Artifice, in the genitive

Otakon 2008

2008-08-11T12:48:00.005-05:00

Decided to attend Otakon with about 2 weeks to spare on a costume. Alas, my costume required no props whatsoever, but I did make a few ikkle props for the cosplay group (Avatar, sans main characters) of which I was a part.

Watch this space for photos.

And if I'm feeling particuarly ambitious, I'll post some photos of props that I admire, or props of things that I'm already planning on making for myself (with ramblings on how I'd planned on making it).

Wire wrapping... uh, the fifth?

2007-09-06T12:49:00.000-05:00

Check the bottom photo for scale (until I add specific measurements for each item)

I keep confusing this one with the other stone w/ a curl...

Front view and side view. The interesting thing is that half the stone is translucent, and the layer between the opaque and translucent is a shiny purple.

The color is sort of akin to foil on the stone, not as much the veins on the other stones.

The iron-stone is oddly light colored, but the little splash of opal color is pretty entertaining.

Two shots of the front of this stone--it's pretty dark, but the color flecks are quite strong. This is the first stone I drilled, and thus far it is the only one that is not wrapped, but rather glued.

Boulder, with the clearest matrix thus far. It's stronger colored on the right, but the pattern is quite consistent on both sides. Drill-mounted wire (fairly minor).

This was probably the one that most caught my eye. I don't think I am too happy with how the wrapping came out, though it is good enough. The front/back are very similar, but the front is more domed. The thick vein runs fully though the stone, so it looks pretty brilliant when back-lit. The eye-loop is anchored via drill-hole (I couldn't justify wrapping across the thick vein!)

Oddly, this is probably the wrapping job I am most proud of, not just in this set, but so far (out of nearly 20 stones). The color of the opal itself is distinctly ... whelming. Neither over, nor under, just... whelming. It's a nice color, but the 3-D/translucent/"opal-y" characteristic is difficult to see.
The stone is very narrow (goes from 1mm to 2mm), fairly long (19mm), and very, very deep (7mm). Notes on construction: I drilled through the thin end of the stone, but the drill chipped the stone upon exiting, so I was left with a crater-ish thing on the left side. To mask/cover/camouflage the chipping, I made a small spiral to mount flush against the side, pulled the wire through and made some flourishes to make the eye-loop more interesting. Somehow this one just works so well aesthetically for me.

Line up, with scale.

Opals, video view

2007-09-01T06:32:00.000-05:00

Well, the depth of focus is crap, so it's pretty fuzzy. I had to sacrifice the focus depth in order to get the view close enough to show the colors. Since you're looking for flashes of light, I guess the fuzziness isn't as obscuring as it might be for... text, or somesuch.

1. Queensland boulder opal chip
2. Boulder matrix, jeweler finished. (Crimson, blues, greens)
3. Boulder matrix, jeweler finished. (Blues, greens)
4. Boulder chip, raw
5. Crystal opal? raw (semi-matte, light blue fire)
6. White/milk opal (the only opal here that was meant for normal jewelry)*
7. Black opal, raw
8. Black opal, raw (uber-uber-matte)
9. Black opal, raw (I'm pretty certain it's black opal, even if you think it's not)

*I got this in the best deal ever, but I probably can't mount this for jewelry till I accumulate some standard lapidary tools and skills. Traditional gem-working is a very, very expensive hobby.

Opal-related hijinks

2007-08-28T10:05:00.000-05:00

I now have little display cases for them!
(I wanted to put the little "Australian Opal" stickers on the cases, but they would've obscured 75% of the lid...)

Actually, this entry was composed as rant, but I might as well tell you about some of the processes behind the wire-wrapped opals I've been posting.

I've been using 22 gauge, round sterling wire in half-hard temper. I do have some full-soft sterling in 0.6mm, marginally thinner than 22ga, and I will try some 0.5mm half-hard next.
I call these things "wire-wrapped" though there's not much wrapping--I'm mostly shaping the wires into a frame/cage for the stone, and that's done with pliers and hands.
Some of the chips I have are poorly finished, so I've acquired some 6000 and 8000 grit abrasives, and they've brought some chips to an acceptable polish. There are several stones, though, without the stereotypical opal "fire," though they are still beautifully iridescent. I think they're still worth wrapping, so I'll being doing that soon enough.

Most of the chips I haven't wrapped yet were just in need of a bit of shine, but I want to modify the shapes for
a few.
And here's the rant: there's one stone where I wanted to remove the burr that the cutter neglected to finish removing. The problem is that this stone is barely 3mm wide and 12mm long, so it's difficult to manipulate the little bugger. In any case, I managed to gash my finger pretty deeply while filing this thing. I dropped the stone and file and scooted to the sink to wash off the dirt. I've generally stopped using band-aids, so I had to superglue the cut (actually, I had to Zap-a-Gap the cut), use some tissue over the zapped gap, and bind the whole contrivance with sports tape. Now I'm having difficulty typing, much less manipulating jewelry... *Whines* Astoundingly, the cut didn't bleed at all, so I'm pretty thankful for that.

But I managed to misplace/drop/lose the stone during the chaos that was trying to get the cut sealed. It took me about an hour of rooting through my desk and environs before I found the damn thing. (It's conveniently the same color as my carpeting.) Meh. Frustrating thing is, I doubt this stone is going to look all that great, but with the amount of trouble I've gone through for this one (additional polish, burr filing, gash) it'd better be friggin' stunning.

Wire Wrapping IV: The Saga Continues

2007-08-25T11:51:00.000-05:00

I've run out of simple to wrap stones, so things get a little trippy right about now. We'll see how far I can get with the remaining stones.

Eye-to-tip: 1.6cm

This triangular stone shouldn't have been difficult, but part of the point decided not to cooperate, and I snapped
my first wire, so I had to scrap the original plan. And the triangular spiral? I think it was meant to balance out the mass of wires at the left, and to make the piece visually more complex.
This one is interesting--it looks pretty boring at first. The stone is a dark speckled brown, and there's a bit of gloss and not much else. Only at certain angles do the blue and green flecks show up. At most angles there's barely a hint of the flecks, and I had thought the stone was just poorly polished and therefore the flecks were clouded, but no, it's just a fickle stone.

Eye-to-tip: 1.6cm

Alright, this one was just obnoxious to work with.

The thickest part of the stone is barely 2mm, and most of the piece is 1mm, and the edges are tapered. I think I ended up crumbling 1/3rd of the blasted thing before I got the wrapping done. It's fully caged, but in a way different from the spiral cage several posts ago. This stone is a disc shape, and spiral wrapping would have left substantial lengths of wire with little support, so I had to come up with another way to protect the edges from chipping. Hence the bizarre bumper-rail-things. I wanted to be creative and make the cage a heart shape, but after the rock started crumbling a lot, I gave up and just followed the shape of the stone.

Wire wrapping, the third

2007-08-22T08:17:00.001-05:00

Do we see a pattern in my posts?

The blue vein is pretty, though not as multi-hued and sparkly as some others. The pendant is just over 1cm, from eye to tip:

This one isn't a visually complex stone & wrapping, but I really like the flecks at the bottom point. Fullest width: 1.5cm. I like the subtlety & simplicity of this one:

OMFGSHINY. This one is really delicate, so I had to enclose all of it in wire, but I think the spiral works out fairly well. Eye-to-tip: 2cm. (I really like the uppermost vein--it's mostly nondescript till *Boom* = shiny.):

So the current line up (click for much larger view) is:

Wire Wrapping, part II

2007-08-20T09:55:00.000-05:00

Silver wrapped Boulder Opal chips (Matrix Opal).
(Largest pendant, tip to tip: 2cm.)

And close ups!

Many of these veins are translucent. I attempt to demonstrate it by strongly back-lighting two of these stones:

Boulder Opals

2007-08-18T10:11:00.000-05:00

I bought some tubes of semi-raw Boulder Opals. All the unset Opals I could find were made to mounted flat, and none of them would have worked for wire-work. I am so happy to have found these tubes. (They still weren't cheap. Bah!) Now I need some thinner & softer wire.

Here's attempt #1 at wrapping:
Boulder Opal wrapped in Sterling Silver
(It's about 1cm wide and 1cm tall, so it's pretty tiny.)

Here are two shots of the tubes, before I pulled the Opals out.

Orphaned chainmail

2007-08-17T14:25:00.000-05:00

It looks like a cross between Parallel chain, Byzantine and Half-Persian 3-in-1:

I haven't been able to find any other examples of it, but it's hardly complex, so I'm guessing there has to be instructions somewhere on the internet.
If not, I get dibs on naming rights.

Manual Macro (kinda fuzzy, but much more zoom)

2007-08-02T20:08:00.000-05:00

With a magnifying glass (cheap jeweler's loupe for me) supplementing your camera, you can get in really close to what you're photographing. It's not a crisp image (you're holding the magnifying glass manually, and it's hardly as precise an assembly as a camera lens), but it's much closer than macro-mode, and it's sufficient for a fair amount of detail.
I use it extensively when writing up instructions to provide some visual context, without the need for fine art photography quality.

Crane, Tiny
(for scale, that's a AA battery)
Click image to see it at 600x450 (which is still less than 29% of original image size)
No flash, on a point-and-shoot (5.1mpx)

And for comparison, a different item with similar composition on a different camera:
Stars, tiny.
This shot was taken with flash, on a DSLR (~10mpx?) It's clearer, I guess, but it's a royal pain to edit/crop.

Airport boredom, part I

2007-07-21T04:43:00.001-05:00

Anodized titanium Jens Pinds, medium length choker, drape-y bits are in 1-in-2 weave.

I call this "Half of a 11 hour layover at LA", but I have yet to finish the other half (due to a lack of proper clasps).

And now I've learned that many airport security staffers can't distinguish between pliers and wire cutters via the x-ray screen:
Security: Hey, Bill, do we allow wire cutters?
Me: [Grumbling] I don't give a ship if you allow wire cutters or not, those are pliers!

Jars of loose chain links tends to get your bag opened for a closer inspection, but bright pink anodized aluminum rings gets you some awesome looks during the secondary inspection.

Remaining Stock!

2007-06-28T21:56:00.001-05:00

Here's the chainmaille stuff I still have on hand! (Click on the images for large resolution)

All these bracelets (and one necklace) is in titanium, and the featured stones are all semi-precious gems (tiger's eye, jade, moss agate, etc.), pearls, cloisonne beads or silver-wrapped glass. Most of the clasps are magnetic.

These items are mostly copper, bronze or silver. The blue and silver band in the middle-ish is anodized aluminum.

S-t-r-e-e-e-e-t-c-h-y!
Neoprene and anodized aluminum construction make these items stretchy! The thing in the top right corner is a dice bag made from galvanized steel and anodized aluminum.

Photoshop System Requirements (6-CS3 + Elements)

2007-05-21T11:16:00.001-05:00

I spent quite awhile trying to find the system requirements for various editions of Adobe Photoshop. Surprisingly, wikipedia did not have these listed, so I had to compile my own set.

If anyone wants to take this info and post it to wikipedia, please do so. (For reference, most of these numbers came from Amazon sellers listing the old versions & full sys.req., or from Archive.org's cached pages from Adobe themselves.)

Adopt-a-Pot

2007-04-28T21:56:00.000-05:00

Adopt-a-Pot!
I'm giving away a lot of my ceramics, so lay claim to them soon, before someone else does. (I'm not adverse to being paid for any of these items, though, but I'm not really expecting payment.)

There are still more items I haven't added to the Adoption page, so check back frequently. (I'll attempt to have everything up by late monday/tuesday.)
-W.

Penguin Waves!

2007-04-24T01:02:00.000-05:00

Tug the string and the penguin waves!

Made from stoneware clay with commercial underglazes, fired to cone 05.

Experimentation with glass & ceramics

2007-04-17T23:05:00.000-05:00

I had a blue bottle and a hammer. And then I had lots and lots of blue bottle bits. I pressed some into unfired porcelain, and then set some in the recess of a stoneware box lid. (I might etch the lid. Maaaybe.)

They turned out well, I think:

Beads, just under 3/4" and 1" tall.

Box! The stuff on the box is sprayed cobalt carbonate, but it's totally not blue. Oh well. The lid came out very nice, though:

Isn't that hot?

I'd put glass shards in the recess (about 1/4" deep), and drizzled hot wax over it to make sure no one would accidentally dump broken glass all over if they happened to bump the piece. (The wax burned out way at the beginning of the firing cycle.)

Disappearing Cheshire Cat shot glass!

2007-04-17T03:10:00.000-05:00

I've been working at this idea for awhile: when etched glass is in contact with liquid, it becomes nearly transparent again. I thought about what designs would work well with this idea, and I hit upon the Cheshire Cat. I etched the cat inside the glass, but etched the grin on the outside, so when you pour water into it, everything disappears, leaving just the grin.
I plan on making a much cleaner/neater/preciser glass sometime, but for now, the concept comes through fine. (There's a video of the glass in action, if you scroll to the bottom of this post. And for low-bandwidth folks, there's a hilariously crappy animated gif instead.)

Before liquid

Pour booze in, and voila!
(It's water, actually)

Video of water being poured in!

I warned you it was hilariously crappy

Spring + Snow == WTF & Photos

2007-04-07T08:12:00.000-05:00

It's April, I'm on the middle of the East Coast of the United States. It snowed last night.

Let me reiterate: It. Freaking. Snowed. Last. Night.

I was rather convinced that it wouldn't actually snow, but since it did, I took the opportunity to get some photos of the confused-looking flowers covered in snow.

Enjoy their pain/appreciate their sacrifice to be that pretty.

I have 50+ photos, but most of them are essentially the same shot to compensate for composition/blur/lighting. Once I care, maybe, I'll post some more somewhere.

ClawII: Vincent's left arm Redux

2007-03-11T02:47:00.000-05:00

Vincent Valentine claw, from FFVII game character design. Mostly.

I'm rather determined to have the best Vincent costume ever. (My Vincent pwns yours. 'Specially that sparkly one. Really. WTF.)

Left arm, vambrace, articulated wrist, gauntlet. Click for larger resolution.

Story/details @ bottom of page.

Full view of claw vambrace & gauntlet

Closer look at gauntlet area

Demonstration of articulated joint

Moooonster energy drink (hence the 5am-ness)

For Otakon 2005 I cosplayed as Vincent Valentine.
The costume was a hybrid between the character design for the FFVII game and various info scrounged up for Advent Children and Dirge of Cerebus. The claw was borrowed almost entirely from the game design, but the clothes got upgraded to movie design. I also made the three barrel revolver (and a holster) to go with the mostly-movie-design costume. At the end of the convention, I sold the claw and gun, but kept the cloak & holster.

This spring break, I decided to re-create the claw. Curiously, I think my original was better made--I had a day or two in a machine shop in '05, so I was at a disadvantage for ClawII with just a drill and metal shears.

General construction information:

Vambrace, flared elbow-obstruction-thing, wrist and back-of-hand armor was all made of annealed aluminum. Pretty thick but really soft. Chicago screws for the articulated joint, and two-part rivets for the flare-to-vambrace fastening. There's some epoxy putty on the underside, mostly to cover the raw metal edge.

The glove is leather, previously with a cashmere lining. (I'd lost the other side, so I was fine with sacrificing the remaining one.) The plates on the gauntlet are made of polystyrene, thermo-formed on hand carved wood molds. The "rivets" are actually scrapbooking brads (which makes the inside of the glove a little uncomfortable, what with all the little bits of metal exposed).

The entire thing was spraypainted with Rustoleum's Hammered Finish Gold paint. I love the stuff--it's made to hide surface imperfections, so little scratches and nicks don't show, but it looks like an even finish. I tend to use it on all "metal" cosplay props I make. (Previous examples: ClawI and Movie-Van's lorica manica)

ClawI was constructed in pretty much the same way. I didn't change the design itself, but the details like the exact dimensions of the vambrace or elbow-obstructor weren't kept for ClawII. The materials and finish were the same.

Meanwhile: I do have ClawIII in the works. It'll be a claw based on the movie design. Similar materials, so far. (The scalloped gauntlet back was obnoxious to form by hand. Like "bend the metal into little ridges with no tools" obnoxious. I hope to find someone with tools that I can work with, 'else ClawIII isn't going to happen. I want it to be a well constructed claw, unlike ClawII.

Soapstone Critters

2007-03-08T23:16:00.000-05:00

Bought a 2lb chunk of soapstone from a small arts supply shop near home. Took some files/rasps/sandpaper to a few little fragments and made these:

First item made was ... well, it's supposed to be a seal. Then I made a heart (that's the triangular thing--it's a horrid angle).

Then I made a penguin. (Penguin loves you~) That's the heart, at a better angle.

Helmets Teaset

2007-02-26T22:58:00.000-05:00

I constructed an armet-burgonet cross helm for a teapot, and then added three tea cups to the set: Crusader great helm, Hoplite/Corinthian helm and a Norse helmet.

Story time!

Now, the armet-burgonet, great helm and Corinthian helms all have crests of various types that I could tweak into acting as handles, but I have found nothing that indicates Norse helmets having crests that stick out to any appreciable degree.

So what in the world can I do for a handle?

Other than crests, what else sticks out the back of a Norse helmet?

AXES, obviously.

And in conclusion: I am awesome.

Cupid's Arrows: Skewers+Needles Edition

2007-02-13T03:31:00.000-05:00

What's Valentine's Day without Cupid? Well, it'd be a bow and some arrows that hurt.

Two 6" skewers, two sewing needles, a scrap of paper, some floss and superglue.

These are pretty dangerous: from about 6 feet away, I can lodge one of these arrows in a piece of hardwood. (With craptastic acurracy, but that's beside the point.)

Directions on how these were made are here (thanks to Instructables.com)

Dreamcatchers!

2007-02-11T01:54:00.000-05:00

I got the idea for these from a post on Instructables. I've collaborated with the original author, so if you want directions for these dreamcatchers, head there.

Dreamcatcher 1: Half-inch in diameter, copper ring wrapped in upholstery thread.

Dreamcatcher 2: Quarter-inch in diameter. Aluminum ring wrapped in "metallic" thread.

Dreamcatcher 3: Three-eighths of an inch across. Paperclip bent to shape, wrapped in upholstery thread.

Stretchy chainmail et cetera

2007-01-27T14:14:00.000-05:00

Top row: all byzantine weave

Second row: center item is spiral weave, side items are byzantine.

Third row: Two european 4-in-1 bands, 2 half-persian 3-in-1

(All the above listed items are in anodized aluminum and neoprene AND STRETCHY)

Bottom two rows: Half-persian 3-in-1 bracelets in anodized titanium w/ cloisonne center bead.

Thing between the euro bands and cloisonne bracelets: Half-persian 4-in-1 bracelet in anodized aluminum.

Happy holidays, from Socrates

2007-01-10T04:01:00.000-05:00

When there's a bust of Socrates sitting in the Classics/Philosophy/Religion lounge, what's a necessary accessory for the winter holidays?

Socrates + Santa hat!

Chainmail Necklaces

2006-12-26T23:09:00.000-05:00

(Click for a larger image)

From the top left, going clockwise:
-Byzantine weave with pink-lavender rosettes
-Eensy(TM) Byzantine weave with Iolite beads and dark blue-toned accents
-Green titanium Jends Pinds weave with tiny paper crane in a glass bulb
-Sterling silver spiral weave
-Sterling silver Half-Persian 4-in-1 weave
-Copper Half-Persian 4-in-1 weave

Medium-small crane in drop-bulb pendant. Wingspan: less than 1cm.

Chainmail Bracelets

2006-12-26T22:11:00.000-05:00

(Click for larger image)

From far left, clockwise:
-3 Byzantine chains with rosettes (red, green and black) in aluminium
-Tiger's eye bead with titanium Byzantine chain (with gold-tone accents)
-Cloisonne bead with rose titanium Half-Persian 3-in-1 chain
-Sterling silver Half-Persian 4-in-1 bracelet
-Turqoise bead with titanium Byzantine chain (with green-tone accents)
-Jade bead with green and gold titanium Jends Pinds chain

Ceramics and cardboard

2006-12-11T17:46:00.000-05:00

The only final today was the ceramics final critique.
I set up my area surrounded by a noose. Whee~

And instead of studying the rest of the day, I made a cardboard viking ship:
It will be used in a viking funeral! Yay finals!

OMFG Ceramics!

2006-12-10T17:17:00.000-05:00

Yeah, my drawer is collapsing under all that weight.

(And that's not even all my pieces.)

Felted Fuzzies

2006-12-04T22:59:00.000-05:00

Felted whale is about 1.25" long, kiwi bird is about 1" long.

(Penguin pics pending!)

Kiwi bird & Kiwi fruit,
Acid etched glass silhouette, engraved plastic cap:

EQUALS AWESOME
The Kiwi bird is about 1" from head-tail.
The fruit is way smaller.

Some of my better finished pieces

2006-12-04T15:56:00.000-05:00

Crane: slab construction. Tenmoku & Iron oxide, high-fired in oxidation.

Bowl: Thrown. Raku glaze, low-fired & reduced.

Bowl: Thrown. Clear, Black, Glossy Blue-Green,
Turquoise Ash, New Blue glazes. High-fired in oxidation.

Thinger: Coil & Slab construction. Glossy blue-green glaze
(cooled slowly? Matte.)
High-fired in Oxidation. Leaf acid etched on bottom.

Cup-thing: Slab construction. Blue engobe w/ glossy blue-green glaze.
High-fired in oxidation.
(See bottom of this post for a pre-bisq/glaze photo.)

Smoke-fired box. Bisqueware state.
(See middle of this post for a pre-smoking photo.)
Knob at top was lost during firing.
It's now Turq.Ash+GlossyBlue-Green glaze run-off
pried off the kiln shelf, ground flat and glued back-to-back.

TROMPE L'OEIL!

Monkeywrench. Sculpted? Bisqueware, spray painted. (14" long)

And closeups of the wrench head

So I glazed some pots

2006-11-08T18:28:00.000-05:00

There'll be a brief description of the object, the type(s) of glaze(s) used, and whether it was fired in oxidation or reduction.

Burnished pinch pot with turquoise wood ash glaze on the inside. Oxidation.

Cylinder thing. Grey engobe & mishma technique. Acidentally got overfired in oxidation.

The claw+cup thing. JH black glaze on inside of cup, and white glaze on claws and bone handle. Oxidation.

Box! Woodash glaze on left, gold patina on right. Much of it was scraped/sponged off to highlight the texture. Oxidation.

Oh, hey, I'm in a ceramics class...

2006-10-13T21:15:00.000-05:00

The pieces posted here are for some of the projects assigned. The really ugly pieces aren't included.

The parenthetical notes are for which stage the piece is in: Greenware, Bisqueware, Glazedware, Finished. I don't have anything past the Bisqueware stage, though.

Another post will contain some of the pieces I made outside of class assignments.

Coil built vase thinger. Approx 10". (Bisq.)

Exposed coil pot. Approx 5". (Bisq.)

Box with cut-out lid, slab construction. Approx 4.5". (Bisq.)

Pitcher, base form thrown, decorations inset slab. Approx 6". (Bisq.)

Slab built & cut pot. Engobed (will fire to blue) with sgraffito. Approx 4". (Green.)

To the Batcave Bandwagon!

2006-08-21T23:38:00.000-05:00

And now you can be continually updated on the latest NOTHINGS posted here!
I've not fallen off the face of the planet, and to prove it, I've made this blog syndicated through Feedburner, available in the various atom/RSS/whateverelseyouuse feed formats. Vive la !
I expect to have more things made as I spend more time stuck in lecture classes, starting in a week.

New Business Card

2006-08-11T01:12:00.000-05:00

(Eee-hee-hee-kitty!)

It's vauger and therefore more all-encompassing. I guess I'll be handing these out to family friends and the Demonwares card out to Anime-con goers.

The phone number works, but it's not my cell phone number.
And yes, I hate giving out my real name. Both of them.

Quick update: champaign flutes, metal rose, shirts

2006-05-24T00:38:00.000-05:00

Pair of champagn flutes: one side with Bride and Groom The other side with initials, interlocked rings, and wedding date

Aluminum rose: circular sheet aluminum, approx 18 ga. Brass threaded rod and steel nuts.

Three shirt logos:
And shots of the tshirts, for size approximation.
The SPQR shirt is a dark heather grey. The Greek shirt is a light dusty moss (I think it's called "willow") and the Good Idea shirt is a turquoise shade.

It's kind of hard to convey colors in an unlit room with lousy photography.

Pirates! Booze! What could be better?

2006-05-01T20:05:00.000-05:00

Pirates are awesome. Shot glasses are awesome. Pirate shot glasses are AWESOME.
I rest my case:

It's a single glass with five designs
From the left, going clockwise:
Blackbeard, Jack Sparrow, Long John Silvers, Sir Edmund Drake.

Paperclips & Nietzsche trump finals week

2006-05-01T18:27:00.000-05:00

It's a paperclip, really.

I had a paper that was pretty long, since I had figures/images attatched. My fairly-heavy-duty stapler wimped out and couldn't staple the 23 pages. I searched the room for paperclips/binderclips/bulldogclips, but alas, found none. I've learnt from prior experience that sewing paper isn't going to work, not without special tools. I didn't have a 3 hole punch, and I didn't have any drill bits. And then I remembered I had plenty of wire. So: a study of desperate invention in copper 18g wire.

Here's a photo of it in action:

So I had an exam in an hour. What do I do? This: Rasterized Nietzsche image
(I didn't have a Superman hat, else that would've been in the photo too. 00bermensch!)

Closer:

Oh, look, MORE glass

2006-04-24T17:56:00.000-05:00

MWFencing Club "logo"

(It's a stylized "MW" with a "F" in the middle.)

Canadian maple leaf
(You may not be willing to take a bullet for your country, but you can take a shot instead.)

Teabox!

2006-04-05T15:40:00.000-05:00

Sorry, it doesn't have teeth, but it is classy.

I had bought a basswood box from the craftstore (I think it cost less than 2$) and taken a coping saw to it, cutting a window into the top of the box. I had installed a pane of glass in it and then tossed it in the faculty/student lounge to hold tea.
And then I got bored or something, and took it back, removed the glass and etched the chinese/japanese characters for (suprise!) "Tea" and "Box" on it.

Here's the box with tea in it.
It's about 8 inches wide. I don't recall the exact dimensions.

Though it does look very nice, don't be fooled: it's a the box is of a light wood, and was very, very cheap. I wasn't all that accurate with the coping saw, either, so the cut lines aren't crisp. I did sand a polish and burnish the box, and waxed it too, so it's loads classier than what it started out as.

(The box is now back in the lounge and stocked with tea. )

Recycled wire musings

2006-03-31T01:01:00.000-05:00

It's like a thought in wire form, sort of bounced around and then reformed into something new. Well, it's amusing, if not a musing. *Phhbt* I'm tired and my brain is mush.

Yeah, the explanatory details are needed.

18 gauge aluminum wire.
It used to be a Batman symbol, wire noose/balloon/invisible-dog-leash, and another dragon. (It's been through several reincarnations.)

Biology and drinking don't mix-- academia is not, in fact, soluble in alcohol.

2006-03-29T23:42:00.000-05:00

So in Costa Rica, we couldn't go five minutes without "bromeliad" or "epiphyte" being said. In a stroke of genius (or heat stroke of genius, I'll let you decide), we decided this would make an awesome drinking game.

I give you:

It's a shot glass with a bromeliad-in-a-tree (aka: epiphyte).

Three Stages of Drinking

2006-02-22T00:56:00.000-05:00

Images pulled and tweaked from The Bunny comic

Ockham's Straight Razor.

2006-02-15T13:06:00.000-05:00

Numquam ponenda est pluritas sine necessitate.

"Entities are not to be multiplied without necessity."

A real straight razor with "Ockham" engraved on it. (Dremel & engraving bit and some creative set up. The little bugger is /sharp/.) This was made awhile ago, so it's not a recent creation.

Oops, forgot to toss this one up earlier: Know Thyself

2006-02-12T02:32:00.000-05:00

"Know Thyself" pulled from Arkham Asylum inspired by Delphic inscription, popularly attributed to every Pre-Socratic Ever And Their Mothers.

Feb. 12 == Darwin Day

2006-02-11T21:27:00.000-05:00

Inspired by Putting-Off-Studying-For-An-Evolution-Exam and QoW- Darwin Cartoon

Calvin and Hobbes!

2006-02-11T04:38:00.000-05:00

It strikes me as a bad thing that I have to superglue and tape my cuts shut on my fingers. The two deeper cuts don't really hurt, but they're going to take awhile to heal. The really annoying cut is a much shallower cardboard-cut from, of all things, a microwavable-macaroni&cheese box. Oh the ignominy!
Despite these cuts, though, I have sucessfully finished (with ample aid from Trillian):

(J.CALVIN&CALVIN) & (HOBBES&T.HOBBES)

(There are two glasses, each etched with two images. The two Calvins are on the same glass, two Hobbes on the other.)

Shots IV: More philosophers

2006-02-09T02:29:00.000-05:00

Hey, I have been doing stuff besides shot glasses. It's really hard to bring these things around, so my chainmail is still my portable anti-narcolepsy. (Turkish roundweave! Eee~)

(I'll be trying to get better photos someday.)

John Calvin & Thomas Hobbes (keep watching, I'm thinking of doing the cartoon Calvin & Hobbes on the reverse of these glasses!)

Locke & Rousseau

Dostoevsky

My philosophy department loves these

2006-02-07T20:35:00.000-05:00

BATMAN!

John Smith's map sketch of the Jamestown fort. (I blame historic preservation.)

Kierkegaard & Socrates.

Hume & Kant.

We might see a trend here... Philosophers + Anime

2006-02-05T19:04:00.000-05:00

Pika-pika!

Newcomers to my philosophers line: Descartes on the left, Spinoza on the right.

Full Metal Alchemist's Cross, A penguin, the kanji for "wine" (Sake).

Shots of shots! Biohazard, pony, German Idealists!

2006-02-03T01:55:00.000-05:00

Biohazard! Horse!

German Idealists! Hegel, Marx and Nietzsche.

Etched shot glasses! The squarish ones (Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche & the horse) are just under 2.5" tall and hold 2oz. The round one is 2.25" tall and is a 1.5 oz I think. The horse and biohazard are actually in pairs, but I only photographed one from each set. More eventually.

Post exams post

2005-12-17T01:48:00.000-05:00

(I discuss how I made these on Instructables)
I think I shall plan out plushy Legionnaire arms and armor, as well as Hoplite arms and armor. I've already got the Legionnaire helm and a pilum and then I made:

Fleece Corinthian helmet.

Nothing fuels creativity like stress + no sleep + caffiene!

Still missing from the line up: Duck hat, Crab hat, Dragon hat v.2, uh... I can't remember what else. I'll get back to you on that one.

I'm not entirely sure what is up next on my to-do list, but that's certainly not due to a lack of possibilities. Fruits Basket Juunishi hats, superhero hats, felting, quilling, glass etching, so much stuff! Totally not going to do it all.

Glass etching & Hats!

2005-12-15T01:43:00.000-05:00

Technically, I've got several more hats and some other etched glass projects done, but I don't have photo evidence for those yet. I do have photo evidence for the latest completed item, something I pretty much had no hand in making: (read: Trillian did all the work)

Corsair Cola mug! (& A closer, clearer shot of the lettering)

Actually, you can have some hat pictures too:

Lobster!

Mouse/Yuki & Cow/Not-actually-Hatsuharu

Lion!

(I discuss how I made these on Instructables)

Guess what I've been working on? Hint: Begins with "H" ends with "@"

2005-12-09T16:35:00.000-05:00

(I discuss how I made these on Instructables)
At first there was PenguinHat v.1, then PenguinHat v.2 was commissioned. Then there was CthulhuHat, the CenturionHelmetHat. Then I made a DragonHat (picture pending, still), a Chibi-AlphoseHat (from Full Metal Alchemist), RaccoonHat, and a PandaHat.

And so, HATS!

Dan posing with Cthulhu eating his head.

G!Sam posing with Chibi-Al

RaccoonHat Frontish

RaccoonHat Backish

PandaHat

Silly hats & more!

2005-12-04T02:33:00.000-05:00

It started out with a BSed-at-3am-in-the-dark prototype penguin cap.
Then I made a second, better penguin hat.
Then I realized that the hat base could be ... well, used as a hat base for stuff.
So I raided a fabric store for fleece and several hours later, I had hats.

We have, going clockwise: a penguin with flipper-earflaps, Roman Legionnaire helm with cheekplates that work as ear flaps, and Cthulhu-hat, complete with squiggly face and wings. (I haven't quite finished him, actually. A few hand sewing bits haven't happened yet. Also the eyes...)

Fun fact: it's my Nietzsche plushie doll that's wearing the penguin hat. You can see a little bit of his grey trousers under the left wing of Cthulhu.

(I discuss how I made these on Instructables)

I had a few caffeinated drinks and now I'm running a dozen projects, most of them silly hats, but a few non-hat ones. Like the glass vase I etched. The thing is a single flower (or so) rose-plum tinted vase with (suprise!) a rose etched on it.

Sorry, the glare off the glass renders the design hard to see. But it seemed lonely and I didn't have any random flowers to put in the vase. But I did have alot of wire around. A few minutes with pliers and voila-- wire rose. It's really 3-D, so the photo just makes it look like a skeletal crumpled up tinfoil ball. Bah.

On the left is a close up of the flower portion of the etch. It's definitely a stylized image. I found a nice design that's meant to be a tattoo, stretched it, tweaked it and then etched it. I think I like it.

Retroactivity! WTFBuckle!

2005-11-11T14:15:00.000-05:00

WTF is it?

It's a WTFBuckle!

Actually, it's a spoon + some wire acting as a buckle. I'll have to find some photos of it in action...

I don't only work in sculpey, y'know...

2005-11-11T00:38:00.000-05:00

Meet Mr.Called-Referendum-Until-We-Come-Up-With-Another-Name,

Mascot of DemonWares Inc.

I swear it's not supposed to be that pixel-y, but Blogger ate the image quality or something...

I lied. Earrings > Sleep

2005-11-10T02:22:00.000-05:00

Now I am going to sleep. After having made these:

Christmas Tree earrings!
Sterling (Argentium!) wire, anodized aluminum bells. (They most definitely jingle.)
Penny on card for scale. The trees area about 1.5".

Holiday Cheer~

Maybe I should make some wire turkey earrings before Thanksgiving...

And one more sculpey egg for the road

2005-11-10T00:56:00.000-05:00

Will be starting back on my academic marathon week of hell after a short respite. The crowning achievement of the evening? Well, doing some fancy computer-y magic, and:

Catwoman. Egg. (Sitting on a penny.) With whip.

Thank you, and good night.

Sculpey > Hegelian Aesthetics on Greek Tragedy

2005-11-09T22:05:00.000-05:00

Celebratory sculpey squishing:

From left back row: BigBunny, Balthazar
Front row little 'uns: MiniTotoro, SlugBunny, LittleBunny.
(Oddly enough, the only ones I made in this batch were the pink ones: BigBunny & LittleBunny. The rest are Trillian's.)

Mr.BigBunny is sitting on a penny, if you needed scale.

Cruxshadows + Sculpey == Awesome

2005-11-04T22:55:00.000-05:00

We watched Shadowbox, CXS DVD. I couldn't really watch the screen continually 'cause the flashing lights were making my head hurt, so I played with sculpey. (See the EggSong link if you have no clue about the profusion of strange looking eggs here.)

Rogue. With purple-based, spikey hair. And a microphone. And black eyeshadow.

Need I say more?

Studying for Classics 101: an exercise in sculpey

2005-11-02T23:08:00.000-05:00

I have several papers and a midterm.
I also have a Ra's al Ghul egg:

And here's Ra's and Robin facing off, if you want to extrapolate the scale:

Do we see a trend? (Hint: Eggs & sculpey)

2005-10-31T00:51:00.000-05:00

I was productive! I made sculpey-thingies! Oh, and I did some homework, wrote a paper, blahblahblah. We know what's important.

Over the weekend I made:
a duck (approx 1/4" long)
a penguin (approx 1/4" tall)
an oven mitt (approx 1/2" long)
Batman, I-Love-Egg style (approx 1" tall)
Robin egg (approx 3/4" tall)

Photos have yet to be compiled, but here are a few:

^The Batman egg being threatened by a SD Storm Trooper.

And these are shots of the Robinegg. The one on the right gives you some sense of scale: he's sitting on a dime.

(The duck and penguin I made are about the same size the "R" logo on the Robinegg! They also look like they had an accident with some fireworks. I'll explain when I have photos... It makes sense, really.)

More fun with sculpey

2005-10-29T12:08:00.000-05:00

It's a sleeping dragon. With his tail over his eyes. (It's about three-quarters of an inch tall and wide. Sits neatly on a penny.)
It was the same green used in the buckle text, and I had started it right after finishing the buckle. It was, however, 4am so I decided to stash the dragon and work on it later.

Then I finished it the following evening, and as I was setting out to bake it, the immortal word "Squid" struck.
Sooooo....

Squid.
Ten tentacles, 48 suckers. This little bugger is decked out, I tell you. (One inch tall, one and three-quarters inches at widest arm span.)

Yes, these were all made after the hour of midnight. Did you even need to ask?

[Addendum: The squid got upgraded.

Squid: Now with spoon and boat eating action! (That's a little paper boat in the squid's right 2nd front tentacle.)

Leather & Sculpey: So much cooler than presentations on Popper & Marx

2005-10-28T15:24:00.000-05:00

Ha hah!

We have here a leather cuff with double straps & buckles. Heavy weight brown leather, harness grade. Also: shiny!

We also have a buckle. A SWASH buckle, no less.

These are what you get when I am awake at 3 am and hate the world.

Procrastination is the mother of all creation

2005-10-25T21:42:00.000-05:00

As expected, in writing a paper I sidetracked in to creating things utterly unrelated, and voila: this.