Massive Crafty Post
Perhaps it's the advent of spring with it's air of rebirth, everything blooming and blossoming... Or maybe it's a gift from the muses. Whatever the case, I've been feeling extra-creative lately, just itching to make things. Now if only I had the energy...
I've been feeling a bit run-down lately, somewhat under the weather. Because as much as I love spring and all it's blooming and blossoming, my body does not. I'm allergic to pollen (and grass and darn near everything that grows and a good many things that don't). So I've had the sniffles ever since winter left us, and this week I've come down with a lovely sinus infection. Right on schedule.
I have a number of projects in mind that I'm eager to start, but either I haven't felt like it or I'm missing necessary materials or some such. So, in lieu of having anything new to post in the creative arena, I thought I'd take the opportunity to delve into some of the various media I work with and post some of my previous projects.
I'll group these by craft type. Photos and rambles under the cut for great space-saving.
When it comes to crafting, I'm very much a "jump in there and try it" sort of person. A lot of people seem to think that you need to be taught how to do something. Bologna, I say. I just teach myself (be it a new artistic technique or craft or something like playing the piano). As I did with glass painting.
I'd honestly never had any particular interest in the craft until, on one of my forays into the local Hobby Lobby, I came across a book of Celtic glass painting designs. I love Celtic art and the projects in the book were just so beautiful that I had to give it a go.
This plate was my first attempt, and it's certainly not perfect, but I'm quite proud of it. I quite enjoyed the process of turning something plain into something so pretty...
And a close-up. I didn't realize until after I'd finished that I'd left the spots off of one of the dogs. >_> But I rather like it that way. I've always been the odd-ball, so it seems appropriate that one of my dogs is a little different too. =P
A couple of Christmases ago, I decided to make something for everyone in my family. That was one busy yuletide. =P But lots of fun too, as I took the opportunity to try out a number of new things I'd been reading up on. Like mosaics. I thought my cousin, being a teenage girl, could use some sort of tray or basket or somesuch to hold her makeup and hair things and whatnot, so I picked up a plain wooden tray from Hobby Lobby, and rather on a whim, decided to do a mosaic in the bottom.
I took the easy route and bought a bunch of precut plastic pieces, and decided on the cross because it was a relatively simple design and it suited her.
I originally intended to paint the bare wood, but I ran out of time. Mosaics, while easier than they look, are very time consuming. But the finished project certainly made all that tedious work well worthwhile.
I've always loved crochet and wanted to learn how to do it ever since I was a tiny tot. Finally, about five years ago, my mom learned from a friend and then passed on the lessons to me. I was amazed to find how easy it was, and it quickly became one of my favorite creative hobbies.
My very first project was a scarf, and I've since done many more scarves. This one is one of my favorites.
Years ago, I had a friend who had a duct tape wallet. I thought it was the coolest thing ever and was just dying to know how it was made. But someone had bought it for him somewhere, so he had no clue. And I all but forgot about it until some years later when I was poking at the craft books in our local library and came across an entire book of duct tape crafts--including how to make a duct tape wallet.
So I ran home with it, gave it a quick read, and then grabbed my duct tape and got to work. I whipped up a couple right off the bat and then, of course, I had add my own flare, I tried a couple of techinques to decorate them.
My first thought was to grab my Sharpies and go polkadot crazy. It worked out great and I quickly replaced my boring old storebought wallet with this one. Of course, after a few months of handling, I discovered the draw back to decorating with Sharpies.
Sharpies are not totally permanent. Of course, I kinda dig that distressed, weatherbeaten look, so no big.
I decided to really go out on a limb with the other one and decoupaged it with Victorian corset-themed images.
Results were similar. It worked out wonderfully at first, but after several months of use--as you can see in the picture--I started loosing parts of the design as the paper started lifting in places. And eventually, the whole paper layer fell off in one big, glue-laden chunk.
I haven't gotten around to actually trying it yet, but I'm thinking it might be possible to use a layer of clear packing tape on top of everything to act as a sort of "sealer."
I've always loved art, and as a child I used to watch painting shows on PBS ("The Joy of Painting," anyone? I ♥ Bob Ross. XD) all the time. I did a lot of fiddling around with my cheap little watercolor palettes, but they just wouldn't quite do what I wanted them to. And then one year, for my birthday, my mother bought me a set of acrylics. Instant love.
I've done a fair deal of painting over the years. Mostly relatively small landscapes and still lifes and such. But lately, I've been inclined to branch out a bit.
I really branched with this one. It all started, oddly enough, in my physics class. I hated physics, and the lectures bored me to tears. So I did a lot of doodling. And suddenly one of my doodles (which started out as just a figure in an interesting pose) collided with one of my favorite quotes from "V for Vendetta" (my favorite movie): "There is a face beneath this mask, but I am not that face, any more than I am the muscles beneath it, or the bones beneath that."
And so a concept was born. It rattled around in the back of my mind for a good long while, and then I was suddenly stricken by the inspiration to paint and decided it was time to turn that doodle into something more. Alas, I had no canvas on hand. What I did have was several sheets of foamcore. I'd seen acrylics used on foamcore before, so I knew it would work. But the sheets I had were all... big. I eyed them for a good long while, considered cutting one in half or something, and finally decided it was about time I expand my horizons and paint something big, for once. I'm glad I did. It was a bit daunting at first, but I quickly came to enjoy having all that space to work with.
Not only was this my first large piece, but it was also my first time painting anything human-shaped, and my first time mixing media. Whilst pondering what to do with the remaining empty space, I decided to throw my love for decoupaging into the mix. It still has a long way to go before it's finished, but here's a sneak preview, so to speak (and a lovely view of my messy room and impromptu chair-easel).
I've been dabbling with jewelry-making for a while now, mostly making simple gifts like earrings and bracelets. The following is, by far, my most ambitious project.
I finally broke down and read "The Da Vinci Code" shortly before the movie was released, and promptly fell in love with it. I had borrowed someone else's copy initially, but I just had to have my own. I just happened to grab the illustrated edition, which featured a photograph of a cilice. My first thought upon finally seeing what the thing actually looked like was, "Gosh, that's pretty." It wasn't long before I found myself driven to try and recreate the design. And so I decided to adapt it into a choker.
It was slow going, at first--studying the photograph, trying and erring and tweaking. But once I got going, the pattern worked itself out, and it turned out to be far easier than I'd expected. I grabbed some strips of fabric to tie it with, as that was what I had on hand, and voila!
*whew* This is still just a taste, really. I haven't even touched on sewing and costuming, but really, that would have to be whole post of it's own... For now, though, my fingers are tired, so I'm going to give them a break. =P
I've been feeling a bit run-down lately, somewhat under the weather. Because as much as I love spring and all it's blooming and blossoming, my body does not. I'm allergic to pollen (and grass and darn near everything that grows and a good many things that don't). So I've had the sniffles ever since winter left us, and this week I've come down with a lovely sinus infection. Right on schedule.
I have a number of projects in mind that I'm eager to start, but either I haven't felt like it or I'm missing necessary materials or some such. So, in lieu of having anything new to post in the creative arena, I thought I'd take the opportunity to delve into some of the various media I work with and post some of my previous projects.
I'll group these by craft type. Photos and rambles under the cut for great space-saving.
When it comes to crafting, I'm very much a "jump in there and try it" sort of person. A lot of people seem to think that you need to be taught how to do something. Bologna, I say. I just teach myself (be it a new artistic technique or craft or something like playing the piano). As I did with glass painting.
I'd honestly never had any particular interest in the craft until, on one of my forays into the local Hobby Lobby, I came across a book of Celtic glass painting designs. I love Celtic art and the projects in the book were just so beautiful that I had to give it a go.
This plate was my first attempt, and it's certainly not perfect, but I'm quite proud of it. I quite enjoyed the process of turning something plain into something so pretty...
And a close-up. I didn't realize until after I'd finished that I'd left the spots off of one of the dogs. >_> But I rather like it that way. I've always been the odd-ball, so it seems appropriate that one of my dogs is a little different too. =P
A couple of Christmases ago, I decided to make something for everyone in my family. That was one busy yuletide. =P But lots of fun too, as I took the opportunity to try out a number of new things I'd been reading up on. Like mosaics. I thought my cousin, being a teenage girl, could use some sort of tray or basket or somesuch to hold her makeup and hair things and whatnot, so I picked up a plain wooden tray from Hobby Lobby, and rather on a whim, decided to do a mosaic in the bottom.
I took the easy route and bought a bunch of precut plastic pieces, and decided on the cross because it was a relatively simple design and it suited her.
I originally intended to paint the bare wood, but I ran out of time. Mosaics, while easier than they look, are very time consuming. But the finished project certainly made all that tedious work well worthwhile.
I've always loved crochet and wanted to learn how to do it ever since I was a tiny tot. Finally, about five years ago, my mom learned from a friend and then passed on the lessons to me. I was amazed to find how easy it was, and it quickly became one of my favorite creative hobbies.
My very first project was a scarf, and I've since done many more scarves. This one is one of my favorites.
Years ago, I had a friend who had a duct tape wallet. I thought it was the coolest thing ever and was just dying to know how it was made. But someone had bought it for him somewhere, so he had no clue. And I all but forgot about it until some years later when I was poking at the craft books in our local library and came across an entire book of duct tape crafts--including how to make a duct tape wallet.
So I ran home with it, gave it a quick read, and then grabbed my duct tape and got to work. I whipped up a couple right off the bat and then, of course, I had add my own flare, I tried a couple of techinques to decorate them.
My first thought was to grab my Sharpies and go polkadot crazy. It worked out great and I quickly replaced my boring old storebought wallet with this one. Of course, after a few months of handling, I discovered the draw back to decorating with Sharpies.
Sharpies are not totally permanent. Of course, I kinda dig that distressed, weatherbeaten look, so no big.
I decided to really go out on a limb with the other one and decoupaged it with Victorian corset-themed images.
Results were similar. It worked out wonderfully at first, but after several months of use--as you can see in the picture--I started loosing parts of the design as the paper started lifting in places. And eventually, the whole paper layer fell off in one big, glue-laden chunk.
I haven't gotten around to actually trying it yet, but I'm thinking it might be possible to use a layer of clear packing tape on top of everything to act as a sort of "sealer."
I've always loved art, and as a child I used to watch painting shows on PBS ("The Joy of Painting," anyone? I ♥ Bob Ross. XD) all the time. I did a lot of fiddling around with my cheap little watercolor palettes, but they just wouldn't quite do what I wanted them to. And then one year, for my birthday, my mother bought me a set of acrylics. Instant love.
I've done a fair deal of painting over the years. Mostly relatively small landscapes and still lifes and such. But lately, I've been inclined to branch out a bit.
I really branched with this one. It all started, oddly enough, in my physics class. I hated physics, and the lectures bored me to tears. So I did a lot of doodling. And suddenly one of my doodles (which started out as just a figure in an interesting pose) collided with one of my favorite quotes from "V for Vendetta" (my favorite movie): "There is a face beneath this mask, but I am not that face, any more than I am the muscles beneath it, or the bones beneath that."
And so a concept was born. It rattled around in the back of my mind for a good long while, and then I was suddenly stricken by the inspiration to paint and decided it was time to turn that doodle into something more. Alas, I had no canvas on hand. What I did have was several sheets of foamcore. I'd seen acrylics used on foamcore before, so I knew it would work. But the sheets I had were all... big. I eyed them for a good long while, considered cutting one in half or something, and finally decided it was about time I expand my horizons and paint something big, for once. I'm glad I did. It was a bit daunting at first, but I quickly came to enjoy having all that space to work with.
Not only was this my first large piece, but it was also my first time painting anything human-shaped, and my first time mixing media. Whilst pondering what to do with the remaining empty space, I decided to throw my love for decoupaging into the mix. It still has a long way to go before it's finished, but here's a sneak preview, so to speak (and a lovely view of my messy room and impromptu chair-easel).
I've been dabbling with jewelry-making for a while now, mostly making simple gifts like earrings and bracelets. The following is, by far, my most ambitious project.
I finally broke down and read "The Da Vinci Code" shortly before the movie was released, and promptly fell in love with it. I had borrowed someone else's copy initially, but I just had to have my own. I just happened to grab the illustrated edition, which featured a photograph of a cilice. My first thought upon finally seeing what the thing actually looked like was, "Gosh, that's pretty." It wasn't long before I found myself driven to try and recreate the design. And so I decided to adapt it into a choker.
It was slow going, at first--studying the photograph, trying and erring and tweaking. But once I got going, the pattern worked itself out, and it turned out to be far easier than I'd expected. I grabbed some strips of fabric to tie it with, as that was what I had on hand, and voila!
*whew* This is still just a taste, really. I haven't even touched on sewing and costuming, but really, that would have to be whole post of it's own... For now, though, my fingers are tired, so I'm going to give them a break. =P