mashmonsters

Greetings and welcome fellow Mad Scientists to the official Monster Mash page! This journal is for people who have attended a Monster Mash, thrown a Monster Mash, or made monsters in the Monster Mash style.

So what, I hear you ask, is a Monster Mash??

A Monster Mash is a party, much like a Stitch 'n' Bitch. Except instead of leaving with a scarf or a quilt, you leave with a passel of monsters. Basically, we take cute fluffy stuffed animals and hack them into pieces only to reassemble them in wholly unnatural ways. WARNING! Not for the easily distressed! However, the only abilities required are rudimentary sewing skills (plush is very forgiving) and a sick sense of humor. In terms of materials, all you need are DNA splitters (scissors), splicers (needle & thread), and experimental specimens.

So don your best mad scientist outfit and come create marvelous monsters and creative chimera and then post pictures of them here! :D

After Arisia I had lots and lots and LOTS of stuffed animals left over, since I was planning on having enough for 60-70 people and then only had 20 people show up. DOH! So, naturally I had to throw another Monster Mash party while I was in the area! ;)

I STILL have a ton of animals left, which are now bagged up and hanging out in my mother's basement, waiting for next year to be used. But I did manage to decrease the numbers slightly. ;) So check 'em out, yo! Most of the names are ones I've randomly assigned unless I knew differently from the start. So for those in the know, feel free to correct me! :D

( These are Bendy's monsters! )

( These are spinrabbit's and Snert's monsters! )

( These are drglam's monsters! )

( This is Gil and Gil's guest's monsters! )

( These are dreams_of_wings's monsters! )

( These are Charlotte's monsters! )

( And finally, these are my monsters! :D )

( People makin' monsters! )

( OH THE CARNAGE! )

For the past three years now I've been making an effort to go to Arisia, in Boston, which is a great science fiction/fantasy con held in January. This year I proposed doing a Monster Mash at it! As always, Arisia was a lot of fun. My only complaint? Too much programming. As a result my Monster Mash, which usually has 40-60 people in attendance, with more that I have to turn away, was only a meager 20 people at Arisia. But seeing as there were 21 panels/events/things going on at the same time, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

It did mean that there were a LOT of left over animals, which lead to a great Monster Mash over at lyonesse's house, but more on that later! ;)

( In the meantime, check out the monsters, yo! ;) )

Well, like I said, the Monster Mash was once again a HUGE hit at Norwescon this year. I had 60 attendees and I would have had more but there just wasn't enough room/time. Next year I'm definitely going to go for a 3 hour panel. I think it needs it.

In the meanwhile, enjoy some pictures! I've placed a bunch of my favorites from this year behind the cut tag below. However, all of the pictures are available for viewing at http://pics.livejournal.com/mamishka/gallery/0000c0fc.

( Come check out some cool monsters! )

So today I threw a Monster Mash party at lyonesse's house and it was a total blast! We had a total of five monster makers in attendance (myself, lyonesse, bbbsg, dreams_of_wings, and drglam) and a crapload of monsters were made by nearly all! Everyone was new to monster making except me, but everyone did really good work! It was a very intense and exhausting monster making experience but, as always, most satisfying! I'm totally exhausted now so if I miss anything please be gentle with me.

( Lyonesse's monsters! )

( Bbbsg's monsters! )

( Dreams_of-Wings' monsters! )

( Drglam's monsters! )

( My monsters! )

I think this is #7? It's been so long since I did one, I'm starting to lose track now. Seven seems right. Anywho! It was just me and marzipan_pig today. I don't understand the lack of interest in Monster Mashing, since it is insanely good fun both creatively and socially, but ahhhhh well, your loss peoples. ;)

( Here are marzipan pig's monsters! )

( And my monsters, including one inspired by Jonathan Coulton! )

There was, as always, a great deal of collaboration between us as we worked, which is what I love about this whole process. There is conversation and questions, comparisons and queries as well as constructive critiques. I love the blue 'ocean' piece (Disney's Dory the fish!) that I suggested she use as a base for "Under the Sea", which needed something and which turned out to be just so perfect for it, having qualities of the sea and also of sea shells. Too cool. :)

Yesterday lyricae came over to my place for a change for an afternoon of just hanging out and chillin' and then a sleepover. Since she never was able to make it to any of the Monster Mash parties, we had a 'mini' Monster Mash with just the two of us. And much to my surprise, I discovered that she has a much darker 'creepy' side than I had ever imagined! Dun-dun-dunnnnnnnnn!

( Oh the HORRORS! Check out lyricae's three monsters! )

( I managed to make two monsters this time ... )

We had an excellent evening afterward, watching movies and stuff and eating delicious crab rangoons. Droooooool! So tasty! Yay!

Decided that I would go ahead and count the Norwescon Monster Mash in my numerations thereof. Even though it wasn't a party at my house, it was still a party experience where monsters were made, just much much bigger! As such, today marked the sixth Monster Mash held. Still a small group, just three of us, which in some ways is just perfect and in some ways makes me kinda sad. I guess monster making isn't for everybody, but I'm still surprised that more people aren't interested in doing it because it is DAMN fun. :-)

Ah well. Perhaps next time I will invite people on the norwescon and see if there are neat new people to be friends with through that. Hmmmmm.

( Here are the monsters made by marzipan_pig! )

( Monsters made by my friend Glenn! )

( And finally, my monsters! :-) )

I'll probably have another Monster Mash in September if people are interested!

Yis, the fifth Official Monster Mash happened today. Small group of us, just three, but that's okay. That's one of the things I love about doing these. Doesn't matter how many people show up, a good time is still had by all. I do think it's important to have more time though. We only ran from 1-5 today, and I definitely could have gone on for a while longer. Today we had a special guest, my friend Glenn! This was his first time and he was quite excited! And brought nummy snacks! YAY!

Per usual, details and pictures are behind the cuts, but trust me, you'll totally want to check these out. ;-)

( Monster made by Glenn! )

( Monsters made by Marzipan Pig! )

( And last but not least, my monsters! )

Well, as promised, here are some pictures of the Norwescon Monster Mash monsters! There's quite a few of them (19) but that's hardly all of them! I will be eventually posting all of the pictures that I took in a gallery for those who want to see all of them. ;-) There are more pictures of monster makers at work and monsters in progress, but these are some of my favorite finished pieces! :-)

Enjoy!


Mad Scientist Monster Makers hard at work!

( The rest of the monsterously marvelous monster pictures are behind the cut! )