Back to Departmen 56 Gallery Two Stage of a Halloween Display Roger J. Beauregard/Creative Villages mailto:rjbeauregard@comcast.net Stage 1: The following pictures are from a display that I built for a customer from Connecticut; he had taken a business card and called from a store in Salem, MA, where there was one of my displays. It was a Halloween display and this customer was very much into Halloween. He was telling me how much he liked the display and if I could build one for him. I said yes and explained to him what I would need for information and we could talk once he got home. After he told me what he had for pieces and explained to me what he wanted for his village, we worked out the contractual agreement and then I proceeded to build his display. The biggest problem was space, which seems to be what we all have to deal with. (Ten people could have the same ten pieces but because of the room they have you will get ten different designs.) I designed the layout using templates that are the size of the bases of each building so I had a better idea of space. I got this information from the D56 web site. The site tells you the base size of each piece which is a big help. Some of the pieces were Lemax so I had the customer give me the dimensions. The building of the display went well and when I was finished I called the customer and he came to pick it up. It was a display that was 4 ft. by 6 ft. that was in three sections with mountains backing the display. There were seven pieces all together. The only thing I had to do was make this display like a puzzle. I kept it all together so the customer could see it together and then we took it apart explaining to him each piece and how to reassemble it. I made it so pieces overlapped each other so when it was put back together it would look fine. He called me after he reassembled it at his home and said everything looked fine. .   Stage 2: Halloween season I get a call from the same customer saying he had purchased more pieces and could I make an extension for him. This time he was more specific as to what he wanted, which was more levels and sort of a tunnel for one of the pieces. There was a display that I had made for myself that was on the HWFF web site and he wanted a similar looking tunnel. The whole process starts again but this time the space is even more limited hence the higher levels. This second section is 4 ft. by 3 ft. half the size of the first section. Because of what the customer wanted this time, I was able to put in a lot more detail in the stone work of the tunnel opening. I really enjoy doing stone work and making it look like it is hundreds of years old. I like the gothic style, it just intrigues me so I try to create it the best I can. I hope you enjoy my displays. If anyone has any questions regarding anything from this display or any other display questions, please feel free to email me, I will be happy to answer your questions the best that I can. The only thing that I ask is in the subject matter of the email please put, "display question, ". I will not open the email unless this is in the subject line.