Finished a stich-a-long I'd been working on since January and it looks like shit because it uses a lot of backstitching which I'm not very good at and should have used a low count aida for. Like I know I am a bit harsh on my own work but this one is the biggest disappointment I've had especially considering the time frame, 2 goddess per month or would have been done much sooner but still.
No idea what/when I'm gonna make next, but I am excited.
[Fake-edit: this was in drafts, so I have no idea- ah, I bet it's a picture of my sewing machine.] [e: yap!] For the record, I've got some obnoxious green and pink plaid double lawn that I hope to make into yet another Envelope Dress, and wear to Barbie.
Speaking of having whimsical memory: I don't think I ever shared a photo of that one cotton shawl after completion. My beau's grandma was delighted, and apparently wears it a bunch, which is why I made her that other shawl (link), not all that much smaller in a bulky Caron Cake for winter/variety.
She's a sweetheart, hilarious, and really good at yarn. So if you want yarn for yourself or to gift, consider throwing your business her way; I'll probably indulge in some, as I'm hoarding my custom-dyed skein of Aura. She does ship internationally.
The plaid lawn was actually utilized and is wearable as a dress but remains unfinished, despite completely winging some flutter sleeves and pinning one set on, and Southern blink-and-you'll-miss-it Fall approaching rapidly to put even a completed garment into hibernation.
I'm also not knitting anything since the lap blanket needs more (discontinued) yarn to make a more usable size... I could do my usual and just cobble together a mystery yarn from stash, or I could make the effort to contact folks on Ravelry, ugh... or even just bind off and take it out of limbo, but HAH to that.
Been making an effort to at least reference my planner, and try to do some micro-journaling and doodles to try and spark some creative and organizational habit-building. I got The. Tiniest. template/stencil, it's truly adorable, but I was at least prepared for its size.
pooka on
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lonelyahavaCall me Ahava ~~She/Her~~Move to New ZealandRegistered Userregular
She's a sweetheart, hilarious, and really good at yarn. So if you want yarn for yourself or to gift, consider throwing your business her way; I'll probably indulge in some, as I'm hoarding my custom-dyed skein of Aura. She does ship internationally.
The plaid lawn was actually utilized and is wearable as a dress but remains unfinished, despite completely winging some flutter sleeves and pinning one set on, and Southern blink-and-you'll-miss-it Fall approaching rapidly to put even a completed garment into hibernation.
I'm also not knitting anything since the lap blanket needs more (discontinued) yarn to make a more usable size... I could do my usual and just cobble together a mystery yarn from stash, or I could make the effort to contact folks on Ravelry, ugh... or even just bind off and take it out of limbo, but HAH to that.
Been making an effort to at least reference my planner, and try to do some micro-journaling and doodles to try and spark some creative and organizational habit-building. I got The. Tiniest. template/stencil, it's truly adorable, but I was at least prepared for its size.
With shipping from Hong Kong to Texas, it was about $25
which to me seems like a lot for something nonessential (setting aside build quality or niche status.) I justified it to myself because of those traits and aforementioned utility; still working on just allowing myself things without the self-doubt ritual.
The less you eat, drink, buy books, go to the theatre or to balls, or to the pub, and the less you think, love, theorize, sing, paint, fence, etc., the more you will be able to save and the greater will become your treasure which neither moth nor rust will corrupt—your capital. The less you are, the less you express your life, the more you have, the greater is your alienated life and the greater is the saving of your alienated being.
Apparently it's part of a larger fancy set of stencils with a compass of dubious design/manufacturing/packaging consistency, given the kickstarter comments. So I imagine that's part of why the individual components have been put up for sale.
If it's the kind of thing you'd find useful, I'll vouch for this stencil; it's tiny, but brass thick enough to be sturdy. I've only used it with a mechanical pencil so far, but I'm looking forward to using pens of <0.7mm nibs.
David_TA fashion yes-man is no good to me.Copenhagen, DenmarkRegistered Userregular
Got back to leather working. I've had an idea for another wallet for a while, it's kinda oscillated back and forth, should it be all card slots, a zippered compartment, bill fold, no bill fold, but today I decided to just blast out a prototype. It's very, very ugly (too ugly for pictures), but that's by design, I basically eyeballed all the cuts and didn't care very much about trying to make things neat or pretty.
It's neat to get back to it, and I think I almost know what I want the final thing to look like.
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CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
I always wanted to try a rock tumbler, because rounded rocks are neat. I don't really have a stronger motive than that - I don't intend to do jewelry making or anything. A portion of my yard is currently filled with marble chips, and as I'd much rather have them be rounded landscape rocks than rough pointy ones, I bought my first rock tumbler and have begun working on them.
This was my first batch, just before I started it tumbling:
And these are the large rocks from that lot after two weeks of coarse grit:
I have them sorted by size, so here are the small and medium size rocks too, but these were only in for one week (since two weeks would probably disintegrate them):
I plan to do a pre-polish and polish round for the large stones, just to see how they look afterwards, but most likely the smaller stones are done.
In the tumbler right now is a whole new set of rough, these rocks:
Thus far, hyperfocus has kept me on the collecting, cleaning, sorting, tumbling track, but I imagine that'll run out eventually; still, I only really have to do anything once per week, so it is the sort of craft that works well with an ADHD brain.
I soon realized I would need a lot more coarse grit, though. The original kit I bought had 5lbs of coarse grit, medium grit, fine grit, and 2lbs of polish. I've run out of coarse grit (more on order) and haven't even opened the other boxes. Part of that is something I didn't know about before I got the tumbler, which is that you have to balance your load a certain way, and if I don't have enough material for stage two tumbling then I have to keep going on stage 1 until I do. Even though my starting step 1 has everything perfectly measured so I have a 3/4 filled drum and 1/3 is large, 1/3 is medium and 1/3 is small - which is the proper balance according to the instructions - I of course don't have the same amount of material after a week. Everything is naturally smaller than before, and some of the smallest pieces are completely gone. I do use a healthy amount of hard ceramic cushioning material and most likely when I start step 2 the large rocks will go in only with the ceramic. But the amount of large stones is too small to constitute 1/3 of a 3/4 filled drum, so that's why the new material just went in.
This process has also given me a new appreciation for marble. I still won't ever want it as a countertop or bath tile, but it really is a very pretty rock when it's in small pieces like this. I have some old travertine tile lying around somewhere, and this makes me want to see how that will look after being tumbled.
Edit: Oh yeah, another new thing I learned: a lot of these rocks have big ugly red/brown spots on them, that I originally took for someone splashing deck paint on them. Except acetone didn't remove it. So I looked it up and apparently landscape rocks can get rust on them because of a chemical reaction that happens from runoff. So some of these rocks are rusty.
Cambiata on
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
Two weeks ago, I bought a 1/2yd of blue cotton velvet mill end for cheap (seriously. $3-something with a coupon.)
I thus felt free to machine wash this "dry clean only" fabric with a couple projects in mind: patchwork tablet sleeve, and maybe some luxe pants.
It came through fine, so Sunday I went to maybe buy more and pick up the other colors. Turns out I should've initially bought more if I wanted it, as that formerly-packed bolt was gone; here i thought --from the dearth of local options-- cotton velvet wasn't popular.
(I also thought) I had a couple coupons (spoiler: "NO," per the cashier), and I'm buying for a project, not to stash, so: conservative mindset.
Until the lady at the cutting station says they're $5/yd, oh guess I'm clearing out these bolt ends, twist my arm. Everyone at the fabric table is an enabler, but at least they've got sewing advice to justify it.
Got a flannel for the sleeve inner (& trying to decide if it needs interfacing), and a different flannel for some pj pants. The latter makes me laugh, because the pattern has a knit stitch, and a plaid printed on the bias... on a woven cloth. It is complete nonsense from a structural understanding of those fabrics.
terms as used here:
fabric / cloth: completed material, often made from yarn manipulated in some fashion
yarn (of which thread is an instance, very thin): strand(s) of fiber
pattern: visual effect
structure: physical makeup
1. Knit fabrics --machine- or hand- made-- by default are built from regularly looping yarn back into itself, joining row by row horizontally; one exception to this is fabric made by a tricot machine, aka a warp loom, so.. kind of a woven cloth. But the most immediately recognizable 'knit stitch' is a product of that looped, horizontal method.
On my cloth, that is visually replicated with white dye, oriented consistently enough that it appears to be a white knit fabric with a plaid pattern printed on top -- until you notice the dye isn't evenly applied, and isn't just white but switches to dark blue on top of light bits of the plaid. So it ends up being this very uniform visual repetition with sloppy 'structure' that looks simple and almost real at first glance, but then very obviously isn't.
I also knew it was a flannel when I looked at it -- a fabric that is woven, not knit.
2. Plaids are woven across long rows, using different colored yarns to create the pattern. Those lines of color are inherent to the fabric structure of weaves, with the horizontal yarn (the weft) and the vertical yarn (the warp) crisscrossing at right angles at particular intervals.
My cloth, the visual effect of plaid is printed diagonally to the physical woven structure -- on this scale, an effect that can only exist because it's printed. You can certainly sew on the bias, and turn a true plaid to run diagonally in a garment, but that is not a fabric property a shuttle loom will achieve because it would be a massive pain in the ass, and likely to create a fabric that twists or wrinkles. (Less so on a tapestry loom, but those aren't generally used for garment fabric, which plaid generally falls under.)
It's just bonkers, and I hope everyone involved in making it enjoyed this layered visual joke.
I guess any trompe l'oeil is good for a laugh from me.
So now I've got a little over 5.5 yds of velvet to play with, assuming it doesn't shrink overmuch. I don't want patchwork pants, so maybe I'll go snag a couple yards of the cream or red they still had a ton of.... or, better, wait until after I have the pj pants under my belt; I don't like it, but I can always order online somewhere.
Then I went to Michael's & picked up some acrylic yarn; had a request from an uncle whose head is apparently too large for commercial options, and needs some chemo hats. I'm concerned about our cats' dander 'cause the guidance from Knots of Love makes me feel like I shouldn't even try, but I'm going to keep them in a box whenever I'm not working on them, wash my hands before I do, and tell him to wash the hell out of them before wearing. I need a project, so I guess this is motivation.
Not really, no. Not if cutting (rather than engraving) is your goal. Under $500 you'll find mostly diode lasers, which are primarily good for engraving on wood. They can technically cut wood, but only incredibly thin (like 1/32nd or maaaaaybe 1/16th-inch thick pieces), and it takes forever with lots of passes, and it will burn and singe the wood pretty heavily while doing so.
To actually cut wood, you'll want a CO2 laser, which are MOSTLY in the $1500 to $3000 range. That said, there is like... one that I know if that's around $700 or so -- the OMTech K40. The drawback is that it's a little underpowered (you'll probably be able to cut up to around 1/8-inch before it gets real bad with burning your cuts), and it has a much smaller maximum cutting area than most more expensive CO2 lasers (around 8"x10", I think).
Thanks. That's a bit more than I'd be comfortable spending so I'll just keep buying the occasional model. Ugears type stuff gets so spendy so was thinking of an alternative
Thanks. That's a bit more than I'd be comfortable spending so I'll just keep buying the occasional model. Ugears type stuff gets so spendy so was thinking of an alternative
You should check if there's a makerlab type group in your area. Several have lasercutters.
Sic transit gloria mundi.
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David_TA fashion yes-man is no good to me.Copenhagen, DenmarkRegistered Userregular
Got back to leather working. I've had an idea for another wallet for a while, it's kinda oscillated back and forth, should it be all card slots, a zippered compartment, bill fold, no bill fold, but today I decided to just blast out a prototype. It's very, very ugly (too ugly for pictures), but that's by design, I basically eyeballed all the cuts and didn't care very much about trying to make things neat or pretty.
It's neat to get back to it, and I think I almost know what I want the final thing to look like.
So that didn't go exactly as planned.
The prototype:
As mentioned, ugly, but got the basic idea of an ID window, card slots, one external slot and the line at the top on the outside to break up the visual.
First go at the actual thing:
I wanted to roll the edges, I bought some nice, thin pig skin leather, but the design on the outside was too blocky, the line across the top was too small, didn't like the look, the outside pocket was just a tad short and there's a lot of visible seams that I wasn't happy with. The rolled edges also just added unneeded bulk.
Current go at the actual thing:
Outside is better. I like the contrast, I like the line size. Inside is better spaced. There's two hidden pockets, and the ID window has plastic in it. There's an extra secret feature that unfortunately didn't work as well as I'd hoped out the gate, so I had to jerry-rig a solution that added a touch to the bulk of it, so I probably will have to make a third iteration at some point, but I'm happy to walk around with this, while I actually preferred the prototype to v1 as my EDC. I think I also might make it a tad taller, just to have some room above the top cards. I kinda liked the extra room of the prototype and even though I added 50 mm in height from v1 to v2, I should have added the full 1 cm.
My only concern is that I'm relying a lot on double-sided tape to hold up, there's no stitching holding the top of the plastic in place, there's no stiches blocking the top cards, normally you'd throw in a couple of stitches at the bottom edge of where you'd want your cards to sit, all of that is just double-sided tape in this. There's a bit of actual glue to attach the outside "plate" to the body, but a lot is just tape.
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lonelyahavaCall me Ahava ~~She/Her~~Move to New ZealandRegistered Userregular
CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
edited October 2023
@Elvenshae I believe you are our resident stained-glass artist, and I've had something on my mind for a while I wanted to ask. We have these two very large windows on our stairs, 70.5" x 24.5" Right now these windows can be opened and they have those bars on them that make little squares of the window (sorry I don't know what those are called - I'm not talking about security bars, but just the decorative bars that break a window up) but soonish I will hire someone to replace the windows with picture windows and shatter proof glass. The thing is, I'd really like to have these covered in stained glass. There is no view out of those windows that I need to protect (it leads right to my neighbor's driveway) and rather than having blinds or curtains on these windows, I'd rather they just be open to let light in, so stained glass to give us some privacy while also giving us a beautiful piece of art to look at would be ideal, IMO.
My question is: 1) about how costly would this be for me? There are two windows of that size to cover. 2) Is this something I could learn and do myself for a window of that size? or 3) Is this something I could commission you to do?
Edit: Here are the two windows in question:
Cambiata on
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
Not a glass crafter, BUT, i do know that there's at least one shop in Austin that has stained glass classes. Looks like there's also at least one dedicated studio in your neck of the woods. The local guild is probably a good resource, as well: https://www.saglassguild.com/
You could check the prices on materials from local vendors and extrapolate from there.
So, as far as stained glass goes, there are (largely) two types: Tiffany-style and lead came-style. Tiffany-style is what I do, where each small piece of glass is wrapped in copper foil and they're held together by a bead of solder running along it. The solder also fills in small gaps between pieces for when your cutting and grinding isn't perfect. Lead came style uses long pieces of H- or U-shaped lead bars which are stretched and bent into shape (the "cames"); the glass slots into the bars; and then the bars are soldered together to hold the window together. Lead came is the "original" method, and Tiffany-style is newer.
For really large windows, you'll almost assuredly want the strength that lead came provides. You can cheat a bit with Tiffany-style panels, by incorporating strengthening wires into the gaps between glass pieces or incorportating a number of lead came pieces, but for something ~6' tall that's way up like that, I'd be more comfortable with a mostly lead came design. You could also do something where you lay out a lead came framework to be the "weight bearing" portion and then slot in Tiffany-style panels - that could be cool way to do like a 4 seasons / 4 winds / cardinal virtues / wildflowers of Texas / whatever set, and I'm working on something similar - but much smaller - for my own house.
It's something you could absolutely learn how to do, but it would probably be a couple of years before you were comfortable enough with both your technique and your mechanical skill to tackle that large of a task. That being said, intro stained glass classes are pretty easy to find, and they'll have the gear on-hand you'll need to make your first project - usually something like a 6"x8" or 10"x12" panel or suncatcher. Some places will also do "office hours" type set-ups, where you can come in and work on your project with an experienced stained glass artist nearby to answer questions.
As for cost, you can get a stained-glass-looking plastic window cling from Etsy for a couple of bucks. Real stained glass will be measured in the hundreds to thousands of dollars, varying depending on the size of the project and the intricacy. Like an abstract art piece with large blocks of solid colors would be cheaper than, say, one of these:
(Made by the lady who taught me. That's an ~3-foot diameter circle.)
So, to sum up and answer the questions, 1) probably pretty expensive; 2) yes, but it'll be a sizeable investment in yourself and tooling and require a nontrivial amount of time, but would be badass; and, 3) I do the wrong kind of stained glass and also shipping would be insane.
CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
OK, that helps, thanks man. I didn't realize the "stronger" type of stained glass wasn't the kind you do. I don't think I'd be up to two years of practice to figure it out. I'll start pricing around the people who do that sort of thing locally.
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
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David_TA fashion yes-man is no good to me.Copenhagen, DenmarkRegistered Userregular
Got back to leather working. I've had an idea for another wallet for a while, it's kinda oscillated back and forth, should it be all card slots, a zippered compartment, bill fold, no bill fold, but today I decided to just blast out a prototype. It's very, very ugly (too ugly for pictures), but that's by design, I basically eyeballed all the cuts and didn't care very much about trying to make things neat or pretty.
It's neat to get back to it, and I think I almost know what I want the final thing to look like.
So that didn't go exactly as planned.
So that didn't go exactly as planned.
I, unfortunately, had a brilliant idea. So I had to make the v3 immediately.
I know this just looks like it's a bit rounder on the outside design and a bit taller. It's also a bit thinner, the v2 had the outside design being leather with a pig skin lining, this time the outside design is just pig skin, so we're down to just one layer of leather and the rest is the significantly thinner pig skin. The real advantage is the secret feature, which is no longer jerry rigged to work but is just so smooth now.
It's magic related.
Ah, you've selected the King of Spades, shown here on top of the deck.
We turn it over.
We bring out the wallet, as we put the deck down.
If we now open the wallet, we see...
A playing card prediction I put in my wallet earlier.
The King of Spades.
Tadaa.
There's... still a lot of double-sided tape. So let's see how that holds up. And I think, because it's impossible to properly burnish the edges with all that skin, that I'll eventually paint the edges black. Not varnish or anything, just a Sharpie, but I know from past experiences that it'll smell for at least day or two, so I'm not gonna start that now.
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David_TA fashion yes-man is no good to me.Copenhagen, DenmarkRegistered Userregular
Alright, so, there's just enough minor annoyances with the v4 that it won't be the last one, but it will be the last one for now. This time it's shorter and I added a money clip to handle bills and receipts, since I didn't like how the only thing I could really do was stick half of them in one of the hidden pockets and fold around that.
Front and back. Can't really do the spread shot because of the money clip.
The inside. Three pockets on the right now, main annoyance is that the top right one (the empty one) sits just a bit too high and that was unfortunately entirely on me during the build.
Overall, the size is much better. It's slightly longer, to accomodate the money clip, but because of the clip, it's actually the same length as the v3 when you open them up. I think I like the black leather with the brown pig skin color combo better than both with the natural leather and the brown leather. Black leather also means I can and have blackened the edges (again, Sharpie), which is good because the pig skin has specks of white when you cut it and that would otherwise really stand out against the black.
My joints decided this year was the time to collectively rebel, maybe they're trying to unionize after years of bitching more or less independently, I dunno. But with the ache from my wrists on easing back into knitting, as well as general interest in craft things, I've been eyeing knitting machines again. I've got some leftover mad money, so I'm thinking of investing in the Addi, but it seems even that build quality is spotty, and best to futureproof with an aftermarket main gear or shims. Even with the wear issues, I'd still rather go with the plastic circular machines just to save on space (vs a bed knitting machine.) I wouldn't mind an antique steel sock machine, but I also liked knitting socks the one time I've done it, and being able to literally crank out beanies is appealing.
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David_TA fashion yes-man is no good to me.Copenhagen, DenmarkRegistered Userregular
Not as cheap post pandemic, but Harbor Freight carries nitrile gloves to help with stuff like that.
Quick note, you can now purchase biodegradable nitrile gloves (dunno if harbor freight has them) which I would recommend over regular nitrile gloves for environmental reasons.
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
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David_TA fashion yes-man is no good to me.Copenhagen, DenmarkRegistered Userregular
Alright, I am what is known colloquially as a big, fat, dirty liar. But for a good reason.
If anything can hinder my sometimes shoddy stitching and thing not lining up exactly as I want them, surely, surely it's templates that I can pre-punch.
Outside front. Stitching around the thumb slide and the right edge is entirely for aesthetics
Outside back.
Inside. Right has the same three card slots as the v4, left has a more open design for the slot behind the ID slot, idea being that you'd use it for archived cards, so you can fit more in there and it's easier to reach in and grab the one you want. The top right slot is now positioned low enough to give me a more convincing look to the secret feature.
Leather dye for the edges. I've moved up in the world from a Sharpie.
I have an idea for another secret feature that I want to test out, and I also want to see exactly how thick it would be if I used leather throughout instead of the thinner pig skin, so not quite the last one, but this v5 is the one I'll probably use as my every day carry for the forseeable future.
Amazingly, still quite a bit of double sided tape. It hasn't let me down yet, although... possibly I just haven't given it time to do so.
Every year the company does a charity craft fair, but since covid its been an online auction type deal. I usually do some prints or something
This year they're running a physical seller's event, which sounds like way more fun. But if I signed up for that if have to get stuff printed in advance, and I genuinely don't know if I have the bandwidth. Plus if it's a stall I'd feel like I need to have, like, a bunch of stuff, not just a couple of prints.
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Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
I have my own stash of yarn that will likely be handed down at some point
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A diplomatic way of saying someone died and the family put all their knitting stuff in a bag, which I ended up with.
In this particular case it was from my Grandma who died…last year? Or the year before.
Quality can range from very nice and expensive to…acrylic that’s so cheap it squeaks when you work it.
This particular ball is a 50/50 cotton-soy blend from Italy. No idea if they even still make it.
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
Scarf in diamond brocade stitch pattern
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
working on a matching baby hat
also working on baby washcloths
need to work on my dress.
and have started a colourwork jumper.
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Have you started on the baby?
Designed and made some door signs for my nephews Even and Jens. The color balance is a bit wonky, the the U, R, and N are canary yellow.
Oh hell no. They're not for me.
I've got the one kid, no need for another
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Knit a baby to put the hat etc. on.
[Fake-edit: this was in drafts, so I have no idea- ah, I bet it's a picture of my sewing machine.] [e: yap!] For the record, I've got some obnoxious green and pink plaid double lawn that I hope to make into yet another Envelope Dress, and wear to Barbie.
Speaking of having whimsical memory: I don't think I ever shared a photo of that one cotton shawl after completion. My beau's grandma was delighted, and apparently wears it a bunch, which is why I made her that other shawl (link), not all that much smaller in a bulky Caron Cake for winter/variety.
Awesome person and indie dyer in NZ (https://yarntherapy.co.nz/) is dealing with some nasty ongoing health issues, and is having a sale for another day or two to help fund taking time off to heal.
https://www.facebook.com/100063346353911/posts/pfbid02g5YuB8zim4uhGw8WBSXKjpz6g4R1HYpgQvhVAZ4XP6pwehyR9Q97f7Fp1tgyF6A9l/?app=fbl
She's a sweetheart, hilarious, and really good at yarn. So if you want yarn for yourself or to gift, consider throwing your business her way; I'll probably indulge in some, as I'm hoarding my custom-dyed skein of Aura. She does ship internationally.
Alternately, tipjar donate to her role as Gender Affirming Fairy Godmother, and help folks get a binder/gaffe.
I'm also not knitting anything since the lap blanket needs more (discontinued) yarn to make a more usable size... I could do my usual and just cobble together a mystery yarn from stash, or I could make the effort to contact folks on Ravelry, ugh... or even just bind off and take it out of limbo, but HAH to that.
Been making an effort to at least reference my planner, and try to do some micro-journaling and doodles to try and spark some creative and organizational habit-building. I got The. Tiniest. template/stencil, it's truly adorable, but I was at least prepared for its size.
Jo does do good yarn, this is true.
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omgoodness where'd you get that stencil??
With shipping from Hong Kong to Texas, it was about $25
e: hmm
Stolen from the lottery thread:
If it's the kind of thing you'd find useful, I'll vouch for this stencil; it's tiny, but brass thick enough to be sturdy. I've only used it with a mechanical pencil so far, but I'm looking forward to using pens of <0.7mm nibs.
This one also looked pretty cool, though more limited. https://www.etsy.com/listing/603210596/the-golden-ruler-edc-wallet-sized
It's neat to get back to it, and I think I almost know what I want the final thing to look like.
I always wanted to try a rock tumbler, because rounded rocks are neat. I don't really have a stronger motive than that - I don't intend to do jewelry making or anything. A portion of my yard is currently filled with marble chips, and as I'd much rather have them be rounded landscape rocks than rough pointy ones, I bought my first rock tumbler and have begun working on them.
This was my first batch, just before I started it tumbling:
And these are the large rocks from that lot after two weeks of coarse grit:
I have them sorted by size, so here are the small and medium size rocks too, but these were only in for one week (since two weeks would probably disintegrate them):
I plan to do a pre-polish and polish round for the large stones, just to see how they look afterwards, but most likely the smaller stones are done.
In the tumbler right now is a whole new set of rough, these rocks:
Thus far, hyperfocus has kept me on the collecting, cleaning, sorting, tumbling track, but I imagine that'll run out eventually; still, I only really have to do anything once per week, so it is the sort of craft that works well with an ADHD brain.
I soon realized I would need a lot more coarse grit, though. The original kit I bought had 5lbs of coarse grit, medium grit, fine grit, and 2lbs of polish. I've run out of coarse grit (more on order) and haven't even opened the other boxes. Part of that is something I didn't know about before I got the tumbler, which is that you have to balance your load a certain way, and if I don't have enough material for stage two tumbling then I have to keep going on stage 1 until I do. Even though my starting step 1 has everything perfectly measured so I have a 3/4 filled drum and 1/3 is large, 1/3 is medium and 1/3 is small - which is the proper balance according to the instructions - I of course don't have the same amount of material after a week. Everything is naturally smaller than before, and some of the smallest pieces are completely gone. I do use a healthy amount of hard ceramic cushioning material and most likely when I start step 2 the large rocks will go in only with the ceramic. But the amount of large stones is too small to constitute 1/3 of a 3/4 filled drum, so that's why the new material just went in.
This process has also given me a new appreciation for marble. I still won't ever want it as a countertop or bath tile, but it really is a very pretty rock when it's in small pieces like this. I have some old travertine tile lying around somewhere, and this makes me want to see how that will look after being tumbled.
Edit: Oh yeah, another new thing I learned: a lot of these rocks have big ugly red/brown spots on them, that I originally took for someone splashing deck paint on them. Except acetone didn't remove it. So I looked it up and apparently landscape rocks can get rust on them because of a chemical reaction that happens from runoff. So some of these rocks are rusty.
Two weeks ago, I bought a 1/2yd of blue cotton velvet mill end for cheap (seriously. $3-something with a coupon.)
I thus felt free to machine wash this "dry clean only" fabric with a couple projects in mind: patchwork tablet sleeve, and maybe some luxe pants.
(I also thought) I had a couple coupons (spoiler: "NO," per the cashier), and I'm buying for a project, not to stash, so: conservative mindset.
Until the lady at the cutting station says they're $5/yd, oh guess I'm clearing out these bolt ends, twist my arm. Everyone at the fabric table is an enabler, but at least they've got sewing advice to justify it.
fabric / cloth: completed material, often made from yarn manipulated in some fashion
yarn (of which thread is an instance, very thin): strand(s) of fiber
pattern: visual effect
structure: physical makeup
1. Knit fabrics --machine- or hand- made-- by default are built from regularly looping yarn back into itself, joining row by row horizontally; one exception to this is fabric made by a tricot machine, aka a warp loom, so.. kind of a woven cloth. But the most immediately recognizable 'knit stitch' is a product of that looped, horizontal method.
On my cloth, that is visually replicated with white dye, oriented consistently enough that it appears to be a white knit fabric with a plaid pattern printed on top -- until you notice the dye isn't evenly applied, and isn't just white but switches to dark blue on top of light bits of the plaid. So it ends up being this very uniform visual repetition with sloppy 'structure' that looks simple and almost real at first glance, but then very obviously isn't.
I also knew it was a flannel when I looked at it -- a fabric that is woven, not knit.
2. Plaids are woven across long rows, using different colored yarns to create the pattern. Those lines of color are inherent to the fabric structure of weaves, with the horizontal yarn (the weft) and the vertical yarn (the warp) crisscrossing at right angles at particular intervals.
My cloth, the visual effect of plaid is printed diagonally to the physical woven structure -- on this scale, an effect that can only exist because it's printed. You can certainly sew on the bias, and turn a true plaid to run diagonally in a garment, but that is not a fabric property a shuttle loom will achieve because it would be a massive pain in the ass, and likely to create a fabric that twists or wrinkles. (Less so on a tapestry loom, but those aren't generally used for garment fabric, which plaid generally falls under.)
It's just bonkers, and I hope everyone involved in making it enjoyed this layered visual joke.
I guess any trompe l'oeil is good for a laugh from me.
So now I've got a little over 5.5 yds of velvet to play with, assuming it doesn't shrink overmuch. I don't want patchwork pants, so maybe I'll go snag a couple yards of the cream or red they still had a ton of.... or, better, wait until after I have the pj pants under my belt; I don't like it, but I can always order online somewhere.
Then I went to Michael's & picked up some acrylic yarn; had a request from an uncle whose head is apparently too large for commercial options, and needs some chemo hats. I'm concerned about our cats' dander 'cause the guidance from Knots of Love makes me feel like I shouldn't even try, but I'm going to keep them in a box whenever I'm not working on them, wash my hands before I do, and tell him to wash the hell out of them before wearing. I need a project, so I guess this is motivation.
https://i.fbcd.co/products/resized/resized-750-500/7-8a47aaeb7db368cb41b6f19783ff1423423ee9d3be18f16b0af872995e943d87.jpg
Not really, no. Not if cutting (rather than engraving) is your goal. Under $500 you'll find mostly diode lasers, which are primarily good for engraving on wood. They can technically cut wood, but only incredibly thin (like 1/32nd or maaaaaybe 1/16th-inch thick pieces), and it takes forever with lots of passes, and it will burn and singe the wood pretty heavily while doing so.
To actually cut wood, you'll want a CO2 laser, which are MOSTLY in the $1500 to $3000 range. That said, there is like... one that I know if that's around $700 or so -- the OMTech K40. The drawback is that it's a little underpowered (you'll probably be able to cut up to around 1/8-inch before it gets real bad with burning your cuts), and it has a much smaller maximum cutting area than most more expensive CO2 lasers (around 8"x10", I think).
Edit: Well, it looks like the K40 is actually on sale all over for $600 at the moment, if the size isn't a dealbreaker for you, and that still works for your budget: https://www.amazon.com/OMTech-Engraving-LightBurn-Compatible-Adjustable/dp/B0C49VCVYY/
You'll want to, of course, add a copy of Lightburn, so budget another $60 for that.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
You should check if there's a makerlab type group in your area. Several have lasercutters.
So that didn't go exactly as planned.
The prototype:
As mentioned, ugly, but got the basic idea of an ID window, card slots, one external slot and the line at the top on the outside to break up the visual.
First go at the actual thing:
I wanted to roll the edges, I bought some nice, thin pig skin leather, but the design on the outside was too blocky, the line across the top was too small, didn't like the look, the outside pocket was just a tad short and there's a lot of visible seams that I wasn't happy with. The rolled edges also just added unneeded bulk.
Current go at the actual thing:
Outside is better. I like the contrast, I like the line size. Inside is better spaced. There's two hidden pockets, and the ID window has plastic in it. There's an extra secret feature that unfortunately didn't work as well as I'd hoped out the gate, so I had to jerry-rig a solution that added a touch to the bulk of it, so I probably will have to make a third iteration at some point, but I'm happy to walk around with this, while I actually preferred the prototype to v1 as my EDC. I think I also might make it a tad taller, just to have some room above the top cards. I kinda liked the extra room of the prototype and even though I added 50 mm in height from v1 to v2, I should have added the full 1 cm.
My only concern is that I'm relying a lot on double-sided tape to hold up, there's no stitching holding the top of the plastic in place, there's no stiches blocking the top cards, normally you'd throw in a couple of stitches at the bottom edge of where you'd want your cards to sit, all of that is just double-sided tape in this. There's a bit of actual glue to attach the outside "plate" to the body, but a lot is just tape.
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My question is: 1) about how costly would this be for me? There are two windows of that size to cover. 2) Is this something I could learn and do myself for a window of that size? or 3) Is this something I could commission you to do?
Edit: Here are the two windows in question:
You could check the prices on materials from local vendors and extrapolate from there.
So, as far as stained glass goes, there are (largely) two types: Tiffany-style and lead came-style. Tiffany-style is what I do, where each small piece of glass is wrapped in copper foil and they're held together by a bead of solder running along it. The solder also fills in small gaps between pieces for when your cutting and grinding isn't perfect. Lead came style uses long pieces of H- or U-shaped lead bars which are stretched and bent into shape (the "cames"); the glass slots into the bars; and then the bars are soldered together to hold the window together. Lead came is the "original" method, and Tiffany-style is newer.
For really large windows, you'll almost assuredly want the strength that lead came provides. You can cheat a bit with Tiffany-style panels, by incorporating strengthening wires into the gaps between glass pieces or incorportating a number of lead came pieces, but for something ~6' tall that's way up like that, I'd be more comfortable with a mostly lead came design. You could also do something where you lay out a lead came framework to be the "weight bearing" portion and then slot in Tiffany-style panels - that could be cool way to do like a 4 seasons / 4 winds / cardinal virtues / wildflowers of Texas / whatever set, and I'm working on something similar - but much smaller - for my own house.
It's something you could absolutely learn how to do, but it would probably be a couple of years before you were comfortable enough with both your technique and your mechanical skill to tackle that large of a task. That being said, intro stained glass classes are pretty easy to find, and they'll have the gear on-hand you'll need to make your first project - usually something like a 6"x8" or 10"x12" panel or suncatcher. Some places will also do "office hours" type set-ups, where you can come in and work on your project with an experienced stained glass artist nearby to answer questions.
As for cost, you can get a stained-glass-looking plastic window cling from Etsy for a couple of bucks.
(Made by the lady who taught me.
So, to sum up and answer the questions, 1) probably pretty expensive; 2) yes, but it'll be a sizeable investment in yourself and tooling and require a nontrivial amount of time, but would be badass; and, 3) I do the wrong kind of stained glass and also shipping would be insane.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
So that didn't go exactly as planned.
I, unfortunately, had a brilliant idea. So I had to make the v3 immediately.
I know this just looks like it's a bit rounder on the outside design and a bit taller. It's also a bit thinner, the v2 had the outside design being leather with a pig skin lining, this time the outside design is just pig skin, so we're down to just one layer of leather and the rest is the significantly thinner pig skin. The real advantage is the secret feature, which is no longer jerry rigged to work but is just so smooth now.
We turn it over.
We bring out the wallet, as we put the deck down.
If we now open the wallet, we see...
A playing card prediction I put in my wallet earlier.
The King of Spades.
Tadaa.
There's... still a lot of double-sided tape. So let's see how that holds up. And I think, because it's impossible to properly burnish the edges with all that skin, that I'll eventually paint the edges black. Not varnish or anything, just a Sharpie, but I know from past experiences that it'll smell for at least day or two, so I'm not gonna start that now.
Front and back. Can't really do the spread shot because of the money clip.
The inside. Three pockets on the right now, main annoyance is that the top right one (the empty one) sits just a bit too high and that was unfortunately entirely on me during the build.
Overall, the size is much better. It's slightly longer, to accomodate the money clip, but because of the clip, it's actually the same length as the v3 when you open them up. I think I like the black leather with the brown pig skin color combo better than both with the natural leather and the brown leather. Black leather also means I can and have blackened the edges (again, Sharpie), which is good because the pig skin has specks of white when you cut it and that would otherwise really stand out against the black.
Can you tell?
that or a ball point pen exploded
Quick note, you can now purchase biodegradable nitrile gloves (dunno if harbor freight has them) which I would recommend over regular nitrile gloves for environmental reasons.
If anything can hinder my sometimes shoddy stitching and thing not lining up exactly as I want them, surely, surely it's templates that I can pre-punch.
Outside front. Stitching around the thumb slide and the right edge is entirely for aesthetics
Outside back.
Inside. Right has the same three card slots as the v4, left has a more open design for the slot behind the ID slot, idea being that you'd use it for archived cards, so you can fit more in there and it's easier to reach in and grab the one you want. The top right slot is now positioned low enough to give me a more convincing look to the secret feature.
Leather dye for the edges. I've moved up in the world from a Sharpie.
I have an idea for another secret feature that I want to test out, and I also want to see exactly how thick it would be if I used leather throughout instead of the thinner pig skin, so not quite the last one, but this v5 is the one I'll probably use as my every day carry for the forseeable future.
Amazingly, still quite a bit of double sided tape. It hasn't let me down yet, although... possibly I just haven't given it time to do so.
This year they're running a physical seller's event, which sounds like way more fun. But if I signed up for that if have to get stuff printed in advance, and I genuinely don't know if I have the bandwidth. Plus if it's a stall I'd feel like I need to have, like, a bunch of stuff, not just a couple of prints.
Anyway I've got till tomorrow to decide I guess.