Blog • Page 28 of 31 • Jessica Smith Creates

July 12, 2013October 14, 2018

Proceed with the ‘splaining

Did Claudia’s Farnsworth not disintegrate in the penultimate episode of this season? And then reappear in the season finale?

farnsworth - front

Well, whatever happened, I’m finished my version.

farnsworth - lens

I received my lens yesterday, which nearly completed my prep.

I still had not managed to solve the problem of the combination lock, as I needed to see how big the lens would be within the tin before I could move on to cutting up the microphone tip and making a combination lock.

There were a few circles of the microphone mesh, and a few ideas about the lock that circled through my head.

With a little work from my gold paint pen, I ended up using a rubber piece that I had cut off the microphone while I was taking it apart.

farnsworth - notebook cover2

The plan came together quite quickly last night.

farnsworth - notebook cover

First the cutting out of the black plastic piece. I had the cover from an old black Fivestar notebook handy, which I use to keep wall decals safe as I travel to and from dorms and college and such.

fansworth - mic cut

I had some extra space in the bottom of the tin that I could raise the plate structure up, so it looked more 3-d and still manage to close. I did this with a few layers of cardboard. I had to cut out a space for the wire mesh, though, so it would sit flush with the cardboard surface.

Then I cut out the circle to reveal the wire mesh, and glued on the “tuner.”

farnsworth - lens glue

The lens needed to be glued to some paper, to give it that blank screen look.

The assembly continued, and all pieces were glued together with super glue, which currently is my only adhesive option.

farnsworth - top

And I got my finished product! Do you like it?

farnsworthleft1

Edited: As of right now this is the end of this project. Follow it from its inception, to further planning, to sanding and painting, to the wirework, to the gold detailing, to (this) the gluing of all the components together.

July 8, 2013August 25, 2022

Off the wrist of a handsome Time Agent

So… I made a kind of vortex manipulator.

link

At least it feels like I made a vortex manipulator… perhaps a steampunk time manipulator would be a better term.

As in, “you forgot to wear me, so I’m giving you the wrong time” manipulation.

I bought this awesome self winding mechanical watch from Ebay, and had already been considering working with leather, because its just so cool, so I made myself a watch-band/cuff.

That vaguely looks like a vortex manipulator.

**And I would like to say in advance that all the leather I have bought so far have been remnants from companies, so I’m using what would have been thrown in the trash and discarded to source my minor projects, not whole skins. I know about the ethical dilemmas surrounding leather, and I have not yet finalized my opinions.

Many fun attempts with the leather came first, punching and cutting and drawing, and all sorts of amusing and loud means. I needed to get a feel for how the leather would work before starting in on the project.

I found out that the leather I had bought previously was not the right type of leather for tooling – the term for creating designs on leather by cutting and punching.

Then I bought more leather, the right kind of leather.

I cut out my cuff base out of dark brown leather, and roughly cut off my pieces for my designs out of the tooling leather.

I dutifully wet the leather, then I drew out my design. I have been doing pretty well just drawing free hand with a pencil, which won’t transfer the graphite on the wet surface.

Then I used my swivel knife to cut out the design

I used my newly acquired old leather tools to make my pretty patterns on them. One side is inspired by the TARDIS explosion painting, which I adore, and the other has some circular Gallifreyan components, inspired by these fan grammars.

Because my wrist is really tiny, I knew I was going to have a lot of bulk around the top of the wrist, where the watch itself would lay. In order to reduce this, even just slightly, I thinned out the leather on both sides of the tabs at the top of the tooling leather. The tooling leather attaches around the watch with an itsy bitsy rivet. Ain’t it cute?

The hole punch came out and I punched a bunch of carefully placed holes for my rivets and snaps, cut down some of the leather at the end of each strip, and put it all together!

It doesn’t lie flat very well, because the tooling leather takes a little more depth to make it around my wrist, so its a bit more three dimensional.

It looks awesome on my wrist though! I’m very happy with it!

Now I just need to train it to give the correct time…

Linked to Steam Ingenious’s July Link-up

July 2, 2013October 14, 2018

I’m not laughing at you, I’m laughing with the horse.

So I’m continuing work on my Farnsworth as I’m waiting for my new serger to decide it wants to sew.

If I have the option of not handsewing, I’ll avoid it.

With very few exceptions.

So I got the wires all glued in, though I’m not sure how permanent the super glue will end up being.

We’ll see!

farnsworth - left

I received my gold paint pen, and almost immediately got to work on some detail work.

farnsworth - full

The handwriting inside is a little too off center for my liking, but it will do for this project. If I ever redo the Farnsworth, I’ll be a little more exact and a bit more careful.

farnsworth - mic

Feel free to ignore my artsy photography choice above. I’m working on it.

Also I took apart a broken microphone, and will be using the microphone wire mesh for the same basic purpose on my version.

I just need to figure out how to cut it.

Perhaps I need some wire cutters.

Edited: As of right now this project is finished. Follow it from its inception, to further planning, to sanding and painting, to the wirework, to (this) the gold detailing, to the gluing of all the components together.

June 30, 2013

Whooshes and Swooshes

It’s been a month or two since I updated you on my TARDIS necklace.

It’s not quite my fault. Moving out of a dorm in another country to head home, then leaving nearly immediately to go to an internship practically just as far away. Things get away from you. I’m just happy I managed to remember to pack beading supplies for this leg of my travels.

But, I remembered to pack white thread this time, so I won’t be using clear beads and black thread. It was definitely on my list of things to not forget, in my whirl of packing and unpacking.

I’ve started again, this time with clear beads and white thread, and I’ve covered one faux pearl already. The faux pearls are how I am keeping the shape of the time rotor. I happen to have both silver and gold pearls on hand, but because the costume is mostly gold/warm toned, I’m sticking with the gold ones.

But the title of the post is whooshes and swooshes. We’ve gotten the whoosh, the sound that the TARDIS’s time rotor makes.

Now for the swoosh.

I’m working on part of my Belle necklace, a kind of beading muslin, much like the first time rotor necklace I made.

I already had some 15/0 seed beads on hand, which was my part of the original plan (in my head at least).

I began to work on the pattern I had created, but I realize now in hind sight that perhaps I should have started the planning on paper designed for peyote stitch designs. Because my hand drawings are not even or turning out very swoosh shaped…

I almost feel like I’m making a Pacman block.

I’m planning on printing out a sheet or two of peyote stitch paper, using this handy print out.

I’ll be working on these for the next few days, at least until I receive the thread for my serger! Then I’ll get to work on some of my other costuming and other sewing plans!

June 23, 2013August 19, 2018

Creative Process

Today I’m here to tell you all about my beadweaving process.

Welcome to my business notebook. My business notebook makes up for its lack of, well, business figures with lovely sketches of necklaces. Necklaces that I plan to make in the future.

Like this one! It’s a rough sketch of the necklace I’ll be working with for this post.

So this necklace will have a focal of a square metal worked flower thing. See, my grandmothers gifted me with some old earrings, mostly clip-on ones, but because I have little ears, most of these were too big for me, and the ones that weren’t clips won’t work for me because I’ve never pierced my ears.

My favorite ones are the sparkly diamond ones, but I’m saving those for some very special necklaces. The ones shaped like drops are probably going to be involved in my TARDIS costume.

Here are the beads I brought with me on my study abroad trip. There are definitely enough to make two necklaces, and I brought along a second pendant for that reason! The rectangular bead next to the square focal will be for the other necklace, and a number of the beads will be more involved with that one.

Here’s the plan. I’ll show you pictures of the in progress. My process is more visual than anything else.

Here it is about halfway through. This is still a testing phase, making sure all my plans actually look good in reality, instead of just in my head.

The problem with having a small workplace is that I can only do one project at a time, in the space. In the middle of the necklace making, I had to use the desk for something else, so here is all of the beads and the in-progress necklace packaged up in a small bag!

And here is the finalized necklace. Its a beautiful piece and drapes quite nicely.

When I return home to my other beads and necklaces, I’ll be putting the necklace up for sale! I’ll post the link when I get it up for sale!

June 22, 2013

What light from yonder umbilicus breaks?

I’ve made a bit of progress on the Farnsworth, and the painting is all done. That’s always a big plus.

But today I want to show you what progress I’ve made on something else.

This summer I don’t have access to my normal sewing supplies, as my summer employment required a flight. My sewing machine would not terribly like my suitcase. And its a bit too heavy. And I’ve got too much fabric to fit into one suitcase, let alone bring clothing to wear along with it.

This also means that I’m not planning on doing any subtle cosplay, as the major components of my wardrobe aren’t with me. And its much too hot here to wear jeans.

But none of this has stopped me from working on my plans.

It just happened to… slow them.

I bought this sewing kit from Amazon, and its a nice little starter kit. If you are new to sewing, and want something to work with for simple handsewing, this may be a good deal for you, but mostly I needed the scissors and the pins. I’ve had experience with enough unsharpened scissors and cutting fabric for me to need to invest in another fabric pair, even if the kit overall was cheap.

But anyway, back to the point of this post. I have begun work on my white vest for my Claudia costume.

I was going to try to find an online pattern, and while waiting for my Amazon package I did some extensive searching, but I came up with very few patterns that were close enough to help. I decided instead to make a pattern based on my measurements.

This is what I came up with.

I knew it would be a bit wonky, because I’ve rarely created a pattern that was wearable the first time, so I decided to make a muslin. I took an old sheet, traced my pattern, and gave some extra fabric space in the areas I suspected needed to be enlarged.

I unfortunately forgot to take a picture of this step. I was too excited and started sewing immediately. Hand-sewing.

On the plus side, my stitches are becoming more even?

Here’s what the muslin looks like when I’m wearing it. For being a first drafted pattern and handsewn by a machine lover, I think its a pretty good effort! I’m not quite sure if I want to do anything about the shoulders. The muslin makes the shoulder seam lift up a bit, and I think that might look okay with the final fabric. I’m going to increase the width of the fabric in the front, because I want to have a fairly wide inside seam there, so there is a nice appearance when the collar is folded over.

The front will match, I promise, it just was being too picky for pictures.

I found this awesome fabric a few years ago for my quilting stash, but I haven’t quite figured out how to use it yet. Granted, I’ve been without my sewing machine for all but two months of the year since then.

The fabric is a neon yellow-ish Gatorade color, with a floral pattern in black. Kind of a combination of this fabric, if this one was the background yellow. And without the stripes.

Claudia would love this fabric.

I’ve decided to line my vest in said fabric.

I’ve loved the idea of lining demure jackets and coats in crazy fabric, and this is my first opportunity to try.

I’ve got a heavy lead on a bid for a serger machine on ebay, and so I’m holding off until I know the outcome of that before I cut the fabric and move on, but if I am to handsew it, I’ll be using this technique to build a sturdy garment.

So that’s what I’ve got and where I’m going. Now that I’ve decided on my lining, the project won’t be fully finished until August, when I get back to my fabric stash.

Next step? Seam rip the muslin.

June 17, 2013October 14, 2018

Loving the Fugue

I’d certainly not want to clean out the Warehouse’s neutralizer annex.

My first coat of paint is complete!

farnsworth - dsc09354

Yesterday I had completed the coat on the outside of the tin, and today I painted the inside.

farnsworth - wire

Here’s the wire that I had bought to imitate the squiggle pattern on the left side of the Farnsworth.

link

Did you know there are 13 of those squiggles? I thought it was clever.

farnsworth - cutting-implements

I did my best to straighten the wire out, and then I clipped a piece off. I don’t have my wire cutters on hand at the moment, so I grabbed my scissors and tried my best. Then that didn’t work out, so I brought out a trusty craft knife (which I was super careful with, by the way). Still needing something stronger, I used my nail clippers, which did the trick with some bending at the connection point.

I managed to get the plastic coating off of the wire with the craft knife, and started bending. I ended up using a glasses case for some leverage.

farnsworth - bending

I’m only using seven squiggles because my wire is thicker than I had thought, and this many provides the right aesthetic appeal.

farnsworth - finished-squiggle

If the paint was dry enough, I would have arranged them on the tin for you, but unfortunately its still a bit wet.

I still haven’t quite decided how I’m going to imitate the tube from side to side and the rubber washer like thing, but I will be working on that.

Edited: As of right now this project is finished. Follow it from its inception, to further planning, to sanding and painting, to (this) the wirework, to the gold detailing, to the gluing of all the components together.

June 16, 2013October 14, 2018

Elbow Grease

It’s hard work to sandpaper the finish off an tin.

Satisfying, but it requires a fair amount of elbow grease.

farnsworth - dsc09339

I took a trip to the hardware store yesterday to pick up some supplies.

I started using the sandpaper on the tin, starting on the bottom, which cleaned up fairly well. farnsworth - dsc09333

The sides of the tin were much harder, with the curves and the lid hinges.

I gave up mid-way on the sides and started on the top.

farnsworth - dsc09336

Once I was finished with the entire outside, I scored the inside a bit with sandpaper.

fansworth - dsc09337

If you haven’t gotten altoids in a while, you may not know that the top of the tin is actually raised, both with the banner, and the word Altoids. I want to have a Farnsworth, not a Farnsworth masquerading as an Altoids tin.

I tried lightly pounding the tin with a mallet to lower the raised part. Key word being tried. I think I flattened it a bit, but I decided to stop when it wasn’t working out very well.

farnsworth -

Then I started the painting.

I looked at Claudia’s Farnsworth a little more in a few different episodes and realized that the casing is entirely black, inside and out, so I had bought some Rust-oleum paint and started working! I’ve got the first coat on the outside, and tomorrow will be working on the inside. Maybe two coats, and it’ll be good to go!

Then comes the inside work, which will be the fun part!

Edited: As of right now this project is finished. Follow it from its inception, to further planning, to (this) sanding and painting, to the wirework, to the gold detailing, to the gluing of all the components together.

June 12, 2013November 18, 2018

Busy Bee

So you know when you’re buying stuff on Amazon and you just need like twenty cents to get your Free Super Saver Shipping?

That was me today. So I bought one of these. And I don’t know what it is. Or how I’ll use it.

But I will find a way to!

farnsworth - DSC09302

I bought an altoids tin, and am working on eating the candy up, so I can use the tin.

We’ll see how long that takes!

link

Do you see that tiny looking lens in the center of the Farnsworth? I’m assuming that is the camera lens, otherwise I would have to wonder how the image is projected to the other person’s Farnsworth.

I’m hoping to use a scrapbook bubbles for that lens, on top of of a mirror-like paper piece. This will then attach to the black plastic I’m hoping to use for the black top layer of the right side of the device.

By scrapbook bubble, I mean one of those little lenses that you can put over pictures to make that part of the picture a little bit magnified.

Well, I’m sorry to report that I haven’t worked on the sweater. But I will. It’ll be happening. I hope.

But I’m happy to report that I’ve finished the altoids, and I’m ready to start working on my Farnsworth!

Edited: As of right now this project is finished. Follow it from its inception, to (this) further planning, to sanding and painting, to the wirework, to the gold detailing, to the gluing of all the components together.

May 31, 2013August 19, 2018

A’collaring we go!

So it’s been a while since I’ve given you an update on my crocheted sweater. It’s moving along, but I took a break during exams and the past week.

Two weeks and a half a week of extra study time was loads of time to procrastinate. I’m an equal opportunity procrastinator, to be honest. Actually studying and crocheting the sweater.

So here’s what I’ve got so far! I’ve finished the vest part of the sweater, and I sewed up the shoulder seams after blocking. It fits well enough around the arms, so I moved on to creating the collar.

I’ve completed 21 whole blocks out of 36, and I’ll then have 10 triangles to make.

I’m hoping to add at least two blocks a day for a while. Then it’ll just be waist ribbing, and arm and collar edging, and then the sweater will be done! Still a lot, but progress is important nevertheless!