2012 SakuraCon (Pre) Art Show

Just like Ava who was preparing for Emerald City Comic Con last week, this week is my turn to be gearing up for SakuraCon, the Northwest Anime Con.  ~YAY~  This is my cosplay event of the year.

Just like last year I have reserved spaces in the Art Show, which is a auction for art pieces, and portions of the profits go to charity.

I know I know, it's not anime or video games, or even japanese related, but they are soooo cute! and it is chibi.

I believe I haven't posted about these on CraftersInDisguise yet.  As some of you know I'm a fat of mini top hats (well mini hats in general) and after the success of my Moogle Top Hat I've wanted to create many other characters into top hats. 

Instead of making new fabric top hats in Yellow and Miku turquoise I'm going to use foam clay to make them.  Here I've got two Pokemon and a Vocaloid.  I'll have many hats on display; some will be on alice headbands, some will be attached with ribbons; and some can be worn with hair barrettes
(I promise to blog more about these in the future)

• Pokemon Oddish
• Pokemon Pikachu
• Vocaloid Miku
• InuYasha Character Kilala
• Xxxholic Mokona
• Naruto
• Pokemon Snubbull
• Pokemon Clefairy
• Pokemon JigglyPuff
• Pokemon Meowth
• Pokemon Psyduck
• Pokemon Jolteon

yea I notice it's a lot of Pokemon, but it's the easiest to come up with that would be sellable due to the popularity of pokemon fleece hats.



As you can see I have made Prints of my Kokeshi Anime characters.

I did a whole set of them

• Ourna Host Club
• Kuroshitsuji
• sailor moon
• tsubasa (clamp)
• code geass
• final fantasy
• naruto
• hetalia
• inu yasha
• vocaloid
• tiger and bunny
• card captor sakura
• Panty and Stocking
• Xxxohlic

I know that the blog is online for the whole world.  But for anyone in Seattle who is going to SakuraCon, please check out the Art Show and see my pieces :)

Using the Yudu without the Yudu

So I bought the Yudu Screenprinting machine cause wouldn't it be amazing to make silk screen prints at home?  Well I bought at a crazy sale, but returned the thing because it was MASSIVE.  I didn't feel like taking up a quarter of my closet just to store the thing. 

I little while later I was tasked to make some family vacation shirts, which means I've got a screen printing project on my hands.  Is there way I could still make some Yudu silk screens without having to buy that giant devices.  I have done a few tries and figured out how to make these without owning the device.  Please read tutorials before attempting this, my comments are purely supplimentary suggestions to provide extra insight.

Yudu instruction:  wet the screens and put on the emultion scrapping out the "spider webs" with the yudu squeegie:

SmallRiniLady's tip:  instead of scrapping the emultion to get rid of the spiderwebs, wet the underside of the screen with a wet paper towel.  Getting it wet will be it to stick to the screen

Yudu instruction:  let it dry in the drying tray, dries in pitch black to avoid the UV lights, and with Fans.

SmallRiniLady's tip:  Who needs a specially blacked out tray?  I just stuffed it under the bed and let it dry over night.

Yudu instruction:  Burn the emultion screens in the UV tray which is timed to 8 minutes.

SmallRiniLady's tip:  In the brightest sun, lay the tray out for 8 minutes. 

There are some glithes I still had trouble with, because the sun came down from an angle, some of my lines came out slightly blurry.  Remember I'm being cheap by not owning the device, hopefully the real deal comes out with better results. 




Yudu instruction:  wash the unburned emultion off

SmallRiniLady's tip:  um pretty much no difference but don't scrap with your fingernails, it will tear the emusion.


Yudu instruction:  pour the paint on the screen and scrap with the yudu squeegie

SmallRiniLady's tip:  screw the squeegie, a plastic card (maybe an old credit card) works just as good and saves the pocket book $15.  Also use the paint on the non emultion facing side of the silk screen (which means the photo should be burned negative, explainations why below)


Now for additional review comments.

The Yudu screens make great silk screen prints . . . the first 5 times if you follow the the Yudu instructions and scrap on the emultion.  This is because the emultion although solid, is still soft and will break down as it is scrapped.  I did notice that if you scrap on the silk side with the emultion side facing your cloth/paper than less scrapping action leads to the deteroation of the emution print to be slowed down.

Bottom left:  First run through the silk screen

Top:  After 20 runs, the lines are getting blurry or jagged

Bottom right: After the 23rd run, I flipped the screen to try, looks like it worked much better, unfortunatly since I didn't plan for it, my image is mirrored (which doesn't work well with things like text)