When SEHA (Society of Eclectic Halloween Artists) listed “Haunted Houses” as its September theme challenge, I immediately knew I wanted to attempt a dollhouse/diorama/assemblage “haunted” by Edward Gorey characters. I adore Edward Gorey. I can’t imagine working in an office that doesn’t have the child in bed with the huge lizard reared up on the footboard captioned “Donald imagined things” on the wall, and I’m equally enamoured of Neville (who died of ennui) from the Gashlycrumb Tinies. I also adore his lithe black cats, big black dogs, and ballerinas. 🙂 In violation of all copyright laws, since I’m keeping this one for myself, I copied pages from books and ravaged my past year page-a-day desk calendars for standees and cutouts. It doesn’t show in any of the pics, but there’s a framed picture of Gorey himself on the drawing room wall.
The base is a distressed wooden box bottom topped with a crumbling book cover roof and finial steeple. I only used half the cover because the sides covered the house halfway down, so I cracked one side to form a roof. The cover deteriorated so badly from handling I glued a square of denim to the underside with Sobo glue to strengthen it. I really like the ravaged effect.
The wallpaper is scrapbook paper, the column is plastic wedding cake tier support, and the chair was doll furnitured gessoed white.
The gables are wooden triangles from a set of children’s building blocks. Note the unloved child leaping from the roof. Other children languish in the attic.
The back of the house is a churchyard scene with Petunia, the scourge of bicyclists’ ankles, the crow warning “beware of this and that”, and a bat crossing a plastic disc road trash moon.
The churchyard extends onto one side where Dracula and Mina spend their days in a coffin, topped with a contented cat.
The other side features a round “window” made from a broken box fan dial, gamepiece house number, and a napkin ring doghouse.
Definitely my most ambitious, aggravating, and fun project!
diabloperro 
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