Week 30, "teacup"

We had a teacup contest at the Sacramento Steampunk Society's picnic, which I wanted to enter.  I found an old plastic mug in my room which was made for paper inserts which were kind of like mini coloring book pages.  So I cut a piece of paper to the right size and started designing an appropriate scene.  Since the theme of the picnic was Lovecraftian I included some tentacles, but on a cute octopus and some kind of squid having an underwater tea party.  I gave them both steamy accessories, and their tea is actually time, which is of course poured from a bottle.  They also have a plate of the undersea equivalent of teacakes or finger sandwiches, urchins and starfish.  The squid is gesturing emphatically with a spoon which is unfortunately invisible behind the rim of the mug, while the octopus giggles.  I think they might be courting.  Most of the color was done with Sharpies, although I did use gel pens here and there.  It did take me more like two weeks, though, so this is a FAILURE.

I drew his moustache and monocle before I looked at actual reference photos of squid and realized that their eyes are much further down than that.  But I liked the way it looked, so I kept it anyway.

Week 29

This is just here for the sake of the tags.  I'm pretty sure this week was a TOTAL FAILURE.

Week 28, vacuum-formed keys and gears

I don't remember if painting them was supposed to be part of the Thing too, but it seems like it should have been.  Therefore, for your viewing pleasure:

However, these were not photographed until the next Thursday, which makes this a FAILURE. . . I think?

Week 27, dressed to the elevens

Factors working against me:  It had to be done (and dry!) in time to wear to the Sac Steam Ball on Thursday.  I had to purchase new nail polish with which to paint the gears because I couldn't find my big bag of them (still can't).
Factors working for me: I probably ended up with a better color-match this way.
At this point I would like to take the opportunity to tell you what exactly I am talking about.  As I was trying to decide what to wear to the Sac Steam Ball, it occurred to me that I had a pair of opera-length gloves that I really never wear because they're too flashy for everyday wear, even for me.  So I planned my outfit around them.  As it happens, my brother had recently given me a hat he didn't want anymore which had a purple band that went with other things I was wearing.  I had intended to sew in a lining to make it a ladies' hat anyway, and I had some of the same fabric I used for the gloves left.  Then I painted one of the vacuum-formed gears I was working with to match and added some feathers (I bought a mixed bag at the craft store, which turned out to have more colors than I had expected).
Results:

 

Bonus: I also made a matching pin to wear at my throat.

Week 26, hair cuff

That whole keeping track and blogging more often thing worked out great.

Week 39 (July 18-24): No idea
Week 40 (July 25-31): Knit gauntlets
Week 41 (Aug. 1-7): More knit gauntlets
Week 42 (Aug. 8-14): Tiniest Apple-Picking Top Hat
Week 43 (Aug. 15-21): No idea
Week 44 (Aug. 22-28): No idea
Week 45 (Aug. 29-Sep. 4): Earrings for Lee

Hopefully, when I am cleaning I will come across the projects I've forgotten and be able to fill in the blanks.  I do at least have an excuse for the ones in August, which is that I didn't have my camera, so there are no photos to remind me.

Week 47, I'm sick of this format

I was going to make a miniature version of last week's hat with what was left of the Timtex, but as often happens late in the week I realized that I needed something else.  In this case, we were hosting a swap meet for the Sacramento Steampunk Society and needed a sign to put on the fence so people could find the place.  I was just going to print up a larger version of our regular meeting sign (which was my Steampunk Thing of the Week way back on week 7), but the printer refused to cooperate.  So I traced it from the computer screen.

Five sheets of paper held together with double-stick tape (because that's all I could find).
I knew those little tiny lines wouldn't be visible from a distance, so I wasn't done yet.  I wanted to color it with markers, but what I found were old, dead markers, gel pens (which would have taken forever), crayons, and a set of oil pastels.  So I decided to try the pastels.

Even using techniques to speed it up (mainly the one called "scribbling"), I still finished at about 6:20 on Thursday, which was ten minutes before the event was supposed to start and after people had started arriving.  Unfortunately, the sun went down not too long after that, and the street lamp in front of our house works only intermittently, so I'm not sure it was any help to anyone.  However, now that it's made it can be used for other events, and I think I'll clip a light to the fence to make it more visible.

Week 46

Factors working against me: Time.  I also was working with a type of material I'd never used before (Timtex), so I didn't know how well it would work.

Factors working for me: I knew what I wanted to make: a hat to wear on the weekend.  But first I went internet shopping for Edwardian blouses and brown leather waist cinchers.  I couldn't find anything that looked how I wanted, so I decided to make a simple instant steampunk waist cincher.
Results:  It's a rectangle with belt loops.

Just add belts.

After wearing it on the Sacramento Steampunk Society/ Great Basin Costume Society steam train excursion, I realized the belts all tend to slide together, bunching up the fabric, so I'm going to add some boning.
Bonus:  I ended up finishing the hat I originally wanted to make for this week's Thing in the truck on the way to Carson City Saturday night.  I still want to add flowers, but I wore it as-is so I'd say it counts.

Week 38, great and not-so-great

Factors working against me: As usual, I left things until late, which means I did the entirety of this week's Thing Saturday night.
Factors working for me: The next day was the Sacramento Steampunk Society's trip to the zoo.  As part of the event we had planned to have water gun duels in the park, so it was obvious what I needed to make.
Results: Here are the guns I started out with:

They were a pair of matching pistols once, although the orange one lost its trigger guard at some point.  The first thing I had to do was use a dab of caulk to seal a hole where it had broken off that opened directly into the water chamber (which is basically the whole gun).  Then I spray-painted them with a base coat.  The green one became flat black and the orange one shiny chrome.

Here is the black gun completed:

I shined it up with a little silver Rub'n'Buff, copper acrylic paint, 3D stickers from the scrapbooking section at Michael's, and a couple small bits of a clock I took apart a while back.  I also used some paint thinner on a Q-tip to restore a small section of the gun to translucent green, which gives it a little of a futuristic feel in contrast to the antiqued look of the rest of it.  A word of warning: I have found that acrylic paints are not the best for squirt guns, as they tend to soften up with water and may rub off.  In this case, I temporarily lost one of the stickers placed on top of the copper paint.  I will look for something to seal it with before I take this gun to any more events.
Here's how the other one came out:

Somewhat less satisfactory, to the point I'm not sure I should count it as a bonus Thing (although I did take it to the zoo like this).  I could tell pretty early on that I was going to want to re-do most of this gun at a later time.  I wanted it to complement the other gun, with a slight Western feel, but with a color scheme that revolved around pearls.  However, the placement of the pearls is less than ideal (I really only put them there to cover up the "Made in China", which can be sanded off).  I also attempted to paint on faux mother-of-pearl inlay, but the color is off.  Not to mention the clock parts at the back/top of the gun are held on with Scotch tape, since superglue wasn't working.  Another thing I wanted to do with it, but didn't have time for, was to put sandy-colored paint in the cracks which would hopefully be evocative of desert mud, make it less shiny, and pull in the orange cameos (which are actually more scrapbooking stickers) to the overall color scheme of the gun.

Week 37, can this be forgiven?

TOTAL.  FAILURE.
I have lots of excuses, but none of them are good ones.

Regarding a Memory Like a Thing with Holes in

I haven't given up on this project, really.  I just never find the time to post.  And since this is the only way I keep track of what I've made (or attempted) each week, the fact that it hasn't been updated in three months means several Things will have slipped my memory.  I will do my best to fill in the blanks and to update weekly from now on.
Week 24 (April 4-10):  Hemp necklace?
Week 25 (April 11-17):  Unidentified jewelry object?
Week 26 (April 18-24):  Hair cuff
Week 27 (April 25-May 1):  Hat for Sac Steam Ball
Week 28 (May 2-8):  Vacuum-formed keys and gears
Week 29 (May 9-15):  (This was the week of Jimmy's graduation.)  Total failure?  I have vague memories of pain and exhaustion that argue against my having started something in the car at the last minute.
Week 30 (May 16-22):  "Teacup" for SSS Picnic
Week 31 (May 23-29):  SSS Flyers
Week 32 (May 30-June 5):  SSS Bucks?
Week 33 (June 6-12):  Hat stand
Week 34 (June 13-19):  Half-cake
Week 35 (June 20- 26):  Shrug
Week 36 (June 27-July 3):  Origami fireworks

Week 23; an April Fool, me

I made myself a cunning disguise!
First I sculpted it from air-drying clay:

Then I vacuum-molded plastic over it:

Then I cut it out:

And for the final step I painted it with acrylic paints.
Then I took it to the Sacramento Steampunk Society meeting and took pictures of all the attendees (and the owner of the Karma Cafe) wearing it.
Speaking of which, since neither my father nor Admiral Macabre were in attendance this week it fell to me to make our April Fool's Day meeting interesting.  So I replaced our regular "Steampunk Meetup" sign with this one:

I also had everyone fill out Steampunk "Census Forms" in lieu of a sign-in sheet.  I think they found it amusing rather than tedious, so, mission accomplished!  Also I printed out ten forms and we had exactly ten people at the meeting, so hurrah for my estimating skillz!

Week 22 quick post

I was going to make a corset belt, but got lazy.  So I got out my button maker instead to make button earrings with the Sacramento Steampunk Society logo.  Still not done, so no pictures.

Week 20 quick post

This week ended with the Nova Albion Steampunk Exhibition, so what with scurrying to get ready for that I didn't have much time for doing a Thing of the Week.  I ended up making it at the convention.  My brother wore a moose hat to the convention, so I made a little bowler hat for the moose to wear.  It was made of air-drying clay, with a pin on the bottom to attach it to the plush moose head.  However, the clay didn't dry quickly enough so the pin broke off when he tried to pin it on.  I also have no photos and am unlikely to get any, as my brother took it home with him.

Week 18 quick post

Results:  It was meant to be a cloche, but for some reason several people said "pith helmet".

Week 19, for the silver screen

I've been putting off posting for so long it's getting ridiculous.  So I'm just going to post what I've got as fast as possible.
Results: On Wednesday night I was thinking about what to wear for the next day's Steampunk invasion of an Alice in Wonderland screening.  It occurred to me it might be appropriate to make some concession to the titular heroine's iconic hairstyle (which I haven't actually seen on her in any of the production stills. . . but that's neither here nor there).  So here is my version of "Alice Bands".  I deliberately made little attempt at neatness for a bit of a mad look.

Bonus:  I used what was left over of the single scrap of faux leather I had to make a matching wristband.

Week 17, from inside the machine

Factors working against me: I intended to make a tiny top hat using a spool and a scrap of faux leather. However, when I had sewn this far (see picture). . .

. . . I realized that the edges weren't going to meet.  I really should have figured it out earlier, since I'd been stretching the "leather" to get it to sit right on the spool. So I decided that wasn't going to work and tried glue. Which didn't work either. At this point I was frustrated and discouraged, and I knew I had at most two hours left to work before my dad came home and wanted to watch Buffy with me. So rather than messing about with different types of glue I decided to make something else entirely.

Factors working for me: Right then, my mom called, and we discussed ideas for quick Steampunk Things while I dug though my crafting kit. We agreed jewelry was fastest and easiest (she suggested more cookies, but I never bought replacement ingredients, so that would have been an adventure in improvisation and inedibility). I wanted to do something a little different than what I'd made before, and while considering my options (earrings, necklace, pin. . . not a ring because I didn't have my ring blanks) I came across some chains and remembered a discussion we had at one of the Sacramento Steampunk Society meetings about necklaces with antique keys for pendants.
Results: I knew I wanted to do something chain-heavy, and I didn't want to bite the style of the person who gave me the idea. As I was choosing chains I considered that most of the multi-chain necklaces I've seen have a similar look to them. In order to avoid that I decided to make a choker. Then I attached the key asymmetrically. It still needed something, so I used the leftover bits of chain to attach some pieces from a clock I took apart, and the very last of the chain I used to support the key at its original angle, despite the rest of the stuff weighing it down.

I've worn it almost constantly since its completion, so I think this is one I'm going to keep.

Week 16, not very green

Factors working against me:  It seems to be becoming a habit to procrastinate until the end of the week, so I'm not even going to bother trying to come up with excuses.
Factors working for me:  At Thursday's meeting of the Sacramento Steampunk Society, Admiral Macabre gave a demonstration of Sophisticated Finishes' Metallic Surfacers and Antiquing Solutions.  He left behind a nearly empty bottle of each, with which I decided to experiment.  Also, I found a bit of ribbon in the bottom of my messenger bag.
Results:  I looked up instructions online for how to make a ribbon rose.
Here is the ribbon I used:

Here I have painted it with the copper paint:

 

I then waited three minutes before folding it, only I decided to make myself a sandwich and it ended up being more than three minutes, and then the folding took longer than I thought it would too, so it was more than fifteen minutes before I applied the antiquing solution.  Here is the folded rose:

And here is what it looked like when I checked on it several hours later:

More like rusty mud than verdegrised (is that a word? I suspect not) copper.  It looks much greener in the picture than it did in real life. A lot of the ribbon color is showing as well. So I scraped the inside of the bottle with a Q-tip in order to give it another coat. This went on pretty thick:

I made sure this time to put the antiquing solution on well within fifteen minutes, and lots of it.

I got some pretty nice patina effects on the Q-tip and paper towel I used to apply the solutions, but the rose still looks more rusted than anything. That works too, though, I guess. Now I just have to find (or make) something to attach it to.

Week 15 onscreen!

Factors working against me: Sunday, as I mentioned before, was the Thrift Shopping Expedition, so I wasn't able to get much work done that day.  I went to my mom's house afterward because she was about to leave town for two weeks and wanted to see me beforehand.  Thursday was our trip to the Crocker, so Wednesday night I had to get back in town so I'd have time to prepare.
Factors working for me: I found some beads at Michaels (where we met up for the Expedition) that were perfect for the jewelry I wanted to make for one of my outfits for the Nova Albion Steampunk Exhibition.
Results: Normally my rule is if I wouldn't put the tag "steampunk" on an item when listing it on etsy, it isn't steampunk enough to count as my Steampunk Thing of the Week.  However, these were made specifically for a steampunk convention, so I'm making an exception.

I was going for the look of old, cracked chandelier crystals.  I'm not entirely sure they aren't too heavy for me, though.

Week 14, sweet cuisine

Factors working against me: Again, it's been too long since the actual events for me to remember the details.  All I know is I put things off until Saturday night.  Again.
Factors working for me: My father reminded me as I was about to go to bed that the next day was our Steampunk Thrift Shopping Expedition, for which I had planned to make cookies.  So I scrambled to find ingredients and had to make some substitutions.
Results: Ta-da!  An entire batch of vaguely gear-shaped cookies.

I don't think all of them were done by midnight, but enough to count.

And now, an unscheduled announcement

I have decided that for each goal I accomplish I get to buy myself a present. Maybe the punishment for FAILURE should be that for each hour of overtime I take a dollar out of my present-buying budget? But that could get difficult to calculate if things are still unfinished. I probably shouldn't get to buy any presents until everything is caught up.  And I'm not sure how big to make the budget in the first place.
Anyway, I checked my credit card history for the past three months to see what I have already bought myself, and it turns out that both my memory and my self-control are better than I thought. I didn't need to look to know that all I got was Bizenghast volumes 5 and 6, Fruits Basket volumes 22 and 23, and Her Majesty's Dog volume 11. I'm not sure if that counts as one present or five, though, because I bought them all together.
So now let's do some math. If I give myself $50 toward presents for each success. . . since I've had five SUCCESSes that's $250. The only project that went into overtime that has been completed is week 3, which racked up 142 hours. If I figure I'm 11 hours into today, last week's is at 131, week 9 has 803, week 8 has 971, week 6 has 1307, and week 5 has 1475 hours.  And counting. Which puts me at -$4,579. Clearly I need to rethink something here. Either the dollar amounts I'm inputting or the amount of effort I'm putting in.
Okay, if each hour equals 5¢, I'd only be subtracting $241.45, and if I take $5 off for each TOTAL FAILURE, that puts me at $10.55, of which I've already spent $47.81. Hmm. At 4¢ an hour I'm only 97¢ over budget.  At 3¢ an hour, I have $47.32 left.  I'll have to recheck my math in a month or two and see if this system is going to work.

Week 13, back to routine

Factors working against me: I actually have a semi-good excuse for losing track of what day it was this time!  We took Jimmy and Jessica back to Berkeley on Monday, and since everyone had the day off from school and work I thought it was still the weekend. Speaking of Jessica, one of the things eating up my time last week and this Sunday was that I made her a Christmas present. Here she is wearing the earrings I made for her:

 

She's in the marching band and full of school spirit, so I made hers blue and gold. I packed all my stuff that day, too, thinking I'd be going to my dad's house, but that didn't happen until Thursday. And everything stayed packed.
Factors working for me: Having made all these Christmas earrings, I'd been thinking I ought to do some to sell. So it wasn't hard to decide what to make this week.
Results:  FAILURE. I simply started too late. They're actually almost done, all that's left to do is a little paint.

Week 12, starting to delve

Factors working against me: I need to update this blog more quickly. I seriously don't remember at this point. Probably I was going to whine about my brother and his girlfriend still being around and me spending all my time hanging out with them. Because having fun is a terrible thing.
Factors working for me: I was really motivated to make sure I got something done this week, after two weeks of TOTAL FAILURE.
Results: Here's a picture of some rings in progress. I can't think of anything I want to add to the one with the filigree heart, so I'm calling it done. Which means this week is a success! Yay me!

Week 11 . . . and again

I TOTALLY DID IT AGAIN
 What's wrong with me?

Week 2, because I O U

Here, finally, is that photograph of week 2's Thing, only about a month or two later than the "week or two" I promised.  To be fair, I totally would have photographed it week 7 if it hadn't been misplaced after I wore it to the Sacramento Steampunk Society meeting.

Week 10, failed again

OH NO YOU GUYS I DIDN'T START ONE THIS WEEK
I'm in big trouble.

Week 9, there wasn't much time

Factors working against me:  I really only had Saturday to work because I was up until 5:00 Christmas morning finishing the last of the 17 presents I was making for my nine cousins, their four spouses, my mom, my aunt, my grandpa, and one extra because I miscounted (which ended up going to a family on the receiving end of the 12 days of Christmas).  Here are the few I managed to photograph:

My lovely cousin Sarah wearing her earrings.

My lovely cousin-in-law (is that a word?) Nicole wearing her earrings.

My lovely aunt Rebecca with her earrings (which I need to convert to clips).

These earrings belong to my lovely cousin Crystal.  They also need to be converted to clips and mailed back to her.

My lovely (if somewhat blurry) cousin Melody with her earrings.

My lovely mother (who I photographed from much too close and at an unflattering angle, for which I apologize) with her dragon ornament.  I also made her matching baby dragon earrings.

The extra ornament which ended up being left on a porch (I wrapped it pretty first) as the 9th day of Christmas' ding-dong dash gift.  I made 9 ornaments, thinking I would give them to my 9 cousins, then had the bright idea of giving the girls similar earrings instead.
Factors working for me: I had thought sufficiently far ahead to make sure I packed some extra jewelry-making supplies so that I would be able to make a Steampunk Thing.  Also, we each received mini sewing kits in our stockings, so I didn't even have to ask to borrow a needle and thread.
Results: FAILURE.  Considering I started about 11:45 Saturday night, I actually made some pretty good progress.  I started to make a choker by sewing findings onto a fancy ribbon, but as it is still claspless I cannot claim to have completed the Thing within the week.  I would photograph it, but I am still separated from a lot of stuff post vacation (I went to my dad's house, my luggage went to my mom's).  Which also makes it difficult to complete all this stuff I'm behind on.