Birthday!

Hi everyone. Sorry about the gap between posts, but I've been distracted. Aside from Brink and Mortal Kombat, I had a birthday. I'm now a billion years old...okay, 34, but it feels like too many for the amount of stuff I've gotten done.

Anyway, this is my haul from this weekend. I got a Dremel Drill Press, Flexible Shaft, and Router. I also got an airbrush! Yay!

Suffice it to say, I've got so many new projects now that I'm not sure what to work on, or what to show. Heh.

Not to worry, after I play with all this enough to be comfortable with it, I'll settle back into my old routine of working on stuff and letting you see it.

Fox Doll Update

Oopsie! I forgot all about posting yesterday!

Anyway, here's the fox head as of today. I tried posting earlier, but blogger was having issues. It is Friday the Thirteenth, after all.

I could have posted something deranged and messed up, as the date makes that kind of thing fitting, but I never go with what is fitting.

The fox here is going slow. I spend more time patching cracks than I do sculpting. Her little hands and feet will be polymer clay instead of paper clay, and for that I am happy. They should go pretty fast.

I also need to make a pattern for the body. I want hips and a bust on her, so it should be interesting to try to make...meaning I have no idea how I'm going to do it. I have the fabric and the paint for her head, though.

Updates as they happen! Have a good weekend!

Cat Boxes!

I've been playing on and off again with pyrography (wood burning) lately. I've never really stained wood before though, so that step intimidated me. Having just completed a blasted Dr. Fate helmet has given me courage to try new media and techniques, though, so I've burned then stained these two boxes.

There would be more boxes stained, but unfortunately, I don't have the equipment to stain multiple boxes at once. I have to do them on at a time, because I don't have enough little goofy pyramids that I use to prop them up. I have no idea what the pyramids are called, but they come from hardware stores, and they are used to do things like prop boxes up while you stain them.

I'm a bit disappointed with how both of these came out. Staining the wood obscures a lot of detail, apparently. I need to try to either work with less detail, or with dark darker detail.

The secret I told you about a few posts ago? It's coming along just fine. I'll be talking it up, soon.

Dr. Fate Medallion

I was thinking of holding this post for a while, but to keep things chronologically balanced, I've went with it, anyway. This is Dr. Fate's Medallion. On my costume it will be holding his cape shut. It's basically a big disk (near the size of a CD). The disk is a bit of cardboard with bondo on it, painted gold.

The first image is a sort of 'how to' of how I made the thing, but in full disclosure, I honestly added a few drops of resin to the bondo to soften it, before I laid it to the cardboard.

After spinning out the shape and letting it dry, I cut away the excess cardboard, then sanded the whole thing down. I covered the edges of the cardboard with wood glue and putty to hide all the holes, then sanded again. Next it got a coat of gold paint, and today it got a light sanding and a second coat of gold. The weird texture on the finished picture is because the paint is still wet! It will dry fairly smooth (I hope!).

Sorry about throwing another costuming post at you, and yes, I'll do something not costume related tomorrow.

Side note, costume wise. I found out that the GameStop near me is giving away a copy of Batman: Arkham City in October, and is choosing the winner with a batman themed costume contest. Soooo, I've got two ideas in mind. Either I'm going to do Mr. Freeze, who will be an ultra complex costume, or The Scarecrow, who I've already got started. I'll let you know as the time comes closer...but I want a free copy of that blasted game!

A new kind of doll (for me)

Here's the head of the doll I said I was working on. The head is paperclay, which is something I've never worked with before.

The head was originally going to be polymer clay, which I am familiar with, but the core of the head expanded every time I baked it, causing the clay to burst. Burst, not crack.

Eventually, I went with the paperclay because it air dries, but it is messy and slow compared to polymer clay. I guess that's the trade off for it not being toxic.

The paperclay does crack, though. Every time it dries, I have to patch cracks. Fortunately, that's pretty easy. If you can tell by the head size, she's going to be a pretty big doll compared to what I normally do.

Her body is going to be cloth, but her hands and feet are likely to be polymer clay. As this doll is an experiment, I don't know what direction I am going, completely.

This doll owes some of it's existence to the Dr. Fate helmet. That helmet was my all consuming project for a few weeks. I didn't really work on anything except it. That helmet has given me the patience to tackle this doll and the unfamiliar techniques like paperclay and sewing. Wish me luck!

Dr. Fate Helmet Complete

It's finally done! The Dr. Fate helmet has been painted, and is complete! Now I can get back to my 'real' work, which includes things like fox dolls. Hehe

The next step in this set will likely be Dr. Fate's medallion. I don't plan on putting you all through a step-by-step on it, though.

For now, I will just say that the helmet is done, and I'm very excited about that. While I do plan on making an entire costume, the helmet is getting a place of honor in the living room, I think.

Thank you all for being patient while I did this blasted thing, and I promise I'll get back to the 'normal' stuff soon.

Until then, good luck with your own projects, and thanks for dropping by!

Dr. Fate progress

The Dr. Fate helmet is progressing. I've not posted in the last few days, but I have been working on it, daily. I just didn't think tons of posts that say "Sanded, added filler, sanded added filler" were very interesting, so I saved up until today.

I've been sanding and adding filler (Imagine that!), and trying different fillers as I came across them. I have used miliput, which is a two part epoxy, similar to plumber's putty, but mostly used by miniature train enthusiasts. I used some Squadron White Putty, which is mostly used as bondo for model cars, as far as I can tell. I've even just used more bondo, sand it off, add more. Ugh. It's frustrating that I can't get him smooth!!!

Yesterday, however, I found out about Rondo. Rondo is not an off the shelf product, but rather a mix of bondo body filler and fiberglass resin. It's more liquid than body filler, so it doesn't make air bubbles as bad. That's what I've added today. Wish me luck!

I've also bought some paint for the helmet, started my next mask project, which is slightly more and slightly less ambitious at the same time, and have been planning and buying materials for the new doll. I think she's going to involve a lot of hand sewing.

The picture for today is a painting of Dr. Fate, as I realized I was rambling on about this guy, but most people probably don't know who he is. That's what I hope to look like, once this project is complete!

Also, there is a secret in the works. More to come on that, later.