Airport boredom, part I

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!

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)

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

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!

Tug the string and the penguin waves!


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

Experimentation with glass & ceramics

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!

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

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

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

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.