The Making of the Bog

The seven-foot alligator was 3D printed over a week and a half on an Elegoo OrangeStorm Giga (a printer with a 2½ × 2½ × 3-foot build area) in parts (head, body, tail, legs) using 10 rolls of filament. Legs were welded on with a PLA 3d pen. It was spray painted, then airbrushed with fluorescent paint on the spines and eyes.

A Raspberry Pi triggered by a PIR motion sensor plays the growl through a speaker under Meeniemo and a subwoofer in a crate to the side of the swamp. Meeniemo is technically a crocodile model with its exposed lower teeth, but is painted in the colors of an American alligator.

With help from friendsPainted by Bella Moses (opens in a new tab). Sound edited by Cora.

The berm is built with sticks and mulch. No digging involved. An old pool liner was cut up to cover it, with burlap on top to disguise the blue and white of the liner. More mulch and dirt went over the berm. Pond dye was added to the water to make it dark. Various grasses and water plants were added around the edge.

The fog comes from a pond fogger, which is basically an array of ultrasonic misters atomizing the water into fog. Most of the animal bones and skulls are real. The dead trees are branches mounted on rebar driven into the ground. The Spanish moss is shredded sisal lightly spray painted to get the right color.

The toads are 3D printed and airbrushed with fluorescent highlights. The small toad has an Adafruit Prop-Maker board and a small speaker to handle its sounds.

With help from friendsToads painted by Bella Moses (opens in a new tab). Stumps supplied by Aunt Jill. Spanish moss hung by the Cardinal. Toad sounds edited by Cora.

The large spider’s abdomen is a 34-inch yoga ball and the rest of the spider is sized proportionally based on a black widow. The head and the custom leg joints are 3D printed. The legs are PVC pipe. The brood spiders are 3D printed. All are painted with fluorescent paint and lit by UV black light panels.

The skeletons they’ve captured are shrink-wrapped in plastic. The desiccated skeleton at the base of the tree is shrink-wrapped, covered in hot glue webbing, then stained. The web was created with a WebCaster hot glue gun hooked to an air compressor. A Raspberry Pi triggered by a PIR motion sensor plays the sounds through a speaker in the tree.

With help from friendsBlue designs on the spiders painted by Henry G. Higginbotham (opens in a new tab), who also wrapped the hanging skeletons and wrapped and painted the skeleton at the base of the tree. Sounds edited by Cora.

The lanterns are a custom 3D-printed design to make a cheap solar lantern look like an old kerosene lantern. The carved heads are a variety of root vegetables from K&S World Market, inspired by the original Irish jack-o’-lanterns that were carved out of turnips.

The bats are 3D printed and the eyes were painted with fluorescent paint. The fairies are 3D printed out of resin and airbrushed. The ambient sounds are from an Arduino with a DFPlayer.

With help from friendsFairies painted by Bella Moses (opens in a new tab). Bats painted by Henry G. Higginbotham (opens in a new tab). Heads carved by Bella Moses (opens in a new tab), Aunt Jill, and the Birdwatcher. Spanish moss hung with help from Bella Moses (opens in a new tab). Ambient sounds edited by Cora.

The well was built with leftover stone. The roof is made from old fencing. Real moss and vines were added to the stone cracks and roof.

The well creature is a cheap plastic skeleton shrink-wrapped with plastic, then stained. The head is a custom cardboard sculpture. The rats are 3D printed.

With help from friendsWell Creature created by Henry G. Higginbotham (opens in a new tab). Roof built by the Birdwatcher. Moss placed by the Cardinal.

The graves did involve some digging. The buried skeleton is 3D printed. The wall is leftover stone.

The fog is a pond fogger in a plastic storage container of water with a computer fan blowing the fog through a pipe to a custom 3D-printed outlet made to distribute the fog along the ground.

With help from friendsGrave markers decorated by Aunt Jill.

The circle is drawn in fluorescent sidewalk chalk that glows under a UV black light panel. There are two real cast-iron cauldrons, one with a pond fogger, the other with pond dye and dry ice.

With help from friendsThe witches’ altar area was created by Katie.