted Bob in a white tie because white ties are far classier than black tie, but Elite didn't have that. 
This is a moon I made out of cardboard and covered in glass glitter. I wanted a really classy sparkly moon, but I ran out of glass glitter mid-project (it wasn't the good stuff anyway, but I was forced to order a whole bunch more of the same shoddy glitter to finish this project.) The effect wasn't exactly what I had hoped, yet in it's own way it add charm to the scene. Philip couldn't find fishing wire (our window dressing tool box is dreadfully lacking as we're just putting it together!) so he hung it with velvet ribbon.
Bob's disguise. It is amazing to me that it's impossible to find a Halloween/party store in this town where you can buy something ordinary like a Zorro-style mask which is what I had envisioned for Bob. I also couldn't locate a smoking jacket which I had wanted to put Bob in. In the end though, I really like his Groucho disguise which I found at the dollar store.
There is a sign in front of the display that reads: "Once again, Bob was left...holding the shovel. That's when he realized...martinis and graveyards don't mix."On Halloween we will be employing some dry ice in the display. You can't see some of the cool details in these pictures such as the broken martini glass at Bob's feet. The creepy spiders. The spider webs. But I think it turned out pretty well. I already have a winter holiday scene in mind. If my life as a retail owner/product designer-manufacturer doesn't work out, I know what I'm going to do. I 'm going to become a display artist. I think McMinnville needs to really work on it's window display magic. Boersma's is the only store that really puts together a super creative, fun, and magical display. The bookstore sometimes has some great window displays. But everyone else? C'mon guys!!!! Step it up!!!
I have always loved the behind-the-scenes world where the magic is found, assembled, and built from store rooms of raw materials and random set pieces brought together to say something, evoke something, and make you believe something. I get my appreciation for it largely from thirties and forties films. I absolutely love all the gems like "Stage Door" where you get to see all the young beautiful hopefuls struggle to get noticed by the glittery producers...you see them in their grit before the stage curtain rises. I love those movies in which you see those Bergdorf windows done by Cecil Beaton and those crazy fashion shows choreographed by Busby Berkeley bursting out in rare early technicolor splendor. I want to dress that world of windows and stages.
I am going to look for some books to study on the subject. I need to find tips of the trade, how to pose mannequins, how to dress them without wrestling them to the ground and chipping their cheeks, and how to make your merchandise look superb on fake people. I have questions like whether or not you can buy different arms for the same mannequin; how to hide the underpinnings of displays artfully; where to find all the elements your display is missing (as in: are there stores that cater to window dressing?)? If I had my own window to dress in this town I would make it always look so interesting that people find themselves stopping to look closer even when they think they're in too big a hurry. I would make funny displays and sometimes magical displays. I would evoke that old world charm of the window of a store being not just a place to show what you sell, but a place to show the spirit of the store, a place to show the magic of the store.
But I don't have a window to dress. Anyway, it takes lots of practice and experience to work up to that ambition. You have to develop an eye for the display, you have to build up a collection of props to use, and you have to learn about composition. I need to read about it, collect some reference books on the subject. So I'll practice this secret vocation of mine in the courtyard and in my store. I'm pretty pleased with this one. It's so funny how going out on a limb to persue one dream can uncover dreams you've been hiding in yourself your whole life.
I have always loved the behind-the-scenes world where the magic is found, assembled, and built from store rooms of raw materials and random set pieces brought together to say something, evoke something, and make you believe something. I get my appreciation for it largely from thirties and forties films. I absolutely love all the gems like "Stage Door" where you get to see all the young beautiful hopefuls struggle to get noticed by the glittery producers...you see them in their grit before the stage curtain rises. I love those movies in which you see those Bergdorf windows done by Cecil Beaton and those crazy fashion shows choreographed by Busby Berkeley bursting out in rare early technicolor splendor. I want to dress that world of windows and stages.
I am going to look for some books to study on the subject. I need to find tips of the trade, how to pose mannequins, how to dress them without wrestling them to the ground and chipping their cheeks, and how to make your merchandise look superb on fake people. I have questions like whether or not you can buy different arms for the same mannequin; how to hide the underpinnings of displays artfully; where to find all the elements your display is missing (as in: are there stores that cater to window dressing?)? If I had my own window to dress in this town I would make it always look so interesting that people find themselves stopping to look closer even when they think they're in too big a hurry. I would make funny displays and sometimes magical displays. I would evoke that old world charm of the window of a store being not just a place to show what you sell, but a place to show the spirit of the store, a place to show the magic of the store.
But I don't have a window to dress. Anyway, it takes lots of practice and experience to work up to that ambition. You have to develop an eye for the display, you have to build up a collection of props to use, and you have to learn about composition. I need to read about it, collect some reference books on the subject. So I'll practice this secret vocation of mine in the courtyard and in my store. I'm pretty pleased with this one. It's so funny how going out on a limb to persue one dream can uncover dreams you've been hiding in yourself your whole life.