Starting out, this is my 3rd piece. I got this home interior mirror for $13 off of a Facebook live my mother was watching. I mean, $13 for that is a steal, considering the mirror itself goes for around $70 on eBay. But, I’m not about the money.
I had this mirror first before any other mirrors or photo frames, I was just too nervous to mess it up. Which I definitely would have if I engraved on it the first time. But, I also couldn’t figure out what design I was going to put on it.
I searched and searched, Jujutsu Kaisen, Berserk, other types of media, Horror movies, general traditional designs, I couldn’t choose. But then, I started talking to a friend from my old workplace (Hi Roux!) , playing games, and we started playing Dead By Daylight, one of the games I use to play a lot.
We went against The Shape during one of those games, which is just the Dead By Daylight term for Michael Myers. And I had the idea that I wanted to capture the creepy mask, the unnerving feeling when looking into a mirror and seeing him stare right back at you. Thus, this 3rd project was born, and I got to work.
I found the stencil on Pinterest, and made the creative decision to have him “peeking” from the corner of the frame. Printed out the stencil, and placed it on the mirror, tracing the edges of the inner mirror with my fingers, then cutting where I made indentions, fitting it to The Shape of the frame. (see what I did there ?)
Once I felt comfortable, and many pages of thermal paper, I got the perfect stencil to stick. I took the screws off the back to get just the mirror to work more easily.
This piece took me about 3 hours, getting every fine detail I could and trying my best to not fuck it up. Good news is, I moved to the front porch and just sat in my chair while I had it on a stable spot on the banister. It was definitely an improvement of workspace. I also had some canned air to blow off the glass dust build up every now and again, it was very helpful.
Had to take many breaks, my thumb was quite literally numb after etching out the bottom part of his coveralls. It felt like my thumb was smashed and was just filled with water, I was certain it was going to blister, but alas it did not thankfully.
Once I finished up, I took a nice little break, got a cold drink, and had a sigh of relief. My piece was finished, almost.
Some time later, I used glass cleaner and buffed it out, leaving this masterpiece of horror always stalking. I got to say, I am very pleased with how it turned out, I could have done better, but I am happy with it. I hope you are too.
Until next time,
-Jay
Leave a Reply