As the Christmas holidays come to an end today and I'm back at college tomorrow, I think I really ought to show you all what I got up to last term.
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Our main project required us to make an upscaled prototype model of a manufactured object with a couple of constraints - it had to be a manufactured object (so no pieces of fruit or natural items etc) and had to involve vacformed, turned and lasercut parts as well as showing a sectional view where part of the model was sliced open so you could see it's interior parts.
I chose a computer mouse because I thought it would be relatively straightforward (hahahahaha, no) and well, this is what happened. :P
Sunday, 5 January 2014
Thursday, 2 January 2014
Merry Christmas/Happy New Year!
I apologise for blogging so rarely recently, I've just not been in the mood. However, I fully intend for 2014 to be a far more active year in terms of blogging and modelling!
I didn't manage to achieve any of my new year's resolutions from last year (especially #4, as I've actually done the opposite!) so I'm going to try to do them again!
It's the Year of the Horse now so here's hoping that bodes well for the future. :D
I hope you've all had a good festive season and ate lots of chocolate. XD
I didn't manage to achieve any of my new year's resolutions from last year (especially #4, as I've actually done the opposite!) so I'm going to try to do them again!
It's the Year of the Horse now so here's hoping that bodes well for the future. :D
I hope you've all had a good festive season and ate lots of chocolate. XD
Sunday, 15 December 2013
Rope halters and a Newmarket quarter sheet!
Rope halters are something that I have always found absolutely impossible to get my head around, and yet, I have somehow managed to make twelve of them in a matter of days!(one is currently being modelled by a really wobbly HOTY who always falls over, hence the lack of evidence, lol)
I used -this- tutorial for real horses and after an hour or so of faffing about with knots, something just clicked and everything made perfect sense. I still struggle with the final knot/loop under the chin, especially for horses with tucked heads but I'm getting there!
Oh and a tip for anyone wanting to make their own - the 'rope' material is commonly sold as 'Shambala Cord'. ;)
I used the 0.8mm and 1mm grades on my Julips but you would probably be best with 1mm or 1.5mm for Traditionals. I saw some of it sold simply as 'craft string' in a shop in Glasgow which is what got me in the mood for making them so it's worth keeping an eye out!
I started off making one for Kenway (you can see my horribly crude repair job on his paint rub at the bottom right :( ) which turned out ok, but my next wasn't quite right; the underside was too long! XD
Next up was a plain black one for Harper and a deep red number for Simba.
Kestral wanted a pink one but it ended up too small so now Arkas is being forced into wearing it until I can make him one of his own. XD You'll see that I managed to overdo the chin loop on both Kestral and Kerry's. >.<
The purple cord on Fanta was bought from a wholesale bead shop I recently discovered in Glasgow whereas the other stuff on Agrimony was the 'craft string' which handles a little differently.They're both essentially the same stuff but the Shambala cord on the right is a lot neater I think.
Finally, I found this 0.8mm stuff at my local craft shop and instantly bought three metres of the stuff because I knew I just had to make halters for Jazz and Archie. XD It's so wonderfully over the top but I love it!
I gave Archie's a thicker noseband as an experiment but I really liked how it turned out so I doubt it'll be the last time I do it.
Another item of tack that's been on my to do list for ever is a Newmarket fleece.
It's such an iconic pattern that you'd have thought there'd be loads of it about but there's simply nothing small enough to use for models. Like that was going to stop me however. :P
Ever on the lookout for bargains, I was browsing the local Poundland/£1 shop the other day when I spotted a pair of fleecy socks and leapt at the opportunity. They were just plain white and not really *that* fleecy but they had potential I thought.
I got them home, cut one apart and then set about 'dying' them with copic markers. It went a little stiff but still retained much of its fleecy character and well, Giovanni doesn't seem to mind. :P
I'm definitely going to make a couple of actual rugs and perhaps a shorter quarter sheet as this one absolutely swamps 'vanni and he's one of my tallest Julips! XD
Next on the agenda...christmassy tack!
Long time no blog!
Apologies for dropping off the face of the earth for a while, I had a really stressful college project to get through and it really drained me of all enthusiasm for anything else. I'm really pleased with how it turned out though so I'll hopefully get a post on that up soon.
In the meantime, I have some new tack and accessories to show off as well as a new Julip or two... :P
I bought this lovely Irish Draught as part of the last batch of spares produced under Annabel (The Originals side of Julip is now under new management) and as he is just the most gorgeously shaded buckskin I couldn't resist. I named him Kenway after the protagonist of the latest Assassin's Creed game (which is brilliant by the way, I'd heartily recommend it) and love him to bits.
I added a freezemark to him - JI 13 - as the money I used to pay for him was earned through my very first bit of paid employment at 'Justin Illusions' where I worked for a few days several months ago making giant prop clouds for a theatre production. XD I'll post about that too soon enough, it was great fun!
Alas, since these photos I managed to get a spot of glue on his nearside barrel which has taken some paint off and since his colour is so difficult to match, he's not looking especially happy right now, sorry pony! :(
Another new arrival to EAE came in the form of a lovely little dalmation from the first batch of spares of Laura's reign at Julip. I was really skint so I couldn't afford a horse or pony but a dog was definitely within my budget! He doesn't have a name yet so any suggestions would be welcomed.
Here he is with Lily, my other dally. I love that they are a little different in terms of size - it's one of the things that makes Julips so endearing - no two will ever be exactly the same!
If anyone is interested in getting a Julip when the next batch goes up, keep your eyes peeled on the facebook group as until the website goes live in the new year, that is where they will be found. :D
https://www.facebook.com/groups/198372595637/
In the meantime, I have some new tack and accessories to show off as well as a new Julip or two... :P
I bought this lovely Irish Draught as part of the last batch of spares produced under Annabel (The Originals side of Julip is now under new management) and as he is just the most gorgeously shaded buckskin I couldn't resist. I named him Kenway after the protagonist of the latest Assassin's Creed game (which is brilliant by the way, I'd heartily recommend it) and love him to bits.
I added a freezemark to him - JI 13 - as the money I used to pay for him was earned through my very first bit of paid employment at 'Justin Illusions' where I worked for a few days several months ago making giant prop clouds for a theatre production. XD I'll post about that too soon enough, it was great fun!
Alas, since these photos I managed to get a spot of glue on his nearside barrel which has taken some paint off and since his colour is so difficult to match, he's not looking especially happy right now, sorry pony! :(
Another new arrival to EAE came in the form of a lovely little dalmation from the first batch of spares of Laura's reign at Julip. I was really skint so I couldn't afford a horse or pony but a dog was definitely within my budget! He doesn't have a name yet so any suggestions would be welcomed.
Here he is with Lily, my other dally. I love that they are a little different in terms of size - it's one of the things that makes Julips so endearing - no two will ever be exactly the same!
If anyone is interested in getting a Julip when the next batch goes up, keep your eyes peeled on the facebook group as until the website goes live in the new year, that is where they will be found. :D
https://www.facebook.com/groups/198372595637/
Wednesday, 9 October 2013
Skara Update!
I'm still working on her first photostory (my muse has disappeared again, typical) but for now, here's a bit of a costume update.
When you last saw her, Skara was kitted out in a very basic shirt 'n' trousers combo which, while fine for escaping a burning town and whatnot it just wasn't suitable for everyday adventuring. Her kit needed some work too, so...
First to be tweaked was the costume. I use a lot of custom mods on my copy of Skyrim for the PC and by far, my favourite is -this armour- set I got from the Skyrim Nexus. I didn't want to copy it completely, just get the feel of it so I tweaked things rather a lot.
Here she is in game... (oh and I have a tumblr for all my screenshots now too, -here-)
First to be made was the leather breastplate. In hindsight, I should have made it a bit differently but hey-ho, I'm pleased with how it turned out nonetheless!
I used some tooling leather I had lying about and using a picture of some celtic knotwork I found online, began to carve it out. As often happens when a sudden bout of creative inspiration occurs, I found myself entirely without leatherworking tools so I was forced to improvise. In place of a punch, I had a mini screwdriver and my 'mallet' consisted of a bottle of water. Oh and did I mention that I was doing this not at my desk or in a specific working area but right in front of the PC with my parents trying to watch a film in the room almost directly below? Yeeeah, they weren't particularly impressed with the noise I was making but once I'd dampened the leather I couldn't just stop so they had to put up with it! :P
I'd never really carved leather before and aside from the tremendous noise I ended up producing alongside it, I really enjoyed it. The runes on the back piece say 'shadow' in Dovah script - an apt phrase to apply to a sneakthief archer I thought - and the symbols alongside relate to Skyrim's Thieves Guild.
I didn't have anything to treat the leather with once it was finished so after I had finished carving it I dampened it down and formed it to Skara's body so it would hold its shape once it dried, then I used a combination of acrylic washes and hand cream to keep the leather supple.
Oh and the hat is just fine leather from a charity shop purse (£1, bargain!) with some fur fabric. I had a little scrap of rabbit fur I was going to use instead as it looked nicer but I couldn't get it to sit properly. I've trimmed the fur since the picture too.
Next up was the maille. I'd attempted to make my own using tiny jump rings but gave up after only a row and a half as it was incredibly fiddly so I had to use my backup plan - metal mesh from an old purse. (another charity shop find) One one side it has flat metal pieces but the other side can double as chainmaille if you squint a bit.
Either way, it was only a couple of pounds for the bag so I thought I'd better give it a go. The 'rings' are a little too big and I have another purse of the same material in a smaller size that would look better, only they're in a much more gold/bronze colour which isn't really what I wanted so I'll just have to put up with it for now until I can find some smaller stuff.
I made her a nice cosy looking overtunic out of some £1 shop socks the other day and oooft, I HATE sewing sleeves! I sewed one inside out at least twice and messed up the other once but now that they're done I can't say I'm too disappointed although now that I look at photos I realise I made it woefully too short. Bugger.
Oh well, she probably took them off someone else anyway so we can just say that it wasn't her size...
At some point in her story (which I will commence writing again once this is posted!) she will make her way to the small village of Falkreath which is one of my favourite places in the game. All the guards carry shields with the individual Hold's sigils so I thought it might be nice to make her one too as I tend to use a shield with her and a sword. I made it from balsa wood, with superglue/bicarb for the metal parts. The sigil I drew from a reference picture and ended up having to repaint it several times as it was so fiddly!
She got a sword too, though it's only temporary as I made it in a couple of hours from a wooden coffee stirrer and I'm not confident it'll last long, haha!
(on a strangely related side note, it sits in the above picture on the blade of a German WW1 bayonet that we found recently in my grandpa's garage. This is odd in many ways but mostly because he wasn't around in the First World War and even in the second he served in India on the trains so we have literally no idea how he came by it and neither does he!)
I'll be taking her and Inky down to Dumfries with me this weekend for a week's holiday so I'll be taking lots of photos, weather permitting!
When you last saw her, Skara was kitted out in a very basic shirt 'n' trousers combo which, while fine for escaping a burning town and whatnot it just wasn't suitable for everyday adventuring. Her kit needed some work too, so...
First to be tweaked was the costume. I use a lot of custom mods on my copy of Skyrim for the PC and by far, my favourite is -this armour- set I got from the Skyrim Nexus. I didn't want to copy it completely, just get the feel of it so I tweaked things rather a lot.
Here she is in game... (oh and I have a tumblr for all my screenshots now too, -here-)
First to be made was the leather breastplate. In hindsight, I should have made it a bit differently but hey-ho, I'm pleased with how it turned out nonetheless!
I used some tooling leather I had lying about and using a picture of some celtic knotwork I found online, began to carve it out. As often happens when a sudden bout of creative inspiration occurs, I found myself entirely without leatherworking tools so I was forced to improvise. In place of a punch, I had a mini screwdriver and my 'mallet' consisted of a bottle of water. Oh and did I mention that I was doing this not at my desk or in a specific working area but right in front of the PC with my parents trying to watch a film in the room almost directly below? Yeeeah, they weren't particularly impressed with the noise I was making but once I'd dampened the leather I couldn't just stop so they had to put up with it! :P
I'd never really carved leather before and aside from the tremendous noise I ended up producing alongside it, I really enjoyed it. The runes on the back piece say 'shadow' in Dovah script - an apt phrase to apply to a sneakthief archer I thought - and the symbols alongside relate to Skyrim's Thieves Guild.
I didn't have anything to treat the leather with once it was finished so after I had finished carving it I dampened it down and formed it to Skara's body so it would hold its shape once it dried, then I used a combination of acrylic washes and hand cream to keep the leather supple.
Oh and the hat is just fine leather from a charity shop purse (£1, bargain!) with some fur fabric. I had a little scrap of rabbit fur I was going to use instead as it looked nicer but I couldn't get it to sit properly. I've trimmed the fur since the picture too.
Next up was the maille. I'd attempted to make my own using tiny jump rings but gave up after only a row and a half as it was incredibly fiddly so I had to use my backup plan - metal mesh from an old purse. (another charity shop find) One one side it has flat metal pieces but the other side can double as chainmaille if you squint a bit.
Either way, it was only a couple of pounds for the bag so I thought I'd better give it a go. The 'rings' are a little too big and I have another purse of the same material in a smaller size that would look better, only they're in a much more gold/bronze colour which isn't really what I wanted so I'll just have to put up with it for now until I can find some smaller stuff.
I made her a nice cosy looking overtunic out of some £1 shop socks the other day and oooft, I HATE sewing sleeves! I sewed one inside out at least twice and messed up the other once but now that they're done I can't say I'm too disappointed although now that I look at photos I realise I made it woefully too short. Bugger.
Oh well, she probably took them off someone else anyway so we can just say that it wasn't her size...
At some point in her story (which I will commence writing again once this is posted!) she will make her way to the small village of Falkreath which is one of my favourite places in the game. All the guards carry shields with the individual Hold's sigils so I thought it might be nice to make her one too as I tend to use a shield with her and a sword. I made it from balsa wood, with superglue/bicarb for the metal parts. The sigil I drew from a reference picture and ended up having to repaint it several times as it was so fiddly!
She got a sword too, though it's only temporary as I made it in a couple of hours from a wooden coffee stirrer and I'm not confident it'll last long, haha!
(on a strangely related side note, it sits in the above picture on the blade of a German WW1 bayonet that we found recently in my grandpa's garage. This is odd in many ways but mostly because he wasn't around in the First World War and even in the second he served in India on the trains so we have literally no idea how he came by it and neither does he!)
I'll be taking her and Inky down to Dumfries with me this weekend for a week's holiday so I'll be taking lots of photos, weather permitting!
Friday, 4 October 2013
Exciting news from Julip!
Cross posted from MHL, GJF and the 'Just Julips' FB group. Julip has a new owner!
This should mean that orders will be far easier to make and will get a lot faster and more efficient as they were kinda lacking in that department the last few years.
Monday, 9 September 2013
Shift 17
Unbeknownst to most of you because I've been a really terrible blogger this last year, I've been working behind the scenes on a film.
Don't get too excited, it's hardly oscar material as it's only a student production but it's been an interesting experience nonetheless. We managed to score a nice little budget thanks to Kickstarter (most of which went towards making the set) and you can see a little clip here with Liam, Julia and my Unicorn from last year! (Alas, I wasn't in the day they filmed it or I'd have been there too!)
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/264586587/shift-17
....see below for millions of photos...
....see below for millions of photos...
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