Crafting for Halloween

Wow! I can't believe I've been M.I.A. for two weeks! Between Halloween, the recent time change, and the chilliness of autumn, I just can't seem to get motivated. I hope this is a temporary setback-my art show isn't getting any farther away! In my defense, I did spend a week and a half solid constructing my Halloween costume. Since that definitely fits into the "crafting" category, (do I have one of those?) here's what I accomplished, with the help of Mario and Luigi, of course. I present: Mario-Kart Princess Peach! The photo was taken with a cell phone so it is a bit grainy, but you can get the gist of the costume. It included a Kart, a pink ball gown, a bejeweled crown, and various props, such as stars (for an extra boost of energy and invincibility) and turtle shells (for knocking down the competition).

The cart was made from 1.5" foam insulation which we glued together using some industrial adhesive and dowels. The pieces of foam were all sanded down, glued together, and spray painted with a special latex paint that doesn't dissolve plastics/foam/etc.

I made the dress by making a pattern from another ball gown I happened to own already. You can't see the whole thing, but there's a 1' wide magenta stripe at the bottom and a huge magenta sash around the waist that ties in the back. The skirt poofed out about a foot from my body in all directions, which was great for "watching my step"; let's just say, I tripped more than once. It was labor intensive to make and caused me way more stress than I'd like to admit. The easiest part of the costume was the crown, which I made by gluing two pieces of poster board together with Elmer's glue and securing with a rubber band until dry and as solid as a rock. I spray painted it with gold spray paint, hot glued jewels onto it, punched a few holes at the bottom edge, and bobby pinned it to my wig.

Since Peach hasn't had much of a make over in the past few decades, I updated her look for personal reasons. Gone is the Farrah Fawcett feathered mullet hair and high-necked poufy sleeved princess dress. I'm sure only die-hard fans would even have noticed of the changes I wrought. I thought it was much needed and it suited my style a lot better.

Creating your own Halloween costume is a great way to be creative and original for one of the best holidays of the year. Depending on your costume, it's also an excellent way to recycle and to support your local thrift stores.

New pendant: Sterling and vinyl lotus

Here's the new custom piece I just finished last week! I riveted hand pierced sterling silver sheets to vintage vinyl. There was a lot of precision cutting to do on this piece and I was skeptical that I would be able to recrate the vision I had for the design. I usually don't try to pierce areas that are too small for my file to fit into, but this particular design demanded it. I utilized my saw blade as a make-shift file and it worked really well to clean up those small areas. In the end, it turned out a lot nicer than I imagined it would. I hope the recipient loves it as much as I do!

Craft-Boom: A blog dedicated to small business

Lisa of U-Handbag (and U-Handblog) has been working on a fairly new blog called Craft-Boom that is devoted to helping people start and promote a small business. I was reading it today and stumbled upon a very informative tutorial on how to take professional looking photographs of your projects.

Taking great pictures is essential, and something I feel everyone can accomplish with a little practice. Of course, not everyone has the ability to artistically express themselves through photography but that isn't always necessary. What is necessary is clear photos where the background doesn't compete with the subject. White backgrounds tend to drown out silver so I prefer to use dark backgrounds when photographing my jewelry. I do use white backgrounds for photographing my handbags. I use a similar technique to Lisa's for my white background photos but i do see a few differences in her technique that might help speed up the process for me. I found an amendment to steps 2 and 3 in the comments section that explains, in greater detail, how to whiten the background of your photo.

Lisa blogs on everything from how to sew a clutch to effectively marketing your business.

Etsy Pick: Soku

Soku has been an Etsy favorite of mine for quite awhile. I think a lot of their designs are fresh and unique (and sometimes a little traditional). With this design Soku manages to embody the delicate aesthetic of wire with hardwood. Anyone who is familiar with my style knows earrings like these are right up my alley. In fact, this is the very design that made me check out Soku's shop in the first place.



I also really like the juxtaposition of materials in this acrylic and wood design. It is put together using acrylic rods as rivets. Being someone who uses rivets often, I can appreciate the precision needed for this type of construction. You can find both of these pieces and other Soku designs in Soku's Etsy shop.

Art vs Craft!

My friend and I got our Art vs Craft acceptance email last week! I am excited about being accepted but I am kind of freaked out. I know how much work goes into art fairs and it scares me a little. I think I put too much off until the last minute the last time around and it caused me a lot of stress. I hope I can learn from my past experience and get motivated to accomplish as much as possible early on so I don't have a hundred lose ends in December.

When: Dec 8th 10am-7pm
Where: Humphrey Scottish Rite Masonic Center (click for a map)
790 N Van Buren St Milwaukee, WI

Moving beyond my color comfort zone

I'd like to get something out into the open: I'm a tanophobe. Yes, I said tan-o-phobe. I don't go near it. Ever. Or brown, for that matter. I only like very specific shades of chocolate, espresso, and sometimes taupe but that's where I draw the line. Tan gives me an uneasy feeling. It washes me out. It reminds me of a uniform. It screems DULL. I feel that, paired with the right accent colors, tan could be great. With help, I can work on my tan phobia, as long as I don't have to wear it.

Once, about a year ago, I was confronted with a huge dilemma. I was asked to make a custom handbag as a gift. When I met with my client I was floored. The neutral color pallet we discussed was like the sound of nails being dragged down a chalkboard. I could feel myself immediately shying away from the project. How on earth would I be able to plan a project around a pallet I knew so little about? I think this tutorial: Color Picking 101: It's easier than you think, by whoops-a-daisy would have made me feel much more confident in my planning. In the end, I got lucky. We scrapped the neutral pallet and went with a pallet of my choosing. (I have to say it was a success!) I'll definitely refer to this tutorial in the future whenever I'm forced to make neutral color based decisions.

My necklace: Flawed and I love it.

Here's the flawed necklace that I decided to keep for my own since I haven't found the time to make anything specifically for myself. I ended up making another unflawed version that now belongs to someone else.


I set two of the rivets and was drilling the rest of the holes for the remaining rivets when the drill bit snapped off inside one of the holes! I tried ripping it out but it was stuck. I ended up having to widen that hole which was really hard to do since the new drill bit was reluctant to drill into another bit. After finishing the riveting I sanded the face and rest of the bit down as far as possible. In my attempt to sand the flaws away I ended up exposing the rivets a bit too which is something I've been trying to get under control lately. The original flaw is barely a speck now...but the finish is still marred . All flaws aside, I'm happy I eventually decided to finish the pendent completely rather than destroying it (as I tend to do) because now I have one too!

Sterling and vinyl pendent.

Here's a revamp of an older design of mine. I have finally perfected making the rivets disappear and it has improved the design tenfold. The prototype of this design was originally intended for ME but I gave it to a friend as a gift and ended up taking a different design for myself. Yes, I took the one with the flaw. A drill bit broke off in the metal and I wasn't able to remove it. So, that's the one I wear (no pics of that one here with me, unfortunately). So, this one will have to find a new home. I listed it on Etsy last night:

New earrings!

Here's a new pair of earrings I made which are now up in the shop. This shows the 5th and (hopefully) final alteration to the pattern. The last pair I made (which I own) are a bit bigger than these (1.25" diameter) and tend to weigh down the ear. I made these a little smaller so they don't tug as much. They're my favorite earrings!

R.I.P.

AAH!

I have a very valid excuse for the lack of posts in the past week(s). My computer died! I don't know what's wrong with it but I have a suspicion it may be the motherboard which will cost at least a hundred bucks to fix. I anticipated something like this happening soon so I bought an external hard drive a few months ago. At least all of my important information is still accessible to me on other computers. I have plenty of friends who love working with computers and have offered to lend me a hand. Soon...very soon I will be back up and running from the NVM Headquarters, aka, HOME. Luckily I have finally managed to find a way to post on Blogger from a location that I was previously unable to log on from. So, more posts to come! HOORAY!