Designing the Stone
Creating fancy tombstones is a great way to add character to your home haunt. Getting the text or design on the foam can be a bit frustrating though.
What I typically do for this is to design the tombstone in a graphics program. I have access to Adobe Illustrator through work, so I tend to use that, but free programs like Inkscape work perfectly fine as well.
Before you get started, spend a little time browsing the web for pictures of tombstones, or do what we do and visit actual cemeteries and take pictures of interesting grave markers. You never know when you might find one that inspires your next build. While you are looking at the tombstones pay attention to the way the surfaces on the stones are carved. Is the text just chiseled into the face of the stone? Is it raised? Is there an inset area? Is the text a memorial plaque attached to the stone? Are there other flourishes, lines, or artwork you want to incorporate. These are all design details to take into account when you are designing the face of your tombstone.
For us, how I design the layout really depends on the project. In some cases the shape of the stone or the area I have to work in is limited by the project design, other times, when it’s just a standalone stone I may draw out the entire stone design in the graphics program. You may be thinking, that’s all great John but what do I do when I want to get from the computer to the physical prop?
Transferring the design
One method that provides amazing results is to use a CNC Router. Check out the incredible designs at Studio Nocturn to see examples of what’s possible. For those of us that either don’t have a CNC router, or don’t have the time to learn how to do the incredible work he does, we need other options.
One such alternative option—especially if you have access to a poster printer—is to print a full size print out of the design. After you have the printout, tape it to the face of the tombstone and take a ball point pen and trace over the edges of all of the letters and design elements. Using the ball point pen in this manner will leave an impression of the path of the pen in the foam under the paper. Once you have finished tracing the outlines, remove the paper and then go back over the paths with a sharpie marker so they are easy to read.
Projecting the Pattern
The next option, and often times my favorite, is to use an LCD projector to project an image of your tombstone art onto the foam surface. If you don’t already have a projector you use for your haunt, a used projector can be picked up on eBay or Facebook Marketplace for next to nothing. You can get a new projector powerful enough for this use on amazon for around $35. You really don’t need high resolution for this, and as long as you don’t mind working in a darker room the cheap low light projectors work fine.
A few tips when projecting: if your projector is small enough to mount above your workspace and point straight down—awesome. Do that. For those of us that can’t arrange that, we tend to have to work a bit more creatively. The most important thing when working with a projector is to set it up so that neither the projector, nor the project gets moved until you are done with the tracing process. I tend to tape the foam down using blue painters tape. Anyway, once you have your material secured and your image projected onto the material, pull out your handy dandy trusty sharpie and start tracing the projected edges. I have found that using multiple colors of sharpie can be helpful if your design is to have multiple depths of carving. I tend to use black for the deepest cuts, and then Red, Green, Blue for other depths. You can even set the line colors when you are designing your image so you don’t have to remember later what is what.
Once you think everything is traced, turn off or block the projector and look over the tombstone. Make note of the areas you missed, turn the projector back on and fill in those missing elements. (Wait, you didn’t miss any? I’m impressed! Teach me your secrets)
Now that you have your layout transferred, turn off the projector. Once the light goes out, it’s time to make things permanent. Break out your preferred carving tools, don a mask, and carve away!
Happy Haunt-o-weening
John