Hello, dearies!
While I was busy
putting together a miniature storm out of felt, a giant thunderstorm decided to
sweep through, rummage around the countryside, and take down our internet. This
blog post is therefore beaming out from a particularly salted-caramel-scented corner
of my local Starbucks.
I didn’t consider myself
a particularly web-centric person until this week, but I’m realizing now just
how dependent my craftiness is on internet access: Pinterest for inspiration,
Youtube for something to listen to while I work, Google for referencing the
sizes and shapes of things, etc. And of course there are the frequent
surreptitious peeks at my etsy shop to see if any of my pieces have been
favorited. (It always makes my day when I get favorites. I feel so validated.)
As promised, here's a snapshot of my most recent "To Make" list:
My Oz mobile, the one I'm working on now, is about two thirds of the way down. I'm having loads of fun with it, but it's more time-consuming than I'd expected.
Here’s the original framework
for the tornado. I twisted a length of wire like a tomato cage and stitched felt blocks around it to form this base.
Then I cut a bunch of strips of felt in different shades of gray and started applying them. It was fun fitting all these scraps together like fuzzy little puzzle pieces.
Since stitching so many
strips of felt onto the frame would have taken about a THOUSAND YEARS, I opted
for hot glue, which works beautifully with felt and keeps a very strong hold. I
don’t know how many hot glue sticks I used. I actually lost count. That’s never
happened before.
Of course, immediately
after finishing the thing, I thought of about half a dozen faster and easier
ways to make a pretend tornado. I could have bought a roll of gray wire-edged
ribbon or tulle and twisted it around a wire frame, maybe with a few streaks of
black for some dimension. Or I could have cut much thicker strips of fabric so
it wouldn’t take such an almighty amount of time to get it all stuck together. But
no. I couldn’t have thought of any of that BEFORE I sunk six Mythbusters
episodes worth of time into it. But even so, it’s really not a big deal. It was
fun and I learned a new technique that I’ll definitely use in the future!
(Especially if I intend to do tree trunks or leaves with more texture to them!)
It was worth trying once, anyhow. Always learning! That’s the key, right? :)
The tree, cow, witch,
and house are next. I’ve already got the tree and cow started, as you can see in the pic. I couldn’t think
how to do a cartoony-yet recognizable uprooted tree, so I just winged it and it
turned out looking a teensy bit like a weird little muppet hand, but I think it
works.
The cow seems to be working out too. I’m hoping to give her a politely
perplexed expression as she spins through the void. I’m not even attempting the
house until I can study exactly what Dorothy’s house looks like in the movie. Same
with Ms. Witch. Looks like I’ve got some movie-watching to do! Yay research!
Thanks so much for
stopping in! I hope you're doing well, and I appreciate you. Have a splendiforous day! :)
Millie
No comments:
Post a Comment