Matchbox Mountain

    Well its more of a hill really... a hill that was supposed to pop up and down at will but, as usual, the fate of the universe has filed against me once again.

   Welp, summer's over and for me that means one thing: University.

Pictured: My current brain state

    So as well packing, finance, accommodation sorting and curling up in the corner, sucking my thumb as I rock back and forward, my summer project was to make a space within a matchbox. Procrastination has led me to throw together a hill. Connig hill to be precise which I spent two hours hiking up when we took a wrong turn and which actually looks nothing like what I put in this matchbox space. However when your putting an entire mountain (by about eighty feet) into a matchbox I find you need to have some artistic license.

For this I used:

• A matchbox
• A sponge
• Moss and other various bits of plant
• Cuscus
• matchsticks
• PVA glue

I wanted a challenge and went for the smallest of small matchboxes and then got some normal old kitchen sponge:

 Then using scissors and measuring to the matchbox I cut it to the vague shape I wanted:

Using PVA I began gluing moss to the sponge:

 

And also darker bits to act like heather until it finally looked like an ungodly mess:

....Well it certainly looks like a moldy moss covered pebble...

Luckily when I start creating the path using cuscus it started to actually resemble something:

So then I stuck it in the matchbox and then cut some matchsticks into smaller pieces, sticking more moss to them to create 'pine trees.' And there you have a mini mountain in a matchbox.

Now there's a mountain I'm willing to climb

Of course it always helps if you start thinking of and creating it before you have less than a week before you go to uni...

Dealing with the bereavment of craft equipment...... Oh and tapestry sewing

   Well that's been a crazy couple of weeks... and by crazy I mean I'm really just struggling with the bereavement of any materials, equipment, stock etc. for making interesting stuff, now that I've high tailed it out of sixth form college and now stuck in the wailing limbo of waiting for University to come around.......... eep.

Of course it's still been busy enough that I haven't posted a thing on here, what with cat-settling a kitten that seems to be getting quite (ahem) mature...

 "My body is ready"

...Then there's been running around the top of Britain. Again.

 Speaks for itself

 Bagpipers: every ruined castle in Scotland has one

Plus there was the time I was shoved into a certain series of books by a certain brother to take up any spare time and life I thought I might have had.

 

GOD DAMMIT THEY'RE BRILLIANT! DAMN YOU 

PEER PRESSURE! DAMN YOU! THE OTHERS TAKE YOU ALL!

   So with no equipment and living in an area bereft of DIY shops I've been forced to busy myself with old school craft. And I mean old school.

I feel ninety three years young again

 

   Yes I started trying out tapestry, no I have not aged several decades and yes, I usually despise most of the ready planned floral sets (which do seem to be coming back fashion-wise at the moment and I must admit, do look quite good on handbags I've seen lately). I decided to try my own patterns for my generation (and which are a thousand times simpler), with a couple of other interests of mine in mind...

.....so.....beautiful...

I am a big Bioshock fan and a sucker for Steampunk. Seeing as Bioshock + Steampunk influences = probably the greatest game out this year (plus my favourite game of all time amongst others) I thought about using some imagery from my own personal favourite vigor whilst playing:

 FLY MY PRETTIES! FLY! AHAHAHAHAHA!

For this rather more simple make, you're going to need:

• Plain Tapestry Canvas (ten count if you want to use wool, use a higher number for finer sewing/cotton)
• Wool of various colours
• Wool/tapestry needle
• (optional) image to use
• Pencil/marker pen

(...and for a cushion)

• White cloth
• sewing needle and cotton wool
• stuffing

    Personally I began with getting the image I wanted to recreate, printing and cutting it out; in this case a murderous crow contempt with tearing me apart because that's always the first thing you think of when finding a design for a cushion cover.

 You know, for kids!

I traced the design onto the area of the tapestry canvas in pencil keeping in mind the area around the edge of the cushion front needs to be at least a centimetre or two clear from the edge. It's probably better to do it in marker pen – you can see it clearer.

And then onto the sewing using wool of the correct colour I sewed...

...And sewed...

 Here we go...

...And kept on sewing...

Day 3: Huh, taking a bit longer than expected

...And kept on sewing...

Day 6: Well this is starting to get tedious...

...And then a little more sewing after that...

Day 9: Oh for crying out...

...Followed by another course of sewing...

Day 13: I know, maybe I could just knit myself a noose and be done with it...

 ...Yeah, so I think with this project I've worked out why the finished products are always associated with old people...

 

Anyway one trip to Scotland and back and the main bit was finished before I keeled over. 

 I'm free... I'm finally free...

 

All that's left is to fold in the sides, sew those up and then attach the back cloth. Add some stuffing, sew it all up and you have yourself a tapestry pillow.

You can use it for smaller scale pieces as well which won't take half as long such as key rings and... well... smaller cushions... And it's a good time filler when nothing is happening/you're going places with nothing for your hands to do. It's one I might start up again to have a go at once in a while. But what to theme it on this time...?

 HOUSE OF STARK 4 EVER!

 

P.S seriously, any Steampunk fans/aesthetic lovers out there have to give Bioshock Infinite ago. I mean look at it:

Seriously look at it!:

 Words cannot describe how badly I want one of these.

 

Have a peek at the concept art too once in a while:

 Holy crap I could actually make one now.

...And the game play ain't half bad too.

Cat Climbing Frame Update

Well as it turns out Tiberius is quite understanding when it comes to forced horrid colour schemes... In fact it actually matches him quite well.

 Now if only he'd sleep up there as much as he plays from ten at night to two in the morning.

Da Vinci Flying Machine

This will probably look a heck of a lot like an older project I posted here, most likely because it's from the same project. In fact it's older than that project. In fact it's the prototype of method for that project. I reckoned mini flying machines (minus the flapping) would float more people's boats than a mask, so here's the model inspired by the ideas of Renaissance Batma- I mean Da Vinci.

For this I used:

• Willow sticks (not too thin and not too thick)
• String
• Cotton for sewing
• Canvas cloth/white cloth
• Small ring shape stuff (something sturdy you can bend into small rings)
• A whole lot of water
• (Optional) nails, hammer and a plank of wood 

    Now I could have made intricate and precise designs for a perfect model, but because I'm lazy I looked to the man himself:

 Bruce Wayne's...

 ...got nothing...

 ...on Da Vinci

And the wonders of Google images for a quick pic to work with:

To the Vinci cave! Nananananananana...

I began to make the base using willow sticks, string and clove hitch knots using this shape/measurement:

Front

Side front

The final thing was a little front heavy, so you might want to try and make the tail a little bigger/wider if you're going to make this. For the wings I took two 35cm willow sticks and warped them by leaving them submerged in water and then carefully bending them on a simple frame I made using nails in a wooden block:

......deja vu?

I did the same with the other parts to make it look a bit like this:

minus canvas cloth

Cut some canvas cloth out to shape to the wing (PVA glue the edges to stop any fraying) and sew it on. It should be sort of clear where the wings rest, but just in case, the wing ends rest just about here on either side of the front:

There

Tie them in place, cut out some more canvas cloth to sew onto the tail and you're ready to fight crime in your Renaissance Batman mask with your Renaissance Batman glider... 

 It's micro sized for storage...

 ...and for actual flight

...Well your hamster is at any rate.