Kraken Got Your Card?

It's a business card holder. No, really...

Kinda random, right?

I was thinking, for that someday when I have my own artist table I will need an eye-catching place to put my stack of business cards. What's more eye-catching than a couple of purple tentacles?

I had a bit of foam leftover from my [Staff of Infinite Mysteries] and Riven projects. I started by sketching a rough shape on the foam with a pen, then carving the foam with a hot knife. First I carved the shape with a long wire knife, the kind they sell to cut floral arrangement foam. Then I carved the details with a smaller, sharp, angled hot knife.

Then I attacked it with sandpaper.

When working with foam like this, you can cut a very rough shape, then fine-tune the shape with rough sandpaper and finish with a finer sandpaper. This foam is very easy to shape by sanding.

After sanding, I applied a quick coat of white primer.

Painting was an experiment with purple, black and white acryllic paints to get the desired look.

Business cards fit easily in between the grasping tentacles!

Vintage Lace Fingerless Gloves

I made these gloves to wear with my Steampunk Superwoman costume. The lace was something I found in a box of assorted lace my grandma had given to me, so the materials for this project did not cost me anything.

First I made one glove with my sewing machine. I draped the lace over my hand and wrist to estimate the size, cut a rectangle, then turned down the edges about 1/8" and straight-stitched them down. Then I sewed the seam (the inner wrist) with a thumb hole, tried it on, and adjusted. This took a while, but eventually I ended up with one glove.

Did I mention I finally got a serger?!

This baby is already making my sewing life SO much easier. I haven't used one of these since college and I didn't get one until now because 1) I didn't want to pay full price for a good one and 2) I didn't want to buy a really cheap one. I purchased this one from my mom's friend. Normally I wouldn't recommend buying sergers second-hand, but I knew owner, it had a manual with it, and I was able to give it a test run before hauling it away.

I digress. Back to the lacey gloves... I used the first glove to make a paper pattern for another glove. I cut out the piece of lace, trimmed the edge expecting a 1/4" seam allowance, then ran both edges through the serger (separately) in about a minute flat. Lastly, I placed the edges together and ran it through the sewing machine, leaving the thumb hole. Done!
I then changed the thread to black and made an extra black pair for Steampunk Batgirl.

That was over so fast that I made a third glove with the serger. The serged glove turned out much better than the straight-stitched glove! So then I fixed the first prototype glove by running the seam through the serger (keeping the thumb hole open). I have enough lace to make 7 extra pairs of white gloves, PLUS some black lace... this may be the start of a future Etsy store for me.

More information about sergers and how to use them:
http://sewing.about.cm/od/sergersoverlock/ss/serger.htm

Photograph Assassin's Creed: Part 7 Playing Around

During a photoshoot people are focused on getting the perfect posed shot that they end up missing some fun candid shots. 

Don't forget to have some fun.

You might not have a character photo, but can still end up with some great memories

And sometimes something still artistic

Photograph Assassin's Creed: Part 6 Lighting and Cropping Changes

I wanted to share with you how a small change in the Lighting and Cropping makes a significant difference

Cropping

The photo on the right makes you look at the faces of the character to see their emotion.
The photo on the left makes you focus more on their stance and position, to get you to think about what they are doing.
Same pose and angle, yet they make you think different things.






Lighting

The photo on the left is slightly darker, giving a more sinister, mysterious look
The photo on the right is much brighter.  Can't help but notice her smile and happy eyes.
But the model in both photos is doing the same thing.