Craft Enabled, Domestically Disabled

"He's the celebration of love!"

So I was in The Producers recently, and got the bright idea to make a replica of the little old ladies we played (all wearing the same outfit, with walkers, seen here, here (I'm the knitter on the left, and yes, I got knitting into a show and actually knit on stage...about a row per show), here, here, etc.).

There is a dance number involving walkers, so of course I had to put in a walker too. I ended up  making that by bending wire. 

I ended up adapting this Frida Kahlo doll pattern (I love Frida, so presumably I may make a straight Frida doll someday) since the neckline and skirt approximated the little old lady doily we all wore pretty well. The one main issue I had is that somehow the head came out...big...possibly bigger than the pattern intended it to? I'm not sure what I did wrong there. Even worse, I created an old lady wig for it and replicated the crazy hair (and hat...thing) we had on. I swear the wig took longer than making the rest of the doll put together and used up most of the skein of yarn adding all the short curls. Lollipop head to the max....I wish it had occurred to me before I went too far/put the eyes in to take it out and make it smaller, but oh well. Lollipop head is comedy, right? 

This is a really good replica of the crazy wigs we all had on, especially how they operated and were put together. Of course it has a mask on because it's the 2020's. 

I used the wire from the Bernie Sanders doll armature for the walker and just stuck it through her hands. (Note: per the show there's a purse attached on the front of the walker.)However, it had a hard time staying all upright unless I wanted to get stiffer with the wire, which I did not, so I ended up hot gluing it to the lid of a candy tin (PYM Mood Chews tins have a lid that slides off) to keep it stable. 

Wire wrapping

I haven't done wire wrapping in quite a while. But one of the managers at my job does, and the managers put on a crafting party for our office. I unofficially TA'd it, hah hah. So here's the ones I wrapped, and I got some charms to wrap in on a few of them. 

Happy Halloween

I STILL CAN'T GET ANYTHING TO ROTATE RIGHT and if I keep trying, there goes the rest of the day.

But there you go: Princess Leia ceremonial outfit. Sideways. 

My second gallery show is now online

Rainbow of Chaos.

 

Steampunk jewelry

I finally got around to getting some steampunky jewelry components--keys, locks, and clock faces (and a pocket watch with a very fragile plastic face that I broke very easily), and I had this giant gear that I'd picked up at my volunteer job. So I put together these pieces, inspired by these instructions.

This is the other possible decoration for the crochet hat. I may tie it onto the brim.

I also managed to come up with something to do with my broken pocket watch parts...

I like how I turned the key into a missing middle element--it's attached with a bit of wire.

And then there's the giant necklace...

...which fits pretty nicely into the blouse I got to wear with the outfit.

All of the pieces are glued together, really. Not a lot of metalsmithing, but it did take several days for it all to dry.

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.

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!

Lock and Key

I read the book Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen and then was inspired to make key jewelry a la the book. This one has a plastic purple key that came with a key chain doodah (I bought it for the key, not the keychain), then wrapped wire and beads around the key.

Crafting update

Knitting: am working on swatches out of my handspun. Seems like they are coming out more bulky than worsted in the knitting. Am undecided as to what to make yet. Am still working on my regular-yarn Carnival Top in the meantime.

Sewing: I am TRYING to finish up my sewing projects before the CC closes on Friday. I just finished a T-shirt dress that came out looking good, but I had SUCH PROBLEMS making it. The skirt came out fine, but the bodice was a royal pain to make, and it didn't help that for a few days I couldn't sew for crap because I kept having weird problems with the machine crapping up. The bobbin wasn't happy, the machine wouldn't work if I used the color thread I wanted and would spool off the top...wtf? I ended up with loopy mess too often, and I'm surprised this thing wasn't shredded in the end. I also ended up doing some real fudging on the top (it's too big on the top and too skimpy on the sides...sigh), but it looks okay now. Pictures to come.

I also have a new dress that I ended up sewing the boobs more together on so as not to embarrass myself. It also needs hemming- it's one of those dresses with a layer of sheer over the underskirt, and not only is the overskirt hem all kinds of off, it's too long to be able to walk in. And when I say the hem is off, it ranges from 2 inches to 5 inches too long in places. I'm trying to figure out how to hem the sucker, but good lord, it's gonna suck. I'd serge it, but the color can't be matched with serger thread on hand.

Jewelry: I read the book Lock and Key, which features keys being made into jewelry, and now I wanna do it. I ended up buying some kind of Hello Kitty key holder specifically so I could get ahold of the fake plastic purple key. Not sure what I'm going to do with it- wire wrap and beads, I suspect.

Some examples of key art on Etsy:

• Antique keys
• Wire wrapped keys
• Locks and keys
• Wooden keys
• Lockets and keys
• Key to unlock earrings
• Key to unlock necklace
• Key collage necklace
• Pin/necklace
• Key brooch
• Lots of keys on this necklace

News from the CC

• When I signed up for a show, it was in spring 2011. Now it's been moved up to...summer 2010.

HOLY SHIT THAT'S A YEAR AND A HALF AWAY HOLY CRAP SHOULD I WORRY ABOUT THIS NOW?!

I think I am going to do a "chaos and change" theme, have a Persephone section, have a Tower/tarot section...that sort of thing. Oh, and Eris. Need to throw in some Eris.

I also need to work on something yarny for it, don't you think? Maybe something from all my areas of expertise. I've got glasswork, jewelry, and ceramics with a pomegranate theme, and some glass-ish stuff in Tower stuff, I think...

• Four days into signups, nobody is signed up for my class. Gee, I guess it wasn't as much of a hit as people thought.

That's a bummer, but on the other hand, it's not that big of a deal to me if it runs either. It gives me a free weekend, and technically it's not like I can get paid for it anyway.

• The classes I am signed up for this quarter have nobody but me in them.

That's not a good sign at all.

Okay, I got an idea...make my own "motley" yarn. Spin with any ol' random colors I get ahold of, mix them together at random. Then it doesn't matter if it doesn't match, and I can make as much as I want!