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.