Mirror image

And now for something completely different...


Jeff has a small collection of motorcycle models and during the move, one of the mirrors came off of his favorite one.  Unfortunately he didn't realize it until we'd already thrown away all of the packing material and that box.  We searched and searched on the floor and under things, but couldn't find it.

He was bummed out and not sure what to do.  He mentioned that he might just take the other one off, so at least the bike is symmetrical.  I've had the idea all along to try and make a new mirror for him, but I wasn't 100% sure how I might do it.  I decided to give it a whirl today.

Here's the one that's left.

It's a fairly simple shape, but a bit complex too - if that makes any sense!

I examined it from every angle, then grabbed some wire as close to the right size as I've got, and got to work.

First, I bent the wire as close as I could to the basic shape of the other mirror - only reversed.

Looks sorta right.

To check the lines, I held it against the other one.  I don't think it's exactly perfect, but it's hard to tell without the solld part of the new mirror filled in.

I studied both of them from every angle, did some tweaking and then...

Yay!  I get to use this stuff again!  It will be my first time since the move.

I mixed up a small glob (technical term) and started filling in the wee wire framework.

Getting there...

I missed up another small glob, finished the main part of the mirror and then verrrry carefully formed the wider bits on the mirror stalk.

It's hard to tell at this stage, but I had to say that it already looks better than I thought I'd be able to do.

Now, to let the epoxy dry.  I left it sitting like this; a new technique for drying.  I've never done this before, but it seemed like a good idea.

After it's dry, I'll give it a coat of matte black and see how it looks.  I'm not 100% sure how to do the actual mirrored part, but I'm learning towards a tiny circle of aluminum foil.  ;)


Of course, I had a bit of epoxy left over.  What to do...?  Ah, I know, I'll put some on this guy.  He can be my epoxy dump - he's going to need a lot of it.  Oh, you don't know him yet...  but you will, eventually.  ;)

Buying with a purpose... mostly

A bit of backstory for today's post:

I'm a craft supply hoarder..  yeah, I said it.  I have a TON of craft supplies, to make a TON of things.

I've tried to be more purposeful in my acquisitions though, only buying something if I have a specific project in mind for it, rather than, "That's cool, I'm sure I could use it for something!"  So, with that in mind, I've seen a LOT of awesome things in the many craft stores here and I've managed to talk myself out of most of them.

One thing I've always been able to talk myself out of is fabric.  Sure, I have a pile of fabric with crafting in mind, but it's all stuff to be recycled - such as old sheets and clothes.  As I can recall, I've never actually bought fabric for craft purposes.  

Recently, I had talked myself out of buying a small roll of fabric that had foxes on it.  I love foxes and have a little collection of fox things.  I had the fox fabric in my hands and thought I had to have it.  Then I thought... But what would I DO with it?  I didn't know, so I put it back.

Now, here I am, embarking on a journey to start making Arabian costumes.

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Yesterday, during my "kidnapping", we stopped by a couple of craft stores.  I was curious if I might find any fabric that could work for the costumes.  The stores have hundreds of... squares, maybe they are called?  (I know next to nothing about any sort of actual fabric crafts - quilts and so on)  They were small bundles of fabric in many, many different colors, designs, textures...  I liked the idea of getting some of these little samples of fabric, since I don't need much.  Unable to talk myself out of buying some fabric for the first time...  here's what I ended up with.

A couple of plain pieces with a nice texture.  My idea for these is to try some hand embroidery on them:

I think this is the best type of pattern I found for the specific purpose I was looking for.  I might do some hand embroidery on it too, for more color, texture, and accents:

I thought this one was nice and I have some costume ideas for it too:

These are just gorgeous.  I've had the idea to do a "Jingle horse" costume for a while now and I think they might work for parts of that:

Oh, and the fox fabric I mentioned at the beginning of this post?  They had it, in various colors, in these little packs and...

I got the orange one.

Getting out of the house

Today I was "kidnapped" by a new friend here and we spent the day having fun in a nearby city.  We stopped into several stores, had lunch, and even went to the beach for a bit of beachcombing.  It was a fun day and it was good to get out of the house.

I have some neat crafty/costume-related finds to share in my next post.  For now, here's a random picture of my cat in a sink:

 
(She got out of the house today too.  This evening she went for her first walk outside of our yard on her leash and harness.)

Bit more progress

Quick bonus post:

There's been a bit more progress on the practice presentation set since I typed up the last post...

It's exciting to see it starting to come together!

Practice presentation progress

Here's where the practice presentation set is at the moment:  I have the beginnings of a halter!

There's still more work to be done on it, but I'm happy with how it looks so far.  I have a small box of random "tack hardware", as I've labeled it, and I was very happy to find some chain in there that looks to be a good size.

Even better news is that I have quite a bit of it, so I should have plenty for several presentation sets or costumes.

I also started stringing and beading a handful of tassels for the collar,

and halter.

I struggled a bit with which color beads to use.  So far I've been tying all of my tassels with black thread, since black goes with everything, but for these red tassels I used yellow, to try something different.  I thought about using yellow beads, but alas, the beads I have are nowhere near the same shade of yellow.  Short of redoing the tassels to match a color of bead that I have (certainly a consideration for the future!), I thought the black and silver could work.  I'm still not 100% convinced and might change my mind, but for now that's how they look.

The tassels will also need to be trimmed, they are still the same length as when I made them.  Trimming them all will probably be my last step before sewing them on to the collar and halter so I can make sure how long I want them to be.

I'd like to try my first attempt at shark's teeth charms and cowrie shells, but I might also leave this first set plain and see how that looks.  I want to get to the point where I can do a fully "decked out" costume, but...  baby steps might be better.

Even if I don't do all of the embellishments, I have a lot more work to do - but I'm happy that parts of this latest creation are starting to come together..

Model Horse Profile: A Couple of Bodies

I haven't done a Model Horse Profile post in a while and yesterday's post about the "stunt doubles" got me thinking about how I had found this other little Black Stallion.


Back in South Dakota, a couple of years or so ago, I had popped in to the thrift store on the base.  I hadn't gone in there yet and just happened to decide to stop by one day.  While wandering around, I ended up in the toy section, looking for horse-shaped-objects.  That's where I spotted them: a classic Black Stallion and Johar...  rubber banded together.  :|  I knew I had to save them and was thrilled to see that they were priced at $5 for the pair.

He is actually in decent shape, only a scratch on one side of his neck,

and a missing chip of paint on the opposite shoulder.

She however, it seemed had a harder life, or at least showed it more.  She was covered in black and colored marks.

 I tried to get some of them off, but then ended up leaving her as is.

Still, I kind of loved her pretty face and soft coloring.  I'd never actually had a Johar before.  I've had several Black Stallion and Sagr molds, both OF and as bodies, but she is my first Johar.

I did at one point put a little classic scale blue felt blanket I'd made on her and she's been wearing that ever since.

You can see the two of them together here, on the top right of my (messy) desk in my old studio room.

I've kept them standing next to each other since I got them, it just seemed right. Even here when setting up some of my bodies on the shelves in the studio, I stood these two next to each other.

I find I'm already sort of attached to this pair, even though: 1) I already have a (champion) Black Stallion, and 2) they are both in less than perfect shape.  Goodness knows I have plenty of other bodies to work on before I'd ever need to decide what I'm actually going to do with these two.  Even though I don't consider myself much of an OF collector anymore - and I'd much rather customize than collect - I'm thinking these two will probably stay as they are.  At least for a while longer.

Stunt Doubles

The other day, I was using another horse to stand in as a black horse to consider at different colors of floss for tassels.

I had completely forgotten at the time that I have another classic Black Stallion in my herd of bodies.  They are out on the shelves already - I'm not much worried about and earthquake scratches on them.  So I grabbed this guy today and put him to work as a stunt double for Darkness Falls, as far as sizing.

I did a bit of braiding today to try some different things and start to dial in sizing.  He is still wearing one braid that I was using to test the length of the collar.  I used red for my practice today, because I have a lot of that.  I also figured that since red seems to be a popular color, maybe I'll end up making a red set too to sell or donate/giveaway.

I also pulled this girl off of the body stable to serve as Ashley's stunt double.  ;)

Tomorrow I'm planning more braiding, more tassels, some sewing, and maybe a tiny bit of assembly.