Geekcraft

Long time no post

2009-09-18T15:25:00.000-02:30

Not being very good about posting my projects, am I?

Alrighty, well here's some sculpey stuff I'm working on at the moment:

Clockwise from the top left this is Toph from Avatar: The Last Airbender, Castiel from Supernatural, and Dean's pendant that he wears - also from Supernatural. For once I'm not sculpting stuff for D&D! I wanted to try my hand at cell phone charms. I like how Castiel turned out but I'm a bit worried about him breaking - he has a lot of little pieces. I did a better job of simplifying Toph so as to hopefully be fairly durable - but I forgot to set the wire in to attach her with so she's going to just be a pretty little desk ornament. She's cute, but I think I still need to work on the balance between detail and durability... something between these two is probably best.

This is WIP of Dean's pendant on Supernatural... which is kind of funny that I'm working on this at the moment because in last night's episode we got some new information about it. I found a picture somewhere of a recreation... so this being a recreation of a recreation I'm not sure how well I've done capturing it. I couldn't find a good screen cap from the show to base it off of.

Also: While you *can* bake sculpey multiple times, and I did do Castiel in several layers, his head being first, I think I may want to keep in mind that baking it too much does change the colour. Castiel's skin-tone and the pendant were made from the same clay, but the pendant was only baked once, whereas Cas's head was baked at least three times.

And to finish off a little photoshopped image of the classic Castiel pose:

WIP Report: DDR Bag

2009-05-05T17:54:00.005-02:30

I'm trying out freezer paper stenciling on fabric for the first time, and decided to use bleach rather than paint because I thought it'd get a cool effect for the design I'm going for.

B4U by ~jtptan on deviant ART

The black and orange are different object groups and I printed them seperately so the positioning will likely be different for the finished project. In my head, I want the arrows bleached almost white with the robot-guy bleached less so he's in the background.

So I went to try it out (doing the arrows layer first).

Conclusion: check that you're not using 'colour guard' bleach if you're trying to bleach out colour.

So I'm going to have to borrow some bleach or buy a jug before I can continue. As well as cut out a second sheet for the arrows stencil (easier than having to cut out that robot again o_o).

PS: If you're wondering what happened, if anything it's darker there now! I'm hoping that's because it's a bit damp though. If it's still like that tomorrow morning I'll give it a quick rinse to see if that will help >>

PPS: Maybe I should also find some better fabric if I have to go out anyway.

Not dead: Birthday Bento

2009-05-05T10:13:00.007-02:30

Yeeeah, school kinda kept me busy for a while there, and then I spent a while recovering. And class starts again Monday! But I'm only doing two courses this summer so I should have time for crafting.

But! It was a good friend of mine's birthday last week and I got inspired by Bakerella to make some Cake Pops for her! We were out for supper for her birthday so the reasoning was we'd be too stuffed to actually eat a cake, and that they would be a bit easier to carry with us downtown, too. You may or may not know that I'm notorious in my family for bad cooking - being what my mom calls "our own Elly May". Well, these turned out fairly well, though it was a team effort between Bretta and me. We should do more baking together - she loves baking and I love the crafty decoration bits, so between us we make a good team.

Erica likes sushi so that was how we themed them. We dipped them in chocolate, then the tops in white sprinkles for rice. We used some small candies to simulate the fillings. In the box we mixed some coloured icing to stand in for wasabi and pickled ginger.

We meant to include chopsticks but forgot them at the last minute! You can hardly tell in the party photo that she's holding two straws ^^

There are instructions on how to make cake pops on Bakerella's blog. I really do recommend trying them, we were short on time that afternoon because it was the same night as my sister's prom, but we had a lot of fun.

I think if I was making a set of sushi cake pops again, or I guess cake bites since we didn't leave them on the sticks, that I would go about shaping them a bit differently. I think you might get a better shape (for sushi) by after mixing the cake crumbs with the icing, rolling the 'dough' into logs the size of sushi logs and then chilling those, and then slicing them. Of course, my experience is with clay so I'm not sure if that would turn out well, but I'd like to try it next time.

They seemed to go over fairly well.

SoS #5: Squishy and a Polka-dot X-Wing

2009-03-15T20:27:00.004-02:30

So... sorry I missed last week, and that I haven't posted any of those new projects yet, but school's been pretty busy lately. So this week I decided to put up TWO projects!!

Squishy!

Squishy was my first crochet project EVER. The only crocheting I'd done before him was the strap for a market-bag I made for a friend (the bag itself was knit and beaded). Squishy generally lives sitting atop my computer monitor and actually has eight legs, though they were a bit hard to fit on.

Though I generally prefer knitting to crocheting - I still find crocheting quite awkward and slow - I have to say though, that stuff requiring shaping like small toys turn out really nice done in crochet. I've done a few toys now and I like how they turned out :D

The only knitted toy I've done was a knitted ninja, and while I loved how it turned out, getting all the shaping done did get a little tricky, hehehe.

X-Wing

So this is an origami x-wing I folded. It's another pattern from Joseph Wu's site, though the pattern itself is by Wayne Ko.

The pattern is actually a bit confusing in places - when I went to do it again(months later) I couldn't remember how I got it to work! Nothing a bit of perseverance can't handle, however.

SoS #4: Yoda Pumpkin

2009-03-01T23:08:00.005-03:30

I carved this for Halloween a few years ago. What you do is you take the picture you want to carve and make it layered in four (or so - it depends on the picture) tones of greyscale from white to black, print it out, and use it as your guide on the pumpkin. I know some people use dremels but I personally found I had much more control with the exacto knife and box cutter combination I had going on. If I remember correctly, I did punch through with a metal skewer to get some of the detailed edges on the super shiny bits.

I don't really have a lot to say about this hahaha. I learned not to carve a pumpkin too far in advance of Halloween - the back was moldy by the time we put him out.

Coming soon: I do have a (new) FO I'm fairly happy with to share, I just need to get some good pics. I've also got a WIP, though I haven't decided whether I should wait until it's done to post. I'll definitely take some WIP pictures of it in any case.

P.S. Yoda is Bad Ass.

Something old Sunday #3: 'Teeny' Origami Dragon

2009-02-22T22:56:00.005-03:30

4"x0.5" yellow origami paper
Design by Joseph Wu. Modified because I made it so small, some bits are simplified.

I made this guy in 2005 - such a long time ago now! I figured it was around about time I posted something non-sculpey on this site... and this was the first thing that came to mind that I knew where to find a picture of.

It is Very Small.

I have this thing where I tend to make things small. With origami, after I figure out a pattern I always end up reducing it - or for simpler patterns making it small to start with.

Not this pattern - I've littered several desks of friends, family, and coworkers with bigger versions of this guy. People got tired of little tiny cranes everywhere... these take longer and are a bit different from what you'd normally see to boot.

Now... this is proof that apparently I *used to* know how to take a picture, if you look at the nice one above, I apparently set the dragon up with some sparkly seed beads to act as the dragon's hoard.

FOs: Meabh and Solkist

2009-02-19T12:41:00.004-03:30

Two new finished objects to post today. Well... actually they've been done for a little while but I only got around to taking pictures today.

Meabh

Meabh was my first mini that I built a skeleton for from a wire frame to build the clay onto.

You can see all my finger prints and the dust and everything! Okay, so stuff I didn't do in this one: Hadn't started using the baking stuff more than once thing - and it could have used it. A bunch of places I'd have made, and then mess up while I was working on other things. The character is meant to be draped in a silver chain and carry the blade of a legendary sword. You can see her legs especially are a bit messed up. However, she is a step up, I feel, from the awkward postures of the goblins from my last post. I was really proud at the time of the chain, and the cloak, especially the gathering at the hood.

And here's the back of the cloak and her hair. Very flat hair, I don't think I'll do hair that way again... it looks pretty much like what I did, which was cut it from a rolled out sheet of clay and stick it to her head. I am pretty happy with her face though, especially in this side shot.

Solkist

Sol was made for a friend, whose request was 'an elf wizard with safety orange robes'. He's made with a wire frame, and I did it him in two baking steps. The orb on the end of his staff glows in the dark.

The first step I made the head/ears and the torso (the white undershirt) onto the wire frame for the wizard. This let me not worry about messing up his face/ears while I was making the rest of him, and already having a bit of bulk to build onto for the torso helped too, and held the wire frame together.

I'm really happy with how his hair turned out, even if it would look completely ridiculous on a real person. The bow is pretty nice. Actually I'm pretty happy with how he turned out, period. I did a lot better at not getting fingerprints all over him, too.

Lessons to carry on and ideas for future projects:

Doing the wire frame to build things on works pretty well, but it works even better done in multiple steps.
I've been having droopy/curving weapons a lot lately. So I think in the future I'll either bake them separately, or support them with their own wire piece like Sol's staff.
I need to watch more carefully the sorts of impressions I'm leaving on the clay. Could I do this on purpose, maybe get some fabric to press on the clay and give it a 'woven' texture?
Hair is not a flat sheet. It doesn't look okay to make it like a piece of fabric.
Learn how to stage photos a bit better.
The better the picture in my head is starting out, the better the mini turns out. Going to do more detailed sketches before starting minis in the future.

Something Old Sunday: The Legion of goblins.

2009-02-16T09:48:00.008-03:30

Yeaah, I know, I know, but it's Sunday somewhere right?

It's... not?

Oh. Well, I'm sure if we got the Tardis involved, it *could* be.

Got eaten by school. It happens from time to time. So, I didn't want to not post *anything* so I'm just going to put up a few pictures, and I'll come back and talk about them later.

So there are four goblins, two with swords, one with a dagger, and one with a shortbow/quiver. I meant to add arrows later but never did. They don't have names! Hmm... I need a set of four names... all I can think of is Leo, Donnie, Raph, and Mikey. But these goblins are not nearly cool enough for that.

Here they are, there are five individual shots because I took a behind shot of the archer to show the quiver:

And as a group:

Yeah I probably didn't need the flash on for that one.

You can see that these were made before I started using proper wire frames for things. They've got an ogre buddy who's even the worse for wear, but he'll come in another post. You can see I was having a bit of fun experimenting with different face types I could get made. They're also not painted. Nothing is! Some day I am going to have a big painting day, but it has not come.

~Kerry

On Gluttony

2009-02-14T21:04:00.001-03:30

Once again, that day stereotypical geeks stereotypically dread is nearly upon us. You can feel it, with all of your senses, slowly closing in. Its surreal warm and sickly-sweet breath on your neck and, from the corner of your eye, it is spied closing in on you by way of a pincer formation, not unlike a ravenous pack of velociraptor. Clever girl.

If being torn to pieces by a dinosaur doesn't spell 'Valentine's Day' to you, you probably shouldn't read any further.

Of course, this weekend might just be the geekiest weekend we experience for many moons. Unix's clock will reach time: 1234567890. Wonderful, no?

And to push it even further, Happy Friday the 13th, internet! Clearly the perfect day to come right before Valentine's. Nothing says 'Love' like 'Bad Luck'.

And Happy Belated Birthday, The Sims! We can keep going on, but let's get to some actual content.

I know you, geeks. Here it is, a Saturday night, and you are cooped up in a house with nothing better to do than read this blog. I can hear your excuses already.

"It's too busy outside tonight, it's not worth going anywhere!"

"I have a box-and-whisker plot, and multiple pie charts, proving that the price of everything is raised just before Valentine's Day, so going out to spend money would be irrational!"

"I'm currently working, and I'm reading your blog because I'm getting paid to do so!"

Be that as it may, single geeks, I will not shun you. No, I well welcome you into my arms, cooing gentle reassurances all the while. For those of you who have others, signifigant or otherwise, I hope they are as geeky as you, or can at least understand and appreciate you. This Hallmark holiday will, of course, really test the strength of your relationship, and will raise the question 'How much geekiness is too much geekiness on this most-insignifigant of holidays?' or, if you are the non-geeky half of a couple (or third of a trio, I don't get paid to judge you), you might be asking yourself 'How can I show my favourite geek that I really do care about him/her, and his/her hobbies?'

Well, you've come to the wrong place, apparently, since I'm doing nothing but rambling.

If you fall into any of the categories of readers previously mentioned (except velociraptors), and have managed to get this far, I will now bequeath unto you a plethora, a cornucopia, if you will, of links that will lead you to wonderful places where The Power of Geek has saved the day, once again.

Need a Valentine's Day card for that special someone, but only just realized it's Valentine's Day, and you have but a few hours to show them that you care by giving them someone else's hard work? Fear not, the internet is here to save you.

Remember when Scott Ramsoomair actually made comics? Those were the days. He also made Valentines back then too. He was multi-talented! Now he's just a layabout who occasionally tells people he's going to make something, only to go back on his promise.

Wipe that look off your face. I know what you're thinking, and I don't appreciate it.

If you're more of a science person, having the mug of famous scientists might be your idea of romantic. But, what's this? No Tesla, or Feynman? If any of you fine readers have such Valentines, please send them my way. And I say knowing full well it makes me sound lonely and desperate.

Geeks of all shapes and sizes and colours and creeds can appreciate these links. Flip through the archives. If you can't find something appropriate, I will begin to seriously question your dedication to this blog and everything it stands for.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with being stereotypical sometimes. Every year thousands flock to this site, according to photographic evidence, to find the perfect anti-Valentine.

That's the card taken care of, but now you need a present! Not something store-bought, it's a bit late for that you fool. I'd send you to Thinkgeek, but unless you have a Tardis on hand, you won't be getting anything there anytime soon. You could try Spritestich if you're really crafty, but the aforementioned time-travel device would still be necessary in order to complete something like that on time.

As I mentioned in my introduction, I like music, and all types of it. And when it comes to music, everyone, sooner or later, will perform a love song. It's The Law. So, it's time for my first Artsy-Crafty Bit of Timewasting Nonsense! Let's make a mix-CD, to show your loved one that you really don't give a damn about their musical preferences, but you are willing to take 20 minutes out of your day to slap some stuff from your external harddrive onto a CD, in a lousy display of affection, to give it that personal touch. If you work in retail, make sure to play this CD at work all day tomorrow. The manager won't be in, it's a Sunday!

Of course, I'm not about to force my opinions onto you. I believe your inferior selection of music is equally valid. But this is my post, so let's take a look at my CD. I'll call it 'I Will Do Anything For Love, So Long As It Doesn't Involve Me Leaving My Computer'.

Let's start off with some Rock & Roll. Big hair, gloves, grainy video quality. One of these things means I'll be linking you to Youtube videos, but the other two mean nothing but 'The 80's'. Tesla, could you want more as a geek? Excellent music, very underrated, named after my favourite scientist, and Frank Hannon bares a striking resemblance to Bill S. Preston. 8:10.

I suppose Feist deserves at least one spot on this CD, even if my tolerence for her songs fluxuates wildly from day to day. 11:54.

Now, I suppose it's time to get geeky. Well, Jonathon Coulton is going to make multiple appearances on this CD, but if I can't find videos of him on Youtube, shame on you people for not downloading the song from his website and listening to it while reading these parts of the blog. Let's put this one there first. 14:58. And follow up with this. 18:53. Sure, he says it's a break up song, but I'm a geek for god-stories and creation myths. Add that to my list.

Well, let's go with that. I suppose more god-stories would be appropriate now. So how about a song about Samson? 22:42. Regina Spektor is the most inconsistent songstress I know of, along with the next 'artist'. Ms. Spektor has no less than 5 different versions of Samson, but the slowest one is my favourite.

Joanna Newson. Plays the harp like a harp-playing angel. I bet Duma would play a mean harp. Lucifer's a piano man, as we all know. Where was I? Oh. Joanna Newsom. Plays the harp like a harp-playing angel. Sings like a family of field mice being tortured through liberal application of a helium-filled air-tight box. Here is the CD version of the song. Ouch, she must be using some sort of voice-changing device, right? Not bloody likely, apparently. But it's such a pretty song! Can nobody save it? Wait? Who is that fiddle playing man, striding confidentally towards us, head held high? It's Owen Pallett, ladies and gents! 26:16.

Nanananananananananananana....

Well, let's move on to my favourite European band of all time, the magnetic fields. Considering these guys have 69 songs SPECIFICALLY devoted to love, it feels like cheating to use more than one or two, so let's go with my favourite. Acoustic Guitar, Mmm Mmm good. 28:53. How Fucking Romantic because, really, if we didn't have thoughts like those at some point, we wouldn't be very good geeks. 29:58.

I suppose from there I'll go to my favourite asian band, the pillows. So delicious. Bran New Love Song, it even has an appropriate title. 34:22. There's an instrumental version of the song too, but the vocals are so wonderful, how could I bear to get rid of them? As good as Fooly Cooly is as an introduction to the pillows, the full songs will always have much more of an impact. Speaking of which, I guess ... you know, I was going to use 'I Think I Can' or 'Another Morning with You' as the next song, but I just can't do it. If I'm limiting myself to two songs, let's go with Scarecrow. 39:11. Not much to do with Valentine's Day, but I did mention I frequently give up half-way through things, right?

You know, I was trying to avoid using videos unrelated to the song, but I can't help myself. It's Alanis' Unsent set to a Dr. Who mashup. 33:25. I know, right?

Have you figured out my musical tastes yet? If you did, you have one up on me.

We'll look to Vanessa Carlton to provide the next song. I think 1000 Miles is appropriate, don't you? 37:53.

Let's changes gears a bit. Time to start getting obscure again. Who here knows who the Stars are? Yeah, show of hands. That's what I thought. Regardless, Your Ex-Lover is Dead is a great song. Er, sure it's a love song. 42:09. Finally, halfway there.

You know, they sound remarkably similar to The Decemberists. Not Of Angels and Angles specifically, but some of their other stuff. 44:42.

Know who sounds nothing like The Decemberists? The White Stripes. I remember when Jack Fell in Love with a Girl. 46:35. Goodness, that was a long time ago! And, hey, if love doesn't work out, at least We are Going to be Friends is appropriate. 49:00. And, my oh my, more White Stripes? They just have such a repetoire! Even their covers are wonderful! Jolene especially. 52:15.

And we can't talk about covers without mentioned Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, can we? So Who Put the Bomp will be next on the CD. With Idol Master drawings, to boot! Geeky! 54:48.

Whew. That's an awful lot of songs about love. Let's take a break with... suicide! And, hey, making a suicide pact with your signifigant other might be the romantic evening you had planned. I don't know! But I do know Kuusou Rumba is the OP to the best suicide-based show I've ever seen. 59:43.

Let's get back on track with Hey There Delilah, some Plain White T's goodness. Maybe the only Plain White T's goodness. 63:40.

Now, more strange stuff. The Mushi-shi OP, The Sore Feet Song is so wonderful, I'm not even going to try to talk about it. 67:01.

And nothing says Valentine's Day like some Barenaked Ladies! Come on, you and I both knew we wouldn't get through this without a joke like that. Anyway, In the Car seems like a good choice. 71:01. But, oh no! What about The Ninjas? 72:10. Oh, phew. They have a song about them. I was afraid they would come after me for forgetting about them. Ninja need love too.

You know what, there's 7:50 left. Let's just give it all to the Barenaked Ladies. Raisins. 74:41. These are especially good if the person you're giving the CD too likes kids songs, or is easily amused. And a song just for you, jtptan! Allergies! 77:04. Close to 80 minutes now. One last song, to make everyone listening go 'D'awwwww'. Things. 77:53. And that, good readers, is a CD done my way.

You know how I say I never finish anything? Well, that's not a complete truth. The real truth is that I don't complete much, but when I do finish something, I go above and beyond the call of duty. My CDs are a perfect example of this. If anyone has ever been around for their creation process, they will see that I try my hardest to squeeze 2 hours of music onto an 80 minute CD. And because those songs were taken from Youtube, the real songs are probably shorter. So I'll post three more songs, to quench my Youtube thirst.

Hope your Valentine's Day didn't hinge on you following my lead. I offer no guarantee that this CD in any way shows how much you care about someone. I need a disclaimer on these things.

An Introduction: In Which There is Rambling, Self-depreciating Remarks, and Promises That Will, Without a Doubt, Be Broken

2009-02-09T20:03:00.004-03:30

Well, jtptan got the ball rolling, so I guess I'll introduce myself next.

I am not much of a crafter, when it comes to things like knitting or interpretive dance, but I do frequently (try) to write, and have plans for novels and (poorly drawn) children's books. I am also, like jtptan, a geek. I can't even try to hide the fact. It's plastered all over my gor'ram résumé, for Krom's sake.

Like jtptan, I'll be posting links I find interesting, or videos, or things that inspire me, or cool games... Basically, anything that catches my interest, and can somehow be related to being crafty, or being a geek. But don't expect to see me post as often as she does. I have chronic giving-up-halfway-through-something syndrome.

I'm a student, currently in my third year of Mechanical Engineering. When I'm in term, expect my post-count to drop drastically. Or maybe increase, depending on how much work I'm trying to avoid. During each work term I tell myself I'm going to find time to write, but it never happens. I'm hoping this blog will push me to actually write something.

Back when I was part of an online role playing journal, I posted frequently, and some posts were absolutely massive. I've taken part in NaNoWriMo the past 3 years, each time failing miserably, but learning something valuable in the process. Well... okay, maybe not. But, still. I reached almost 30000 words my second attempt, and barely made 3000 last time. To be fair, I was cursed with a particularly tough school term, and was working a part-time job that soaked up my weekends. Those are my perfectly valid excuses.

So, have I ever finished anything!? Other than a few short stories, some long since lost, not really. I wrote and illustrated a children's book last summer for a friend's plane letter, but haven't been able to will up the creativity or drive to do anything else since. With Valentine's Day coming up, I'm hoping to have something else for her, but I don't even have a finished story on reserve, let alone any illustrations started... If I finish it, I'll be sure to post it here for you people to gawk at.

Uh, where was I going with that? Oh, yes.

So, geeky things I'm interested in, and you may or may not see referenced. Anime of all shapes and sizes (particularly anything by SHAFT or Gainax), Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Disney, Star Wars, Settlers of Catan, japanese music, graphic novels, indie music, independant games, professionally made games, webcomics, Mike Carey, Patrick Rothfuss, cosplaying, Bill Willingham, Jim Butcher, Dilbert, Jacqueline Carey, Robin Hobb, Sam & Max, Dungeons and Dragons, language, uh... probably more stuff, but I'll just let it unfold as I make more posts.

I'm incredibly curious, and love trying new things, but I'm also extremely lazy and unmotivated. The fact that I've even finished this post is a big deal; this is the first thing I've written since last November. I don't know what kind of artsy crafty bits of time-wasting nonsense I'll get up to in the future, but hopefully I'll be using this blog to chronicle my adventures.

Cheers,

Dwayne Moores

Something Old Sunday #1: My first Sculpey Miniature

2009-02-08T13:50:00.005-03:30

So, to start off, my MacBook's harddrive crashed. It's under warranty so they'll replace it and everything, but I'm currently waiting on it to respawn.

I thought instead of posting a whole slew of random pictures that I wouldn't have time to comment on properly all at once, I'd post only a few at a time. That also gives me time to find or take pictures of things...!

Alright, so today we have my very first miniature ever.

Isn't he cute. I had even less of an idea of what I was doing than I do now, which is saying something, but he's still one of the ones I get the most compliments on if I show people a group of minis. He was relatively simple - I made a head and a cylinder (slightly squashed) for the body. Originally I had been thinking I would have him raising two arms above his head as if calling some force down from another plane. Honestly, after I made the first arm, I couldn't make a second one to match closely enough. So when I made the cloak I formed it to suggest a second (nonexistant) arm underneath.

I do like him, though. There's always the shady guy in the huge black cloak, and he does look pretty at home on the map.

Issues and lessons:

If you're going to have to make more than one of something, do them all at the same time in stages after carefully making sure you have the same amount of clay for each. Arms, legs, ears, anything.
The clasp on the guy's cloak is almost the same size as his head. I've decided it's some sort of creepy thing carved from bone, but really I just fumbled that one a bit. Oops. :(

What I should have learned but still messed up on in later projects:

"Eyeing it" doesn't work very well when you're working with such small sizes. I'm still not great at keeping my minis in appropriate scale to one another, but yesterday I made an unfortunate error in sizing within one miniature because I didn't compare what I was working on to the minature it was going to go with. Pictures will be included when I post that project.

WIP: Beholder

2009-02-05T14:12:00.006-03:30

Okay, so lately I've been playing around trying my hand at making miniatures for Dungeons and Dragons. The scale is meant to be around 5 feet to 1 inch or so. Not that I'm at a point where I'm very accurate about that.

Anyway, so here's my latest project so far: The Beholder. Anybody who's ever played d&d will have heard of this little many-eyed beastie.

The base is a 2" washer (or a washer around about 2" in diameter anyway) to give you an idea for scale. Done in Sculpey clay and "floating" on some heavier gauge beading wire. I had this realization that I could bake sculpey more than once (though you only get to mold it before the first time you bake it) so I can make part of something, bake it to let it keep its shape, then add more clay and sculpt that, and bake it all again. This is my first experiment with that - I made the green eyes first, just rolled the clay into balls and baked them. Then, when I was making the body of the monster I was able to set in the eyes without worrying about deforming them.

So, the sculpting part of the miniature is done, except I'm thinking now I might add some clay to the base and bake it again, just to pretty it up a bit.

How do I feel about how well it's turning out?

the baking the clay more than once thing is pretty awesome, I've already got a few ideas for things to do with that for future minis!
I think if I could do this again I'd use a wire base for the tentacles. They turned out fine, but they did droop a bit while baking, and one pulled away from the body a tad too much for me to be happy with.
He turned out awfully cheery-looking. I guess he's pretty exited to eat some PCs.

What's left?

painting on some pupils
adding something over the washer for a nicer base

I am working on a few other things right now but I want to wait until I have some good pictures to talk about them. Also, I think I'll start getting up some old projects this weekend.

Geekcraft's First Post!

2009-02-04T12:53:00.004-03:30

I don't really know exactly how to start. I suppose I'll just talk a little about what I want this blog to be, and myself.

I am a crafter. A chronic crafter. And I'm also a geek. Quite often, these two dominant qualities of mine intersect. After all, what's more fun than indulging TWO of your favorite things at once? So this blog will be things I make - pictures and explanations. I guess if anybody's interested I'll consider doing a few tutorials.

I also plan on posting links to things *other people* have made, that I think are cool. Or things that inspire me. Or just really interesting geeky things.

Wow, that sort of tapered out, eh?

Um. I'm Canadian. I'm almost done my business degree, after which I hope to find gainful employment, so I have more time to make crafts, and more money to supply my craft stash.

Geeky things I'm into and you'll probably see referenced? Well, a lot, but here's some of the main ones: Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Dungeons and Dragons, Avatar the Last Airbender, Disney, videogames (would it really surprise you if I mentioned a company called Blizzard?), Star Wars, Star Trek, The Sword of Truth books, english literature, many more fantasy and science fiction series.

What sorts of crafts? Again, I'm into a lot of different things. Sort of like, broad but not deep, I'm intensely curious and I love to learn about new things, so as a result I've either tried or plan to try almost everything, but I wouldn't call myself expert at anything. Lately however I've mostly been doing knitting, crocheting, and sculpting with polymer clay.

Well, I hope that's been even moderately helpful.

~Kerry aka jtptan