Hallooo. I don’t have a lot to say today. I am kind of in the blahs right now. Not a big holiday fan, and we are in the middle of them.

I do some pot deocrating. No more bubbles, thank goodness. Then one day I learned about nail stamping plates. You know what those are? They are etched metal or acrylic plates with designs on them made for staping in nail polish onto your nails. As I was painting my pots with nail polish, I thought I would give them a go. They are everywhere, and they are cheapy cheap. I had a ton of fun. I am still learning how to place correctly. Pic dump, as usual, at the end.

Then I started thinking. I wonder how well this would work with glass cabashons. Hmmm....Well, I am sort of happy with how some of them turnedout.

And now I have to get back to work, so I am going to pic dump and leave it here.
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It has been yet another month. Dang I am bad at posting. I have been kind of busy. They put me back on days at work. I kind of preferred the night shift. A couple of weekends ago I rented a car and went down to Albany for an SCA event. I attempted to make a coat for it. Mainly went ok....except near the end I got impatient. The last front panel ended up getting sewn in wrong. I have no fricken clue how it happened. It is a good 3 inches too short for the side panel it is sewn to. I think I probably stretched it funny while I was sewing.

I found a new pattern for dice bags that I decided to try. A friend of mine who is a DM and writes D&D adventures needed a new one and was going to buy a Crown Royal bag. Yeah just buy the bag. Wierd. So I mentioned how easy it is to sew one and offered to do it. I decided I was tired of my usual pattern so went perusing for one that might be easier. I found one I liked. Well, I love it. I need to modify it a bit. It leaves raw edges, which is bad if you are using fabric that is easily unraveled. I will include my results in the pic dump at the end.

Today I got a bug up my butt and decided to try to finish some of the mini pottery I have made. It has been long enough it should all be dry enough. I am considering investing in a small tabletop kiln. Looks like they are anywhere from $150-$$1000. I decided I wanted them to look glazed, so I thought I would try using the nail polishes I generally use for dragon eyes, and add a top coat to make it more durable. The results were....mixed. And I broke a couple of them while trying to paint them. One turned out great, with the huge exception of the bubbles that formed. And are still forming, apparently. I really don’t understand why yet. It is interesting. I will include it all in my pic dump at the end. I think maybe that one was overworked? It is regular clay that is meant to be fired, and I did not. But I dont think that would matter? I dunno. Some turned out great though. And I was just sitting here reading about my friend who is using nail stamps, and it just occured to me that I could use those nail stamps to make fancy designs on the mini pottery. I can’t wait till next payday now, somI can get some and try it out.

Ok...it is dinner time so I will pic dump and run....

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.

So the other day while on sream, Da Kitteh jumped up on my chair and smacked my butt. Which I still find hilarious. Watch closely or you will miss it.....

It has been a while. Still working on school work. Still working night shift. Still still still. :P I have had a few more inspirations for what I want to do for the upcoming cons.

This first one is from the game Hollow Knight. I broke down and bought myself a Nintendo Switch. I love playing it. The first game I got was Hollow Knight. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this game! It is pretty, it is open world, it is cute, it is fun. Here are some of the referance pics:

I will need to figure out how to do the mask. And the cloak. I will wear a black long sleeve shirt and black pants for the base. I also want to make the sword...which in game is called a nail...

I want to make the one on the far left. The cloak is just a bunch of strips sewn together. I think. I don't sew well. We shall see if I can pull that off.

The other one...well...this one...a few weeks ago I went to the Portland GeekCraft Expo. I walked past a booth that was selling this print. The artist is Brandi York. You can find the original and all the others in this series HERE.

This....this is me. She is shaped like me. She has red hair. But look at her eyes. They are fierce. She exhudes inner and outer strength I wish I had. I cried when I saw this. And of course I bought it. And also, I NEED TO COSPLAY THIS. I do not think this is a choice. It is mandatory.

I am going to have to sew this dress. I have a feeling I won't find it anywhere. And I want to paint a cabashon to place on the chest. I don't know how to make it strong enough not to buckle under the weight of the cabashon, though. I can't really tell if there are straps on the dress or not, but I will have to add straps. Nothing stays on me without them. I can't go barefoot, escpecially walking a con...so I think what I will do is make boot covers that look like feet and then the wrappings over it. I don't know if I will go with cloth, or make em out of EVA foam and paint it to look like cloth strips.

I didn't notice she has braids attached to her face. I guess she is supposed to be a dwarf? I think instead of doing that, I am going to make them part of the wig and pull them forward. Or maybe I will try making separate braids and glue them to my face. I was thinking the neck thing was a gorget, but it looks more like cloth. I wonder if it is a cowel or a scarf that flows down the back? I think I will treat it as a face covering demi cowel, like a ninja mask or something. I also need to decide if I am going to make the cuffs more like gaunlets or fabric cuffs. I think making them leatheresque looking painted gold may be pretty.

The length of the dress is a bit unrealistic. I will make it shorter. I am thinking shorter in the front and swooping down a bit in the back. Not beyond my feet, but maybe just barely to. Front make it midcalf.

Wigs....well, I am unsure how to get the right color. THIS ONE may be too light. THIS ONE  may work. I may need extensions as well. Also I need to remember I can darken it if I need to. I may also need to get extensions in order to have enough for the extra braids. THIS ONE is the same one I got before, but in a different color. It may be more the length I need. And if I decide to make it shorter I can use the extra to make the braids.

OK...need to get working on school work. But now I have some of my ideas down maybe I can move a bit further forward. Feel free to comment with suggestions if you have any.

Bet you thought I abandoned this blog. No such luck. I am still working hard at trying to finish up my last term. Starting Sunday I move to night shift at work. I haven't had the time, energy or mental bandwidth to do anything really. Da Kitteh is getting so big. She is almost too big for my keyboard cover. Doesn't stop her from trying though. :)

This year I am planning on attending several cons, and I have decided I want to cosplay at all of them. I am still in the deciing phase of this though. So I thought I would do a stream of consciousness and talk myself through it. The cons I am planning on are Rose City Comic Con, Steam Con, Norwescon. There are a few more, but I am not sure what I am going to be able to do. Norwescon is in Seattle Easter/Passover weekend. I am going with one of my Eugene friends and her friend who lives in a different state. We are sharing a hotel room. That one is a literary heavy con, so I am thinking the one I make new for that con should be literary based. I am kind of leaning towards something from the October Daye world by Seanan McGuire. I don't know what to do though. It would be a fun one to play around with making masks and prosthetics, as evenually I want to make myself a Madam Vastra mask. That will probably be years downt he road, though. I think I need to go through her character respoitory again and decide what I want to attempt. I may end up doing 2 for this one. Though anything I make that is done before then I can use there too. I am hoping to get Talleg done soon so I can use her wherever. Rose City also has some awesome actors. Christohper Eccelston will be there. He was the first reboot Doctor from Doctor Who. I am thinking I need to do something from an episode of his series as well. Or maybe I will be more creative than that and research his other roles. I seriously considered doing some kind of take on the Steampunk Tardis, which I could also use at Steamcon. Researching it though so many people have done it. I don't want to do another tired out cliche. I need to think harder on this.

Well, I did do a little bit of narrowing down. I will leave you with a gratuitous kitteh pic.

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.

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.