I pretty much finished the cane now. It looks ok. I did have a few issues. I tried spray painting the handle, which resulted in my hand getting black every time I used it. I resolved that by wrapping it in the stuff they use to wrap bicycle handles. It looks lumpy and is almost too big to handle with my shoert stubby fingers, but it works for now. I am guessing it will compact a bit with use.

So...I promised pictures. So here goes....

After applying the decals I sprayed the whole thing with artist's varnish. It is meant to be sprayed over artwork to protect it from light and dust while still allowing people to see it. I think it looks great. It is brighter than I expected. And I used metallic blue for the background stuff, so with the varnish when I put it in the sunlight it looks like I used glitter. I am not a huge fan of glitter, so this annoys me, but still....not too bad.

So now I have a Tardis cane. If I do this again, I think I would do the background a more evenly. I would get someone to help me place the decals so they are more even. I need to figure out something better for the handle.

But there ya go.

See, not spectacular, but not embarassingly bad. I found some small Tardis decals I ordered off the web. The first two are here, and they are the perfect size. Once I get the rest in, I will place them all and shellack the whole thing.

 So due to exciting circumnstances I have the opportunity to go to Anglicon in Seattle in a few weeks. I am really excited about getting away from home for a few days. Most days I don't leave the house, because I don't have a reason to. I can do my job search from my computer. Most places I am applying to have online resume systems in place. I don't need a ton of groceries, so once a week shopping is sufficient. Last week, I did not leave my house from Tuesday till Sunday. That seems pathetic. Well, I did go into the yard to take pictures. The bees were busy in the mint flowers, so I took the opportunity to practice using the telephoto lens. It is a Canon 75mm-300mm. Not the most expensive, but not bad. It is taking me a while to get used to it, and remember all the settings. My goal is to eventually try to get good pictures of the moon with it. That will have to be somewhere other than at home though, as usually I can't see the moon from my house due to trees and/or houses. But still, I didn't really leave my yard to take the pics. I posted my pictures up on Flickr. I also took the camera with me to the Fair on Sunday. I didn't get a whole lot of good ones, though. I need to learn how to change the settings correctly to get indoor flourescent and outdoor shots. If you want to take a look they are all posted HERE. I made an album of the fair pics. They are all so mushy. I need to figure out why so I can fix it. So many of my pictures are mushy. I may need to invest in a photoshop class.

Anyway, my point was that now I get to take a train up to Seattle and hang out with my fellow nerds for a few days. I am taking my camera and my uke, though I don't expect there to be any music there, per se. I have social anxiety, and I find it easier to deal with constructively if I have the uke in my hand. It grounds me....reminds me I am not stuck where I am, and if I need to I can step outside and noodle until I am calm again. And Anglicon is British fandom themed, so my Who songs and Red Dwarf will be totally appropriate. So now I am getting ready for con. What will I wear? Will I try cosplaying? I have been contemplating painting my cane with space scenes and Tardis's. I don't know if I will do that. I may try. I am not exactly sure how one would accomplish that. I am not an artist. Am thinking maybe paint it solid black and flick white paint on it to represent stars. Maybe use a sponge and some dark blue on it. Then I have to try to freehand Tardis. Hmm....There may be an easier way. I will have to think about it some more. I am putting puppet building on hold for the week. I need to get away from the heavy glue smell anyway. I did get some more tubing, so I may try assembling more bodies. Though a lot of my time will be taken up getting ready for the con. I wish I was able to do these when I was in high school. I think I would have been a lot better off knowing I have options. That I am not a loner wierdo. That there are others who think like me. What I did after high school may have changed a bit.

Anyway, there is a long rambly update. I really am excited to get out and away. I am excited to be with fellow nerds. I am excited to destress for a bit.

It has been 2 weeks since my last post. I have been pretty busy. Working on finding a new job. I am working on building more puppets to animate. I am low on square brass tubing, which is where I need to start. I use one size brass tubing inside of a larger size to make the joints.

First I took apart Wade to remind myself of how I constructed him.

For the torso, pelvis, head and "bones" on the twisted wire limbs out of grey extra hard Sculpey.

Next I created the head.

So now I am working on the head. It is baked and painted, and I am trying to decide the best way to get hair on it. Wade's hair was horrendous to do, and I don't want all my puppets to look like Wade, so a new construction technique is in order. I did some thinking and some research, and I have decided to make a wig. That way if it turns out bad i can easily redo it without having to redo the whole head. I am currently expreimenting with making a skullcap out of hardened glue. Then the plan is to try to root hair strands with a dall hair re-rooter tool, glue it inside the wig, and cover that with enamel to make it smooth and easy to attach with temporary tape to the puppet's head.

Another advantage of doing hair this way is I can make several wigs for a single puppet with several different styles, and I don't have to worry about trying to style a wig that has been glued in a way that makes it hard to change the hair style. Currently the last layer of glue is drying. I will continue with it tomorrow, and will post the results here.

Wish me luck!

Last week I did some experimenting. I still want to do a podcast. And I think it would be fun to do live concerts and collaborations. I looked into the newer utilities with which to do that, and I came across Blab. It is kind of like live on Facebook, and Hangouts in Google+, but seems a bit more stable. You can have up 4 people join the video conferance, and show it to as many people who want to join. You can interact by chat. You can record it as a video or audio. I figured out how to use my Canon with it. And my higher quality mic too. So now I need to convince someone to play with me with it.

Been playing around with getting some stop mo with my new camera. Don't ahve anything worth posting yet, but once I do I will be posting. I guess I don't have much to say today. I am just trying to keep myself plugging along.

More later. Maybe.