Craft Enabled, Domestically Disabled

Wine charms

Made these while bored and working at a booth. I'm debating whether or not to gift them.

State of crafts this week.

1. After getting confronted by someone in spinning class as to why I wasn't going over there to practice spinning Right Now (I am busy every day at lunch this week, she caught me just as I was unexpectedly getting out fifteen minutes early), I was all...I just don't want to practice this any more. I am not having fun. I am not a natural at this. I am trapped physically having to go there to practice. I won't be doing that much, if at all, once class ends. Why the hell should I bother, again?

    

2. I have a beading party to go to tonight. You know you're jealous.

    

3. I am frantically trying to at least finish the bodice on Universal Tunic before Ravelympics starts. I've done the back, and am now trying to customize the front with short rows. I'm on my third try at that. This is tricky because I need to get the sides on both pieces to be 4 1/2 inches long, and putting in the short rows, um....this is not so easy to match.
   
   • First try I did 18 short rows...and then realized why nobody actually does this- it's huge. Fits boobs nice, but you've got this hugeness in the middle and very short sides.
   • Second try, I did the same as I did on the Shapely Tank and did three different sets of 6 short rows. This also fit the boobs nice, but led to shortness on the sides and a big high middle, and matching the 4 1/2 inches with the extra highness was not looking good.
   • Third try, I just took out the last set of 3 short rows, then started doing the back-n-forths to fill in the extra 3 1/2 inches needed. This seems to be working better so far, and the boob fit isn't bad. I hope this works. If it doesn't, I guess I'll just knit for size 36 on the front (I did a 34 on the back...and 32 on the band. Yes, this is odd) and hope for the best.

 

4. With regards to Ravelympics, I am starting to wonder if I should try to do another project within that time. I picked Singular Tee in part because crochet is very quick and I probably wouldn't have THAT much time to work on it. I am flat-out-Very-Busy this coming weekend doing RAD self-defense (and then have an all-night meeting after one of those nights, argh!) and may just be too tired to do jack shit when I get home, and the weekend after that I have to go out of town, so who the hell knows how much time I'll get on that. But I am starting to think (especially realizing that uh, I may be getting More Being Left Alone Time Than Usual in one of these weeks when I wasn't expecting that) that I should, perhaps, challenge myself a wittle bit more. Like, say, sign up for some other event too. Maybe not attempt to do two projects from scratch in two weeks, 'cause I ain't THAT good quite yet, but sign up the tunic as a "WIP Wrestling" and try to finish that within whatever leftover time I've got. I'm unlikely to finish it, but I could at least earn myself one medal and keep on truckin' during Olympic time. Though upon checking the rules, I'd have to STOP on it until August 8....er....Oh bugger, I dunno.
5. Or I could just do Zaftig. Yup, I have decided I will sign up for that and try to work on it after Singular Tee is done...it can't take me that long, right? I can squeeze it in...Team ItsyBitsyBikiniBackstroke!

Fire wrapped pendants

More wire wrap.

General wire wrapping

Just some stuff I learned in class this go-round.

More wrapped runes

This is the last of the rune pendants. Huzzah!

Spiral wraps

I did a spiral wrap around one of the little glass pendants just to see if I could do something interesting with it, and a BUNCH of people really liked this style. Go figure.

I need new material for Whole Earth

I'm taking an advanced glass fusing class right now. I can't say that uh, much of anything I've done so far has come off very well, but I like this "infusion" pendant I did. Painted copper paint on one piece of glass, then sandwiched a penny in between a layer of clear, then sandwiched a wire star on top of that between two other layers. It came out amazingly well (even if the star shifted a bit off). I'm keeping this one.

I think I'm bored with making large fused pendants, and I think people are bored of looking at them. So my new idea of late is to make smaller fused pendants and wire wrap them instead. Something kinda like these (that's the front and the back- I rather liked how it came out looking like a tree).

Anyway, I took a(nother) gemstone wire wrapping workshop yesterday and learned how to make some very nice pendant frames. I made some small pieces involving runes, figuring those might go over well at Whole Earth, and wrapped them.

I want to try making stuff like...

this, and this. Damn, I wish I'd seen those sooner so I could buy 'em.

So I took a gemstone wire wrap workshop this weekend.

For the record, these top three are NOT my pendants. (I attempted to make the first one, but it was rather awkward.) The others were ones I wanted to make, but we ran out of time. I may have to take the formal class in order to get it all. I especially want to learn how to make the one with multiple stones!

This is one I actually did (the top part, anyway), called a "cage wrap." Basically wrapped with a box shape. The extra wire got turned into swirlies put at random angles to make it less dull. I had two extra wires left on the bottom and when I got home, I found this rose quartz (not wrapped by me) pendant lying about. I had to put the two together, and it's gorgeous. Complicated and weird, but that's me.

I did these two on my own, after the teacher suggested we filch broken pieces of lampworking glass out of the trash to wrap. Most of them I just did in that one style on my own, but the third one I improvised. The latter two hold on their own, but the first two will have to be glued or something in order to stay. Too slick to hold on.

And for your edification...I will show you The Fist. I'm not sure where he got this one, but it's strange and one really should see it being made in steps.

You take five wires, curl them all over into a circle, then wrap them together at the top a few times. Then you start weaving in and out, making circles in opposite directions every other time around the fingers. A clockwise circle on one, counterclockwise on the next, etc., alternating.

After you've done enough to make a wrist (taper down a little), cut the five wires to approximate the length of fingers and curl the edges up. Then you're going to go back to the weaving pattern again across the fingers, making it look like a woven hand print.

You put the rock into the hand, curve the fingers around it, and thread another wire through the five loops on the fingers. Tighten it, and you have a hand.