gObLIn GobLEt...

I have recently been playing with a new medium, ceramics. Loving the associated mess and squishy/squelchy noises with this particular craft! Here's a few piccies of my first attempts. This developed from a pair of pinch pots which I got very carried away with. The texture is usually the product of a finishing stage to ultimately create a beautifully smooth surface, but this is much more interesting in its own right! And it does pretty things with the glaze as that fires.

LEatHEry!

I haven't posted anything in a loooong time. Yeeeshk.

Well there is going to be plenty soon! Have taken a bit of time to devote to more personal pursuits like creations, sorting out a few things before I start teacher training and getting new lungs. Been ill for a good month or two now and realised I have to get myself right if I'm to be ready for the teaching placements, which my old job was not allowing. So anyone have anything they need making? I'm your lady!

Which gets me onto my most recent project. I haven't played with leather for a good long time (I think the last proper project was a tafl board about a year ago!) except for jesses for falcons which doesn't count (no talent/effort required). I wanted to have a really good go at experimenting with as many different techniques as I could, though I plan to save sewing techniques for the next leathery experiment. These bracers allowed me to play with stamps a lot whilst also having some fun embossing and raising sections of the leather as well as learning a little of dying techniques.



I love watching the process develop, have got a bit hooked on taking photos of each stage!









Done and dusted! Should probably dye both though....

ELveN rObE ProJeCT: CoMPletION!

So I finally finished the elven costume I started work on before the festive period and pretty much lost momentum on at the point where Christmas hit. It had its beta test yesterday and was really comfy and as easy to move in as I had hoped! It was snowing and despite being out in the cold for a good 5 hours, including often ending up face down in the snow, I was warm in just a few layers. I don't remember being happier with the end result of a dress making project. This may be that my first couple of attempts were very much a learning process and it is only now that any learning that has taken place is becoming apparent! I stupidly dressed the mannequin (she is a size smaller than me so looks a little dwarfed by it all but couldn't get good photos on my own wearing it) in all the layers without thinking it would be a better idea to do staged photos of each layer, so for now (as it takes forever to get her in and out of these things) here are a couple of photos of the finished thing with all the trappings. Can't really see my favourite piece of tailoring on these as the base waistcoat is by far my favourite, though at least the arms of it (which were fiddly to say the least) are in view.

rAveN CoStUme pROjecT

The poster I was working on a few posts ago was for the festival I later performed in. The character was that of a ravenoid figure, something I wanted to make quite feral and maneuverable for creepy capacity. I aimed for something between both the bird and human form, and to be quite morbid/skeletal, as the character reflected aspects of death quite strongly in the festival. I had taken a wire outline of a pauldron I used for a previous character costume, incorporating it as a distinctly human trinket to offset the otherwise very animalistic appearance. The headdress and breastbone were to distort the human form and bring out the chest as much as possible; unfortunately no good clear photos have turned up of the details on the chest, but here is a slip of the general idea with the boney chest piece.



The finished piece, complete with masses of scraggy muslin fabrics and bindings looked something like this.

ELveN rObE ProJeCT

I've had plenty of hobbies that in one way or another involve costuming and designing and fitting out of a character. I love to make clothes, though (having never attended a course, read my sewing machine manual or had some textiles jedi master knocking around) I'm not very good I still enjoy the process and even the failed experiments are fun in the doing and educational. Bog-standard clothes are all well and good to produce (though I can't say even my normal garb projects end up 'normal') but it is costuming and designing clothes for weird and wonderful purposes that get me and my sewing machine back that loving feeling. It is the process of using texture, colour, lines and motion and all the little details that go into costuming to portray a character that I find so much fun. Having said that, the only image I have of my current project is one of the many relatively plain under layers of the intended final robe.


The style of the dress/robe is for high fantasy elven nobility... type thingie. She has a back story and all the gubbins but I shan't bore you with it here. The concept sketches for the full costume will follow with more parts as they get reeled off but what with the festive season, this character concept is taking a bit of a back seat to other craft projects.

Phew, its been ages since I updated. So many things to add, but bed first.

FinISHeD ThiNg

A few weeks on, and a couple of finger calluses later...

I'm currently going through the phase of having seen a piece too many times to like it anymore though still happy enough with the result. Didn't take very long to do, the fun new phenomenon of 7am-6pm dominated through the working week I find does get in the way a bit!

sAmHuINN PosTER 2O10

So my current major project is a poster. It is to advertise a festival which happens on the 31st of October in Edinburgh; Samhuinn. I've done a couple of posters for the two major pagan festivals presented in processional performances by Beltane Fire Society now and have had great fun with each. I'm noticing a transition in the style and complexity of my poster designs as I've gained more experience with this media style. I've had plenty of challenges with fitting details around images, colouring such that certain points become more focal than others, attempted computer colouring (and failed) and as a result, reverted to my preferred hand to pen/paint neanderthal ways.

This poster is by far my favourite to work on. I've previously played things safe visually speaking. My last poster was relatively simple and made very bold with a segmented 'stained glass' style inking. Although I've carried on with strong black outlining of figures, I've let myself get a lot more dynamic with movement/shape/composition.

Just thought I would pop up a little sampler of Winter's Dance. Done with the inking, now on with the colour!