Seeking out art and making my own

Week 20 (11-17 May)

At some point I got ahead of myself, this week is actually week 20...

With a whimsical photo of my fridge and onions at the supermarket, you can see that my week got off to slightly dull start. I did make a bookmark, at least. Thankfully things picked up toward the weekend, on Friday Cibo's offered free coffee for it's first day in Gawler so I took some puzzles and did a little people watching. On Saturday I visited the Art Gallery, which I'm slowly working my way through trying to see everything. I can only properly look at so much art in one day, and at the moment I've almost finished Gallery 3 - the first two galleries only took a visit each, but the third is much, much bigger. A third trip ought to be enough to see it properly. I also took time to check out the unofficial art around Adelaide. This week's feature photo is one of the coolest I've found in a while, if you want to see it for yourself it's behind the ANZ in Rundle Mall.

I'm really proud of the photo I took on Sunday too. It's the last of the small images, and was taken to the theme 'Home' in the photo a day I intermittently take part in. I've enjoyed it so far, but not really drawn any attention. There are some very talented people there. This photo, however, has been something of a success. I didn't really want to take a picture of my house - it's a nice place to live but not terribly photogenic. Instead, I just played with the idea and came up with an image captioned 'Home is where the books are'.

Craftiness (2015 photos)

Week 20 (4-10 May)

A couple of this week's photos are of cards I made in the past week. I like simple designs and precise techniques. I don't really have a lot to say this week, though it was a good week. I was especially pleased with my performance at netball this week. My fitness is improving rapidly (as one team member suggested, Netball is basically an hour of interval training) and I'm doing well in GK. I went a long because I love the opportunity to get out have a run on a team with friends, but I'm finding more than that. I haven't taken any photos, though, as I've been too busy on court.

2015 Photo Challenge Week 8

This week's themes

47 - From where I stand - if not in the literal sense, from where I stand this jam was a huge success. First ever attempt worked well and has tasted great.

48 - Routine - or rou-tea-ne. A good cup of tea is an evening routine.

49 - Bedside - this'd fit into yesterday's theme just as well. I read a little every day before falling asleep. I've since finished one of these.

50 - Fresh - chilies from my garden. Determined to be red chillies too, the green chillies in this photo have since turned a vivid red.

51 - This is so me! - I found these theme a challenge, the phrase isn't really one I'd put to use. But I do love working with bright colours in my crafting... and dreaming up ideas from the leftovers. I guess this fits?

52 - Matching - I made a matching set of cards... I like the minimalist design but a sketch or interesting sticker/object would be easy to add too.

53 - Macro - macro photography is a form I've enjoyed in the past, though I haven't put significant focus into it in some time. It was nice to spend the day running around looking at things a different way. It's gumnut season, and there are many kinds around. I particularly like the caps on this enormous variety.

2015 photo challenge week 6

I decided to try out some of the lists of photo prompts, I chose Fat Mum Slim's list for this month, it's weekly so I started on the 2nd.

33 - Mail - Today's mail included a bunch of advertising junk and a letter for a previous occupant of my house. Instead, I made this card as a birthday/congratulations card. I like sending out mail, both the making of it and giving someone something that wasn't automated in their mailbox.

Using a few reference images for ideas I sketched some (well, many) foxes, eventually got one that I thought would work. I don't usually start from scratch like that, I've got no confidence in my drawing ability so used this as an opportunity to stretch myself. I'm more confident in my knife work and did modify the image slightly at that stage. I'm out of practice and can see minor flaws, but am learning to forgive myself those, especially working on the tiny scale here (nose is 2mm wide). Nobody else seems to notice them so perhaps I can allow myself a little leeway.

34 - Water - I had a few errands to run in the Adelaide CBD, once I was done I took the scenic route back to the railway station to enjoy the weather. This photo is from the Adelaide University footbridge.

35 - Reward - A morning of getting jobs around the house done, so ice cream and some time to read made a good reward. I've finished the book now, fifteenth of the year (!) so I'll be reviewing again soon.

36 - Something blue - detail of the pattern on my plates, bowls etc. Inherited from Nanna, so there are happy memories every day when I use them.

37 - Makes me smile - I took this photo on February 6, Grandpa would have been 100 that day. Grandma, Mum, Dad and I visited the cemetery where Grandpa's ashes are interred, took a new bunch of red silk roses to replace the faded ones, and some red roses we'd grown. This is the one I took. It's the memories that make me smile, and it's a big part of why I love growing roses.

38 - Stripes - Buttons are one of my favourite craft materials. The button necklaces I have made have a wonderful colourful stripy-ness. I pulled some buttons out of my jars to put this picture together. Mmm. Buttons.

39 - In my bag - something to read. Never know when I'll have a quiet moment or need a book-y retreat. I often have e-books for use on the go, but just now I'm slowly making my way through this book.

2015 photo challenge week 3

12 - Catching up on some classic Sci Fi I've missed. Interesting to see what here aged well.. and what didn't. The ideas of technology were particularly interesting. Some things still look futuristic, others instead mildly hilarious.

13 - Finished off my fifth book of the year (the one in the centre). My next post which I hope to have finished today should be a brief review of these five books. All things going well and time permitting I'll keep doing that all year.

14 - I visited the Art Gallery of South Australia today. I spent most of my time in Gallery 1, I enjoyed reading about and looking at the artworks there. Even within the works bound by theme there was a great deal of variety. I hope that I can, over time, go through the rest of the galleries with a similar degree of attention. This work (this is only a fraction of it) by H J Johnstone was one of my favourites. The reflections are particularly exquisite.

15 - I was having a bit of a down day, but the colourful and delicious sight of my groceries did a lot to cheer me up. They've been, and will continue to be, delicious.

16 - Bug on a flower... had some trouble with the focus given the wind but it's still nice :) Honestly don't have a lot to say otherwise.

17 - Now that it's been given, instead of a sneak-peek I can show you this card. I made it for my sister's birthday and am hoping that it'll be the first of a bit of a revival in my paper crafting. I love this craft but it's been a long time since I've done much. This particular card has now given me several ideas for improvement and I've got a lot of ideas for things to go inside (the lens is cut through to the interior). I'd also like to make a functioning cardboard aperture for one, though I might combine that with a bookmaking project I've got in mind... I need to practice a few skills first though.

Might tutorial-ise this card when I make some refinements too.

Evening out with friends too, so a really good day :)

18 - Amy's birthday... we went to the Locavore in Stirling - the food is, as much as possible, sourced from within 100 miles. We had the tasting platter which was pretty fantastic. There were several other courses involved too.

Crafty revival and future creation possibilities.

Hmm... my earlier craft project is still to be completed, it seems I need to improve my skills for the last part. A challenge is good though, I'll get there!

In the meantime, I've been doing some other bits and pieces. I've fallen out of the crafty habit for a while so it's good to try a few things out.

Using the templates in this photobucket album I've made myself a cardboard Katamari. I'll make a prince to match too - I need to downscale the original, that'll make it fiddly but I don't mind that at all. After that will have fun with cameras and paper models.... possibly also with glue. We'll see...

I've also put together this necklace. I'm not quite sure who it'll be for yet. Although I do like the colour combination it's not one I'm likely to wear.

Please excuse the rather grotty cutting mat. It's seen hard service in paper, jewelery and fabric crafting and both glue and a myriad of not-quite-healed cuts are starting to show. It still does the job craft-wise. I might have to rig myself up a better photo station. I have a great solution for very small objects but it limits my angles a great deal and isn't big enough for larger objects like the two crafts shown today. Time to learn how to do that...

Also, I'm seriously considering taking on another photographic project next year. I did a 365 photo a day which turned into 536 photos (on a previous blog). I'm not yet sure if I'll attempt another 365 or if I'll come up with something else. The last project I did was the found alphabet, it a great project though a few letters proved trickier than expected - that's not exactly a bad thing but didn't do wonders for keeping to schedule. There's also the possibility of experimenting with my interest in stop-motion though that'd be an entirely different creature. I've got a month or so to think on it.

A is for... Applique

Applique is a less familiar craft than the last few have been and my experience with blanket stitch is extremely limited so this isn't perfect - but I don't mind. Which is good because I'm usually a perfectionist and it's nice to find some not-perfectionism.

I chose my colours and got to work. I wanted a more electric blue but couldn't find one, I think this one turned out very well all the same. I chose felt over fabric to avoid fraying issues.

As with the other letters I didn't use a pre-made template but worked my own out. I had to adjust it a little and if I want to do any more small felt cut-outs I'll need to get a more suited set of scissors (an xacto knife just didn't work out).

I'm tempted to get an early start on the next letter which I hope to have done tomorrow - the technique I've chosen can be time-consuming to do on the scale I usually use. For that one I'll go totally pattern-and-template free...

Edit: slightly further on than tomorrow, perhaps... I chose to use a very fine canvas. No regrets as the progress is looking great but it's 4x more work so please bear with me!

Next letter...

Okay... things are on the improve so the next letter is underway.

This photo was taken last weekend on a trip to Port Pirie and I finally adjusted things to my satisfaction today. The photo was taken in Napperby Gorge. I plan to show more of the photos later, though not in this cut-up form.

I've not fixed it to the backing yet, I want to work out how I present the final thing first.

Night Vale Public Library Card - DIY

I was working on a creative idea... but another distracted me.

If you were to use the image with a barcode generator and the graphics program of your choice - Paint is enough - you could make a functional card. Laminating it would be a plus. Whether or not your library would accept it is an entirely separate matter...

I might mess around and make a fancier one at some point but this isn't a bad start.

Daily creation: Button letter and discovery of tiredness

I'm continuing to make an effort to create something any day I have an opportunity. It's only day two though, so not getting especially excited yet.

This is part two of a small project I'm working on. I know roughly what the elements of it will be but haven't yet worked out how I'll assemble it.

There's not a lot to say about today's work - sewing on buttons is, I hope, a near universal skill. I often go through quite a process in selecting buttons for a project but I was feeling a little tired this evening so went with a colour selection that came out of a mixed pack of buttons rather than going through my stash of second hand buttons.

This is up a little later than I intended - sewing the buttons on highlighted my tiredness. Last night's book was really good and while I had no trouble during the day I'm starting to feel it now. Several times I had to backtrack a moment and remind myself that buttons need to be treated rather differently to beads.

As with yesterdays, this isn't utter perfection. I can see the flaws, but hope they are not so obvious to others.

Creative Boost - Starting a project... plus technique

I've not had a terribly creative year thus far. It's time to do something about that. I've got a plan that should see me taking on a creative task each day for the rest of the week that will result in something that I hope will be fun. After that I'd like to see if I can maintain that. It might not be something very big - and it might not be a craft as such. Perhaps a photograph beyond the happy-snap variety or something creative in the kitchen. Perhaps even a blog post - my output this year has been somewhat low.

Today's part of the project is a letter embroidered on card, a shade wonky as I worked from scratch without a template. I've been making cards and other objects this way for a while. Although I read craft books/blogs for inspiration I often deviate from patterns and instructions or just plain old make it up as I go. That's how I learnt this craft, the technique is not revolutionary but I arrived at my current method through trial and error and expect to keep refining it. Here's the back and a quick technique run-down to give you an idea how I did it.

I started by ruling a vague size and position, from there on in this was entirely freehand withut so much as a straight edge. It was nice to do as I generally lack confidence in my ability to draw and draft things - even simple things. It's not absolutely perfect but I think I like it that way...

Initially I thought that I'd use a couple more colours I'd picked out (a lovely turquoise and bold orange) to add a flower motif but ultimately decided that'd make it too busy in the context of the project I have in mind.

I punched the holes out with an awl - when I first started making embroidered cards I used a needle. That's a good way to hurt your fingers. I had to punch from behind - I prefer to punch from the side I'm going to sew on to keep things tidy but this particular project didn't lend itself to that as I was avoiding the use of any kind of template which is really necessary for that.

Even-ish spacing is nice but there are certain points - corners and points along a curve - which are going mandate positioning. I punched those first and then worked out how many holes needed to go in the spaces between these.

The stitching is a sort of modified backstitch done with a fine tapestry needle - it's efficient with thread while getting the look I'm after. I started off with a doubled over thread and rather than knotting brought the first stitch down through the doubled over end to secure it.

If working on a card I need to keep the back as flat as possible, and then I use a piece of masking tape to catch all the ends (you only need one as you can unstick and restick it repeatedly) however that wasn't an issue here so I just knotted the ends.

Twilight Sparkle colour scheme bracelet

Something new to show you today - this bracelet is the first of a set I'm making using colour schemes from My Little Pony : Friendship is Magic as a theme. I've been wanting to do some themed work and with such bold colour combinations I thought this might be a good candidate. While basic colours/themes are used I'm not trying to make these a highly accurate, just having a bit of fun with them.

This one uses the colour scheme of Twilight Sparkle.

I have a few other themes I'd like to work with too but I haven't really developed the ideas for those yet.

Now back to the workbench...

Fallout Vault Boy card - with Instructions

I've been playing Fallout: New Vegas lately and I'm gradually coming to the uncomfortable realisation I may have to own up to liking it more than Skyrim. Which has dragons so that's a huge achievement.

This could make a RADical birthday card with a stamp inside... I'm also tempted to frame it.

I've had a few new card ideas brewing in my head now so it was time to use one of those. The method I used to make this card makes it very difficult to reproduce exactly so there is no full tutorial but I'll give you some instructions, if you've got some crafty tendencies that should help if you're interested in making something like this.

First I found a graphic of vault boy/fallout boy and sized it the way I wanted it. I printed three copies on printer paper then printed a copy of his face with no surroundings - cutting his face in cardboard wasn't plausible but I didn't want full printed outlines.

I chose the coloured card from a set of many colours I have so that everything would have the same texture. You could easily use different textures/patterns to achieve an interesting effect too.

I stuck the printer paper templates to the coloured card just outside the cutting lines for each colour and used my exacto knife (and a brand new blade) to cut out the pieces. The dark blue is the full size of the suit, although you could cut it smaller layering makes one piece appear behind the other. If you start with the big pieces you can re-use each template a few times. To cut the face I held the paper template and card with printed face up to the light to line them up. All the pieces were stuck together onto a piece of black card and then trimmed so that any overhang was eliminated.

The base card is 4x6 yellow card in the same texture as everything else. To make the background I cut a piece of printer paper to 4x6 and sketched the mountain and mushroom cloud. I cut the mountain first then the orange section - the template for which I cut down again to make the red sections and then finally cut the grey. By cutting from the same copy of a template I increased the chances of everything fitting neatly.

I lined everything up before finishing but it didn't look complete - I cut the road freehand and then added the road line and the ring to the mushroom cloud.

Some foam tape to add a bit of dimensionality and a shadow and he was done!

I'm very pleased with this guy - I have a few more ideas I'm working on now, including a dalek - I'm not satisfied with my design yet but I hope to bring him (and many other geeky cards) to life soon.

Papercut Chinese New Year

I haven't posted a lot of crafts recently - many reasons, but I've been able to let out some of my creative energy in my work. One of the great bonuses of my current position!

This is the display I've put together for Chinese New Year - my supervisor gave me a small picture which she liked, but the resolution was far too low to use it directly - so I combined it with my love for paper crafting and this was the result.

The snake was far and away the hardest and most time consuming of the project - mostly cut with an exacto knife with a hammer-driven hole punch for some of the finer detail. I made it over several days - knifework can be tough on the hands, especially where a lot of detail is involved. I chose this colour palette as it's a water snake year. You might see a tiny issue there, but I'm not going to tell you - anyone's capable of a derp from time to time. It sticks out like a sore thumb to me but apparently some don't notice until it's pointed out.

The lanterns were made without a template, except for the script, of course. I had an idea, ran with it, and it worked out just fine. I couldn't use real lanterns because they set off the security system at night - I think these are a nice substitute.

The scroll was built using parts from an old Chinese New Year decoration that I butchered for the purpose. It took more trial and error than the other parts, if not as much time.

The display will be completed shortly with the addition of some work from kids' club - hence the empty spaces. If need be the scroll will be relocated.

But in the meantime I'm really happy with the way this came out!

Time for a sale?

I'm trying out using a coupon code on the Triple Threat Librarian Etsy Store - the code is XMASRUSH and today (17th Dec 2012) and tomorrow (As per Adelaide's timezones) that code will get you 15% off everything in the store. If you're in Australia everything will make it to the post office on Wednesday which is in time to be delivered for Christmas with Australia Post's regular delivery times.

Christmas Cards on Etsy

These are just a couple of the cards I've listed on my Etsy store - http://www.etsy.com/shop/geekishcrafts

I've substantially reduced the prices from those I was charging at the Christmas fair and other placements. If you're in Australia and order by the 18th they will get to you in time - if not some of them would be great for any occasion! I'll be listing some more general-purpose cards after Christmas.