WELCOME TO THE WAKE!

"Greetings. Thank you very much for coming. Your attendance would have meant a great deal to Daddy Big Bucks. Please sign in so he knows you were here..."

Are you a weeper or a moaner? Wait, don't answer that... just sign the book and get inside!

Be sure to pay your respects to the widow's. Daddy's passing has been very difficult for them.


This is Genvieve. She doesn't look as sad as she should be... but check out what is in her hand. Interesting. Daddy's 'Last Will and Testament'. It seems that all of the 'things and stuff' that belonged to Daddy Big Bucks was left to her. Poor Esmeralda.

Seriously, 'POOR' Esmeralda. She didn't get a thing (no stuff either!)... All those years, and nothing. Oh, what is she to do? If you look closely, you can see her purse under her right arm. Is that a knife? I think I know what she is going to do...


This is Daddy Big Bucks. I get the feeling he was not ready to go!

They say that wakes began originally because some people could not handle their liquor and would pass out completely. They would slip into a coma that left them so paralyzed that people could not tell if they were dead or alive. Rather than risk burying them alive, they would lay them out on a sofa, have a party and wait for the person to 'wake'. Some how they had discovered that people were being buried alive only to wake and find themselves trapped. They started attaching a string to the finger of the corpse and running the string to the surface then attaching the string to a bell. If the corpse turns out to be only in a coma, they can pull the string, ringing the bell to let those above ground know that they are still alive and should be retrieved. DEAD RINGER. A wake was much easier! Believe what you want....

(Yes, I sculpted the figures from polymer clay. I compounded their make-up from a mixture of pastel chalks and translucent face powder. Their eyes are glass and imported from Europe. Igor's hair and beard are mohair raised on a farm in upper New York state. Their garments are tailored by me from vintage clothing and fur. Genvieve is wearing a genuine fox stole. I also built and carved the coffin and did the floral arrangements!)