Appa Pin: The Layers

This semester I decided to take a Jewelry Making class for fun. Our first project is to make an Aluminium Pin. We had to choose an ethnic type mask and create layers for it. I was able to choose a Chinese lion statue instead. Somehow a conversation about Avatar: The Last Airbender came up and we realized my pin looked like Appa.

Here are my layers of aluminium that I had to cut out with a tiny saw. You can't see the colors, because I still have the pattern paper glued on. I can't remove until I'm ready to rivet the entire piece together or I might strach my aluminium.

This pin goes perfectly with my Momo t-shirt that I made in my screen printing class. Which I will need to dig out and take a picture. I'm starting to realize that I haven't posted a lot of my projects. I guess I'll have to start digging things out of the garage.

Spirograph Belt

A few months ago I had found a belt in the trash. Of course I took it home. I tried several different looks but this the one I finally settled on.


I'm really happy with the outcome.

Wired Frog Buttons, First Attempts

I found pictures of my first attempts at the wired frog buttons. I don't make them this way anymore, but it's fun to look back.

I made a photocopy of actual wired frog buttons and used them as a template. I placed pins in the areas where I wanted to bend or shape.


Now instead of a template I just free form them with my hands and some pliers. Ah the joys of trail and error. I'm pretty sure I'll figure out a better faster method next time.

Wired Frog Buttons

A more in depth discussion on wired frog buttons. For a while now I've been trying to make my own version of these buttons. I've actually tried my hand several times at it, if you all remember Grip N Flip's Winter Formal Dress last year. I mean other than self torture why not buy the button. Well other than my masochistic tendencies, I do have legitimate reasons for trying to make my own.

Reasons for Making Wired Frog Buttons:

1. Color - No explanation needed.
   
2. Material - When I do find one in a matching color the cheap polyester just doesn't match the nice silk I bought.
3. Design - I would like to have the button match my fabric motif.
   
4. Originality - I know that no one in the world will have the same buttons as the dresses I produce. I can't make two buttons the same anyways, my skill level is still lacking.

I think this time I produced a much better button. There are still a few kinks I need to work out. But overall I'm satisfied with it's outcome. Here is a better picture of the button on the dress.


Through all that trail and error, meticulous prototyping, and the agony of failures, I proudly presented this button to my father. And his response was, "why didn't you buy a book?" And he claims to have seen one before. In a 30 second conversation with my father, he has the ability to make me want to gouge my eyes out in frustration. I might be a bit crazy, but if there was a book out there that would have taught me how to make these buttons I would have bought it, I don't enjoy torturing myself. But the twist is that after some thought he finishes with, "oh maybe you couldn't find these books because I think I saw them in Chinese." My father is an emotional roller coaster. If anyone out there wants to develop the urge gouge their eyes out in frustration, I will gladly send my father over for a visit.

Nerdy Art

I'm a pack rat. I have a hard time throwing things away. I always see potential in an object, I just need the proper time, motivation, or inspiration to follow through. I'm pretty sure all pack rats say that same line. But it also falls under waste. I don't want to feel like I'm wasting or creating excess trash for a landfill. So that is the excuse I have for rescuing this out of the rubbish bin at work last week.

It's a little roughed up in the center. Looks like something decorative used to be attached. I thought it would be fun to do something decorative to distract from the slight blemish. I wanted try string art in the center. It's simple and full of math type fun. I saw some fun and intricate patterns, but I thought I should keep it simple on my first attempt.

It's a rough draft of what I'm planning. I might take it all out and change the string color. I was thinking of adding black to the mix. I haven't really decided what I like best.

By the way, I apologize for the bad fuzzy pictures. I took it on my camera phone.

Pushing Daisies Dandelion

Pushing Daisies is an awesome show. Though I didn't always have time to watch it, I've been a huge Brian Fuller fan since Dead Like Me and Wonderfalls. I'm not going to go off babbling about the shows, but I could.

Fork, who hasn't made an appearance on my blog for a while now, made a request from on of the episodes. Let's see if any of you recognize this picture.


Give up? This is the "Dummy" episode where they introduce a car that runs on dandelions. I was to recreate one of the dandelions she's holding.


Supplies:

• paint
• glue
• fishing line
• dowels
• skew
• fake leaves
• styrofoam ball
  

You paint your styrofoam ball and skews. Now comes the hard part. You wind the fishing line 50xs around a cardboard to your desired length and then glue onto the skews. You cut the other end, stab it into the styrofoam ball. Rinse and repeat until you have the dandelion of your dreams.

Work the bald spot!!!

At this point your hands are cramping and stinging from pain, so you think, a partially bald dandelion isn't so bad looking. It's pretty cool. But try and convince that Slave Driver Fork of that concept. SLAVE DRIVER!!! But I was older, so he was forced to help me with production. It was a lot easier with two people.

Tah-dah

It looks a little fuller in real life. The fishing line and flash just don't go well together.

I was told later that his girlfriend really loved it!!!

LEO Pillows

For Spoon's LEO Club, they had their final gift exchanges. Their SL (Secret Lions) were revealed. A final gift was given to their SL recipient, and a gift back to their SL giver. Meaning that I had two gifts to produce. We decided to make pillows for the both of them.

The first gift for her SL giver. We were inspired by this sign, which Spoon received when she was accepted into the club.

I enlarged the lion image and used it as a template for the pillow.


We decided to do free standing letters to give the pillow a novel look. It took me a few tries to produce, since it was harder to do free standing letters as opposed to stitching letters onto a rectangular pillow. Eventually, I was able to achieve a look I was satisfied with.

This is the finished product:

For her SL recipient, we created a lion head pillow. I had Spoon sketch me a lion head to size. This was a lot easier than the first pillow. The lion head is actually a separate pillow and cover. This way her SL recipient will be able to wash the cover.

I hated this pillow at first. I was dissatisfied with how it turned out. But being pressed for time, there was no chance to fix it's imperfections. Later upon reevaluation, I've come to realize that this pillow is perfectly fine and I was just crazy.


I was told by Spoon that these pillows were a huge hit. And there is talk about doing more. We'll see how that will turn out.

LEO Frame

Just a quick project for Spoon (sister of fork) as a secret gift exchange. The name of her club is called LEO hence the cute lion paw prints. This was done with some Ikea frames, rope, and the wood burner. These hanging frames are easy, quick, thrifty, and versatile.


I haven't been sewing at all. I'm not especially motivated to sew anything right now. I'm a little more excited about craft projects.

Yeah there are a THOUSAND

OK so I didn't fold a THOUSAND cranes but one of my cousins did and I thought it would be fun to post it. I DID help her string them together. My only advice is to use the block color paper. She used this crazy psychedelic multi-colored paper and it was nice individually but when you string everything together they sort of got lost in the mix and makes it look more like throw-up of color. This is the only picture we have since she accidentally deleted the rest T_T . . . she's pretty upset.

Scroll

For another birthday present, Grip N Flip (lil cousin), decided to make an Asian wall scroll. She was already taking Chinese calligraphy at Chinese school and even took a Chinese art class. The only problem would be how to transform what she drew into a scroll.

I ended up looking online to see how it was done. And what I found overwhelmed me. The process of mounting traditional calligraphy or paintings was an art form in itself. After all that research, I humbly decided to switch my tactics since, hundreds of years of secret mounting techniques couldn't be learned in a week. I came to the decision that as long as I made it LOOK like a scroll, it would be enough.

I borrowed a wall scroll from my Chinese teacher (which I have yet to return . . . thank you 老師!!) to have an example to follow. I then bought some muslin and fabric for the scroll (as opposed to paper), red ribbon for trim, and dowels for the ends.

I first tried it with fabric glue . . . . and that was an unmitigated disaster. I was prepared for the worst and thankfully had back up drawings.

I ended up using HeatnBond for the fabric and drawing and then fabric glue for the red ribbon trim. I wouldn't recommend doing it this way but it worked.


Grip N Flip drew a phoenix because her friends name means "light" or "shine" in Japanese (can you guess the name??). The words on the right [愛是光] translate to "love is light/shine". The words on the left are her name.

I think it was a really cute gift. Something that was personal and heartfelt.

Harry Potter Frame

I was asked by Grip N Flip (lil cousin) to do a Harry Potter frame as a birthday present for her friend that's a crazy Harry Potter fan. It sounded like a fun idea. I always have frames (from IKEA) on hand to do projects like this. I wanted to do 3 hanging frames and a piece of wood with the Harry Potter Logo on top. I used a wood burning kit to transfer and burn "Harry Potter" into the wood. I've been wanting a wood burning kit since forever, and remembered that Marcia had given me a Micahels gift card for my birthday. This project sounded like the PREFECT excuse to buy one!!!! (THANKS MARCIA!!!!!!!) I also tried to transfer the Hogwarts logo as a background to the Harry Potter Logo, but somehow it didn't transfer. I think that even though the printer I used was laser, which is what is needed to transfer with the wood burning kit, the color portion was still ink jet. I was sort of disappointed that the Hogwarts Logo didn't turn out as well, or at all, unless you squint really really really hard. I also tried to use coffee and tea to stain to wood frames to give it an Harry Potter antique wizard-used look, but it actually didn't stain too well. I ended up scrapping and banging the frames to give it a worn look and used the wood burner and brown varnish/paint to give it the color I wanted. To be honest I was over zealous with the first set of frames and broke them. The ones you see in the pictures below are my second attempt. Overall I am pretty happy with the results.