# The 2016 Highbury Cemetery Walk-In Crypt



## highbury (Nov 5, 2009)

So for my yard haunt, the ToTs have always had to come up into my front porch to get their candy. In previous years, we've had it themed as a lab, a butcher shop and a loosely-themed burial chamber. It was always the one piece that I felt lacked the appropriate punch, especially as this was where the big payoff was in my display.

After taking some time off this year, I really sat and thought about improvements and have decided that every good cemetery needs an even-better crypt. So I have been sketching (and measuring) like a madman to create an all-inclusive, full walk-in crypt. The final, most-horrifying step for earning your candy. I've decided that I will build 4 separate tombs complete with corpses and broken epitaphs, but that will come later.

The first piece to this crypt is going to be a large, 18"x44" backlit stained glass window. I have completed the custom artwork and it will be going out to a printer in the next week. Here is the finished artwork (created in Adobe Illustrator):










Much, much more to come as I get the pieces completed! I'll use this thread as a step-by-step progress page as I get things completed.


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## Pumpkin5 (Aug 8, 2010)

:jol:Mike that is gorgeous!!! Love the raven and the blood moon. Wowza! That will be such a focal point for the lighted area and the "candy payoff" place. So am I reading this right? You are going to turn your porch into the crypt? Or is the crypt going someplace else? In either case, I love the idea and the concept. I will definitely subscribe to this thread. What a wonderful concept and a very well thought out plan. Sounds so very intriguing.


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## highbury (Nov 5, 2009)

Pumpkin5 said:


> :jol:Mike that is gorgeous!!! Love the raven and the blood moon. Wowza! That will be such a focal point for the lighted area and the "candy payoff" place. So am I reading this right? You are going to turn your porch into the crypt? Or is the crypt going someplace else? In either case, I love the idea and the concept. I will definitely subscribe to this thread. What a wonderful concept and a very well thought out plan. Sounds so very intriguing.


Thank you, Ms. 5! You are correct - I'm turning the porch into the crypt, where you'll walk up into it to get your candy. I'm REALLY excited to build this thing!! I even have the plans drawn up to so that it is modular for easy tear down and storage. Sort of.


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## Pumpkin5 (Aug 8, 2010)

:jol:^A porch crypt!!! Now that is an original idea! I cannot wait to see what you design. You always have a very original take on things so this is par for the course. This is going to be epic!


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

That window design is stunning! I love the idea of a walk-in crypt. I've always felt our front porch was the weakest part of our display, too, so I know where you're coming from.


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## Hairazor (Mar 13, 2012)

That is almost mesmerizing, Love it! Can't wait to see it come together


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## The Halloween Lady (Aug 18, 2010)

That is lovely! I did a really large stained glass set last year and really feel it adds so much! Your front porch design sounds amazing. Super idea!!!


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## nimblemonkey (Aug 21, 2011)

Ditto what they said about the stained glass piece- Will that really be glass? or something that looks like stained glass? that in itself will be a total masterpiece when completed. I like your idea of using the porch for a crypt. I'm thinking of some scary stuff when I think crypt....


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

It's been a week. Are you done yet?:jol:


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## Sawtooth Jack (Apr 9, 2011)

Window design is fantastic! Looking forward to seeing pics of the entryway conversion.


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## highbury (Nov 5, 2009)

Oops. 4 months have passed! Finally got the art printed out, mounted to an acrylic sheet and framed. Next step is to finish the wall frame and foam it all in! I may also make a diffuser screen for behind the window. It's a bit transparent and a screen would help even out the backlighting and hopefully make the colors pop a bit more. How much time do we have left??


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

Beautiful! That merits being displayed in your house year round.


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## Daughter of Darkness (Aug 24, 2006)

That is very cool


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## highbury (Nov 5, 2009)

Okay, somehow I'm STILL working on this project with only 5 days left until Halloween. It is a ton of work, but things are really coming together with only the crypt walls left to detail. I will have a ton of new photos for this project coming soon. In the meantime, here are the two couples from the Highbury family that will be interred into this crypt...

Baldric and Agnes:



















Thurston and Beatrice:



















The entire crypt will be dimly lit in a cold blue light, so I ended up using the skeletons with red LED eyes from Home Depot. This way, the faces will be lit as a focal point. I used the "plastic drop cloth and a heat gun" corpsing method on the skeletons, then distressed the clothing by tea staining and then shredding each piece. It took a while, but I think they turned out great. I even tried my hand at laying hair for the first time on the second female corpse...

The corpses will lie in the old style horizontal arched coves, two on each side wall, with the strained glass wall in the middle (the wall you face as you walk into the crypt).


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## Pedagog (Oct 23, 2016)

Sounds great.

The picture for the stained glass is amazing.


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## wolfmoon (Nov 5, 2006)

Wow - love the art work!


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

I can see the family resemblance....:googly:

Lovely corpses!


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