Craft Nerd Herd

sooooo I'm gonna try making wirewrap troll sign hemospectrum pendants. wish me luck. will report back. *salutes*

 

GO FORTH.

I made wire rings for about half of them once upon a time. Dunno where those ended up.

 

people who have the freakyweird power to work with wire without tearing their fingers apart are strange and magical and to be both respected and feared. seriously, i cannot do it. i tried for the longest time because i used to love making those little bead animals. you know, where you double-loop string through and turn them into keyrings, etc? tried to downscale to save on materials and just... nah. nah, nah, nah. i still have a scar on my thumb. :(

i enjoy flower arranging. my most recent project was a small succulent terrarium for the living room. little pebbles and moss rocks and everything.

 

I get my fair share of pokes and scratches. depends on the gauge of wire. but pliers are definitely involved. :D

also, ooooooh flower arranging! very cool!

 

i cosplay (and sew a lot, been learning quilting recently) as well as tinker with jewelry and beading.

Spoiler: pics!

Solar system necklace & earrings


Attempt at some Minecraft Block fuzzy dice, still unfinished 8(


horrific bee plush


Legend of Zelda: Windwaker quilt in progress

 

@Enzel: WOW. i love the first piece of beadwork especially - and the bee plushie, actually, it's really cute. :)

pendants in progress:

 

@Kaylotta: thanks! The first was a school project I got...really carried away on...but it was a lot of fun. Took me at least 15 hours though. x.x

The bee was supposed to be rounder in theory, but the way it came out...I guess it is cute in its own weird way, haha.

Your wire curves are nice and smooth! I just recently learned what round-nosed pliers are for, and it's been amazing. Though I've been trying to do wire wrapping around glass marbles, and it's proving...difficult.

 

@Enzel: was the project for an art class? what were the requirements? it's really pretty ... and boy do i know about getting carried away with things...

thanks for the compliment on the curves! round-nose pliers are fantastic. i'm slowly getting better at not over-retouching my curves, especially since if you bend wire too many times it will snap :(

Spoiler: two done!

i realized when i started wrapping that i was definitely going to need a thicker gauge of wire for the frames. so that's fun.

when your fingers don't bend right anymore, it's time to put the wire away... :P

 

@Kaylotta I'm studying costume/fashion design, so it was for a foundation course. My prof used to have a wedding dress business, so she taught us some neat tricks. Beading by hand is incredibly time-consuming, but soooo worth it. I used the technique on this dress. (though it might be a bit hard to see)

Spoiler: norah cosplay

Ooh, I'm sure wire wrapping gives you some fun aches. @_@ beading gives you a muscle cramp at the base of your thumb from holding the needle, haha.

 

I've honestly always been kind of boggled at how you manage to do that with jewelry wire, honestly. Like, industrial wire I could understand, but jewelry wire is generally... soft? and doesn't leave a lot of sharp ends when you snip it?

OH GOD BEAD EMBROIDERY... I get the muscle aches in my wrist more, though, from the dipping-to-pick-up-beads motion.

 

I used to do a whole lot of beadwork, but then one of my brainmeds made my hands just shaky enough that threading seed beads onto a needle is torture. But the med worked so well for its intended purpose that I decided I could abide with the loss of a kind-of-expensive hobby. (I mean, yeah, you can get cheap seed beads in huge packages for a couple dollars, but buying seed beads that are actually uniform? In how many different colors again? It adds up.)

In the past two or three years I have picked up knitting, which is a big enough motion that my shaky hands don't cause issues. I made my first cabled project in December and it was really exciting. I've also been doing the Mystery Afghan Knit-A-Long on Yarnspirations for the past few weeks, along with a friend of mine, and knitting the same thing along with someone else has been one of my most fun crafting adventures ever. Of course, knitting has a similar cost curve to beadwork in that you can get icky yarn for really cheap and good yarn for $realmoney, so these days it comes close to being as expensive as beadwork was. But on the other hand, it's no big deal if I drop a ball of yarn on the floor, whereas if I dropped a tube of seed beads on the floor I'd still be finding them in my socks two years from now, so there's that.

 

@Enzel: that dress is gorgeous. like ... wow. i would love to wear that.

the tips are still pretty pointy. It's not usually a problem if you've got enough to finish your wrap and then cut it off, but when you get right to the end of the wire, it gets pretty hard to bend, and then you're either tearing your fingers up or using pliers. Also, higher-gauge wire is pretty strong - like 20-gauge or lower. and if you have end cutters rather than side cutters, the tips are more flat, but end cutters are really hard to find even in craft stores. :/

 

hey, an update!

Spoiler

not the best lighting, but you get the idea. I don't have enough wire to do Vriska's (sadface), and Sollux's is gonna be a pain...

 

I got a bead loom a few months ago, after seeing some amazing bead bracelets and wanting to learn to make them myself. So far I've made two attempts:

Spoiler: Images back here

I had no idea how to tie off the end, and I winged it. The main body is decent, but not such that I wanted to wear it!



This ending was a lot smoother, but still a little irregular. At least this time I got a proper clasp, a and could secure it around my wrist.



So next up I'm going to be ridiculously ambitious, and I'm planning out a long wide image based on the symbols for magic in my story! And making a rainbow of them, as one does.



With it being at least 13 beads wide, I'm not sure if I can even hope to wear it as a bracelet, but all least it can be a pretty wall hanging.

 

Anyone have any tips for a base pattern for Ariel's pink ball gown?

 

I am a tailor by education, so sewing is most of what I do and a quasihobby at best.

But I have also done knitting and a tiny bit of embroidery. Crafting, must do more crafting.

 

currently fighting literal floods of hair for the dreadlock-wig I am making.
I have roadkill-teased four strands of hair.
why is making dreads from fake hair so annoying TT_TT

 

I have caught teh knitting.

I caught it from jacktrash. It's all his fault.

 

I set aside money for craft supplies this month since coming months after are going to be not so easy on Expendable Income. Right now I'm focused on making little potion bottle charms for my best friend, and I was struck by an idea I'll be trying out with resin when things arrive. A bottle full of magic shadow? Or glowy magic tendrils? Let's find out!