I still don't have any stencils. I haven't seen any in the stores that really interest me. On the other hand I saw a lot of skeletons that did. They have bunnies, racoons, chameleons...so many new skeleton critters. I'm generally a poor consumer, there is so much marketing out there that is wasted on me. But whoever the evil genius is that decided to branch out the skeleton industry should get a promotion. Every year it gets harder to resist and they're not even anatomically correct. This year I only bought a bunny and a large frog...so far. And I had to buy the frog because the small one I have needed a buddy. So that counts as an act of kindness, not consumerism. At this rate don't be surprise if I set up the weirdest pet shop scene in a few years.
Anyway, I might have to order stencils online, but that opens up a kagillion possibilities and I'm not good with choices and making up my mind. So procuring stencils is going straight on the procrastination list for now.
In the meantime I might not have stencils but I have this shelf liner stuff. It's great for lining the plastic containers that I keep my tools, wire and whatnot in. The design is really too small to stencil well, but it creates some interesting texture. I applied product over the top it like you would with an actual stencil, but pressing it onto a thick medium would also create texture. You could even apply ink or paint on it and use it like a stamp.
You can buy texture paste or you can make your own. All the recipes I've seen are very similar and use 1-2 parts acrylic paint or gesso, 1 part pva glue or mod podge, 3 to 4 parts talc powder or baking soda. I haven't tried any of them yet, I still have some old spackle I've been trying to use up. On a side note Monster Mud is 1 part latex paint to 5 parts drywall joint compound. I think you should just mix up whatever you have on hand and see what happens.
From left to right I used a mixture of 1 part glue, 1 part acrylic paint, 2 parts spackle; the center is 1 part latex primer paint to 1 part spackle; the last is 1 part latex primer to 2-3 parts spackle. All measurements are approximate and all mixtures were applied randomly. A scientific comparison this is not. Those are finishing nails along the center piece.
My other not-stencil is a plastic mesh liner that came with the pizza we ordered a few weeks ago. Again I used it as a stencil, but it could be used other ways too. From left to right they show the same mixtures I used above.
The middle piece with the 1:1 primer and spackle mixture was too thin. You can't tell by looking at it now but the pattern was uniformly stenciled over most of it. It kind of oozed together. The really fine grid texture towards the bottom is from a piece of cheesecloth that I accidentally laid on it and removed before it was finished drying. One of those interesting mistakes to keep in mind for future use.
The last one with the thicker mixture was a little too perfect, so I used a broken tongue depressor to create some interest. I like how the jagged edge creates lines of varying depth. Come to think of it, glued on jagged pieces of broken tongue depressor would be cool too.
One more thing on my list of things to try has been ink sprays. The same day I picked up that embossing folder there were inks on clearance from the Dylusions line of Ranger inks. They were all two packs containing Fresh Lime and London Blue. I've heard good things about Ranger inks, why are these two colors so sketchy they were sent to the clearance aisle?
Never having played with inks, I've been spraying them on everything to see what happens. In this case not much. The tag above on the left and the one below on the far right I painted with my daughter's old watercolor set. The others were sprayed with the inks and while they looked amazing wet, once dried the color was barely noticeable. I didn't really expect them to perform well on such a dark surface, but if your looking for a subtle color variation it'll do the trick.
I played around with watered down acrylics over the ink ones. I have to say I like the watercolors better or maybe I just didn't add enough water to the acrylics. I guess I will just have to play more.
I had a lot of fun with my pizza and shelf liners. I think they would make awesome faux reptilian skin.
I recently went to an adult coloring book party, which is a fantastic idea by the way. I believe the general consensus was that coloring is relaxing and fun, but non us would take the time to do it on our own. Making it a social activity is brilliant. For an introvert like me, I loved the fact that I could bounce between socializing and being anti-social with no one being the wiser because everyone was busy coloring.
I have had Marty Noble's Sugar Skull coloring book for over a year and never touched it. Not all coloring books are equal, and in my opinion coloring books geared towards those with eclectic interests seem to have a higher percentage of poorly done pages seemingly churned out just to fill a niche. That is not the case here. Beautiful pictures, professional quality, I can honestly recommend this book if you like skulls and coloring.
Right before leaving for the party I had an idea. I copied some of the pages onto watercolor paper.
I now have a laserjet after having a inkjet for many years. I love it. Printing artsy stuff in color requires tweaking the settings to get close to inkjet quality, and the toner is expensive. On the plus side the toner seems to last forever, and as infrequently as I printed in color my ink cartridges were always drying up anyway. And now I can use wet mediums on images without the colors smearing.
I trimmed the watercolor paper to fit my printer tray. Printing on watercolor paper was a little messy, the next image I copied had print from the previous page on the backside. Maybe I could fix that by fiddling with the settings, but I just alternated printing on regular paper with the watercolor paper. It only took running one sheet of printer paper after the watercolor to clean things up.
I started one picture with watercolor pencils, but I got tired of pressing really hard and even then the colors weren't that vibrant. I did this one in Sharpie and Bic permanent markers . I was sure how much white space to leave or how the colors would blend.
This is what it looks like after spraying it with rubbing alcohol. Some colors seem to spread more than others. Not surprising fine point markers spread more than ultra fine point ones. I sprayed the alcohol on by flicking it off a stiff paint brush. I think I'll get a small spray bottle for a finer even mist for next time. Also I wish I would have slowed down a bit and started with less alcohol and patiently waited for the colors to spread. Then I could have added more alcohol a little at a time as needed. After it dried I colored the eye sockets and outlines black.
Next on my list is to try the kids washable markers and see how they react with water.
All in all a very fun little experiment, that if not for a party invite, I would never have thought of.
I'm gearing up for the annual Halloween craft party. This year the main focus will be the mixed media altered bottles we started to touch on last year. I say bottles, but really these techniques can be applied to any surface.
I recently stumbled on Maremi SmallArt. I've watched a couple of her videos on different methods of creating texture and a couple on creating art with junk you might have laying around. Her videos are quite long and chatty, but very entertaining and informative. She's like the Bob Ross of mixed media. For someone like me who isn't very outwardly expressive it's almost cathartic listening to her. Not to mention all that joy is conveyed with the coolest accent, although being from the Midwest I think pretty much everyone who doesn't sound like me has a cool accent. The videos I watched were long, but she covers a lot of ground quickly and efficiently.
There's one thing she said about creating art in one of her video's that I absolutely adore, "Be spontaneous. Be fearless." Alright, enough about Marta. But you won't be disappointed if you check out her channel.
One of things I loved about her texture videos (Ok I'm not done talking about her.), is she used the cardboard backing from packaging as her base. I've been trying out different things on full projects, like twine & seeds, eggshells,plastic bugs, flowers & buttons and molded pieces. It's been a slow process. Watching her I realized how wonderful it could be to do smaller projects and try a bunch of textures in a short amount of time.
For my base I used countertop samples from almost two decades ago. Can we say hoarder? When we were picking out countertops I couldn't decide and I have so many samples but I couldn't just throw them away. I used some to make a faux floor for a pumpkin years ago but otherwise nothing has come of them. For this I used the blank side of the samples as my canvas.Everything is painted with a layer of flat black and highlighted in champagne gold. I kept them very simple and only used items I already had.
My first texture comes from embossed tinfoil. Using texture paste with stencils has been on my list of things to try. So when I saw this neat stencil on clearance I figured now was the time. Except it's not a stencil it's an embossing folder. I didn't know such a thing existed, but now I have one.
The image is raised on one side and depressed on the other, so that when the folder is closed they nest together. A piece of paper is placed in the folder and normally pressed with a little machine and then you have a nice imprinted design. If you don't have a little machine you can use a rolling pin and a little muscle.
The thicker the paper the more effort required but tinfoil takes almost no effort at all. I do recommend tearing the tinfoil into the sizes you want prior to pressing. The other way around and you will press out the design with your fingers wherever you hold it to tear.
On the left we have a base layer of tea bag with pieces of embossed tinfoil depressed side up. The right is a layer of tissue paper topped with embossed tinfoil with the raised side up.
And this is what they look like with stuff glued on. Glass half marbles over pictures from a GrandinRoad magazine*, a bit of cheesecloth, a bottle cap, and a piece of scrap wire randomly twisted and lightly hammered flat.
*I admit I ordered their magazine just for the pictures, but they do have some cool stuff. They also have some items that look like overpriced cheaply made knock-off's of stuff other crafters have done, but all the big kids are doing that these days. I did end up buying a half dozen skeleton mice from them last year, so I guess it does pay to advertise. I got a really good deal on them after Halloween. I bought the mice to use as rats since they are more rat size, whereas I think their rats are miniature Chihuahua sized.
This is me painting already attached cheesecloth black. I painted it flat on parchment paper, so I wouldn't get paint on the glass and after it was dried I wrapped it around the edges of the glass. I thought this in-between moment was kind of mini work of art on it's own and worth keeping in mind to recreate something similar in the future.
I liked the texture of these napkins and wanted see how they held up after painting. I do like how they turned out, even though I'm a little disappointed that as different as the napkins looked, after painting I can't tell which is which.
And here are the finished projects:
On the left more scrap wire, dismantled fake flower, bottle cap, plastic skull ring, seed beads and some Halloween clearance black stars. The other is a plastic scorpion, tiny rhinestones, external tooth lock washers and spent (not live) primers*.
*Unless you or someone near and dear to you reloads their own ammo, you probably wont be familiar with these. This is redneck crafting right here folks. I do clean them before using them for crafting purposes.
The left is napkin again but this time with an overlay of thread. I've used string, yarn, jute, but never thread. It seems so thin and insubstantial I never considered it. Again the inspiration came from Marta, I was really impressed by her use of thread. My example is not so impressive. Yes my thread usage adds texture and interest, but I realized afterwards what I like about her method. First she randomly adds texture paste or thick gesso over the thread. Secondly she uses inks to add color and its that combination of bleeding and wicking that really makes it look phenomenal.
The right side is paper towel, as opposed to the previous paper napkin. It is thicker and the texture more defined.
I chose the most boring neutral samples I had, in case this project was a complete bust, so the backs needed a little sprucing up too.
Both of these were painted black and then the paint was removed with a paper towel before it completely dried. I like how the same technique had very different results by scrunching the paper towel differently and using different pressure.
The sample on the left already had an interesting texture, so I just highlighted it with black. The right-hand one is finger painting.
Here the left-hand side was painted by dabbing the surface with a cotton ball covered in paint. I thought the cotton would stick and come off in bits, it didn't. What it did do was create a very fine texture that looks similar to sandpaper in person. The last one is my favorite. First paint was added and removed like the first two, but then around the edges I brushed on the paint mixed with tea leaves leftover from the spider.
So that's it. I got to play around with a lot of textures in a short amount of time. Now I have an idea of what to expect applying them to other things and I have these mini samples to use for reference at my craft party.
Another episode in the painters tape saga, this time it's reusable shopping bags. The ones that I've had for maybe close to a decade have seen better days and been demoted to carrying less than glamorous stuff like dirty shoes and wet beach towels.
I'm really happy with these reusable bags I ordered off Amazon. They are just as sturdy as my old bags, and a tad bit larger. Black would have been my first color choice of course, but it wasn't available when I ordered. The dark blue is plenty dark enough to contrast with a nice white skull and depending on the lighting sometimes they even look black.
Bounce on over here for the original instructions.
I cut out two templates using them to paint 5 bags each. I probably could have squeezed out another bag or two if I were really careful, but they were starting to lose their stick quite a bit at the end and there was some bleeding under the edges in a few places.
Because of the darkness of the bag I found that using a base color of bright orange for the outer ring helped the metallics pop.
The skull needed quite a few layers of white, which meant a lot of paint build up on the stencils and a thinner stencil gives you better lines. The good news is when the paint builds up like that it's also easy to peal the paint layer off the stencil and start fresh.
Learning from past projects, I drew hash lines across my templates to make it easier to line things up and remember which pieces go with which template. Every few uses the marks needed to be darkened as they were covered with paint, but it really helped.
The plastic bottom inserts came in handy to keep the paint from bleeding through to the other side of the bag.
Then it came time to see how they would hold up in the wash. I washed the first bag on the delicate cycle of my front loader with the bag turned inside out. To dry I turned it right side out, folded flat and let it air dry. A lot of the paint flaked off in the wash cycle.
You would think after all the bags I've done I would have this all perfected by now. Or maybe you wouldn't, but I certainly expect more. At least you get to learn from my mistakes. After the washing didn't go so well, I did a little research. Apparently the acrylic paint flaking off was to be expected because of it's thickness. That makes sense because in the past for this type of thing I've used acrylic paint pens, which I assume use thinner paint for it to flow and I have never had problems after washing. The only reason I didn't this time is because I was doing so many bags. There's a good Instructable here on how to make your own fabric paint by adding acrylic medium to thin it. The really sad part is I already had some, I could have easily done this. In my defense I get paint on my clothes all the time and it never flakes or washes off.
For round 2, I ran an iron over the paint on a second bag before washing. The material is non-woven polypropylene, so I used the synthetic setting on the iron. Before ironing I removed the plastic bottom panel from the bag and placed a piece of cardboard underneath the design and a piece of parchment paper over the design. I ran the iron over it for 30 seconds or so. After it cooled I washed it using the same method and the results where much better. Still a little bit of degradation, but not bad. I was going for that distressed look all along, right?
I will have to touch them up with some homemade fabric paint and see for myself how it works.
The bags themselves washed up beautifully, no torn fabric, ripped seams or anything, although I've only washed the two so far.
Oh and I've had quite a few compliments. When's the last time you heard someone express delight over a grocery bag? So get some bags, grab some creepy clipart and have at it. No reason you can't be eco-friendly and spooky at the same time.
From the same estate sale that brought you the ceramic skull, I now give you marginally spookified candlesticks. When I purchased these candlesticks I had every intention of painting them black and replacing the beads with black ones. But the more I looked at them, the more I fell in love with the existing marbled colors. It seemed a shame to bury all that depth under flat black.
So if I wasn't going to turn them a spooky shade of black, I had to figure out another way to creep them up. My other self imposed challenge was to use stuff I already had.
First I took them apart cleaned all the rusted areas with vinegar, after doing a test patch, and then lightly oiled those areas. Then they were really bright and cheery looking, so I had to put an end to that. After some contemplation I decided to use black shoe polish to darken things up. I applied it to the grooves and creases and then wiped off the excess.
I figured skull beads would lend a little creepiness, but I didn't want to use my good skull beads for this. Just so happens I have a bunch of plastic skull pony beads. I painted them with the same textured primer paint that I used on the ceramic skull. Then gave them a coat of black, sponged on Renaissance Brown and highlighted with Champagne Gold. I have probably a half dozen paints from the Deco Art Dazzling Metallics line and I really love the colors, much richer than other brands I have used.
The downside of using pony beads is the hole was too big. To fix that I forced 3mm round beads into the top and bottom of the beads. Some I forced a bit too much and split a few beads. The beads were cheap coated plastic wannabe white pearls, so yay for using up more junk! But boo, now I had to paint over the part of them that was visible. But this time I waited until everything was assembled to touch up the paint in case I dinged anything up.
All in all I like the way the skull beads turned out. I definitely see myself using them on bottles in the future. I might even split a few on purpose to get a lower profile. The nice thing is the mold line runs down either side of the face, so when they do split it's in the perfect spot.
I tried incorporating as many of the original beads as possible. I even refrained from redoing the wiring on the beaded links, which was really hard for the perfectionist in me. I wanted to prove to myself that if every wire link wasn't absolutely perfect the world wouldn't end and it didn't.
I did replace the original split rings, which were too poorly constructed to ignore. Fortunately I happen to have some antique copper split rings that I bought by accident. Split rings are awesome for durability, but I don't like the way they look. I don't why, I just don't. With my jewelry I always double up on jump rings whenever the design allows for the added security. Here I think a single jump ring would have sufficed and looked better, but since I was on a roll using up junk I've been sitting on, split rings it was.
I touched up the paint when everything was on the candlesticks. I held a gloved hand behind the strands so I didn't paint the candlestick, but everything else including the wire got a little paint on it and that's ok. After I touched up the skull beads I purposely sponged paint on all the other beads to give them a more uniform look.
So subtly creepy, far from perfect, not even close to my original vision and I'm ok with that.
For the 4th of July I offer this "monster". It's pure coincidence that all the pieces and parts came together in what could be interpreted as a commentary on the political climate here in the good old USA. It's also mere chance that it was created just a few days prior to this significant date during my first time playing Bears Vs Babies.
Which was super fun by the way. Although that might have more to do with my fellow players than the actual game. I can't honestly be objective about the game itself, because I think we had more fun checking out each others monsters than actually trying to win the game. You need to be with the right crowd to truly appreciate and marvel at your monster creations. The cards we were using included the NSFW pack, and it definitely takes the right kind of people to appreciate three hairy boobs or a penis playing a banjo.
Also noteworthy is that until right before my monster battled the babies the eagle head was hidden behind a black ski mask. Oh and the saucy sombrero doubles points, so it won and got to eat all the babies.
Who knew this game was so deep? I'm thinking it would be fun to do tarot readings with these cards.
Today boys and girls we will be learning how to slime our caramel worms.
This episode is brought to you by the letters "S" and "W" and by the number "13".
Does anyone remember the adorable worm, Slimey?
The truest test of a grouch's character is how he treats his worm.
Worms breathe through their skin which needs to be kept moist and that's why they are coated in slime. And now you can eat that slime. I modified a basic Edible Slime recipe from PBS.org or at least I thought I did until I realized their recipe says teaspoons, not tablespoons of tapioca starch. Oops. Oh well, I love the way my mistake turned out and it actually tastes pretty good.
Tasty Worm Slime
1 cup cold water
1 tablespoon tapioca starch (same thing as tapioca flour)
1/4 cup sugar (finely ground will dissolve faster)
1/2 tsp vanilla
Combine water, sugar and tapioca in small saucepan, stir until combined. Cook over medium-high heat while constantly stirring. It's done when it starts to thicken and turns from opaque to clear. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Transfer to small bowl and let cool. It will thicken as it cools. Cover, refrigerate and use within 3 days for best results.
I think the flavor and consistency improved after sitting overnight, so I would recommend making it a day in advance. At the very least it should be completely cooled before dipping any worms.
This will produce a slime that is very close in consistency to what I've observed on real actual earthworms. If you want a slime that's a little more substantial doubling the starch to 2 tablespoons will give you a more jelly-like thickness.
A few notes for people who cook as badly as I do:
Stir constantly. Not stir, go do something "real quick" and then stir some more. I'm awful about that, I get sooo bored mindlessly stirring. You just have to suck it up and stay focused. You can do this, it's only for a few minutes. At least that's what I kept telling myself. Otherwise it gets clumpy and nobody wants clumpy slime.
I always get confused with starch puddings and such that say to constantly stir, and cook for a certain amount of time after it starts to boil. If you are constantly stirring, you stir away the telltale bubbles that indicate it's boiling before they get a chance to form, so how can you tell if it's boiling unless you stop stirring? Which is why I didn't put any of that nonsense in my recipe.
This slime took a total of 8 minutes to cook. After 5 minutes steam was rising up from the pan and it was just starting to turning clear. 2 minutes later it was clear and then I cooked it one minute more, just because. My daughter said it looked like egg whites and it had that same thick but runny consistency. When it cools it will be very stretchy, shown below in Zombie Victim Red.
I think opaque is in the eye of the beholder. To me, once it becomes clear it still looks a little opaque when it's all in the bottom of the pan. Take your spoon or my favorite tool, the spoonula and lift some up out of the pan, you'll see it is indeed transparent.
If you're thinking well I have cornstarch I'll just use that. Tapioca starch produces a clearer slime. I did read that cornstarch is more stable, but I didn't do a side by side comparison. I can say that this slime only keeps for a few days. I kept some on the counter at room temp and some in the refrigerator, both lost their elasticity by the fourth day.
The next part is sliming up the worms. This proved to be more challenging than I expected. The moisture from the slime will break down the caramel. The first few worms I slimed and then put in air tight containers got really mushy. It doesn't affect the flavor, but I thought the texture was off-putting. The outside of the worm was the consistency and flavor of caramel sauce and the center still firm and chewy. Maybe that doesn't sound terribly horrible, but it was. Also the segment details were lost.
If you remember Shanes Killer Cupcakes, she used a thin glaze to make her worms look wet. Depending on how you want to use your worms, that might be a better option for you. But the challenge here was to make slimy worms, so...
...I did a little experimenting. I won't bore you with all the details, just the important stuff:
- For instructional purposes a "lightly" slimed worm is one that is dipped in slime on a fork and then the fork is tapped over the bowl to let the excess slime drip off.
- A "moderately" slimed worm is removed by fork but the excess is not tapped off.
- A "heavily" slimed worm is one that is completely submerged in slime. That will quickly result in worm soup and is not recommended unless you actually want worm soup.
- It's easier to slime the worms with room temperature slime.
- Do not keep the worms in an enclosed container. In an open container the slime will eventually, hours later, dry out. A lightly slimed worm will dry to a tacky sheen. A moderately slimed worm will be tacky on top, laying on a thin sticky layer of it's own caramel goo.
- For the first hour there isn't much change whether the slimed worms are refrigerated or sitting out, in fact it isn't until about the third hour that the refrigerated worms are noticeably less deteriorated than room temperature worms.
After my experiments I took my two control worms that hadn't yet been slimed. The one on the left was then lightly slimed, the one of the right moderately slimed and laid on cookie crumbles to simulate possibly one day performing in a Broadway production of "Dirt 'n Worms".
After the worms started to break down I added a tiny bit of raspberry to spots with oozing caramel just for fun. That was taking it too far. It looked way too much like worm guts squishing out.
Seriously, I had to take a deep breath, and mentally prepare myself to eat them. Texture wise they weren't bad. The lightly slimed one was firmer, but even the moderately slimed one wasn't terribly mushy. I think the cookie crumbs absorbed some of the moisture.
I didn't have high expectations for the combination of cookie crumb and slime. It was edible, but I didn't like the two textures together. While the slimed worms were fun, for Dirt 'n Worms, I will use plain caramel worms. I think the slimed worms would make a nice garnish, maybe resting on some lettuce leaves. Throw in a few edible flower accents and you would have quite the Martha Stewart array.
I didn't care for the hint of raspberry with the caramel either. A bit food coloring might work better, but I would not suggest trying. *Don't make edible worms with their guts oozing out, it looks way too disgusting.* The only reason to do this would be for a short film or photo op or to eat in front of someone just to gross them out. Like take them to work and eat them for lunch on April Fools Day. Or if you really like caramel and don't want anyone else to eat them, then by all means go nuts on the guts.
The bottom line is if you are having a fancy dinner party and want to serve a plate of slimy worms for hors d'oeuvres, you should make the slime a day in advance, but not more than two days, bring it to room temperature before using and then wait until right before serving to slime and plate the worms. If you have to make them in advance, refrigerate them uncovered.
[Update] I had an epiphany in the shower. That's where get a lot of ideas, the one place I can't write them down. I suppose that's alright, the lesser ones wash away down the drain forever forgotten, but the ones that survive are usually keepers. It occurred to me that you could just serve the slime separately, like a dipping sauce, in tiny containers with a couple of worms on the side. I think the under 12 crowd, would probably be your target group for this method. Also I'd probably serve them outside, because I see this getting messy. Fun, but messy.
All this worm testing reminded me of How To Eat Fried Worms , a book I thoroughly enjoyed as a child. It's about boy who has to eat fifteen worms in fifteen days to win a bet. When it starts to look like he just might do it, the losing side starts to play dirty and shenanigans ensue.
In middle school I read Squirm, a very different sort of book and instead of eating worms, the worms eat you. It was years later that I stumbled on the movie that the book is based on. The movie is pretty cheesy, although at the time I thought they used earthworms. I had no idea the actors were working with fanged venomous worms, which makes the movie a lot more horrifying. Here's the abridged MST3K version, which if your squeamish doesn't show the scenes using thousands of Glycera Worms [This link on the other hand does have a short video showing one of these worms baring it's fanged proboscis].
If you make enough worms, you can make words. Worm words.
So...after I posted about Dirt 'n Worms and complained about the worms, because gummy stuff is gross and super gross when mixed with chocolate, Lady M suggested we should figure out how to make slimy worm candy. I decided to tackle it before I forgot and found myself on the cusp of yet another Mother's Day with nothing to show for it but a lousy bag of store bought gummy worms.
I found many wonderful things on the internet, none of them quite what I wanted, but still very inspiring.
In the best looking worms category I give you: Shane's Killer Cupcakes - Maggot & Worm Cupcakes. By far the best looking worms, but alas they are made of fondant, which is icky. I do wonder if the Scuptable Frosting that I used for my Krampus and Zombie cupcakes would work if you added a bit of cocoa powder for coloring. Cocoa powder might even cut the sweetness back a little.
In the categories of best tasting and easiest to make, check out: Good To Know - Halloween Worm Cupcakes. Rolling out caramels and making a few indents is about as easy as it gets and they look pretty good. It goes without saying that the flavor would marry nicely with chocolate.
Honorable mention goes to this cake just for looking awesome: A Little Piece of Cake - Worm & Maggot Fear Factor Cake. This uses modeling chocolate for the worms. I haven't used modeling chocolate, which is a bit of misnomer since most of the recipes I found use corn syrup and candy melts, no actual chocolate. Sugar Geek Show does provide recipes for both the candy melt and a chocolate version in this post, but most of the information and pictures (Go look at the pictures, she does amazing things with this stuff.) seem to be using the candy melt one.
I went the easy route and used caramels. I also think the flavor will go well with the dirt 'n worms. I borrowed from Shane's worms and made the signature band (clitellum) around the worm. Did you know that the band indicates a sexually mature earthworm? Now you do. It is also generally located about a third of the way down the worm's body if you are wondering about placement.
For more worm info this is an interesting read. If you just want a worm fact quick fix try this FAQ. I was surprised to learn a few years back that earthworms are not native to Wisconsin, and are actually bad for the forests. I still love seeing big adorable earthworms in my garden. Thankfully I haven't seen the super invasive Jumping Worms. For a visual on why they are called Jumping Worms check out this quick video. This video is a short claymation film that shows just why they are so destructive.
Ok class time is over, on to making worms. I tried both Werther's and Kraft caramel's. Oddly despite the fact that the Werther's where harder to roll out, they didn't keep their shape and spread out over time. Just to make sure it wasn't because of my manhandling I unwrapped a Werther's and set it out. Sure enough even without me doing anything, the caramel slowly spread. It's a shame because I think the Werther's tasted better, and I was excited about having two different colored worms.
Caramel Leeches?
The Kraft caramels are much easier to roll and keep their shape, so that's a win, win as far as I'm concerned. The lesson here is that whatever the brand you use, leave a piece sit out unwrapped for a few hours and see what it does. It would be a shame to make twenty worms and have them all flatten out before your eyes. Should you not heed my warning and your worms spread, maybe you could call them leeches.
Making worms is super easy. Start to roll each caramel into a log shape. Cut off a little piece and set aside. Continue rolling out your log until desired length and width and make sure the ends are smooth.
Now press the little piece you set aside into a small ribbon, make sure it's long enough to wrap around the worm. Remember this will be placed about a third of the way down.
To make the segment indents use the dull side of a vary thin paring blade. If you push gently you can roll the worm with the back of blade as you make the indents, thus getting your lines to go all, or at least almost all of the way around. If you don't worry about perfection it goes really quick. If the worms are too soft to roll nicely, refrigerate for a few minutes to firm them up.
These are the types of knives I'm talking about. I have those exact ones in fact and wouldn't recommend getting that brand. I've had two handles break, more like disintegrate, in my hand. I lost my good ones and I can't remember where I got them.
Add the clitellum. Place the worms with the clitellum seam side down.
I think the worms look really good, maybe even a little too good. It took some convincing to get my son to try them, after which he pleasantly surprised. No amount of coaxing, begging or "Look your brother likes them." will get my daughter to eat one. She says they look too gross. My kids are teenagers. I think younger kids, at least the twisted ones, would gleefully enjoy the gross out factor.
One last thing, a word of warning. Searching for pictures using variations of "chocolate", "caramel" and "worms" is not for the faint of heart. Once I eliminated "gummy" from the search I had to wade through a lot of pictures of larvae infested confections.
Not quite as prevalent, but just as graphic, are candies made with real insects and larvae. I realize that they are not only a viable food source, but a healthy one at that. Marcus Leach has an interesting read on eating insects along with recipes. The Mealworm Fudge doesn't look half bad, but I think I'll cling to my vegetarianism. Which is really just an illusion, insects and larvae are probably the least disgusting things that I am already unwittingly ingesting.
Average is 60 or more insect fragments per 100 grams when 6
100-gram subsamples are examined
OR
Any 1 subsample contains 90 or more insect fragments
Rodent filth
(AOAC 965.38)
Average is 1 or more rodent hairs per 100 grams in 6 100-gram
subsamples examined
OR
Any 1 subsample contains 3 or more rodent hairs
Shell
(AOAC 968.10-970.23)
For chocolate liquor, if the shell is in excess of 2% calculated
on the basis of alkali-free nibs
DEFECT SOURCE: Insect fragments - post harvest and/or
processing insect infestation, Rodent hair - post harvest and/or processing
contamination with animal hair or excreta, Shell - processing contamination
Significance: Aesthetic
Feel free to peruse the rest of the handbook later, maybe if you have free time during lunch. It's always nice to keep up on your egg, larve, filth, excreta, rot and mold consumption.
I do have a box of spicy larve, because I think it looks cool. I've offered to share but oddly no one has been tempted to try them.
