More Paper

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Just sharing some more paper: now with more happy orange!

Project 10/11/12+: Paper

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Materials:

• Scrap paper
• Water

The (basic) materials list is misleading. This project is the big one. I'm really enjoying it, so I'm staying on this one for the rest of the term.

If you've ever made paper, you know it's a fairly complicated process. I followed the instructions here, with a few differences:

• I did not have a blender. I tore my paper scraps up very small and soaked them in water for 2-3 days. To help stave off any mold, I added a few drops of essential oil to the mix. (My paper smells nice!)
• My screen is made out of a small picture frame. (Incidentally, I found out said frame was poorly glued together when it fell apart upon immersion in the paper slurry. Now it's held intact by pushpins.)
• Some of my felts are made out of left over t-shirt material from my earlier projects; some are pieces of a ShamWow. I like the ShamWow felts better because they are very absorbent.
• I used a ShamWow piece instead of a sponge. (Hey, I worked with what I had.)

After what seemed like forever ripping up and soaking bits of paper (FOREVER, I tell you; for two weeks I was shredding sheets of paper while watching movies with my friends), I covered my dorm room desk with a trash bag and came up with this:


My batches were limited by the number of felts I had. (I've since purchased some cheap fabric to make more.)

For the second batch, I sandwiched the paper between a few sheets of plastic to be pressed and dried:


I don't like the texture; it's weirdly smooth (minus the bubbles) for handmade paper. The grain created from the screen and felts seems more natural:



I sprinkled some flower seeds into the next batch; after the paper is used, it can be buried and it will grow:


If I do that again, I'll buy some more attractive seeds. The ones I had just look like bits of fly poop.

My last batch had a little bit of glitter in it (not too much, I didn't want it to look like Lisa Frank vomited on it or something):



More paper on the way!

Project 9: Jewelry/Accessory Organizer

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(Excuse my hula hoop; space is tight in a dormitory.)

Materials:

• 1/2 inch wire mesh
• Molding hooks
• Open S hooks

I really, really needed this. If you saw the sad state of my jewelry collection before this, you would understand. Having all my accessories out in the open forces me to keep them neat, and it's helpful to be able to look at everything I own at once when accessorizing an outfit.

This is so easy: just purchase some mesh at the hardware store (watch out, the edges can be sharp), hang it on the wall, and hang all your stuff on it. Necklaces and bracelets are hung by open S hooks, but you can hang earrings and pins by simply sticking them through.

The most difficult part of this project was probably untangling all of my necklaces, if you don't include losing a few small bits of metal clippings in my carpet and potentially getting one stuck in my foot later. (Eeek, I should vacuum.)

Project 8: Lightning T-Shirt

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Materials:

• T-shirt
• Acrylic paint
• Fabric medium

I'm somewhat obsessed with lightning motifs. The design for this shirt has been in my head for a while; I knew it was more suited for a DIY project then to waste my time looking for a version for sale.

It was fairly simple – I marked off the shape in masked tape, mixed the paint and medium, and went at it. After it was all dry, I hand washed the shirt, roughing it up a bit in the water to eliminate some of the paint's stiffness.

The pictures don't pick it up well, but the blue has some silver mixed in for a sparkly metallic finish. I also like the irregularities in paint color and line. I'm all about the irregularities.

Project 7: T-Shirt Necklace 2.0

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Materials:

• 2 t-shirts

That's right, I made another one. This t-shirt necklace is fuller and much more interesting. I like the color combination a lot too; it goes with my hair!

So you can reproduce the results, I will provide an addendum to the tutorial I previously posted:

Step 6.1: Repeat steps 1-6 with another t-shirt.
Step 6.2: Select three loops and cut each of them. You should now have three long strips of fabric.
Step 6.3: Tie (or sew) these strips together at one end. Braid them together, stretching the braid as you go so it doesn't end up way shorter than the loose loops. Tie/sew together the other end.
Step 6.4: Tie/sew the ends of the braided section together.
Step 6.5: Repeat steps 6.1-6.4 until you have the desired amount of braided strips.
When you reach step 7, gather both the plain and braided loops. When you tie them together, make sure the strip covers the tied/sewn ends of the braid.

Pretty!

Project 6: Jar of Paper Stars

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Materials:

• Paper
• Jar

You can find a tutorial to make these by searching on Google, but I learned how by dissecting one a friend made me. I cut the paper strips by hand and paper cutter, much cheaper than buying star paper (it's usually imported and pretty expensive.)

At first folding these a little difficult (I had a number of them that wouldn't puff out) but I quickly got the hang of it. Warning – these things are addictive! If only there was a practical use for them...

With flash

So cute!

Project 5: Hollow Book

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What do we have here? It appears to be an ordinary book:

A dirty, beat up book.


But wait!


Materials:

• Hardcover book
• Glue
• Acrylic paint
• Tea

It's one of those exciting secret hollowed-out book. Look at all my exotic contraband:


Yes, that is an Altoids tin, a package of candy cigarettes, an Exacto knife, a tube of peanut butter, and army men. Why do you ask? I am clearly a sexy and mysterious person.

After I hollowed out the book (following this tutorial) I painted the inner cavity to make it look more finished. It doesn't turn out well in photos, it just ends up looking like a black void:


After the hollowing and painting, I decided that a brand-new looking hollow book was not nearly as exciting as an old one. I used various methods to get the effect above, including sanding, filing, washes of acrylic paint, and tea staining.

Funny story about the tea staining (and a bit of a failure on my part): I like tea staining paper with loose tea leaves because once brushed off, they leave a cool speckled effect. However, I applied the leaves over the glued-together edges of the pages, and now they won't come off:


Oh well. It still looks kind of cool, ne?

Project 4: Plush Sticky Bomb

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Materials:

• Craft felt
• Thread
• Polyfill

I am behind on posting my daily projects because of computer problems and because some of them are turning out to be much more time-consuming than originally expected. I'm working on it!

This project, my friends, is a plush version of a sticky bomb from one of my favorite video games, Team Fortress 2. A quick summary:

This character:

fires these:
out of one of these:

They stick to things. When you press a certain button, they do this:
You would have never guessed, right?

Anyway, I the tutorial for the plush version is right here. It took so much more time to construct than I thought it would! It must be all the fiddly cutting and hand sewing. I'm proud of it even though it turned out sort of messy – the amount of felt pieces on this thing kind of disguise all the imperfections.


If I ever do this again, I want to try making the spikes out of Velcro hooks so it actually sticks to things! Wouldn't that be awesome?

Project 3: Bird Painting

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Materials:

• Canvas board
• Found/recycled objects
• Acrylic paint

This painting is for a friend of mine. It was created through many alternative techniques; I finger painted, smeared, sprayed, dripped, poured, and sponged, only using a limited amount of brushwork. There's a feather embedded in the paint as well as some glitter. I still have to seal it, though – all I have is satin finish fixative and I want this to be matte.

A little back story on me and painting:
For most of my life, I took art classes – drawing, painting, sculpting, whatever. I find the techniques I weren't taught the most satisfying, however; there's just something gratifyingly visceral about dipping your fingers right in the medium and following your instinct rather than planning something. I find painting realistic pictures boring. Any artist who has been through as much training as I have can manage that; I take my joy from unrestrained creative activity rather than the product.

It's usually how I work, in any case. My original ideas for paintings are always much different then the final work; my thoughts are always evolving. The process of creation defines the outcome rather than a preconceived plan. I always use tons of paint; this piece took so long because there are so many layers of paint I had to let dry. I like seeing a piece evolve layer by layer, but I also like experimenting. Sometimes I take risks, try techniques that don't work, so I just have to deal with my mistakes in the next layer. I barely ever feel like a piece is "ruined", it's just going in a new direction.

I take the same sort of joy from painting that kids do. Children don't care about whether they are "good" painters, they just have fun doing it! Why shouldn't we be the same way?

Project 2: T-Shirt Necklace

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Materials:

• T-shirt

This is a massively easy project that I've been meaning to do for a long time. Since my Friday project is taking a long time, I decided this would be a quick fix for Thursday.

The necklace itself is inspired by the Necklush, an accessory which has recieved a bunch of press. Seriously? $24-$74 for something I can make by cutting up a shirt I got at the thrift store? I think not. Save your money; do this:

1. Get a t-shirt. It shouldn't have any seams down the torso. The larger the shirt, the longer your necklace will be. Plain old unisex shirts (like Hanes Beefy T, etc) work the best. Freebie shirts are great for this.
2. Lay it out flat.
3. Cut a straight line under the armpits. I used a ruler, but you can just as easily freehand it.
4. Cut off the bottom seam.
5. Cut horizontal strips off the remaining section to form loops. Mine were a little wider than an inch; if you want strands of different thickness modify accordingly.
6. Stretch out the loops (like a rubber band). The jersey fabric will roll up and won't fray.
7. Gather the loops. Cut a strip of fabric about an inch wide from the remaining material. Wrap it around all the loops several times and tie a tight square knot to secure. Trim the ends.

That's it! As you can see, my necklace isn't as full as most of the Necklushes, but I could easily have made it with more t-shirts to get more volume.


Any questions?

Project 1: Crocheted Kitty Hat

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Materials:

• 1 1/2 skeins Sirdar Big Softie yarn in Flossie 340
• 1/4 skeins Sensations Sumptuous yarn in 49322

The inaugural post on this blog is actually a leftover Christmas gift for my boyfriend. Yes, it is pink and has kitty ears. I used the Jayne Cobb Hat by Kim Werker as a basic pattern, then went from there.

As a fairly new crocheter (I learned this fall semester), this hat marks a few firsts. First hat, first item I crocheted by request, and the first time I've crocheted with such bulky yarn. I'd heard about the quick-hooking joys of using super bulky weight but never actually experienced it, and whoa, this project flew. From start to finish this hat only took a few hours, including weaving the ends in and knotting the ties.

Close up of the stitchery, for those of you who know/care about that sort of thing. Dime for scale. The original pattern had the body of the hat in half double crochet and the earflaps in single, but I worked all the white portions in single because that yarn was much fatter than the pink.

Ears! I just improvised them as I went along. Very easy to do in crochet. I think that crochet is better than knitting for sculptural work since you usually only hold one stitch at a time on your hook. Then again, I'm biased because I can't knit to save my life (not for lack of trying, mind you).

This project was a definite success: I liked it, the recipient liked it, and my mom says she really likes it too. :) What do you think? If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask in the comments.