Category: Crafting

Still searching for creative time

The search for free time is a recurring theme this year, between travel, local excursions, work, conventions… the list seems never-ending. But I have stories to write, fun things to crochet, images that need drawing and coloring! The trick that I’m learning is that no matter how enthusiastic I am about the project, I don’t actually need to do it all in one sitting. The images below are a good example of that.

A black and white image with a patterned cloud in the upper third of the page and raindrops scattered through the bottom two thirds.

I follow a couple artists on Instagram, mainly ones who focus on watercolors, which is a medium I have little experience with. This particular image came from Andrea Nelson’s account. While the basic concept is fairly similar to what she did, hers has a lot more dark space in the cloud, separating the sections more. That’s one of the fun things about working from an inspiration… I’m making my own version, not a copy. Even the drawing part was split across multiple sessions as I had time… those little circles in the cloud take a while to draw!

The same image with a patterned cloud in the upper third of the page and raindrops scattered through the bottom two thirds, now with a blue background and different colors in the raindrops. The cloud itself is still black and white patterns.

The next step was painting the image. I started with the background, then moved to colors for the raindrops. It’s been a busy couple weeks, I can’t remember if I actually did the raindrops in a different sitting than the background. I did, of course, have to let the background dry before trying to reach past it to the raindrops. And I had to let the raindrops dry before outlining them with a white gel pen. Like a recipe, I tried to stay true to the original art for the first iteration. The next iteration – still a work in progress – is a little bit more me, and I already have ideas for a third iteration.

In black and white, a patterned cloud with meeple falling below it.

That’s right, it’s raining meeple! I’m not as happy with the cloud on this one – I like the first cloud more, with more subdivisions and the patterns seeming more chaotic. I’ll keep that in mind for the next one.

That said, I definitely like having the meeple there. The drawing was all done in one sitting, and the background paint (not pictured) on its own when I had at most 15 minutes to spare. Next up is painting the meeple.

What do you think the third version will have?

Find time for creativity

While I’m specifically taking about drawing and painting in this post, I’m really referring to any creative process you want to count, be that crafting, writing, making music… whatever! I’ve found myself needing a creative outlet a couple times recently, the first as I was preparing a bid to co-chair next year’s Capricon with a theme of Let Your Geek Flag Fly. The image below was me thinking through what could fall under that theme and which of those I could represent as meeple. It is certainly not all-inclusive, given how much different material falls under fandom. That said, if you’re not sure which fandom is meant to be represented by a particular meeple, take a moment to read through the ALT text.

Starting at the top left of the image, a Tree of Gondor with a unicorn meeple below it, a Stargate with a meeple bearing a question mark in front as something resembling a Godzilla meeple approaches, a TARDIS with a meeple outside. Arrayed at the front of the image are the following meeples, starting at the 5th(ish) row: Wonder Woman, Transformer, Death, Spider-Man, a furry creature of some sort; the 4th row features an Eevee, a figure wearing a Star Fleet emblem, Aang (the last Airbender), someone in a red & white striped (could be Waldo if Waldo were a meeple), and a little green alien with 3 eyes; the 3rd row has a cylon, an Among Us figure (with a flag that says "sus" pointing to the cylon), and a vampire; the 2nd row has Yoda and a figure wearing a "CHB" shirt; the first row has a goat holding a flag that reads "Geek".
A mini canvas being held by a green figure. The canvas depicts a sketch (black & white) of a unicorn in a clearing facing an open box.

More recently, our local library kicked off a Tiny Art Show, distributing mini canvas (3 by 3 inches) with a matching easel, along with a small paint set and pair of brushes. My initial plan had been to draw a person, a phoenix, and a dragon, based on a book I recently reviewed, but I didn’t really like the practice sketch I made. I didn’t even make it to the phoenix, as people – faces in particular, though hands are a difficult spot too – are not my strong suit when drawing. Then it occurred to me that I could draw something based on one of my stories. My most recently published story, “The Box”, in The Spaces In Between, provided the inspiration for this piece. The little green guy holding the sketch (second draft, I drew one on paper first) is a cell phone holder I picked up at the work conference I attended recently.

A mini canvas on an equally mini easel. The canvas depicts a painting of a pink & purple unicorn in a clearing facing an open box.

Happy with the sketch, I proceeded to attack the canvas with an eraser, reducing the lines to mere outlines to reduce how much pencil might show through in the final image. I then painstakingly painted it over three different sessions one dot at a time. It has been many years since I tried my hand at pointillism, and I’m fairly sure this is the first time I’ve tried it with paints rather than markers.

I deviated by making the unicorn pink with a purple mane and tail; she’s specifically mentioned as white in my story. I thought white would look too much like unfinished canvas.

Overall, I’m happy with both results, acknowledging that they’re very different stylistically. What’s your current creative outlet?

Own your mistakes

As Billy Joel says in You’re Only Human, “You’re not the only one who’s made mistakes, but they’re the only things that you can truly call your own.”

Everybody makes mistakes. Unfortunately, as a culture, we tend to spend a lot of time looking for someone else to blame instead of just owning our mistakes, learning from them, and moving forward.

Yellow crocheted Duplo brick, folded over and stuffed with catnip

This is the result of a mistake I made last week while crocheting. I’ve been working on a series of “Duplo” bricks – rectangles with bobble stitches in a two by three pattern. I was super excited about it, since yellow was the last color before I started assembling my various pieces. Then I reached for this piece, already tied off, and realized that I had left off a pair of bobble stitches. Whoops! I grabbed the yellow yarn again and made a replacement, which is easy enough when I’m crocheting something small.

But that left me with a crocheted brick that had no purpose, a waste of yarn if you will. It’s too small to take apart and reuse, particularly knowing that I’d be a little short on yarn for assembling a brick.

I initially flung it to the cats to play with, and they weren’t particularly interested in it. Then I realized I could improve on my mistake by folding it over, filling it with catnip, and crocheting it shut. I’ve seen three of the four cats playing with it, so I’d say that solution worked.

Be creative, if it’s an option, and turn your mistakes into something that makes you smile.

Making masks fun

It seems like we’ll be wearing masks for a while, since studies have shown that the the Coronavirus is primarily transmitted through airborne particles. Wearing a mask primarily protects other people from particles you emit, but can also help protect you from theirs. Given the sudden need everybody has for masks, lots of companies are now featuring them on their websites, in stores, and in online ads. Some of them look quite lovely, given the variety of fabrics involved. Even political campaigns have jumped on the bandwagon, even those where the candidates disavowed the pandemic or refuse to wear masks in public themselves.

But I don’t really want a mask that says “Keep America Racist” (OK, it may say great, but it means racist), or any other mask that makes me a walking political advertisement. I’m fortunate to both know many crafters and own a sewing machine myself. Early in the lockdown, I ordered a couple masks from a friend, and grabbed some of my spare fabric to make some masks while waiting for those to arrive. Since then, I’ve purchased more fabric, including snagging some Avengers fabric in the remnants bin, and received a couple masks as gifts.

Assorted masks including Avengers, cats, Harry Potter, and science symbol fabrics

I find the different styles fascinating. My masks are all using the same pattern from CraftPassion.com, and were initially made with elastic – yes, I had spare elastic lying around. It’s like spare fabric or yarn, it just happens when you craft too much. The masks we ordered have ties, which are easy to maneuver, and bypassed the sudden rush on elastic everywhere. The masks from my sister-in-law, which includes the chibi Harry Potter one, all use cord and have beads to adjust the tightness. Cassandra and I both prefer those, and the pattern I’m using is flexible, so I’ve adjusted to something similar, just with a thick yarn. (Did I mention having spare yarn?) And my one mask with cats on it is also my only mask that hooks on the ears.

On my morning walks, I prefer elastic, so I can wear the mask around my neck except in the rare cases where I cross paths with another person. For grocery shopping, any of the styles will do, though I try to save my cat mask for vet appointments. As a fringe benefit, the masks can also be worn while cleaning house… it helps suppress the bathroom cleaner smell, which is quite intense.

I suggest finding a style or two that suits you, and definitely a color or pattern you like, since it seems masks are going to be around for a while.

Blending hobbies: crochet and karate

Sometimes it’s fun to blend my hobbies. Over the years, I’ve crocheted assorted images into pillows or towels, and even coasters with Space Invaders aliens. You can see some of them here. Some of the fandom-related items have appeared in art shows at local conventions, looking for new homes.

The karate ones have only been created as gifts and donations. I carry a crocheted karate towel in my sparring bag, and a matching one was donated to the raffle prizes at the 2016 World Championships. (I have no idea who it went home with.) A karate scarf I made with all of our belt colors was auctioned off at a holiday party a few years ago.

Blue pillow with white figure doing a flying sidekick to the right; purple pillow with a white figure doing flying sidekick to the left

When Eagle Academy, the karate school I attend, announced that they were going to have a Casino Night with raffle prizes and a silent auction, I crocheted a pair of karate pillows with flying sidekick figures. The Casino Night (21 and over, of course) is a fundraiser to raise awareness about human trafficking. It’s paired with a Parents’ Night Out event, so kids can play in the awesome gymnastics area across the hall while parents play games in the dojang.

If you’re free tomorrow night (Saturday, February 1st, 2020), considering attending the Casino Night in Aurora from 6:30-9:30pm. The address is 881 Shoreline Drive.

Carving jade in Antigua, Guatemala

In Antigua, Guatemala, there are several jade shops; the oldest are Jade Maya and Casa del Jade. Both offer a selection of jewelry and carvings, as well as history of Mesoamerican jade use. Both guarantee the authenticity of their jade, which refers to jadeite and nephrite; the Chinese word for jade also includes soapstone, which is a softer stone, without a crystalline structure. Jade Maya has several copies of a massive book listing the last century or so of birthdays and the Mayan Nahual, or astrological sign, for each. Nearby flip cards display the symbol associated with each sign, with pertinent information including the animal. (Mine’s an armadillo.) Casa del Jade has a smaller display; both have assorted items engraved with the Nahual symbols.  Both stores sell coffee and provide samples.

2-hour workshop every day! What can I create? necklace, bracelet, magnet, keychain. $49/Q392 *ask about our special pricesIn January, Casa de Jade opened a small section in their shop offering jade carving lessons.  The basic two-hour lesson gives participants the opportunity to select a piece of jade from a variety of colors (lavender, black, and light blue are only available in jadeite; the jade found in China is nephrite). A couple pencil scratches later, your stone is ready to shape in a scary-looking saw that uses diamond dust to cut the jade. Our instructor placed her fingers on the running blade – without a problem, as it’s specially designed for rock. When you have the basic shape cut, another machine is used to refine the shape by smoothing the edges and adding curves as desired. (The saw only does straight lines.)

Of the two hour lesson, getting to the refined shape might be twenty to thirty minutes. The next hour or more – black jade being the most difficult – will be spent polishing the stone using a progression of different sandpaper. Every step from the saw through polishing involves water, so we all wore stylish Casa del Jade aprons, and had towels handy for drying our stones (and ourselves).

The first round of polishing was the longest, trying to remove any visible scratches, particularly where cutting may have roughed up the stone a bit. The next three were progressively shorter, and eventually followed by shining the stone with a blend of diamond dust and water against leather. The black jade piece was waxed to make the engraving (coming right afterwards) stand out. 

The space holds four participants; three of us wanted engravings on our pieces and spent an extended amount of time drawing our designs on the stones with pens, then erasing bits with a wet wipe until it was perfected. We each opted to have the expert – our instructor – do the actual engraving with an engraving tool.  We were the last lesson of the day, so nobody objected when it ran a bit past the two hour mark.

Transition from raw jade pieces (one black, one light blue) to finished stones, the black one with engraving of Black Panther's necklace.The standard choices for the two-hour lesson are a pendant, keychain, bracelet, or magnet. The instructor worked with each participant to determine which stones needed holes and drilled those before the final round of polishing, then threated the pieces with a synthetic plastic at the end. The one magnet in the group was affixed with a mix from two tubes after engraving, with a warning that one of the tubes smelled like fish. 

We agreed that it was well worth the experience; the time it took to carve the jade was well spent, and were both happy with the pieces we made.  The instructor is fluent in English, so don’t worry if your Spanish isn’t up to understanding instructions. 

Crafting inspiration

At any given time, I probably have half a dozen craft projects in progress across various “crafts” – sewing, painting, crocheting, writing music – yes, I’m counting it… it flexes my creative muscles. The hard part isn’t finding ideas… the real challenge is finding time to finish them. Though sometimes it’s finding time to start them too.

All of the fabric for a TARDIS dress before sewing begins
A TARDIS in the making

For example, I’ve been saying for a couple years now that I was going to make myself a TARDIS dress. But it wasn’t until we decided to have a Dorkstock Halloween party that I actually started looking at patterns and fabrics. (Because, of course, John Kovalic has drawn the big blue box before.) After picking a pattern – and buying it just after New Year’s, when patterns typically go on sale at the craft store – I struggled with the fabric choices at the store and ended up buying fabric online instead. As of last Saturday, I was at the Ikea level for the dress… I had all of the parts ready and just needed to begin assembly. It’s not done yet, but it’s past the initial Ikea phase, and I’m gradually working in tidbits that will transform the dress from a black and blue dress to a TARDIS dress.

Intricately carved wooden wheel with somewhat Aztec designs
Carved face at a restaurant
Watercolor rendition of a face from the carved wheel
Painted Face

Sometimes inspiration jumps out at you. We were at a restaurant in the fall and I noticed this awesome carving on the wall across from me. I took a couple photos. I knew I wanted to do something with it, though I wasn’t sure what. I focused in on a face near the bottom of the wheel and drew that onto a canvas, then picked a small selection of colors that I wanted to use for the painting. I have to say, this was a fun painting to do.

More recently, when my Dad passed away, Cassandra was inspired to write a poem, linking the nearby erupting volcano to our family’s sadness. Volcanoes are stunningly beautiful and dangerous parts of our world, particularly for those living near them. If you want to see the stunning beauty of Fuego during an eruption, Google it… the photographs show far more than I can in a painting. But this was another one I felt I had to paint, my version of Fuego’s Lament.

Watercolor rendition of the volcano Fuego erupting
Fuego’s Lament

Inspiration is all around us, and there’s no real limit on the crafts you can choose to express yourself.

Crafting Confusion

Some days, I have trouble deciding what craft project to work on, and it’s largely because I have too many in progress at any time. At the moment, I can count three that are started, none of which have deadlines, and one more that has a deadline near the end of this month.

And yet, I’m having trouble deciding which one to work on next. That’s not even counting bits of the mending pile, like the large plush dog sitting on my couch because he has a minute seam tear.

“Crafting?,” you may say.  ” That’s not on your list of goals.”

True enough, yet here I am, looking at my craft projects.  I bought fabric last weekend to make a caftan.  I thought I’d be buying blue fabric, but what jumped out at me was a brown fabric with embroidered patterns.

I have a crocheted Cthulhu barely started from before my accident; I had to take a break from crocheting after it for a bit because my shoulder was hurting.  Instead of going back to it when I was ready to crochet again, I started a blanket.  Ideally, I’ll finish that blanket before it gets too warm; it’s a fairly thick yarn, and I don’t want to be working with it during the summer.

I’m also working on a painting, which is really outside my realm of expertise; I’m far better at crocheting.  But I’m enjoying painting as an artistic outlet, and have an idea for the one that will come after this one.  I only have one spot where I store a painting in progress, so I do actually have to finish that one before starting the next.

Do websites count as craft projects?  I have a couple of those that I need to work on too.  Plus all my goals… it’s going to be a busy year.

I made a thing: a Welcome Blanket

Just after our trip to the Galápagos, I read about the Welcome Blanket project; a couple of my friends had shared the link on Facebook.  I like crocheting, and as the daughter of an immigrant, it seemed like an appropriate thing to do.  It was rather impromptu, I had to go yarn shopping and everything.  (And I seem to have yarn left from the project….)  Other people took up the challenge – the website boasts 2,088 blankets received.

My Welcome Blanket, in red, white, and blue.
My Welcome Blanket, in red, white, and blue.

I downloaded one of the blanket patterns from the project website.  I decided our flag colors would be a good choice to welcome a new immigrant to our country; I honestly couldn’t think of a more appropriate color choice.  I found a lovely yarn for it, soft and fuzzy, and not too inclined to tangle.  I was a little delayed in my project, but lucky for me, the deadline was extended, and I mailed my contribution in mid-October.

It appears not all of the blankets are up on the website yet (I couldn’t find mine), though the ones that are show a lovely selection of craft choices and talent.  I can sit back and ponder what my next crafting project will be.