Comments on: Do It Yourself Ghost

Do It Yourself Ghost

pearlybob — Mon, 26 May 2008 10:33:08 -0800

Need a ghost? Here's an easy 'how-to' make one yourself...

Plenty of time to get this technique perfected before Halloween!

By: maxyRO

maxyRO — Mon, 26 May 2008 10:43:10 -0800

During nighttime, one could also make it glow in the dark.

By: mumkin

mumkin — Mon, 26 May 2008 11:02:46 -0800

So... 1. Buy roll of chicken wire 2. Shape into realistic human form (it's totally easy!) 3. Place in remote setting and wait for the yuks what could be simpler?

By: timsteil

timsteil — Mon, 26 May 2008 11:08:34 -0800

I'll admit that does look a little creepy from a distance. I'd like to put one here.

By: sleepy pete

sleepy pete — Mon, 26 May 2008 11:12:24 -0800

That was so simple, yet, kinda cool, that I may have to make one.

By: Stunt

Stunt — Mon, 26 May 2008 11:15:24 -0800

I will agree with simple, but definitely doesn't look easy (for me at least). Very cool effect though, I would totally make these to freak out some people I know if I thought I had any chance of successfully making one.

By: LunaticFringe

LunaticFringe — Mon, 26 May 2008 11:17:37 -0800

I think I'd like to use this to grow my beans and peas on.

By: pearlybob

pearlybob — Mon, 26 May 2008 11:23:48 -0800

I shaped chicken wire into a large eagle for a high school bonfire once. Actually wasn't too hard and since you can keep re-working it, we actually ended up with a pretty good final result. That we stuffed with paper and burned to a crisp. Love the garden idea!!

By: Grangousier

Grangousier — Mon, 26 May 2008 11:47:18 -0800

Personally I think it's more fun to make a ghost the old-fashioned way, with a bloody and horrible murder. Though that technique isn't without its drawbacks, I'll admit.

By: tinkertown

tinkertown — Mon, 26 May 2008 12:06:37 -0800

I suppose you could hang a hatchet from a tree and affix it to the ghost's hand. Picture it moving slightly in the breeze.

By: triv

triv — Mon, 26 May 2008 12:14:23 -0800

That is surprisingly effective from a distance, good work on the idea.

By: Justinian

Justinian — Mon, 26 May 2008 12:19:01 -0800

I love how they omit the difficult part. I mean, who could possibly have trouble fashioning chicken wire to look exactly like a ghostly human?

By: w0mbat

w0mbat — Mon, 26 May 2008 12:34:17 -0800

Damn fake chicken wire ghosts short-circuit my proton pack and I end up crossing the streams.

By: Dave Faris

Dave Faris — Mon, 26 May 2008 12:58:58 -0800

But where do you put the ectoplasm?

By: wemayfreeze

wemayfreeze — Mon, 26 May 2008 13:10:17 -0800

Hey I like this. You could also just buy a ghost.

By: DU

DU — Mon, 26 May 2008 14:44:02 -0800

"OMG what's that in the trees?? Whatever it is, it can't be a ghost since it isn't moving!"

By: limeonaire

limeonaire — Mon, 26 May 2008 15:26:23 -0800

Well, the not moving part's easy enough to fix. Just hang your lightweight chicken wire ghost from a springy tree branch with fishing line.

By: Kid Charlemagne

Kid Charlemagne — Mon, 26 May 2008 15:37:50 -0800

Given that it's starting to be the time of year when I think of Halloween decorations (some of us have to start earlier than others) I'd like to point these out: If you need a ghost, I'm rather partial to the flying crank ghost. With a little dedicated scrounging I've heard of people putting these together for $20-30. If you're looking for a static prop that would be effective out it the woods somewhere, say at twilight, there's always this guy. His front yard display is mostly paper mache but it's as impressive as many setups with dozens of pneumatic cylinders and microcontrollers.

By: adipocere

adipocere — Mon, 26 May 2008 15:38:32 -0800

Sissies. If you were a real nerd, you'd make this out of your own aerogel. A ten year old made some aerogel, you could, too! Then impregnate it with trace amounts of europium-activated strontium aluminate and tag it from a short distance with a 240nm true UV LED, that humans can't even see. You could even make it different colors, but I'd mostly stick with white. Shaping it is easy. Now, the animatronic skeleton, okay ... this thing is real light, right? I mean, it's freaking aerogel. You could make your animatronic skeleton out of a fistful of Arduinos and some muscle wire! I'm still working on making lasers come out of its eyes.

By: Durn Bronzefist

Durn Bronzefist — Mon, 26 May 2008 20:49:25 -0800

I LOVE THE INTERNET. If you can think of it, you can probably find it. I searched for this artifact of my youth. There was a flying ghost one (not the Newton Ghost-on-a-line on the same Flickr page) that I SO wanted to order. I never did, and thus never experienced the excitement, and inevitable letdown, of the actual product. I do wonder what it would have been like, though.

By: Dave Faris

Dave Faris — Mon, 26 May 2008 21:13:36 -0800

The comments on the old-timey ad you linked to link to another flickr photo detailing exactly what it would have been like.

By: Durn Bronzefist

Durn Bronzefist — Mon, 26 May 2008 22:01:56 -0800

Ha, didn't notice that. Sweet! Naturally, not at all what I imagined as a kid. Still kinda cool, though.

By: quin

quin — Tue, 27 May 2008 15:14:26 -0800

Two things that could make this even cooler: use strips of a thin gossamer material for tattered clothes, to give that ethereal fluttering effect that ghosts in movies always seem to have floating around them. And use a slightly reflective coating, but apply it only in a specific direction so that if the viewer is shifted just a few degrees to one side or the other it would seem to disappear. This would provide for movement, and for the "Hey, do you see that thing over there?" "No, I have no idea what you are talking about" conversations.