Vacuum Form Table!

I’m starting work on my vacuum form table today, thanks to the awesome (Ausome, for certain readers) gift I got for Christmas, of a 5.75 horse power Shop Vac! Yay! I’m not sure what I’m going to end up making with it, but it’ll likely involve quite a bit of costume things, and likely some candy molds and plaster molds.

I’m thinking of making some plaster molds of mushrooms to decorate my bathroom with. We’re going with a ‘swamp’ theme in there, for some unknown reason… I’m trying to convince my girlfriend that Yoda lived in a swamp, and is therefore suitable décor, but I don’t think she’s buying it. I’m also going to be getting some food safe plastic for candy molds, but I’m not sure exactly what I’ll sculpt for those.

If anyone has any cool ideas for thinks for me to make, let me know! I’m overwhelmed with possibilities and could use a little focus.

As for the lack of a picture this time: The vacuum form table is currently being built, and is upside down on my work bench with a bunch of JB Weld drying/setting to link the top to the bottom. Tomorrow it will get a good blob of caulk around the edges to make a seal, then lots of little holes drilled in it. A picture will be forthcoming, I swear it... Mainly because the thing looks kinda funny. Construction also involved a kitty litter bucket.

My Kitchen Cabinets: A Project

As you can see, my kitchen has glass front cabinets, which look really pretty when you are going house hunting, and are completely empty. They look less charming after they become full of clutter and spices. There’s four above the oven and prep sink, and two more on either side of the kitchen sink, so that’s a lot of visible mess. I’ve wanted to do something about it for a while, but I didn’t really enjoy the idea of tearing out cabinets and putting up new ones (which I don’t know how to do, anyway).

I watch TED talks a lot, and saw a pretty neat one the other day which involved using what you have, recycling busted construction materials by actually using them in houses, etc. The man speaking was talking from a construction point of view, but it got me thinking about my cabinets again, from a different angle. I knew I could come up with some way of making those glass fronted things work.

Here’s what I came up with. With Fabric Mod Podge, it is possible to glue fabric straight to glass, which is kinda cool. I knew about it thanks to this video (which is a how-to! I’m addicted to how-to videos). Combined with my glass cabinet problem, I can see a really cool solution. Soon the cabinet doors are going to be backed with fabric bunnies! Yay! It will be fairly inexpensive, and should look neat. More pictures when I’m finished with it.

As I can never do things the right way (nor do I care!) I'm not going to be using fabric Mod Podge because it's extra expensive and after researching, it looks like regular Mod Podge will do the trick just fine. Now, I just have to figure out how to make 20" tall bunnies.

Random Update

Okay I have a few minor updates, no major ones, yet. First, the key chain molds have not completely set yet, so I dont' get to show you what they look like. I guess that's something I learned about the mold making. It takes longer than I think to get it done.

Next, I played in the snow again with my friend, Austrich, and we made snow men in gas masks. We have a bunch of pictures, but I'm not sharing them yet, because he needs a crack at 'em too.

Thirdly, I just got the new Game Informer, so there was a huge pause in my typing as I kinda started pawing through it, instead of doing what I was supposed to do. I plan on working some on my kitchen project today, so we'll see how it goes.

Mold Making 2

So, I finished the masters for my key chains, and today I'm going to be pouring the molds, I think. After the last disaster where the mold box sprung a leak, I'm taking no chances today.

Instead of building a box around the object and sealing it, I'm gluing the masters straight into the bottom of a plastic cup (see picture). No way these babies will leak! Right now the glue is setting, so later today I should be able to pour latex.

With any luck the molds will come out looking good, and tomorrow I'll be able to pour the first batch of key chains! That will be awesome (Ausome). I was going to talk about another project that I might be starting today, but I decided to wing it with the molds, cuz I promised I'd talk about them more. To give a hint, the new project involves Decor. Kitchen decor to be more specific. The kitchen cabinets to be even more specific than the others.

So, tomorrow we'll probably see what kind of horrors come out of these molds, and then Friday, we may be visiting the kitchen. Take care!

SNOW

I had planned on writing about my new kitchen project, but it's all snowy, so I've changed my mind.

I'm going to go play in the snow....and yes, I'm too old for that kind of crap, but I'm still going to do it. Yesterday, in fact, I did it for a little while.

Here's a tiny snow man wearing a gas mask. Enjoy!

Paper Craft

Pictured here is Birdo, paper craft style. I made her (him? There’s some question to this critter’s gender, depending on what you read) from four sheets of cardstock and some glue. I didn’t design her (I like the idea of Birdo as a girl better. She’s Yoshi’s girlfriend!) I just printed the pieces, cut and glued the paper, and tada! I now have a new figure for the living room!

Of course, the bomb there is not Birdo, it's a paper craft version of the FallOut 3 Mini-Nuke...on top of my washing machine. It's really pretty impressive to see the range of objects possible with the craft. The Mini-Nuke looks great on my 'Villain Shelf' with my gas mask and dummy grenade and the like (I'll probably talk about the villain shelf later).

The whole Paper Craft movement/hobby or whatever it is, is really interesting to me. It also went pretty much right under my radar for way longer than it should have. I knew people did something involving cutting, folding, and gluing paper to make figures and what not, but I didn’t realize how big it had gotten, or how fun it actually would be.

I think that a really good hobby should be cheap, take up time, and provide a sense of accomplishment. Paper Craft does all three reaaaaallly well. New paper craft models are easy to get, and most of them are free. You just download them, print them, cut them out, and glue them together. It takes quite a while to finish a piece. Birdo took a couple of days of work at a fairly obsessive pace to finish, same for the Mini-Nuke. I was also very proud of finishing her, and have a neat little figure to display, now.

There’s almost as many websites devoted to this hobby as there are models, so rather than link to any one in particular, I’ll just say there’s tons. Now to get back to cutting! I think I’ll start on a mask, next.

Weekend Update

I was going to wait until Monday to post, but I decided that I wanted to do a small update now, given the circumstances. My Mom is out of the hospital and home! She beat the deadline of getting out before her birthday, too, so yay! I'll update again on Monday, be well until then!