Day 116: Portraits

 

These are really grey, aren't they? Ah well. These were kind of hastily drawn, because I almost forgot to do something for 12 Months of Alice. I made cupcakes and cut out pieces for hoods and cloaks, and cleaned a great deal of my apartment. Still, I do like drawing things relating to the Knicker Misadventures, so here are some tests and doodles. Hopefully tomorrow I'll do something more exciting (still, no promises... I have to go and buy fabric after my class, so we'll see). 

Now... to sleep!

Day 115: White Rabbit, White Rabbit

I'm so close to finishing my White Rabbit inspired waistcoat. This is just a peak, as I want to reveal the full outfit in April, and with gusto! This is the corseted back, which can be tightened to an extent (but the vest is already fairly fitted, so it's not really necessary. Plus, it looks kind of cool with the ribbons just hanging down and untied). I just have to add three more sets of snaps, and fini! I still have a lot to do for the full outfit... but no matter, it will be great. I hope...

Day 114: Rodentia

Pendant! I was inspired by my mice and the idea of rats. I attempted three, but this is the only one that really turned out. I still need to coat it, but that is a story for another day. For now... I just like drawing rodents!

Day 113: I did stuff, I swear

Yup.

I did some writing and some drawing and stuff. And I went to Theology On Tap. But I forgot my camera, so I can't photograph anything I did. Long day. Studying and stuff.

Day 112: This wascally weaving

Finished, with the critique tomorrow. Overall not bad, and will definitely be a fine addition to my Autem outfits. I also made a knee-length skirt to go under my brown bustle over skirt (not shown). It was supposed to be long, but it didn't fit right.

I also made goggles.

Cool, huh/

Day 111: Failed Attempts and Chocolate Chip Cookies

The initial aim of the day was to go to a magic festival. However, that failed. Instead, I made some chocolate chip oatmeal cookies (delicious) for myself and my friend, we watched a movie, and all was well.

Here are some of the chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.

Here are those same chocolate chip oatmeal cookies in... NEON.

Day 110: Corset

 

This is the weaving project I'm working on for school. I'm posting about it here because it is not what I wanted to make for my weaving project, but it's going to work quite nicely as an addition to my personal steampunk and Autem attire. The corset is not the best I've ever made, and I had to fix a few things, but it's okay. I have to make the bustle for this (all white fabric, which will be asymmetrical and tie onto the d-rings on the corset), but overall... It's okay. 

I guess.

But I'm still furious about the weaving.

I just want to make trade blankets and dreamily gaze into history, romanticizing a life as a mountain woman in 1860s Montana. Or something to that effect. 

Day 109: How to make useless (less interesting) things

What did I make using these items? What did I make while at my friend's house, with limited materials? 

I had to make something, and I knew I'd be too tired once I got home. I'd spent all day weaving (bluhgh... not going to talk about it), so my friend let me use the few items he had around (leftover from making a steampunk gun), and with the help of some chain, pliers and scissors I happened to have on me, I made a weird (and not to mention useless and uncomfortable) but kind of cool steampunk-ish but not quite creation...

Ta-da! Strange hand piece. It links around fingers, and chain joins pieces at the ring finger and thumb, both over and under the hand. It's not useful or practical. But I couldn't think of anything else. And it does look kind of cool. Kind of. 

 

Day 108: Machinery Stitchery

My first attempt at machine embroidery. I have no idea whether it's a fail or a success. I embroidered 'Ya'aburnee' (Arabic word for 'you bury me', or I cannot live without you) and 'I wanna be in the cavalry' (because why wouldn't I?). 

I'm going to go to bed and relax. Tomorrow is a day full of weaving. And nothing else. Because I need to start (and finish) this weaving so that I can complete my project before Monday. I am silently cursing the weaving department for not having enough tie-up chains for two identical looms. I will be going makeshift jerry-rig style and getting it done that way. Not looking forward to it. 

Day 107: Potluck

I went to a friend's potluck/house warming/get together, and I brought along some home made goodies. As you can see in the above photograph, they were quite well wrapped up, and I forgot to photograph them before I packaged them. However, here are the recipes and what I did to them!

Nutella Cookies, from tastykitchen.com. I did not put the sugar in it. They're sweet enough without, and boy... Are they tasty. The dough is a little crumbly, but I just added a little bit of milk. You pack the dough into balls any ways, so it wasn't an issue. I think I ate six of them when they came out of the oven. Can you say delicious?

Pretzels! I made this one up. I used the dough recipe for these really great Swedish Cinnamon Buns. Seriously, they are the best cinnamon buns ever. If only for the bread. The bread... yum. So much yum. I took the dough recipe for the cinnamon buns, removed the cardamon (which I didn't have in the first place) and the vanilla. I left the sugar in. I formed them into pretzel shapes (little ones), and brushed them with butter. I doused them in a lot of Himalayan pink salt, and baked them for the amount of time stated in the recipe. The result was this really great salty at first then becomes not quite sweet pretzel that is an absolute delight when warm. Room temperature, too. But, y'know. Fresh out of the oven is how you should eat most things (especially bread). 

Day 106: Curiousity and nothing done

"Curio(u)sity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect."-Samuel Johnson

I've been fighting sickness, and because of that, I'm exhausted and really not wanting to make or do anything. So, instead, I did fake calligraphy and I'm watching Castle. That's about it. However, quotes about curiousity are true. Except that curiousity was spelt without the U in the quote. That is all.

Day 105: Gunshot

Ah, fake blood, food colouring, cocoa, and ink. The combination for a perfect looking wound. Now to roll down some hills and get in some brawls! Not really. But y'know. I need to make this thing look dirty and worn, as if it's been worn for a bit, and has seen more than a couple bucks off of a horse. 

This is my finished shell jacket. Excitement! Complete with the gunshot wound. My hand is a little bit stained from food colouring, but it's totally worth it.

In other news, I also made really delicious mini quiche-pie-things for supper. Very, very good.

Day 104: Expedition to Africa and Beyond

What can I say? I absolutely adore assembling a great Steampunk outfit, and having an excuse to wear it out and about. Today's reason was a steampunk event, at the Calgary Zoo, surrounded by all kinds of fantastic steampunks. What a magnificent community.

Though we were adventuring to Africa and foreign lands, I opted for a cabin-style Old West steampunk outfit. This outfit included...

-tinted glasses (with a loupe)

-choker with fake tooth

-Family Roots necklace

-bullet necklace

-vintage 1850s style grey jacket

-black underbust corset

-white lace blouse

-vintage white skirt with lace trim

-handmade bustle/overskirt

-two fox tails

-canvas bag with rabbit pelt pinned to it

-Leather skirt (worn as shawl)

-Vintage/antique shawl with fringe and embroidery

-kid boots

-lace trim socks

-leggings

-fingerless gloves

-camera (which I created a case for, so that it would not impede my outfit if I chose to take photographs.

All in all, so happy! I did not take the photograph, though I edited it... but thank you to the fantastic steampunk who took it (you know who you are, if you happen to find this... Thanks!). 

Day 103: Steampunk Transformations

A friend of mine and I are going to be joining a group of fellow steampunks on an expedition to Africa. By which I mean, we are going to go the Calgary Zoo for adventure and discovery. It should be grand. I am putting together a fantastic steampunk outfit (complete with a longer, more Victorian, skirt!), and I decided that I didn't want to impede any of my steampunkness with anything that looks modern. And so... I made a case for my camera to make it look cool. It turned out pretty well, except for the fact that you can see hot glue everywhere, and my craft isn't perfect. It would have been better, but I don't have a clue as to where my Weldbond glue has gone. When I find it, I'll try to fix up my camera a bit. Now... Can you guess what I made the case from? It's 90% upcycled. 

It is made from a wallet, a lens from a pair of goggles, parts from a salt and pepper shaker set, and a leather belt. The only aspects that are not from used things or old source are the eyelets, glue, and suede cord for the lacing. All in all... Not too shabby! I really want to fix it up and make it perfect, but that is for another day! Now, off to have lunch, and then think about steampunk outfit for tomorrow a little bit more. Then off to meet a friend to go to a gallery. After I get dressed, of course. Pajamas afternoon for the win!

Day 102: I forgot to take photographs

Happy Valentine's day, everybody! I did a lot today, but I didn't take photos of anything. Well, I did, but not of things that I can post on this blog. Too bad. However, I will list (with gusto) the things that I made and did today.

1. Made banana chocolate chip pancakes. I didn't really use a recipe, but I was inspired by all of these recipes I've seen on Pinterest recently. I simply halved my favourite pancake recipe (for real, it's a recipe that makes the best plain pancakes I've ever had), mashed in half of a banana (still fairly unripe, which is how I like it), and tossed on a few chocolate chips while they were cooking. Result? Delicious. 

2. Finished a ouija board. See my other blog for information and photos on that!

3. Made stupidly delicious pizza. It was so good. I made the most successful crust that I've ever made (it was such a perfect thin-crust pizza), and 'decorate' the pizza with chicken (cooked in ginger sweet-sour sauce), mixed vegetables (frozen vegetables at their best), spicy pepper pasta sauce (for pizza sauce), Italiano Kraft shredded cheese, and a bit of feta. It was seriously delicious, and the best thing I've made in ages. At least meal-wise.

4. I almost finished my Civil War shell jacket. I'm so close! I finished sewing on the collar, and I've been doing a lot of hand-finishing on it to make it absolutely perfect. All I have to finish is sewing on the buttons, plus making button holes. I'm so proud of this puppy, and I can't wait to wear it. By 'wear it', I mean both wearing it on my body, and wearing it to make it look worn and dirty. Excitement! 

Day 101: PIE!

Ooooooh I'm proud of myself! I made my first pie! Now I wish that I had taken my Dad up on his attempts to get me to make pie by "teaching" me how. The recipe I used for the pastry really wasn't very good, but it's acceptable, and it made enough for six pies. Note, I did not make six pies. However, I now have five pies worth of pastry in my freezer, waiting to be used for things like, oh, I don't know... Chicken pot pie, quiche, meat pie, apple pie.... Mmmmmm! 

It was the easiest pie to make filling-wise. Cherry. Step 1: Open can. And from that it only gets easier. Still, cherry is one of my personal favourites (which is weird, because red fruit has always been unappealing to me. Growing up, I refused to eat red fruits, except for raspberries. I'm less insane now, but I always have the thought in the back of my mind that animals tend to not eat red berries and fruits because it's usually not a good thing. Still, I like cherries and thus the desired pie filling). Being me, I decided to be creative and make it polka dot and cut out an anatomical heart to put on top. Makes it seem gorier than it should, because of the whole internal organ reference, but I wasn't really thinking about that when I made it. Unless it was a subconscious decision? That's disconcerting... 

Any ways, I'm so proud of myself. I'm going to bake and cook so much over the next bit. I made pretzels (nom), and I made pie (eee!), and I'm thinking about making it my goal to make everything that is on my Pinterest board. So many good recipes, and man... I adore cooking! And baking. More so baking. I mostly just like being in a kitchen.

Day 100: Should have done something bigger

Day 100 of this challenge... Yowzers! I should have done something bigger, and I shouldn't have posted late. However, I was barely on the computer yesterday and I was busy busy busy with school work. By the time I went to bed I was exhausted. Good news is, my reading week has pretty much started. I'm going to get so much work done! 

These drawings are heavily inspired by my continual watching of Supernatural. I've been ploughing through, as I work on projects. Because of this, however, I've been returning to an interest in ghosts and urban legends and folklore and such. All of these drawings are inspired by ghosts and the undead. Also living dead, I guess (hello little zombie on the left of the first photo!). It is a good show, though. My friend got me turned onto it, and now it's pretty much the only thing that I watch (other than The Walking Dead, Community, and a couple of other shows on AMC) when it's for enjoying as well as background 'company', and not just boredom and desperation of melting my mind a little. 

Now... forward and onward into more projects! I'm hoping to get so much done over the next 12 days.

Day 99: Odds and Ends

I wanted to use my sewing machine, but it's too late for that. Not to mention I have an overwhelming sense of laziness. I'll get lots done on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, but as it is my goal to make something or do something creative every day, I still wanted to make something. So, I played around with a couple odds and ends. I used a glue gun on these, which generally isn't something I like to use for certain projects. Mostly because of the finicky stringy things and how fast the glue cools. Still, these two things turned out not too badly. The cameo is going to be a brooch once I add a pin to it. The ring is pretty cool. Both are things I'll probably end up having on my table at the comic expo, just because little things are good to have. I need to make more jewellery and cloaks for the expo, and I'll do that slowly but surely. That is all for now. More tomorrow! Hopefully. It's going to be a long, long, day. 

Day 98: $5 T-Shirt

 

Before and after. I bought some socks from Ardene's (coolest socks ever. They have lace on the ankle! Five pairs for $10. I needed taller socks to wear with my ankle boots), and I found this shirt. It was maximum $5, and I liked it. The dip-dye thing, along with all of the animal things hanging off of a femur. Kind of cool. However, I'm not a fan of text. The text 'Wild Child' paired with things that are strikingly relate-able to prehistory and Native culture... It strikes me as one of the worst kinds of appropriation. It actually kind of bothers me as to how many cool looking shirts with wild and woods-like things have text that suggests weird relationship going on in terms of appropriation. I don't agree with appropriation, especially in the context of teen girl clothing, because I really think that the Native people have enough issues without upper middle class teenagers pretending to understand the culture. I really appreciate Native American cultures, beliefs, and traditions. However, as a white person with absolutely no native blood, I can't pretend that I am really part of it. Yes, it has become a part of North American culture because of the whole Cowboys and Indians thing, but that's not really how it should be. 

Any ways, because of my stance on this, and thinking it's genuinely terrifying to have the words 'Wild Child' paired with a femur and several voodoo-like gems, animal parts, and twigs (seriously. The femur looks HUMAN), I decided to alter it! I removed the text, and altered the shape a bit. I might do more to it, but I shall see. I wouldn't do that to a shirt that costed more, but it was 70% off. I find that to be do-able in terms of taking creative liberties. Especially when the shirt would have been better without the words to begin with. I wish that I could have kept more of the femur, but it didn't work out. Too bad, since it was my favourite part of the shirt. Maybe I'll just silkscreen shirts with bones on them. Like a femur. Or an atlas bone! Atlas bones are my favourites. 

I also made pretzels. I ate 3/4 of the recipe over the span of the day (this is equivalent to six pretzels). Now that I have more spare time, I'm going to return to making myself cook more. I enjoy it, but I'm so lazy.

Day 97: Goggles and You

I felt like doing something steampunk-ish. The result was the start of a pair of goggles. They're not my best work ever, but then again, I'm not the best at making goggles to begin with. Still... Boredom results in steampunking for me!

Day 96: Tiny Pants

Hurrah! I am finally getting around to making Harry Houdini's clothing and such! To start, I made a fine pair of tiny pants. They are small, elastic-waisted, and completely finished. They are pretty great, if I might say so myself.

I also wrote quite a bit. I'd like to think that my gallivanting and adventuring was in itself creative.  I went to the cemetery and did my part to clean up a little bit. You can read about that on my other blog. 

Now, tomorrow and Sunday I shall write a paper, while frequently taking breaks to hopefully finish Harry Houdini's lovely garb. And maybe get some more fox things done for Grimm Fabrications.

Day 95: Tidying

I spent most of my day rearranging and tidying up my room. Still not finished (I ran out of steam, and then had to go meet a friend for a double feature film that he took me out to. Not sure I enjoyed it, mostly because at that point, I didn't have the remotest interest in going out to a film. Any ways, it was important to him, so I can respect that. This is such unnecessary information...), but I made huge headway. As I don't use my vanity table, I decided to make it into a new home for my sewing machine (of late, my normal desk has been so messy that I've been doing all of my sewing with the machine placed on my chair). Hopefully this will prove to be a good work space. 

Also, I finally did a craft/DIY thing that I've been wanting to do for ages. 

I used vintage odd buttons to decorate thumb tacks! I've seen this on Pinterest many times, and it seemed like a great idea. I've done something similar, but now... hurrah! My 'Make This' board on Pinterest is not wasted! The hot glue shows on a few of them, and they're not super tidy, but when they're up on my bulletin board, they look pretty dandy. Especially next to the odd collection of paper items that have been placed upon that historic cork board surface. I tell you, it's a proud position to have.

Day 94: Awkward

Nothing expresses quite like embroidery. I had to use a cross-stitch needle, because all of my needles are AWOL. Tomorrow's goal is to track them down (and rearrange my room. I think I need a space change). Embroidering using a blunt needle isn't terribly easy. Still, I needed to embroider. It's better than writing when I'm feeling bitter or annoyed or need to think things through. Embroidery is a cure for all ails. Also, liver and vitamin juice, apparently (at least food-wise). Man, I was out of sync. Now... to sleep.

Day 93: Boondock Saints/Walking Dead

In April, one of the guests at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo is going to be Norman Reedus. He is one of my favourite actors, as well as my favourite person to appear on a Lady Gaga video (other than Lady Gaga herself). You will probably recognize him as Darryl Dixon from The Walking Dead. For those of you who are keen cult movie followers, you may also know him from Boondock Saints. As I am quite fond of his talent, I am contemplating waiting in line to meet him. I may not. Still, I have a still-growing tradition of doing tattoo designs based off of the characters that the actor portrayed. Or at least, my favourite role of that actor. Last year I thought about meeting Adam Baldwin (Jayne from Firefly), and I started a design based off of Jayne's favourite gun, Vera. This year, I decided to do a design based off of both Boondock Saints and The Walking Dead.

This is the first draft that I sketched. I want to replace the text in the top banner with something else. Without that top banner, it isn't as balanced. I'm also not super good at drawing a Cherokee Rose... but that can be solved eventually. This is only the first go, after all. 

Day 92: Ghost Limbs and Dead Soldiers

Goodness... My blog has taken a rather morose turn of late, hasn't it? That's not really on purpose. It's just where my interests lie, and what I've been thinking about. I will have you know that I do think about things other than the Civil War. I just haven't made anything else. I promise that tomorrow will bring something more upbeat. 

This just came out of nowhere. I was thinking about war brides, and ghosts, and the two collided. Also partially inspired by Edgar Oliver saying 'Ashes to ashes', and my brain went to wedding vows. No real connection. This is what happened, though. Not my best drawing ever, and probably the worst skull I've ever put down on paper. Can you tell that I haven't drawn a side-view skull for a while?

I don't know if this brief comic even means anything. Frankly, it's kind of gibberish, even to me. And I wrote it. What does that say about my creative process?

Day 91: Shell Jacket!

This photograph doesn't show much, but this is my shell jacket. It is the only thing that I worked on today. Ah, what better way to spend a day off. Sleep in, and spend the day staring at American Civil War uniforms. Specifically, Union/ U.S. Army uniforms. Also, spent a few hours watching reruns of Season 1 of Walking Dead. All in all, a good, restful day.

 

My shell jacket is approximately 85% finished. The sleeves are kind of baggy, but as I drafted the pattern based off of two patterns (and my imagination, with the aide of actual Civil War shell jackets), I was expecting imperfections. Still... Not too bad! The cuffs look pretty good, and the whole thing is fitting me quite nicely. A bit of work to do yet (well, hand-finishing, buttons, and the collar, but that's about it), but goodness me... I'm delighted with how it's going! I might not wear anything else once it's completed. Just kidding, but seriously... it's giving me such joy. It is a dark navy blue, with yellow piping on the cuffs, and around the collar (or, there will be once the collar is completed). I am going to age it like crazy once it's finished sewing, and maybe get some people to tackle me into the dirt a few times (to give the illusion of being knocked off a horse or attacked in battle or something). I want it to look as if someone was wearing it for a few years. Although, in all technicality, this jacket would have only seen a year or so of battle. I am giving it plain pewter-colour buttons, as I am particularly fond of 1863-64 and by that time in the Civil War, they were running low on brass. Thus, brass was put towards the more important use of being in cannon barrels, instead of buttons. This meant a different material for buttons. If I make another jacket after this (you can bet that I will!), I intend on ordering replica buttons from this great site I found out of the States, The Winchester Sutler Inc. Great references, great information, plus, a great source for every single individual aspect one could possibly need for assembling the most accurate Civil War costume possible. They have every time of button that would have been used during the Civil War. Which is neat. And really convenient. Moving on...

I am kind of cheating with this jacket. I am making it because I want to wear it to a Corb Lund concert. However, I am also going to use it as a project in school. I'm thinking about doing a performance piece while wearing it. Kind of a monologue, spoken by a cavalry medic. No, I'm not a man... my friend suggested being a war widow reading her husband's field journal while wearing his jacket. I don't quite want to do that, but I probably have options. Or, I just pretend to be a man or just all around gender ambiguous. The whole idea is heavily inspired by Corb Lund and his song 'I Wanna Be In The Cavalry (Reprise)', and the horrors of war in general, so the soldier jacket is important. Well, more of an officer jacket. The whole thing is kind of ambiguous. All around, I think doing a performance piece about the dead soldiers and all of these things would be interesting. I'm just really inspired by these lyrics:

"We were finally forced to feed on horse

and carcass we could scrounge.

When the wagons stopped and we'd burnt their crops

to charred and barren ground

With morale in doubt, and our pride run out, 

no honour did I see

All I seen were a thousand dreams

piled dead in front of me."

(Corb Lund, 'I Wanna Be In The Cavalry (Reprise)')

Whatever the case, we'll see. I just know that it wasn't going to be for school, but now it is, because it ties into my history of medicine and embalming interest, as well as my historical interests in general. So, why not use it as a project? Plus, I'm making sure that my craft is impeccable. Surprising myself at the fact that my sewing skills are getting way better. Huzzah! 

More on this later... Maybe in my other blog, but nonetheless...!

Day 90: Young Blood

At the moment, I am extremely exhausted. I am going to go to sleep soon. I was going to work on projects, but when I got home, I got into my pyjamas and curled up in a quilt. After that, I was drained and had zero desire to work on anything. Instead, I decided that I would just draw a little bit. 

The image above is a photograph from WWII that I found. As you can see, it is a young boy, wearing a men's uniform, far too large for him. I don't know the history behind this image... but it shook me and fills me with sorrow. His facial expression... his age. That war. I decided that I needed to draw the boy in the photograph. Or, at least, attempt drawing him. 

Not a perfect rendition. Still, for me it's just the fact that it instils a huge emotional reaction, that meant I should draw it, and try to think through what this photograph really means. 

Day 89: Fatigue

Last night I saw Clockwork Orange. It was also my first critique, so it was a busy day. I did draw a bit, so I a posting those. Even though I am late in doing so.

Shockingly, Civil War content! One of these is based off of a photograph. Can you guess which?

 

Hint: It's the one that looks completely different.