Bette Machete BTS Blog

Hi everyone!

I’m excited to introduce to you my new character, Bette Machete! I have been dying for you to meet her and can’t believe she’s finally ready to make her debut. This is a character I’ve had in mind for years, and seeing everything complete and ready to share is very surreal.

I began working on this character in 2020. I was going through a lot of personal things in my life at the time, including the loss of my grandfather, who I love dearly. Ironically enough, when I’m going through a lot is when my ideas seem to come to me the easiest. Art has been a way for me to cope since I was a child, and that stands true as an adult.

As some of you have already read on previous blogs, in 2020 I revamped Trixy’s costume and brought Misty Macabre to life later that October. With these projects, I have to be selective about the order in which I release them. When my Halloween trio was finally complete in October 2021, I was able to move on to a separate project, now known as Bette Machete.

Bette began as a quick doodle in my sketchbook, and as I’ve been working on her, she now looks entirely different than the original concept I drew years ago. I knew I wanted her to be red and yellow, with the possibility of some blue, but the costume has changed quite a bit since I first doodled her in 2020. I believe this costume is inspired by a yellow and red clown costume I wore as a child that was designed and sewn by my grandmother who passed when I was 16 years old.

Because of the many other projects I was working on the past two years, I decided to put Bette to rest for the time being. It wasn’t until earlier this year when my friend, Rhiannon, invited me out for a fun day together, that I felt inspired to continue with and complete this project.

The idea is that we would wear clown makeup and get into bunch of shenanigans, then end the night with pizza and a movie at her house. While doing my makeup earlier that morning before meeting up with her, I ended up completing a look that seemed perfect for Bette.

I had nothing in mind for my makeup while getting ready that day. I just kinda went with it and trusted wherever the look was taking me haha!

Later that week when I shared photos from my adventures with Rhiannon on Instagram, I received a comment from someone asking if this look was for a future character of mine. I love that you guys can sometimes see what’s coming next. You’re very observant, and I like that about you!

Once I had the makeup look finalized, I decided to go back to that doodle I drew in 2020. The idea of somehow incorporating buttons onto her costume was important to me. I wanted them to be scattered with different sizes and shades of blue. Being that her name is Bette Machete, I knew she had to have a totable machete that she carried with her.

After a few revisions and changes in color, the design was complete and ready to send off to the person who would bring my idea to life. In the meantime, I tried getting in contact with the location I wanted to shoot this project at. I had this location in mind since 2020/2021, which made the process of bringing this together a bit less stressful.

The location I chose for Bette’s debut was the incredible Bushkill Park, home of America’s oldest funhouse! Now, as you have all probably gathered at this point, I am very passionate about amusement parks, especially those with a “past”. Let me just say up front that Bushkill park did not disappoint.

Not only have I been dreaming of shooting in a funhouse for years, BUT, a funhouse that matched the color scheme of my character and was also haunted? Sign me up!

If you’ve made it this far in my blog, it’s officially time for the fun! Let me tell you about my day of shooting at the park, as well as the few days that lead up to it. We, as usual, had to travel for this shoot, and were gone a total of 4 days. We began our journey on a Tuesday and toured the location Wednesday night after we reached our destination.

We pulled up to the parking area just outside of the park (which is gated) and waited for someone to arrive. That someone is now one of my favorite people I have met while traveling for these projects. After a long shift at her day job, the wonderful Sue Klein met with us to give a full tour before our shoot the following day.

She showed us around the property and gave some history about the place. We were able to walk through the funhouse and hear many stories about one of the oldest roller skating rinks in the US. We spent a couple of hours with her listening to everything she had to share about the park, and I couldn’t get enough!

Being that we were all tired, it was time to part ways and get to our hotel. I had the luxury of sleeping before this shoot, and was beyond excited. For many shoots (usually Trixy) I don’t sleep at all. I pull an all nighter doing hair and makeup in order to get to the location on time, early in the morning. Luckily, Sue had another shift the following morning and couldn’t meet up with us until about 4PM that Thursday, Sep 1st.

After a great night of sleep, it was time to get ready. Brendan went to get us Starbucks and I began the process of becoming Bette. Before I knew it, it was time to leave! I put on some pajama pants and a hoodie over my costume and Brendan helped guide me to the hotel’s stairwell. While sitting on the bottom of the steps with nothing but my machete, I anxiously awaited Brendan to get the car so we could be on our way! We stayed about 30/40 minutes away from the property which is pretty standard for our shoots.

We arrived at 4PM on the dot and it as time to set up! Sue was there waiting for us with her husband, who was also a gem, and the look on her face when I stepped out of the car was one I won’t forget. Sue is someone who is very passionate about what she does, and I could see that she was excited about this project.

One of the best things about traveling for these shoots is the people we meet. I love talking with individuals who have a love for amusement parks, abandoned places, and the macabre. Sue came to Bushkill Park many times as a child, and seeing her light up while talking about her time there throughout her life was something truly special.

We began our shoot inside of the funhouse. I figured we would start by the paintings (that you will see in future photos that are exclusive to you guys) and then make our way upstairs to the mirrors. Once we were set up, Sue and her husband left us to it and we began shooting! When we completed our warmup shots by the paintings, we moved onto the staircase where we took the ’Topsy-Turvy’ photo.

This part of the shoot was “fun” because as you can see in videos (available to Bad Witch tier members) the stairs move from side to side while you’re walking up them. On Wednesday night when we took our tour, Sue had me walk ahead of her so that she could stand at the bottom of the staircase and move the stairs while I was making my way to the next level of the funhouse. I love her dark sense of humor, ha!

After we completed the photos on the stairs, we figured it would be a good idea to get some shots outside before the sun went down. I carefully made my way down the stairs and we headed outside to gather the large bags of popcorn we had in the car that we brought with us for the shoot. I sat in front of the Souvenir Stand with all my popcorn and we began shooting! After sneaking a few bites in between shots, it was time to move on. I could see we were losing sunlight and it was time to move!

Our second to last stop outside was the tilt-a-whirl. This is where I’m sitting for the ’Spectacle’ photo. Once we nailed our shot, it was time to move on to the outside of the funhouse. I really wanted a shot of me holding the machete while standing in front of it. What I noticed when we first pulled up to the property was that it had been painted and looked entirely different from what I had seen online.

Before it’s makeover, it had their former clown, ‘Balloons’, painted on the front. After being taken over by new management and parting ways with Balloons, they gave the funhouse a makeover. I’ll include a photo of what the funhouse looked like before it was repainted in 2021 after one of their many floods.

Now, this rarely happens, but the shot you see today which is titled ‘Funhouse’ is the first photo we took outside in front of it. We ended up taking several more, but that picture seemed “right” and represented Bette’s personality pretty well!

With everything else wrapped, and the sun setting, it was time to move onto my favorite part of the funhouse, the mirrors. Before shooting that day, I had no idea that the room with mirrors was said to be haunted. After shooting there that evening, I can confirm, in my opinion, that it is in fact haunted.

As soon as we walked up the stairs and set up that evening, I felt a big shift in energy. I didn’t think much of it because I was trying to focus on our work. Brendan needed to speak with Sue and her husband for a moment about unplugging their lights they had for the funhouse. He left me up there for a few moments and the feeling I had while he was gone was very “off”.

Once Brendan got the okay to go ahead and unplug their lighting so that we could use our own, it was time to shoot! Only, there was a problem. The lights would not stop flickering. Remember how I said the funhouse was haunted? Well, I didn’t learn until after we wrapped our shoot that day, that it was in fact haunted, and specifically haunted by someone on the top floor in the room of mirrors.

Throughout our shoot I made many jokes about the room being haunted, because of our experience that I wrote about on here while shooting at Saratoga Homestead in 2021. I told Brendan that the vibes felt weird and that the flickering lights made no sense. Our lighting worked in every other part of the funhouse, AND Sue’s lights worked just fine. No flickering.

With limited time left, we continued and wrapped the shoot with the photo ‘Mirror, Mirror’. This is one of my favorite shots from this project. I love the lighting and the mood, as well as the spooky story that goes along with it. You will see the lights flickering in a video while we were shooting in this room on my Bad Witch tier. Very spooky! Shout-out to Brendan for capturing this video while I was in the zone haha!

Once we nailed the final shot, it was time to pack up and part ways with Bushkill Park. Before leaving, Sue guided us through the funhouse with a final tour so that we could share it on here for you guys!

While packing up our equipment, I asked Sue if this place was haunted, and she answered with a resounding yes! Though choosing abandoned and haunted places is my thing, I honestly was not aware of the park being haunted prior to our shoot. That bit of knowledge made what we experienced that much cooler. I didn’t go into it expecting anything crazy to happen, and it did anyways!

During our last few moments with Sue, she asked if we would stop recording so that she could share some things with me about the park that she didn’t necessarily want me to talk about on here. While respecting her wishes, we stopped recording and listened to everything she had to say.

Once we were all packed up, I wanted a souvenir from my day there. It had been such an all around incredible time, and I wanted something to take with me. I went with Sue to purchase a t-shirt in the auditorium while her husband helped Brendan pack up the car so that we could head back home.

The last thing I experienced during my time at Bushkill Park is something I won’t soon forget. While walking in the dark, across the empty auditorium, I felt this huge surge of energy around me, unlike anything I had ever felt before. With my body covered in goosebumps, I said to Sue, “Oh my God, I just felt the craziest surge of energy around me”. Sue turned to me, smiled, and then flipped the lights on.

I purchased my t-shirt, took a photo with the lovely Sue, thanked her and her husband repeatedly and headed out to our car. After a few more goodbyes, they expressed that we were welcome anytime, and then we parted ways.

I left this project with my heart feeling so full of excitement and could not wait to get home and share everything with all of you! Thank you guys for being here to listen to these stories and for your support. I couldn’t do it without you, and for that I am eternally grateful.

Next project coming soon. Stay tuned!

Much love!
Angelica