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!

Dollie meet on Sunday!

So I haven't posted in a few days, mostly becasue I left my camera cord and laptop at my apartment when I went home on Sunday. Sunday was EPIC DOLLIE FUN DAY!!! I had a great time at Snowgray's apartment hanging out, eating snacks, and trying to keep her cat from mauling the dollies. At six we all trooped down to Panera at Coolidge Corner for dinner. Then we went back to her place and some of us sewed while two of the others took turns reading out horrifically bad fan-fictions, which scared me for life. We also ate contraband Kinder-Eggs from Canada. I finally left after ten, I was lucky enough that my mom was willing to come get me so I didn't have to take the T.

Anyway, it was really fun and I snapped a few pictures of the giant pile of dollies that accumulated on the dining room table:

 

More of the same.

I promise that tomorrow's update will be about something else but for now, who wants to see ANOTHER photo of my chasing and repoussé project?!?!? Sadly, I really haven't done anything to speak of besides eat, sleep, and work in the studio, so here you go: another lovely shot of my piece, in red pitch just to mix things up. With any luck I will be able to post the finished product before Friday, and begin showing off my raising practice piece.

It's almost done. Sort-of.

HOWEVER. Tomorrow is a BJD Boston mini-meet! It's at another member's apartment where we will hang out and obsess about dollies for a few hours and then we are all heading to Panera for dinner! I am bringing chips.  I'm really excited, it will be a ton of fun to see everyone. Some people will bring doll clothes and things to sell, so I need to remember to bring a little cash, and maybe a few things of my own to sell. There will be many photos taken, and I will post my favorites here!

Still in progress...

Here is another update on my chasing and repoussé progress. As you can see, it is still not done, despite all the many, many hours I have put into it so far. Sigh. I feel like all I did this week was work on this and try to sleep. And this week doesn't look to be much better. I HAVE to have this thing decked and done a week from today, PLUS planish a 4" circle of 14 gauge copper into a 5-6" 18-20 gauge circle, and then raise it into a bowl at least 2" high with a top edge that goes inwards at least 1/4th smaller than the widest point. Oh and find time to get out to Woburn and buy a 12x12" sheet of 18 gauge copper.

Well, tonight I am taking the night off, I'm going to watch Burn Notice and paint my nails, since I have finally managed to let them grow! I bought my self some new polish as a treat, and I have pistachios to snack on, so it should be a nice relaxing evening.

Slowly getting there... So very slowly!

So sick of hammering

Last night I could not fall asleep. Until afer 6am. Which was technically this morning. Anyway, with barely 3 hours of sleep, I managed to get to the studio by about 11:15 and stayed until 8:45. I got a good bit of work done, including having to repair three tiny holes. Luckily my prof was there all day, and he helped me out on how to fix it. I think I can get just the chasing and repoussé work done in time for class, but the chances of it being decked are slim to none. Maybe I can at least trim it. So here is another cellphone photo of my progress. It is looking pretty cool if I do say so myself!

The top gear is my favorite <3

and to top it all off I seem to have lost my scarf. I love that scarf... :(

More chasing and repoussé

It might not look like it, but I spent another four or so hours on my chasing and repoussé piece today.

Such progress!

I got to the studio around 5 or so, and stayed until almost 10, when I left and took the free shuttle back to my apartment. I took a break to chat with my friend Nicole and then to go and see the art show that Tory organized. It had some really cool stuff, I wish I had had something to put in it! They gave me Portal Cake too! I didn't really do anything else today, since I got back so late last night and then couldn't fall asleep because I was so achy from working and walking and the apartment was so cold. I dunno what is up with the heater, some days it is really warm at 55, but not last night - it was set to 80 and still really cold. I had to wear two pairs of socks and a sweatshirt to bed :(

Anyhow, the studio is open all day tomorrow. If I am lucky, I will be able to get myself up early and get enough chasing and repoussé work done to be able to deck my piece on Thursday after class. It could happen, right?

Yup. And maybe pigs will fly.

A chasing and repoussé day

I spent something like five and a half hours in the studio today. My hands hurt... and they smell like metal, even though I have washed them like 6 times! I was at the studio until after 11pm, and I am so tired. I got a lot done though, and some help from my prof, so it was worth it. There are classes in the studio until 6:30 tomorrow, so I get to sleep in and then go do some more chasing and repoussé in the evening. Hopefuly I will time it better and get the (free!) 11pm school shuttle instead of having wait around till 11:30 and take the bus since I missed the shuttle by 15 minutes.

Anyway, I forgot to bring my camera to school with me, so here is a crappy cellphone photo of my progress:

In the pitch-pot!

In other news, I had a ton of fun having lunch at Panera Bread with my friend Tory! It was really nice to catch up with her, and she finally got to meet my cat, Chloe!

New shoes and homework blues

Juniper's new shoes finally arrived!!! They are soooo tiny and cute! Also, I put her green eyes back in. I really like them better than the pink, although the pink did start to grow on me after a while... I will definitely keep them for her to wear in photo shoots.

itsy-bitsy-shoesies!

Anyway, tomorrow I have to go to the studio bright and early. My prof should be there and I need to get some help with my chasing and repoussé project. It is not going as well as I had hoped, I think I may have overestimated my ability to do this... although it is not totally my fault, I didn't know I would only have one week to finish this project when I designed it! Hopefully I can get it done and make it look as cool in metal as it does in clay!

Ivy's new shirt

I finally got a chance to finish Ivy's new shirt last night. I  re-sized and altered this pattern for the top. It is hand sewn from t-shirt fabric, and I used fabric glue to attach some thin ribbon for the straps and a little plastic cameo button as a brooch. Cute, right? I'm really happy with it, and so is Ivy! She says she needs some sophisticated shoes to go with this new top...

Classy-cute couture!

Sculpted Gears!

Look what I made!! I altered the image a bit, just zoomed in on one area and simplified a few of the details, I may add them back in the metal, not sure yet. I am really happy with it, I can't wait to get started on it tomorrow, I hope the prof likes it!

Gear-tastic!

Steam Punk Gears

So I've finally finished the design for my chasing and repoussé assignment. Last week the prof was out sick, so I met with him yesterday to discus my project. He preferred the gear idea to the literal representation of the clock key, so I have been working on updating my design and making it more decorative in order to reflect the style of my object. Tomorrow morning I am going to print out the design and transfer it to the clay block I have prepared, and then hopefully get all of the carving done after my science class. I hope I have enough time to do a nice job, since I need to start working with the metal soon.

Here is my design, it is going to be 3"x3". The differently colored areas will be repousséd to different heights, white being the lowest:

Rather Steampunk, don't ya think?

Just another day

Not the most successful day. The idea I had for the chasing and repoussé project - gears - was great as a drawing, but sculpting it was another matter. Nothing was working, and I decided that I would just tell the prof about my idea and see if he might let me do it without a model since I think it will be much more doable in metal than in clay, at least for me!

I also started a new shirt for Ivy today, it is based off of an enlarged version of the puchi collective pattern I used for Juniper's dress. It is hopefully going to be a boat-necked tee, I just have a few more seams to sew, but it is looking good so far! It is a great feeling to see my dolls wear something I made them. I will upload a photo as soon as it is done <3

Just for fun, here is one of the first pictures I ever took of Juniper. She is wearing her full-set outfit and wig, and her default brown eyes. I took this at my dad's house in Holland last summer after he bought her for me from Think Pink  :D

I'm on a boat!

February meet-up

So today was the Boston BJD monthly meet-up! It was really fun, I got to see some of my doll-owning friends and their cool dolls, including the Pipos Tin Woodman, who is really cool! There were even brownies and pink rice-krisppies! All three of my girls came to the meet (as always!) and I took a few photos, although none of poor Rue! Maybe someone else got a good one, I will have to check to see if anyone uploads any!

Ivy and her friend Vera. Vera is wearing a dress I made <3

Juniper and her two metal-men!

Anyway, it was nice to see everyone and chat about dolls to people who understand! I can't wait till my Doll Chateau girl gets here and I can show her off!

Bonus photo:

OBEY

Crafty day!

Today started with showing up to a canceled class because the prof spelled my name wrong so I didn't get the email. Luckily someone else showed up who got the email, just hadn't read it. When I got back to my apartment I decided to do some of the sewing I had been planing on for ages. First up was this lovely pukipuki shirt pattern from Puchi Collective. I have been meaning to try it for ages! I printed out the pattern last week, and on Wednesday I cut up some old t shirts for fabric. I LOVE JERSEY KNIT FABRIC!!! It doesn't fray, just curls a bit, so it is MUCH easier to work with such small pieces! I modified the pattern a bit to add a skirt (I used a sleeve hem!) and made Juniper the cutest little dress <3 Now I am working on a long-sleeved shirt pattern for Rue by Melancholy Wings. Hopefully I will have it done for tomorrows BJD Boston meet!

Without further ado, here is Juni in her new duds!

Cute as a button!

Finally got some work done

So I finally managed to get this gross oil-based clay to soften up enough to work with. I have been avoiding using it because it is so hard and crumbly and smelly. But the model is do tomorrow so yesterday I put some work into softening the clay. I heated some water in the microwave and then put the clay in a ziplock in the water. Once it softened a bit I broke it up into smaller pieces and then re-heated the water as needed, since the stuff hardens up pretty fast.

My assignment is to make a model for a chased and repousséd piece that is abstractly based on an item we had to pick the first week of class. I picked this little metal doohickey which turned out to be a clock winding key. I am a bit too literal to be good at abstraction, so I just sculpted a larger version of the key with the clay tonight. I wish I had started sooner because only now do I have a more abstract idea: making a pattern of gears at different levels. But that would be pretty geometric, which is not one of my strong suites - I tend to get too obsessive about it. I tried to make a model, but I really need actual gear images printed to size to trace so that I can get all of the teeth to match. I wish I had my own printer! I am going to make a quick sketch and ask my professor about it tomorrow, and then work on whichever idea he thinks is better.

Here is the key and my rough clay model:

They're like twins! :P

New eyes for Juniper

So I ordered some pink glass eyes for Juniper from someone on DOA, and I got them today. They were a bit of an impulse buy, since they were cheep and cool looking, since they have no pupils! They are bigger than her normal eyes, and are actually a wee bit bigger than her eye bevels, but not noticeably so. They were a bit difficult to get in right because of this. Anyway, I like them but they will not be her new default eyes. These are just a bit too creepy for my taste! They go very well with her hair though, so I will keep them in for the BJD Boston meet-up this weekend. I also ordered some similar ones in blue for Ivy off of eBay, but they haven't come in yet.

Not too bad in this photo, pretty cute!

Extra creepy with flash.