New doll!

I haven't posted in ages! Sorry about that life got really crazy at the end of the semester. I had finally projects to finish, a (crazy) final paper to write, an apartment to move out of, and my mom's house to move me and all my stuff into. And in the middle of it all, literally the day I finished the paper and send it in my Doll Chateau Bella arrived!!! I kept meaning to post about her, but what with packing and unpacking and rearranging (my mom's house is for sale, so putting all my stuff in neatly has been quite the challenge!) I just kept putting it off.

Anyhow SHE HAS FINALLY ARRIVED!!! After almost 5 months waiting she is finally home! And then I sent her away... well, just her head, which I sent to the amazingly talented Xhanthi of Jointed Love to get her face up. BEST DECISION EVER!!! Xhanthi sent me some photos, and my girl looks AMAZING! I am so in love <3 I can't wait for her to get home! 

Here she is all blank and wearing one of Rue's wig's on the day she got home:

Group shot! L to R: Ivy, Juniper, Rue, and new unnamed Bella in the back!

Standing right out of the box, and holding Ivy too! Super doll!

And here is a photo of my beautiful girl with her lovely makeup courtesy of Xhanthi (who also supplied the eyes and wig in the photo) - all photo rights to her of course! Here is the link to her Flickr where this photo lives: http://flic.kr/p/cc7nE1 And please check out her blog! My girl might even be appearing on it some day soon!

<3

I am going to be doing some sewing for her tomorrow, and I have already crocheted her some leg warmers.

Crappy cellphone photo for the win!

Rings and raising things

So I did finally manage to make a few wax rings which I was happy with (although they are VERY loosely related to my inspiration object). I forgot to take pictures of the waxes before casting, and then proceeded to forget to take a photo of them cast and sprued. Oops... Anyway here are my three silver rings: two of which I really like, and one of which kind of looks like batman! You can see where the sprues were attached these pre-cleanup photos.

I need to finish the batman ring, I may try to set a stone between his ears. I also think I will re-polish and sand the first one. Here are the two that are finished (or nearly so):

As to my raising, IT IS NEARLY DONE YO! I am in the process of giving it it's final planish (making it nice and shiny!) and I really love it! It is so smooth and egg-shaped <3 The blue stuff in it is a type of wax which I am using to support the shape while I planish it (planishing involves hitting it with a very shiny smooth hammer).

Crochet and other crafts

Time for another catch-up post, gotta try and get back to my post-almost-everyday schedule! Anyway in the past few weeks I have done a few crafty things, mostly inspired by my dolls.

 I thought I was going to a doll meet at Anime Boston so I wanted the girls to each have something new to wear. Sadly I wasn't able to make it (I went to Vermont instead!) so only Rue and Juniper got anything made for them. For Juniper I crocheted at teeny-tiny Jayne hat!! For those of you who don't know, Jayne Cobb was my favorite character on the show Firefly which was canceled before it even finished one season. And in one episode he got a hat in the mail, knitted by his mom. This hat:

The man they call Jayne

The doll they call Juniper

I sewed Rue a dress which I am very proud of, since it is the most professional looking piece of sewing I have ever done! She also got a crocheted hat which it was supposed to be for Ivy but it came out too big. Once she got the hat and dress I felt like she needed some jewelry to complete it so I made her some tiny friendship bracelets and a beaded daisy-chain necklace!
 
I want her to be really crafty, and I have been making her some tiny tools. I don't have any good photos yet, but so far I've made her a set of tiny crochet hooks out of toothpicks and a skewer and a tiny pair of scissors out of some aluminum scrap I found and a tiny brass rivet. I have since stolen the scissors and put them on a necklace because they are so cute!

The Circle must be broken!

I also crocheted a tiny Ood - an alien from the show Doctor Who using this great pattern! I just used size 10 thread and my teeny crochet hook instead of those called for.

Raising daze

So it has literally been a month since my last post. Oops. I have had tons of stuff going on, and lots of things I meant to post, put off posting, and then added up to too much to post! Anyway, I am going to try and get this thing back on track! 

 

How it looks now

Up first? My raising. I know I mentioned this thing a bit before. Raising is a metalworking process which takes a flat (usually circular) sheet of metal and through the use of epic amounts of hammering turns it into a 3D bowl or vessel. In my class we first worked on a small 6" diameter 20 gauge sample (which I have yet to finish) and then moved on to a 12" diameter 18 gauge monstrosity! My goal is to make a tear-drop shape with a 2" opening. Easier say than done! The amount of hammering I have done recently is staggering, and my left thumb hurts when I move it or lean on my hand. Luckily I have built up some strength and my back and arms no longer ache the day after raising. Anyway, my piece is nearly done, it is roughly the shape I want, although the opening needs to go in a bit more, it is a little under 3" now. Bringing it in is the hardest part by far. My edge got so thick I couldn't move it and it cracked badly so I had to spend a few hours sawing it off. Twice. Right now raising is on hold because I need to have three rings carved from wax and invested by Thursday! More on that in a sec, first here are some photos of my raising process:

1

2

3

          

4

In other news, we are also doing a casting project in this class. The assignment is to make three rings out of wax which are based off of our found object (mine is that key thingy). The three waxes will then be invested and then melted away and molten metal will be poured into the spaced they left in the investment. For a more detailed account of the process click this link (although what is shown is on a bigger scale). We will use a small centrifugal caster to make our rings. I am, however, totally stumped at this point as to what to make, which is NOT COOL because I need to be invested by Thursday for burn-out and we are casting this Friday. I am freaking out a wee bit. I have made two things to use if I don't come up with anything else. I will post some photos when I get a chance and if I make anything cool.

As done as it's gonna get!

My chasing and repoussé piece is finally done, and just in time too! I cleaned it, put a patina on it, and then waxed it this evening, so that it will be ready to show in class tomorrow and then be put in the Jewelry and Small Metals section of the All School Show along with all of my classmates chasing and repoussé pieces. I am so glad this silly thing is finished, even if there are at least a million tiny details I wish I had had the time to fix... oh well. It is done and that is all that matters!

DONE AT LAST!!!!

Hello again

Sorry it has been so long. Not totally my fault, blogger wouldn't let me upload or save posts and I got really frusterated and gave it the silent treatment. After that, a mix of laziness and no discernible progress kept me from posting. BUT NOW I'M BACK PEOPLE, AND EVEN BETTER, DECKING IS DONE <3 <3 <3

Here is the outside, just needs plating and patina: (should be done tomorrow!!!!!)

And here is the inside/bottom so you can see the decking and my messy, messy soldiering:

Also, I want to share this awesome tutorial I found on YouTube: My Froggy Stuff's Easy No-Sew Dress! I love how easy and cute this dress is - I made one for each of my girls yesterday, and it took no time at all. I used an old purple t-shirt and I still have plenty left to make another matching dress for my Doll Chateau Bella when she gets here! Anyhow here is Ivy in her new dress. She got to go to my mom's house with me today, where the lighting is a zillion times better than in my basement apartment!

Decking begins at last!

I am so sick of working on this thing. It is making me crazy! I finally had to force myself to stop fine-tuning it (since I could pretty much work on it for a year and still not be satisfied). Today I finished cropping, fileing and sanding the edges, cut out the first piece of decking and started soldering. The soldering didn't go great, but it should (hopefully) be easy to touch it up. Now I just need to cut out three more sides to match, solder the corners together, file and sand everything flush and put on a patina and wax and I will be done. GONNA GET IT DONE FOR REALS THIS TIME!

Anyway here is my chasing and repoussé piece with one side sort-of decked. I is all discolored because the pickle (the acid we use to clean metal after soldering or annealing) was really dirty and stopped working.  Since you can't solder dirty metal, I had to stop for the day, which was totally cool with me since it was 7pm, and I got to school just after 8am.

I also need to finish my practice raising (not worth photographing yet), and make sketches and maybe a model for my final raising.

BONUS:  Juni got a new outfit in the mail this weekend! Doesn't she look so snugly?

Totoro!