Category: Update

Renewed resolve?

3/11/2020

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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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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Quick update....again

3/31/2019

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Hello again.

Once again, I have gone a month without an update. Sigh. It has been busy. I have not gotten much done this month. I got my stuff from the Pod, so I needed to get it all organized. Which is still happening. I need money for organizing furniture. A friend got a job up here and needed a place to live while he waits for the first few paychecks, so he is currently crashing in my bedroom. I am crashing in my craft room. Which means I have no room in which to do anything. This makes me sad. It also means I can't get to anything, because it is all crammed together. Whatever is in the closet or in boxes is unreachable at the moment. I hate this, but I really don't have a choice for now. My friend has no where else to go. This arrangement will be temporary, so eventually I will get to go back to creative pursuits.

For now I am planning and doing other stuff. There is a Krampus themed animation short film festival I have decided to make a video for. I think it would be cool. Anything creepy or Krampus themed. At the moment I am working on sketching out the storyline, and deciding on the different scenes. We shall see how that turns out.

Last few days I was sick, and I haven't figured out how to get some animating done yet, and I need practice, so I pulled out my Apple pencil and iPad and tried to play around with drawn animation. I cannot draw worth a damn. I know it. But by doing that I can practice timing, and movement. I have done 2 so far. I will embed them below. Next I think I will try to do some rudimentary lip syncing to practice that.

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Happy things n stuff......

12/25/2018

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So, as I suspected, I have not had time or energy to blog or to create. Job, w00t. :P I do have an income, which is nice. Also....I am moving. Tomorrow I go sign the final paperwork and pay my deposit for a townhouse over in Beaverton. I am excited to have my own space again. As far as housing in Portland goes, it is fairly large for the price. It is fricken hard to find a place to live here. People were either not getting back to me or they would disqualify me over the phone because I have been at my job such a short time and it has been a bit since I last rented, and before that I spent 10 years going from one room rent to another, not really renting my own place. But someone finally took pity on me, and I will be moving the end of this week. Yeay!

That means that once I get settled, I will start doing more cosplay stuff. I will do more creative streams on Twitch. I will play more games. I will be able to settle in a bit. I also have decided to try FAWM. YET again. I probably won't finish this year either, but it is worth a shot.

Also....KITTEH!! I mentioned her before. She is cute and intelligent and funny and frustrating, and a total love. I am happy to have her in my life. I am really really glad I was able to find a cat friendly place to live. It would break my heart to have to leave her behind. Because I really don't have much to add here, you get kitteh pics.

Also...Merry Christmas, if you celebrate it. I hope yours was a good one.