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Teeeeeny tiiiiny cord.....

10/6/2019

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It has been a while....again. I have been sick and busy and tired. I have been coming home and sleeping after my night shift. I think I am starting to get over the flu, so sleeping is not as prevelant. But still. I got Aoifa ready for the con, and Talleg mostly ready. I wore Aoifa on Friday. Her corset burst within the first 20 minutes though. I did get some pictures with that one, thank goodness. Saturday of Rose City I wore the Tardis dress, which is waaay too big for me now. That was meet The Doctor day. I was feeling a bit run down. My face was itchy and my nose was runny. Thought I was just experiencing allergies and overexcitement. I met some friends as we did the signing with #9 and the photo op. We said for the Christopher Eccelston/ Billy Piper panel. At that point I was so exhausted I knew I couldn’t stay for the costume contest. Which I am very sad I missed. By the time I got home, my body was achey and I had a fever of 103. Flu. I had the flu. I missed the rest of the con. I did not get a chance to wear my Talleg cosplay. I did not get to test out my makeup fixer spray in a real life situation. I spent a lot of money to have to miss about half the con. That makes me sad.

And since then, I have been recovering. Sleeping a ton. I still have to work, so I have been working nights then sleeping all day. I have pics of the one day I went. I will do photo dump at the end of this post.

Saturday of this week there was an SCA event called Honor Feast. I have been wanting to go back to the SCA for a couple of years, but without an income and without a car it was hard. Now I have both. No social connections anymore, but I now have an income and transportation. So I pushed past my social anxiety and went. It was fun. I am glad I went. I needed a project to take with me, so instead of sitting there awkwardly alone in my chair I could be buy with something. I decided to try to make reeallly teeeeeny cording. Usually I do cording via kumohimo. But when you are talking tiny threads, that method tends to break your threads. So I decided to do a lucet. I have maybe played with a lucet once. I didn’t have one. Didn’t really have the ability to get one at 2am before the vent. So I attempted to make myself one. I have basswood all over the place because of the stop mo sets I build with it. I must have gotten a bad batch or maybe they are too old or dry, cause they kept cracking to pieces. That is an issue. So I thought about it a bit, and remembered I have 5 crappy dollar tree forks that I never use for eating because the tines bend too easily. If I bent down a couple of the tines, would it work for a lucet? Unsure of which tines would be best, I tried 3 ways: 1 with the first 2 tines curled down, 1 with the middle 2 curled down, and 1 with every other tine curled down. The one with the two middle curled down, it is fine for larger cord and thicker yarn. It is a bit difficult with thinner threads, though. The one with the first 2 curled down worked great for the single thread cord, but was hard to manipulate with anything like doily crochet thread weight. So really all 3 have their place. I have done some ok cords now. Next I need to learn how to make flat cording and how to make multicolor cords.

​Ok...pic dump!

Before makeup.....

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Da Kitteh is hepping....

After makeup....

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Post makeup, pre cloak....

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End of day 1 makeup. Held up ok...

Cosplay fail point....D’oh!

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Photo op pic. I will get this digitized eventually....

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Getting ready for the SCA feast.

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First iteration of the fork lucet. Biggest issue loops kept slipping off.

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To make it easier, I heated the tips with a candle for about 10 minutes then used needle nose pliers to tweak the tips outward. Worked well!

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I got it pretty teeny.

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This is with a single strand of DMC floss

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I learned if you use a pin to help pull the loop over, be careful not to split your thread with the sharp end.

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Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming....

9/19/2017

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I am still trying to finish the video for Anglicon. I am cutting it close, and I doubt it will happen, but I am still trying.

This last week, I discovered a show called Cosplay Melee. It is fabulous! I am not much of a reality TV fan. I hate it, actually. But I needed a video to watch while I was working on homework to keep me from wandering away from my computer and it was there. There was no artificial drama. In fact, it was heartwarming to watch the contestants actually help each other out. Watching the final version of the costumes, I do not in any way believe that they finished those in the time allotted. They definitely worked more on them after the finish bell went off. The one thing I worry about is them giving an unrealistic expectation on how long it takes and how much work it takes to get them looking finished and beautiful like that. It was interesting to watch these people work. Watching thier techniques and how they organize thier workflow is way more valuable than any tutorial up on You Tube. In fact, watching the show has inspired me to try to build a costume out of EVA foam. I already have the ram horns I built a month or so ago. I have a skirt. So yesterday I headed out to the Dollar Tree to see what kind of supplies I could get there. Surprisingly, a ton. I got black loose fabric, black roses, natural colored foliage, plaster to fill in the bits of horn that needs filled in. Several fabric scarves that I can use as foundation fabrics. Rolls of tulle. Rolls of jute twine. Thinner craft foam to use as accents. Spiders and other insects to incorporate. My idea is to make a semi Augra type thing, with nature being the base for it. I also got a heat gun for cheap off Amazon. I found packages of EVA foam squares for cheap on Amazon. And Flexi-dip. I think all I have left to get is paint, and I want to finish designing it before I get that. I will have a full cosplay outfit for Kumoricon at the end of October.

I need to learn how to use my heat gun. Surprisingly, there are no instructions in the manual, just safety warnings. It has 2 levels, and a dial on the back with the numbers 1-8 with MAX just past the 8. I am guessing that, reading the box, level one is 176 to 572 degrees, and level 2 is 176 to 932 degrees. Which number corresponds to which temp is anyone's guess. Did not find anything online about it. Quite possibly, 1 is 176 and 8 or MAX is either 572 or 932. What the other numbers are specifically is wild guesswork.
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I also need to figure out what the optimum tempurature is for heating EVA foam. 932 degrees feels a bit excessive. But maybe it is the correct tempurature? I dunno. What is the general temp of a heat gun that does not have the variable heat options? Online tutorials just say "heat it". That does not help here. I am probably overthinking this. I dunno. But once I get the EVA foam I will experiment. They include edge pieces as these are interlocking floor pads, which will be perfect for that. Either this will turn out spectacularly awesome or spectacularly crap. Because for some reason there is no inbetween with me.
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Vampire Steampunk Silurian is the name of my cover band

7/22/2013

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So the creative bug had been biting me pretty hard lately. I really want to do some cool stuff, though I know a lot of it I just will need to learn how to do and it will be crap. I made a list of everything I want to do, and looking at it (it is pretty long) I think I am going to need to make a plan if I am ever going to get any of it done.

Warning: LONG post! Lots of bullshit! A bunch of pics! Feel free to read or skip as appropriate.

First thing, I have been working on a new stop mo. My camera has pretty much crapped out on me, so I am going to have to figure out how to do it without the camera. I have my iPad. I have figured out how to get pics from my iPad to my computer. I have found a few camera control apps for the iPad, though nothing that lets me control the focus the way I want. Also I need to anchor that sucker down somehow so it doesn't look like my characters are in an earthquake all the time.
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Here is a quick pic of the set I built. Still needs some work but not too bad.
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I plan to make a frame out of this PVC pipe that will hold my iPad and screw onto my tripod.

So I have designed a frame thing that is made of PVC piping and foam insulation tape. I had planned on cutting the PVC with my hacksaw and mitre box. The box is missing. I packed them together, because I usually do not use either one by themselves. One of these days I will either go get another one or find a friend who has power tools to help me cut them at a 45 degree angle and cut a slot in the top for the foam insulation and a place to rest the iPad. Then I will drill a 1/4inch hole in the bottom for mounting to the tripod platform. Project number one. :)

So last weekend I helped a friend move. As per usual she wanted to get rid of stuff, and as per usual I accommodated her and took it off her hands. The first thing was this awesome globe thing that lights up.
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Yup, it lights up. It pretty much reminds me of the Ood from Doctor Who...
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A face only a mother could love. :P
Now I have to figure out how to costume this bad boy. I can't sew, and I have other sewing projects I want to do. So I will need to find a place to find South Korean looking jackets and grey slacks. And of course the mask. I HAVE to take a shot at making a mask of that face. I have no mask making experience. I do have liquid latex. I have been looking online and if I do it in 3 pieces I may actually be able to pull it off. One piece for the face, another piece for the tentacles, and a final piece for the head. I am currently researching the cost of latex foam. I also need to get myself a few styrofoam heads to use as bases. I think I would make a thin latex mask for the face, a molded latex foam for the head, then attach the tentacles to a large mesh frame that attaches to the mask. that will make it easier to breath. It would also be awesome if I can find a cheap voice modulator.

On the latex mask front, I decided if I am going to do an Ood, I also need to make a Vastra mask.
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This is Madame Vastra (picture property of BBC and Doctor Who). She is strong and beautiful and a warrior and everything I wish I could be. She is one of my favorite fictional characters ever. She is married to Jenny, the lady behind her in this picture. If you don't watch any other Doctor Who, it is worth watching the episodes she is in just to bask is this dazzling character. I have been waiting out the last few years of less than stellar storylines and Moffet's version of Psych! and a Doctor who doesn't really feel like the Doctor, but her alone has made this wait worth it. As masks go, this one looks like the most comfortable one to wear for long periods at a time. I would do her Victorian outfits, though. She has some gorgeous black dresses I really want. Though, my next project could conceivably be used for her character.

I also got a green leather coat. It is HUGE. It is very 80's. The shoulder pads are gone, but thiey have left thier mark in the shoulders of this coat. there is enough leather fabric in that coat to make a steampunky vest or two. A vest that would go with the brown leather coat I found last winter. It would also go with the Vastra mask. I also want to sew some aviator pants to use with steampunk.


 
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I want this look, pants boots and all. Except I want to make them black. These pants could go with steampunk and Vastra.

I also was given several sets of vampire fangs. So....I can do regular vampire, steampunk vampire, or vampire Silurian (Vastra is a Silurian). OR Vampire Steampunk Silurian! Oh this is going to be awesome. :)

I can't sew worth a damn, so I will have to find someone to supervise.

So the list....

Not in priority order...

1. Latex Ood mask
2. Latex Madame Vastra mask
3. Build a more interactable stop mo set
4.Leather steampunk vest or two, depending
5.iPad frame with foam insulation
6.Button over aviator pants
7.Steampunk goggles
8.Crochet sweater and vests out of mounds of yarn I have laying around
9.Spin the fleece I have sitting around
10.Play with armatures and different materials to decide on puppets for stop mo.
11. Finish all writing projects (web series, 10 minute short, play, novel)
12.Finish filming current stop mo

I once told someone I am never bored. If I had a bajillion dollars, I would have plenty to do. They didn't believe me. :)

So now I have to decide what needs to be done with each of these projects, when I want to have them done by, and what I need in order to finish them. Then I will make a general plan to get them done.
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Why Chris Hardwick is my new hero...well, sort of

4/9/2012

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A while back I posted a long diatribe about my creative process and the lack thereof, about my paralyzing fear and how to get past it. I have been working hard, though I must admit that I have failed in doing the regular Yes, And... writing that I had promised myself. It is still difficult. I know it has only been a month, but it feels like my progress is non existent. I just found an ad calling for music writers. I can totally do that, except I have no real writing samples anywhere on the web and trying to write one just for the application is freaking me out. I start something and erase the whole thing before I can even edit it. I KNOW I can do it, but I don't know I can do it, if that makes any sense. It doesn't, but I hope I am getting my meaning out. Intellectually I know I can do it, but at the moment the fear monster is gripping me hard, whispering in my ear that no one wants to read anything I might write. Several weeks of being turned down for many, many jobs is seriously feeding and giving strength to this fucker.

So thanks to a wonderful friend I now have a copy of The Nerdist Way by Chris Hardwick. I don't know if you are aware of the guy. I have been following his podcast since inception. He has taken his podcast and turned it into a network. His theory is that the Nerd brain works in a way that is different from the rest of society. The Nerd brain has the ability to get hyper focused and the intelligence to quickly makes sense of things. His theory is that in general we nerds use that hyper focal ability to do things like play video games for hours, create worlds that don't exist so we can live in them (in our heads), and that this ability can be harnessed to help you succeed in every day life. He is not claiming to be a self help guru. He is not claiming to be some expert on, well, anything. But what he is claiming is that these methods have worked to help him turn his life around, and he is putting them out there for us other nerds to try.

A lot of what he says hits home. I can get hyper focused, especially on all the wrong things. Though I do not claim to be a brainiac, I am also not a dullard. One of the things he suggests is treating your life like an RPG. If you are not familiar with this concept, and RPG is a Role Playing Game. D&D is a classic example of one. I LOVE RPGs. When playing an RPG, you create your character by rolling dice to decide which attributes you get. In RL-RPG, you create a numbering system for the traits you have and want. I won't explain the whole thing here, mainly because I feel Mr. Hardwick deserves the money for people buying the book instead of reading it all here.

In my twisted little nerd brain, it all makes sense. All of it. In fact, last night I was dreaming about how to implement it. So, starting today, I am turning my life into an RPG. My goal: to get over myself and make money doing what I love. I am hoping that this will help me get out of my own way. By this time next year, I want to be doing something besides whining about how I hate my life and how shitty it is that no one will hire me. Now that I have emailed 5 applications (that is my minimum for any given day), I plan to spend the rest of the day creating my character and goal sheets.

The many taloned monster painfully gripping my shoulder is telling me it will never work, and that my motivation will wane after a day or so and I won't complete it. Time to add a sword to my weapon arsenal so I can slay this lying motherfucker.
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    Eleanor...nerd, musician, stop motion animator, techy, crafty. But not in the crafty crafty way...I just like making things. You can find me on Twitch & Twitter @TeaWeaselStopMO & Tiktok.

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