Brie's corner of scribbles and miniatures

so there's a fella on Youtube who has about six million subscribers, and he goes out into the forests of Australia, wearing only shorts (thank you, good sir, much appreciated), and using stone tools he makes, he creates shelters and clay items.

he's made structures with tile roofs, and done some fiddling with technology such as a water powered 'hammer' and structures to help fan the fires in his kilns. he's gotten some kilns hot enough to melt iron into slag or little beads of metal.

anyway, along with the enjoyment of watching a good looking fella build houses sans shirt (inner caveman approves), the idea has come to me to write a little story about the life of a person living in a pre-writing, pre-giant city time, and slowly building up a bit of a town using only what someone might be able to make with stone tools and ingenuity. as folks find and join their group, they might bring ideas for new technology with them, and eventually i will fiddle in how they interact with 'nearby' groups of people and trade with them and within the village itself.

i am notoriously bad at starting, continuing, and finishing stories, but its a fun idea and i've plotted a lot and maybe it'll turn into something for once. i decided to make this thread to let you guys know, and get some suggestions for the village and constructive criticism as i go.

i plan to bring a bit of my own beliefs into it, as the main character goes the majority of their life identifying as neither male or female, and how they respond to people's confusion and less-polite reactions, and i will also try to bring in some characters who are not perfectly able-bodied, like most 'primitive' fictions. i'll mostly be asking questions about that kind of thing, because i want to make sure I write it respectfully.

there will also be some dubious things in there, due to reactions to violence, etc.

In addition, what are some of your guys's experience with outdoorsy tech? i've only ever camped with modern equipment, though i did grow up running around barefoot. that's....all i can think of that's truly primitive, other than playing with mud as a kid and smashing leaves with rocks to stain the sidewalk green. and collecting random plants pretending i was gathering food or medicine. play-stuff.

 

Oooo that sounds very interesting! And yeah I know the channel it's very delightful :P
I do LARP but we generally camp pretty modernly aside from stuff seen outside of the tent and the period appropriate stuff we have is likely a bunch more sophisticated than you're looking for, but european herbal medicine and old time-y food stuffs is a special interest so I can dig around for stuff wrt that!
How much agriculture were you thinking? Depending on where the character sets up their homestead a few things might be available wild (herbs, mushrooms, various trees, if you want something cool you could go with a semi wooded crawling rose thing that's evolutionary between wild rose, actual fruit tree and berry bramble), but some stuff probably wouldn't be naturally, and it's worth deciding whether the technology level is far enough along that the people have figured out how to cultivate plants yet.

 

Does utterly failing to master outdoorsy tech count?

Outdoorsy tech I have tried (and failed at): Sunstone

The traditional mineral to use for a sunstone is icelandic spar, but there are a couple different kinds of transparent rock that will work. If there's any sunlight in the sky (so from about an hour before sunrise to an hour after sunset) a sunstone will show you exactly where the sun is in the sky, which is useful for telling time or navigating. If you live somewhere you can normally just, you know, look at the sky and see the sun, this isn't very terribly useful, but in places that are mountainous, heavily forested, or stormy and the sun isn't visible, a sunstone was useful for getting around. Until compasses were invented, anyway.

The Vikings were the main users of sunstones - they live in mountainy stormy areas where icelandic spar is common, and they had to be really good navigators. Sometimes sunstones are found in shipwrecks.



So, I haven't ever been able to get a sunstone to work myself, but I can describe how it's supposed to work. You stare at the sky through the sunstone, which is clear. Then you suddenly move the sunstone away and keep staring at the sky without the sunstone in the way. If you're better at this than I am, you'll notice a faint pattern appear on the sky, right in the middle of your vision, two overlapping yellow circles touching slightly (some people see two blue circles arranged diagonally to make a diamond shape with the yellow ones; the pattern is caused by the way nerves line up inside your eye, so it's slightly different for different people). They're pretty small, like maybe the width of your thumb if you hold your arm all the way out in front of you. If you mentally draw a line between the center of the two circles, the line points exactly at the sun.

If you don't have a sunstone but want to give it a shot (like if you were going to include it in a story, or you just think it sounds neat), you can try something pretty similar with a laptop or tablet LCD screen. It doesn't mean anything ominous about your visual acuity or something if you can't get this to work; tons of people, including me, have tried and failed. I guess you'd only need one person on a ship or in a hunting group who can do it.

Okay, so first, if you've never done one of those afterimage flag optical illusions, do that first, it's kind of similar, but easier. Like this one. You stare at a flag with the colours backwards for thirty seconds, and then you stare at a white piece of paper and you see an afterimage with the colours the right way around.

The yellow circles pattern (which is formally called Haidinger's Brush) is actually always there when there's sun in the sky, or when you're looking at a laptop screen. But because it's so faint, it's much much easier to see if you can make it move and look at the afterimage, like the flag. So with the laptop screen or the sunstone, you try to make the yellow pattern move or disappear so it's easier to notice when it comes back. (You can move the laptop screen. You can't move the sky, but the sky as seen through a sunstone doesn't have the yellow pattern, so when you suddenly move the sunstone out of the way, the yellow pattern becomes more obvious.)

To try and see the yellow circles on a laptop or tablet with an LCD screen, open a light blue image on fullscreen, like maybe this one. Staaaaaaaaaaaare at the image for 30 seconds. Now - keep staring at the image - turn the laptop sideways (or have someone else do it for you) so you can still see at the screen, but the screen has rotated 90 degrees. You might see the faint yellow circles, they'll look sort of insubstantial and shimmery like the afterimage flag (but probably even fainter). If you don't see it, staaaaaaaaare at the sideways laptop screen for 30 seconds again and then turn it back upright. It's easiest to see while you're moving the laptop or right after you finish.

I always thought this should be easy - how hard can it be to look at the sky through a rock? - but I also live in a cloudy stormy area and I've had a fair bit of practice, and I still can't see the pattern well enough to find the sun. I can sometimes briefly see the circles - looks like a yellow hourglass to me - so I know the Vikings weren't just making this up, but I don't think I'd be able to steer a ship with it.

I ... really ... don't know if that's the kind of thing you were asking about. Sorry if it wasn't. :)

 

oh no, i love the sunstone stuff! even though i don't understand it much despite reading at least two articles on it. science is hard. its super late here but i'll read your post better tomorrow and try to respond more ah...lucidly XD

thank you for the response!

the only things i've done thats vaguely related is create the frame of a model wattle-and-daub hut, loosely based on mr. primitive survival's common huts.

popsicle sticks of various sizes, papier-mâché walls, and a roof made of silk leaves. i'll let you guys know if it turned out a disaster or not, and load pics.

(i am also planning to start making barbie clothes, but that belongs more in a miniature thread. I'm going to start with very old dresses, like early medieval (i am horrible at remembering time periods, maybe this will help) and maybe make a few layers of the undergarments as well. i started with a barbie i liked the face of, removed the hair because the glue kept leaking and making the hair look greasy, and ordering her a new 'barbie-made-to-move' body so that it is poseable and easier to create clothes for and dress. her light purple 'twilight' colored hair is in the mail still. I'm envisioning a fairy princess vibe. )

 

@IvyLB i haven't decided if they should be strictly hunter gatherers or plant some basic foods and herbs.... on the one hand, better food security. but its difficult, even in the hodgepodge mess i am attempting to make some kind of order from, what basic technologies they've discovered...of course, different peoples and cultures learn and evolve at different rates, so perhaps as people join from all over and the village begins to trade information with other villages, more knowledge will trickle in.

right now, the main character can create a hand powered fire (base wood and spindle to spin in the palms, groove to catch the coal), stone tools for cutting and pounding, and baskets. simple, not very tightly woven ones in order to create traps for fish and other water yummies, and just for carrying things and storing. very, very basic clay pottery as well. i need to start googling, i used to be so good at doing the 'footwork' for this kind of writing, haha. other things too, that i will remember later (its 1:20 in the morning, bad me), but not much more. Ivy is young and just copying what they've seen their parents or relatives do, as well as what they've done themselves as chores.

 

is there a way to change the title of the thread? i want to post about my adventures in totally-not-an-excuse-to-play-with-barbies and miniature making, but i don't want to make too many threads, since i don't update very often.

-clears throat- anyway, my new doll hair came in the mail! i will take pictures of everything once i feel like finding the cord to attach my phone to the laptop.

its purple, and very long,i might not keep it so long. darker than i was expecting, but that's okay. i can always change it in the future. I'm going for a fantasy fairy princess aesthetic. since I'm starting with simple chemises and dresses from time periods that required less fitted and detailed clothing.

 

I believe you can change the title by editing the first post maybe?

 

right up top, it throws me off a little every time :’D

 

thanks guys ^^

 

only half the head was finished when the last needle tool broke, so i will have to order more of them, as well as more hair. but it is very soft and fine, and supposed to be one of the stronger doll hairs, it goes beautifully with the skin tone and its definitely long enough for the 'fantasy princess who can afford hair to her calves' look i was interested in. i mayyy cut it a bit.

another fun thing is i can curl it if i like, so she can have waves or curls or texture, and then it should be able to be straightened again. so thats neat.

hair's from dollyhair.com, in the color twilight. nylon.

 

i keep procrastinating so nothings been worked on, but i've added to my craft supplies

i don't know where the sewing kit i bought went, but i have two pairs of scissors (one for fabric), a set of exacto craft knives including tiny saw blades, a giant wooden jewelry box that i will use for a wardrobe, two more wooden hinged boxes for other things, perhaps petticoats, that are sanded smooth but need to be stained and glazed, an some sand paper in two varieties of...graininess? shrug

a bunch of clothes from the goodwill i work at that i will use for fabric, wood glue, fabric glue, and tacky glue, mod podge for sealant, a smidgen of acrylic paints...uhhhm. lessee, a plastic set of drawers to keep it all in and some scrap paper for paper mache.

i just gotta get to working on something or other XP

and mom keeps falling in love with clothes that i purchased lol. i tease her that she and barbie share the same dress size.

i AM bummed about the soft shiny night gown with a beautiful purple floral print. its more difficult than anticipated to find fabric that an obnoxiously wealthy person in the 1100 and 1200s would use

goodwill where are your shiny fabrics :(

 

WIPs that i won't use as is but will build off of or use for ideas

Spoiler: spoiler

She woke up slowly, her head and throat aching, and the surf licking at her feet. She rolled onto her back and tried to rub the sand from her face, but the finer grains refusing to part from her fur. Sitting up, she wrinkled her nose and cracked open her uncovered eye. The fur on her spine stood up a bit until she found the beach bare of other life larger than a crab.

She pulled herself up to her feet and brushed herself off halfheartedly before heading for a break in the treeline where the beach and woodland met.

There was a path, well-established, that led inland to the west. She walked for an hour, passing by smaller paths branching off from the main in hopes it led somewhere with friendly people. Her feet ached after a while, unused to being bare. She was saving taking a different form until after her headache had eased. After hearing the universal sound of a populated area she lifted her head from the path and walked faster.

The woods cleared, opening up to something unlike anything she’d seen before…in person at least. She looked at the residents, looked down at the blade on her tail and felt the horns on her head with her hands, then removed the horns. She was a little too edgy to get rid of the blade, unless it became a problem.

After the adjustment she cautiously made her way into the streets, self-consciously running her claws through her fur to rid herself of more sand. There were a few curious looks but no one seemed too interested, and she sent up a silent prayer of thanks. The further into the city she walked the quieter the streets became, and as the sun was just starting to make it’s way beneath the horizon she found a bank with it’s sign in Standard. She entered quietly, ears tilted down a few degrees.

The turtle at the desk she was ushered to seemed unamused at her offering of several small coin-sized but unstamped bits of gold. She couldn’t speak, but reassured him that she’d come by them honestly with the help of paper and pen, and received some paper bills from him. He warned her that she would have to open an account if she wanted to use more than a certain amount of money from the gold.

From him she’d also discovered the name of the city, and he scribbled a map for her, directing her to an academy nearby where she might find help from a Zechariah. She thanked him and smiled before hurrying out as a few bird-shifters came in. Well. In her experience they were called that.

The streets had livened a bit as the sun had disappeared, but she was becoming tired, thirsty, and itchy from the dust deep in her pelt. She had lemonade and nibbled at some toast at a small diner, scribbling on a napkin with a pen ‘borrowed’ from the bank so she could ask the waiter where a motel was. He seemed disturbed at first, she presumed by her age, but she persisted calmly and he finally told her where one of the nearer ones was. She drained her lemonade and ate only half a slice of toast, too…scared, to be honest, to stomach much solid food.

The streets were warmly lit, though much less so than the more citified portion of the settlement she saw to the northwest. She was thankful once more for her decent fortune, being asked no questions at the hotel other than “How many beds?” and “Can you pay?”

She slept much more soundly than she was expecting to, after taking a warm shower.

Spoiler: lol what WAS this

“Oh ‘dere once was a hero named Ragnar the Red, who came riding to Whiterun from oooold Rorikstead..” Mara sung softly, exaggerating the Northern accent. She pulled back on her shortbow, one eye open as she sighted down the arrow at the doe she was aiming at.


The doe, who had been grazing on the dry tundra grasses and moss, raised her head, large eyes widening. At least she wasn’t looking toward the young warrior. Mara became silent, watching closely, keeping the bow drawn. What had it seen, a tundra spider? Smelled a wolf? She took a chance and released the arrow, praying she hadn’t hesitated too long.


She hadn’t. Whatever had alerted the doe hadn’t enticed it to flee, though the shot wasn’t a kill and she began to run, the arrow imbedded deep in her shoulder. Mara gave chase, dropping her bow and unsheathing her hunting knife, fleet on her bare feet, running on her toes as the Khajit did.


She lets out a startled yell as a hooded figure rises out of a dip in the grasses in front of the animal, startling it and dragging a cruel looking, jagged black blade across it’s throat.


Mara slows to a trot, keeping her knife out. “The deer is mine.” She calls out, claiming the kill and willing to fight for it, despite the character’s auspicious attire.


“So it may be.” The man replied, turning to her, deep red eyes and darkened skin beneath his hood.


“Yer a bit far from Azura’s Shrine, Dunmer.” She calls out with a cheeky grin, looking him over for other weapons and bouncing lightly from one foot to another. The elf appraises her in return, a rough-looking lass in hide clothing, her pale hair tied in a leather thong.


“And you appear quite small for a Companion, Nord child. Or are the Graymanes reproducing again?”


Mara laughs, coming closer and raising a hand in peace. “Eh, one with a bit o’ humor, ye certainly aren’t from around here. I am Mara of No Tribe, She Who Hunts.”

“I see. I am Hemar, travelling mage.”

“Ah. And to where do you travel, Mage Hemar?”

“Wherever the road may take me..”

“So nowhere. How cryptic.” She cuts the arrow from the deer’s carcass and tucks the broken head away in her rucksack. “I can spare a haunch if ye have anythin’ to trade.”

“I suppose I might get a better price from a mite like you than a trader within Whiterun.”

“Oh aye, don’t try him. He’ll sell you a rack of dog ribs swearin’ they was boar, he will. What might ye have, eh?”

“Nothing you could find useful besides Septims, my dear lass.”

“Try me. I meddle in a bit of alchemy now and again, have a surplus of snowberry as’t happens.”

“Good for a lass to learn her basic potions,” Hemar says with the sugary condescension of an adult interacting with a child.


“Perhaps ye can pay me with information then, Sir Hemar. Where’d ye come upon that Daedric dagger, or d’ye even know what you’re wasting on prey beasts?”


He gives her a sharp look. “What’s a little bint like you know about Daedric daggers?” He grasps the hilt of it protectively.

Spoiler: spoiiiiles

When most folks die, they get sent to one of two places. Hell…or reincarnation. Heaven was too crowded as it was, and God was notorious for refusing to expand the boundaries. However, if a soul was not needed yet for recycling, or for some reason or another someone had to wait to see where they’d end up, there were a few realms they could be placed into instead.

Amber had died about six months ago, and had been put in a place known as Limbo. Not a lot of people knew exactly how big the city-like mess of buildings and afterlife was, but it was probably at least as big as most Hells.

She’d been nineteen earth-years old when she had been run over by a truck. It hadn’t been her fault, and no one had told her if it was the driver’s fault, or anybody’s, really. Most were spared the details of their deaths in an attempt to lower any desire to try to return to their world as a ghost.

Limbo was much different than what most mortals thought it to be, on the rare occasion they thought of the concept at all. It was a bit like Purgatory, but it wasn’t meant to be permanent-even though some Old-timers may have been stuck there for centuries.

But in Amber’s opinion, anything was better than nothingness.

She’d befriended a few teenagers soon after arriving, both of them male. At first it was an awkward relationship in a lot of ways, their cultures were different and all three teens had their own baggage. Other than that, they’d hit it off well.

They were both aliens, though familiar with the concept of humans. They’d known each other growing up, and had been involved in a ‘game’ gone horribly wrong, which had been the cause of their deaths. Amber had less colorful stories to share, but she didn’t envy them any.

 

spent an hour looking for an old sonic adoptable i got a few years ago

managed to find like 3 i had purchased but completely forgotten about

but not the one i was looking for

ihad a problem back in 2015, clearly

also

WHER IS MY BUBBLEGUM DEMON BITCH

 

I don't know if you're still interested in primitive tech, but there's https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAL3JXZSzSm8AlZyD3nQdBA this yt channel that's super good

 

I watched a speed paint the other day that woke my muse up heckin good and i managed to scribble some much needed world building and plotty shit.


Why I gotta be so involved in the fandom of a webcomic on hiatus instead of the beautifully animated musical series the sam artist is currently producing

why am i like this

also why is Lilith so hot

 

Bought more doll hair, waiting to receive in this time of Corona Got Us All Fucked Up

going to see if I can attach it without glue or a reroot needle, because last time I had two and both broke halfway through one Barbie head and I don't want to buy a dozen of them

going to try to sew them in with large headed needles, and either knot them in or do that weaving technique dollightful showed us once.

did anyone else love her latest dragon doll? Aquarian or whatever their name was? super cute in a "im going to ask you out to dinner, but you are the dinner, ohoho" way.

I continue to live in the land of "write two pages of worldbuilding and then procrastinate on returning to that idea forever" as far as writing goes

I hate it

im trying to write about characters I don't care as much about so that I don't worry about making it "perfect" because they aren't one of my main babies. maybe that will help? cri.

 

I *adore* aquarien i love them so much!! Really excited for the fire dragon too
Man i need an accountability buddy to go back to working on my dolls lmao

 

I got a blister on my finger from pulling doll hair out of a head. I can clean dolls and re-hair them ok because its more 'building' than creative. they are all naked because drafting doll patterns is scary.

 

whatcha thinking roughly? maybe I can help troubleshootand also work on my own patterns and stuff. Also sorry to hear about the blister

 

I'm focusing on simplistic European style clothing from early medieval to whenever folks figured out water wheels. lots of inspiration from the outfits the lady wore in that BBC "insert time period here" Farm series, a bit of inspo from Morgan Donner and Bernadette Banner (though nothing Victorian, that's too fiddly for my sewing skills+doll size)

Simply constructed clothing with a shift underneath and done up with lacing. I wont be making a doll sized corset (I might later because they are pretty and COMPLETIONIST) because Barbie needs no breast or back support, but I will be making a shift and some overdresses, as well as simple shoes out of this thin suede type material I have. A barefoot doll, who is other-wised clothed with brand-new hair, would look silly. I used to make moccosins (cannot spell) for my china dolls, but I will likely stick to more boot-like things.

so...mostly realistic but I will definitely go for a more fantasy look in some cases because the fairy tale style is nice.

A shift pattern wont be too hard with some trial and error, because both Morgan and Bernadette have made videos on that and you can look up the pattern pieces. Lots of rectangles and triangles, hole for the head. Getting a dress fitted will be more difficult, and sleeves concern me slightly. Luckily doll clothes don't have to fit perfectly.

I have a made to move Barbie and an ever after high doll, as my project ladies. Barbie is more high fantasy while Cerise is my more natural girl. Barbie doesn't have a name yet. Also I lost her original head (the one I partially gave purple hair) so it's being replaced with the Barbie head that has a more natural lip color (I have two barbies of a very similar skin tone)

the ever after high doll is the one who is the daughter of little red riding hood. I have forgotten her proper name but she has gray eyes and is very cute

I also have the Chesire Cat ever after high doll, but I bought her for a specific character who is very dear to my heart, so she's staying in the box until I have a better plan for her hair and outfits.

I don't mind the monster high dolls in general, but I can't stand the weird design of the back and their exaggerated waists and teeny weeny titties. Hard to flatter the figure when a layer or two of fabric almost makes the poor babs disappear.