Category: Crafting

Testing the posting.....

2/8/2021

I have been trying to post f a while now, but it has not been working. Now hat the Aardman course is starting, I wat to try to get my blog working again. ife has been busy and dealing with joint issues, so fixing thishas ot been priority. When you only have so many spoons, you have to do what you can and let some things go.

So this is the first time it has even let me type anything in here, so I am going to assume this is going to post. Maybe

There would be a lot to say here, so I am just goin to sum up and then pic dump.

I got the Jazza Scultpure box. There are some cool tools I want to play with, as well as Monster Clay and Cosclay. I have had a chance to play with someof the tools and the Cosclay. I must admit the reason I wanted to get this box was to get a sample of the Coscaly to see if I can animate with it.

Coscaly is a polymer clay that is a bit rubberized so it is more flexible after baking then say Sculpey. I haven’t seen much about it on line. Many stop mo animators have just dismissed it out of hand. I think they are thinking of it as a whole puppet material, rather than a smaller bits material. It is definitely too stiff for whole puppet animation, but I was able to successfully make and animate a hand and an earthworm. I intend to remake Wade’s hands in Cosclay. I am putting pictures of the worm in the pic dump. Her name is Edna Wormdo. I have started building a subterrainian living room for her too. I am pretty happy with how she turned out. I did a few versions to determine what the best thickness is for animation.

I also got some new resin molds and have been playing with those. I will include some pics in the dump.

Ok, I think that is all I have in me for now. If this does actually post successfully I will udate more later....

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Renewed resolve?

3/11/2020

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Hello again. I am back again with more resolve to post here more often. Life has been kicking my butt. However I have renewed motivation and plan to try to keep this thing going. In order for that to happen, I have made a plan. Bwuahahaha.
So...

Plan 1 - Post here 2x a week, no matter where I am at.
I am hoping by making myself stick to a pre planned schedule, things won’t fall through the cracks. I have several SCA events to get ready for this summer, as well as Norwescon in April (if it isn’t cancelled) and Rose City Comic Con in September. I also have some stop mo’s I want to complete. They are all written, I just have to construct the puppets, sets, props etc and film. Hwat I work on will be dependent on time, energy, joint flare ups and money for the pieces I need.

Plan 2 - Post a vlog on You Tube either once a week or every other week.
I set up a YouTube channel for bloggy things that are not actual stop mo things. I will embed the videos here. We shall see how that goes.

For now, let me get you caught up.

I have so many projects. I think I will just list them here and break them down into the different parts.

1. SCA
I am going to just concentrate on getting a set of camping event garbs to wear to events this summer. This is going to consist of
-Elizabethan peasant garb
-1 or 2 chemises
-2 or 3 kirtles
-an apron
-2 or 3 coifs with forehead kercheifs
-a tie on collared partlet
- Possibly either a flat cap, straw hat or both

Elizabethan peasant garb seems fairly straight forward. I am basing my basic design on this:

Basically the blue one. I don’t want to mess with back lacing while camping alone. This is also slightly earlier than my period, but it is the basic jist of what I am going for. I also want to make fake padded braids to wear under the coif to make it fit right. Cause my hair is sparce at the moment.

2. Cosplays
I want to get Talleg done (yes, STILL), and I need to fix Aoifa. I am thinking of just leaving it at those. Because I don’t have a lot of spare money right now, and Norwescon is in a month, I am just going to concentrate and those two for now.

Aoifa
-Fix her corset. Either try to make it a real corset or figure out how to sew the cardboard together so it won’t pop
-Remake her horns
-Make a padded circlet to go under the wig, so the horns look like they are growing kut of her head. Seriously that circlet is a joke.
-Figure out how to incorporate the dragon eye from the current circlet
-Sew the fur collar to the cloak. It is currently hot glued, very badly
-Repaint the spider broaches so the black doesn’t chip off
-Figure out a better sleeve configuration. Or learn how to glue them to my skin so they stay
-Figure out how to install the ears, and how to makeup them

Not much. 😒

Talleg
-Finish breastplate
-leg armor and arm armor
-Gauntlets
-Finish +1 mace.....MAKE IT LIGHT UP

I think I will break this down futher in my video. When I get that done.

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Wee mini pottery!!!

10/27/2019

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So this months obsession has become mini pottery. I was watching a Twitch stream by creator The High Palladin. She makes a lot of small mini things that are useful. One of the things she has gotten is a mini pottery wheel. It is sooooo cool! I love it! She got me so obsessed, I got one of my own so I could give it a go.

I went to Blicks, a local art supply store, and got some air dry clay to play around with. I suck.....big time....but it is so fun and so zen. I may eventually get to a point where I have something useable. I have never actually done pottery before. I have watched many people do it. I have read books. Once I ordered this wheel I watch a bajillion YouTube videos of people doing it. Amazingly enough that is not the same as doing it. :P That is fine. I will continue to try. Eventually I will get it.

About a week after this one showed up, a second wheel showed up. When I was ordering my wheel, the first one I ordered ended up coming from China, and listed the shipping as 2 months out. So I cancelled that one and got the other one. Then while I was playing with the other one, the first one I ordered showed up. Even though I canceled that order. THey already gave me my money back. So I guess I have 2 mini wheels now.

Ok...so now pic dump of wheels and attempts.

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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.....

Da Kitteh is hepping....

After makeup....

Post makeup, pre cloak....

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

Cosplay fail point....D’oh!

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

Getting ready for the SCA feast.

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

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!

I got it pretty teeny.

This is with a single strand of DMC floss

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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Time flies....

5/4/2019

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Wow. Over a month, once again. I need to get better at posting. I keep saying that. Yet it never happens.

Right now I am in a bit of a time crunch for shcool. I have to complete my degree by September. I have 64 credits left. I am sure I can do it, but that means I will have less time for other things, like building cosplay or other crafty things. I am not going to have time to do anything for any film festivals. But once I am done with my degree I will be able to get a higher salary and be able to work on all the stop mo I want, so I am trying to keep my eyes on the prize so to speak.

Have done a project I have wanted to do for a long time. Originally the idea was to take these cheap flat cnavases and photo transfer some of my favorite photos I have taken onto them. My printer is an inkjet printer, and I can't afford a dry toner printer and am too lazy to find a place by me that can print out dry toner pictures, so I decided just to Mod Podge them to the canvases. Craft Warehouse had them on sale at or under $1 a piece. Also, Dollar tree had them in packs of 2-4 for $1 for the ones under 5x7.

I just painted the egdes black, put down a layer of Mod Podge, added the pic I printed out, let it dry, then put another layer of glossy Mod Podge over the top. I am very happy with the results.

I gotta go study, but here is a photo dump for ya.

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Well THAT didn't go as planned.....

7/22/2018

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That should be the epitaph of my life. :(

So.....

Everything was going OK. The mop didn't work. Mostly because the orange bit at the top started crumbling apart, and the more I tried to glue it the more it crumbled until it was more glue than orange bit. Looked really really bad.

I was like oh well. I will just deal with it. I got the rest of it done. I adjusted the gloves so the white stripes were less wrinkly.

Then this happened:

You see, I live with a family who has a 5 month old puppy. I very chewy, rambunctious puppy. She is a love, but she has had a predeliction towards my foam for a while now.

Up until now if I said no and put it up, she would leave it.

But this time...

She has grown enough that she can now just grab things off my desk. I love that puppy, but damn girl. She also chewed up the belt stuff. This made everything I have been working so hard on this week all moot. I no longer had a cosplay. The mop and the accessories is what makes it VCD Janitor, as opposed to a random construction worker or janitor. This happened the NIGHT BEFORE the con. :/

After I was done crying in the corner, I considered what I could do. Because I already paid for this con, I was damn well still going to go.

I still have my Aoifa stuff. Sort of. I have lost 45 pounds since I made her, so her bodice no longer works. You can read about that build by going to October 2017 in the archives. There are several posts about it. I was going to link one, but I can't decide which one as all of them apply. I think I also have them all tagged Cosplay as well.

Anyway...So Aoifa's breastplate is waaaay too big now. The fabric bits are all in tatters. All that works really is the front bit and the horned circlet.

So looking at it, I decided if I had something to cover the back like a cloak, I could just tie the breastplate on directly around the back. It now wraps several inches into the back when tied that way.

So I needed fabric or something. And I would need a skirt and shoes. So I talked to a friend, who generously drove with me to Goodwill. There I found a furry vest with a giant collar, a tweed curtain, huge ass earrings, and a couple of pairs of knee length boots.

Photo vomit:

I first cut the collar off the vest. I included part of the body so I had a foundation. Then I cut the curtain to length. It was already finished on all the edges and was the perfect width.

I....am not proud of the next step, but it was a desperate situation. I then hot glued the curtain to the foundation bit I left on the collar. It worked waaaay better than I thought it would. I like the cloak. I think eventually I will sew it firmly.

These were earrings. Huge ass earrings. I removed the earring part, which was just french hooks held on by a jump ring, and attached 2 safety pins with black chain maille rings.

Then I painted them with some oil based paint pens I had. Obviously they didn't work well, as most of it chipped off quickly. And the safety pins were shite. They were in a $5 sewing kit, and they kept bending and popping open. They did look good though. I think I will try to find some more permanent enamel paint for these and better broach clasps.

Boots!! So I have to wear footwear that supports my ankles. I have joint hypermobility syndrome, and my ankles and hips are the 2 most effected sets of joints. I found this out when I started randomly face planting and spraining shoulders and wrists over and over again. According to the rheumatologist, this is permanent. It is a consequence of this degenerative condition. No more going barefoot, me. :( That means I have to find footwear that 1. fits my short, wide feet and 2. will go around my disproportionatly shaped calves. Up till now the best I could do is ill fitting ankle length construction boots. But these.....ah these...HEAVEN! They are comfortable. They fit my odd shaped feet. They have enough support for my ankles. And they have the two stretch panels in the back so they fit my calves!! And they are SOOOOOO comfortable. And they take 2 seconds to get on and off. I long ago gave up the idea of the quick on/off process of the footware. I wore these all day around the con yesterday, and they were still so confortable I didn't want to take them off. No rubbing spots. No too tight spots. They supported my ankles enough I could still walk without faceplanting after hours of cement walking. If nothing else, this is the best possible outcome of this frustrating situation. I ended up with footwear I CAN WEAR. Sigh. And they were $5. And hardly worn. I AM SO HAPPY I COULD CRY.

Ahem...

So I had a long black skirt with slits up the sides, so I decided that would work with this outfit. And the horns were still serviceable. So VOILA!! New iteration of Aoifa!

By the end of the day, tired cosplayer was tired. We did a photoshoot out in the sun. My chest is soooo sunburned right now. Fortunately I had on sunscreen, so it doesn't hurt. And it will go away soon and be blaringly pale again in no time. (I do not tan. And yes, I burn THROUGH sunscreen.)

So overall I am kind of impressed with how it turned out. For pulling it out of my ass last minute.

Sadly it is not the last iteration ever. The boob parts partially tore away from the base part. The grommets are pretty much toast. So I just need to reinforce the rest of the boob parts, attach them to a different breastplate, and figure out a better way of attaching it to my body.

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Skullls! Eeeeverywhereee......

7/9/2018

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Heido ho blogerinos!

OK...that is just cheesy, but I am in a cheesy mood. Last week I was downed by a pretty painful ear infection. It really feels good to be able to sit and not feel like crawling into a hole to die.

I have gotten a bunch of stuff done. VersusCon is July 21st, and I am going to play the VCD Janitor at that one, so I have been concentrating on that for the moment. I still have a ways to go. I am saving that post for when it is done.

Instead I am going to talk about the skull markers I made for my DnD DM. He wanted some skull markers that he could use during the IRL game to mark where the baddies were that we dropped, and be able to remove the baddies minis. Either to keep them from getting in the way, or if say there were another group of baddies we are going to encounter of the same type and he needs to reuse those minis.

He handed me 20 bases and said "Go for it!" I think he had in mind me just gluing skulls to them. I do nothing half assed. :P

I had these skulls from Citadel I used for another project. There were a ton left (I mean seriously, who needs 340 skulls??) I used the remains for these. I had SOOOOO much fun making these.

I started by making random bones out of Supersculpy. Skulls alone would make them very boring. I made like 150 ribs and random leg bones and stuff. I have no pictures of this part, because I am full of fail. :P

So next I got to break out the air brush and spray them with white primer. I loved this part. I love using my air brush, to be honest. It is a cheap SOB, but it is so fun.

Then I made a wash out of a few colors, some water and a tiny bit of dishsoap and brushed the skull parts and bone parts with it.

So next, as you can clearly see, I used the paint on the far right to paint the bases and the glue parts so just the bones and skulls were showing. Then I glued bits of vegetation ono them.

I always have green spongy fluff used for making trees and bushes for model train sets. Works well in my stop mo sets. I also have green, light greena nd yellow powder used for flowers, grass and dried grass. And actual grass. And reindeer moss (really cheap).

So final pics. Because I like the final result, you are about to be majorly spammed with pics. Enjoy! :)