Craft Enabled, Domestically Disabled

Second week of silicone mold making

Followup from here.

Here's week 2. I made one more mold (the one with squiggles), but mostly just spent class adding sprues (the sticks hanging off the projects--used to hollow out a mold) and making boxes to hold the silicone for next week.

What I've been up to lately.

First, I made a necklace out of rainbow guitar picks and guitar charms.

It's inherently cute, but in execution, it doesn't exactly lie flat to see the charms so well. I kinda figured as such, but wanted to try it anyway.

Second, I am taking a class in silicone mold making. As has been previously mentioned, I took lost wax casting and thought it was a pain in the ass, what with the kind of wax used, a lack of keepable mold, etc. Well, this lady has worked out her own technique for this that (a) involves using Sculpey/polymer clay and modeling clay, and (b) you come out of it with a keepable silicone mold. The first couple of classes are for sculpting, and it was sooooo much easier to just make the piece you wanted with Sculpey. You make what you want and then cook it. If you want to have a hollowed out middle--like I do since I am trying more guitar pick jewelry again-- you use the modeling clay to fill it out since that won't bake hard in the oven. Then you scrape it out. Here's what I made in the first class-- a few flat pieces, some that have been hollowed out, and one that still has the modeling clay within it.

I have high hopes for about 3 of the hollowed out ones, as my first run (top left) both cracked a bit and doesn't hold all of the picks too flat. It was a much more fun time than lost wax.

And third, I am crazily designing my own cropped tied bolero sweater during the Ravelympics Ravellenic Games. I have been wanting to make one since I lost mine for ages, I could not find a suitable pattern, so I am altering another one. Run #1 was surprisingly fast to do the back and two front pieces....but it's a tight fit at the armpits, and the tie part (I was doing two panels that were triangular and tied together) just looked strange. I stupidly took out most of the work--the two side panels entirely and added two more inches to the back piece--and am winging it again for round 2, only with two skinny ties.

The ridiculous thing about this is that I could actually have had the thing DONE before this weekend (note that the point of the games is to do a project entirely during Olympic season), had I not started over to try this again. Or possibly again. I am kind of nuts.

Milagros

So while I was on vacation I bought a metric asston of charms related to the move I am planning to make next September. I'm still trying to get used to the idea of the whole thing, so I was going to make a bracelet to replace one I'd lost in August.

And I did...but honestly, putting it on was like wearing a freaking porcupine. Memory wire bracelets probably should not be massive charm bracelets. So it didn't seem right to me, but I didn't know what else I wanted to do with all of those charms.

Then while at a liquidation book sale (sigh) this weekend, I found a book: Crafts for the Spirit: 30 Beautiful Projects to Enhance Your Personal Journey. And it had an idea for a travel altar with beads and charms hanging off of it. That combined with me going to a Day of the Dead exhibit that night and I thought, "milagros! That's what all these charms are anyway, really."

What are those? Here's a good explanation.

"As part of a religious ritual or an act of devotion, milagros can be offered to a saint as a reminder of a petitioner’s particular need. They are normally placed by worshipers onto altars, religious shrines and on sacred objects. They are used to assist in focusing attention towards a specific ailment, based on the type of charm used. They are also offered as thanks for answered prayers, so that others can receive the benefits for their own ailments or needs. Milagros come in many shapes, each shape representing one or more needs or prayers."

That sounded about right.

So I went to the dollar store, where I found a small wooden oval with a hanger attached. I cut out some fabric and sewed it to the wood around the edges (note: you can't do the usual "sew it inside out and flip it" with wood), then ended up sewing lace around the edges to cover up my bad sewing. And then I sewed my entire freaking charm collection to the new portable shrine.

I think I'll hang it up at work.

 

Trophy

So I wanted to design the new Best Costume trophy at work, because I wanted to keep my own that I won last year.

Here it is!

I bought a foam donut and a foam block from the dollar store, needlefelted the white and cobwebs onto them, and glued the structure to a foam gravestone (also from the dollar store), with trophy on top and stickers from the dollar store again. Then I crocheted the pumpkin, which comes with a hole in it for holding something, and needlefelted 3 faces onto it for "costume.", and made a doll from the Knitted Icons book, knitting the pants, T-shirt, and sweater that have patterns in there. I altered the neckline a bit to make it look blazer-y, and made up a red cape. I needlefelted his face on.

Working on my Halloween costume

This is what it looks like so far. Ish.

My online gallery of my show is finally up.

I swear, I've been Photoshopping this ALL WEEK.

And here you go. It's just like walking through the thing in person!

My tower flag

This has been something I've been wanting to attempt to work on for quite awhile. (Yeah, still obsessed with the same image.) I wanted this to be the back wall centerpiece for my upcoming show. I was originally going to try fabric collage a la enchantedworld.com, but ran into some trouble when I couldn't really find any fabric in JoAnn's that was particularly collage-y other than the flames..

Though I do like how that part came out.

I thought it was coming out too flat and quilt-ish, so was trying to think of a way to liven it up. I did a 3-D stuffed tower, and painted gold lightning,  

But what else?

Then I thought of trying some felting. So I did more of a full needlefelt on the mirror (that came out great on the color) and the chaos butterflies and the tower decor, and did lighter felting jobs swirling the colors around on the big cloud.

  I layered the waves around fabric-wise and sewed fancy swirling stitches on the bottom, but it still seemed flat, 

So I added more swirls of felt to the bottom layer.

It's probably not the best work ever, but I'm fond of it.

My birthday beads this year.

Annoyingly, they fell off my damn ankle and are already lost :(

I also made this mask, which I wore a week later and it looked cute. Butterflies were added on for mini-decoration, plus you can wear it over glasses.

I finished the "aquarium" necklace.

Enameled pendant + wire work, with fish beads hanging off the chain.

I wish this photo was better, but it was the best shot I got.

Still pretty cool, though.

I am stupidly proud of this.

This is a slogan I came up with ages ago that I wanted to put on a button or T-shirt, but never did decided if CafePress was the right way to go with that or not. Anyway, where I volunteer has gotten a button machine set up and we can make buttons on it, so....I made this one. To those who are going "Um, what?" to this, it's based off of a quote from Bridget Jones's Diary.  It's pretty sick and morbid, but I like the idea of it, somehow. People who are proud to admit to be spinsters who will probably die alone and be eaten by dogs.
Oddly enough, the guys I explained the button to today thought it was a hoot, while the lone girl was all, "Huh?"
You know what? Wouldn't "The Alsatian Dine-In Club" make a really horribly titled but funny chick lit book? Maybe that should be my next NaNo novel...