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So it turns out I’m actually pretty good at this Amigurumi thing:

… either that or it’s supposed to be really easy, they were beginner patterns after all :D

Pattern links:
The Gabu from Roxycraft
Amigurumi Tea Cup Pincushion from Lion Brand Yarn

And about the charms from the other day, no it wasn’t the right type of varnish. Rats. It turns out you can get the stuff off with methylated spirit so I’ve borrowed a bottle and it’s working like a dream, hurrah! Going to order a bottle of Fimo branded varnish next, at least if I stick with the clay manufacturer it’s guaranteed to work.

Completely on a whim, I decided to learn crochet to make tiny animals this evening. It’s a unusual choice for me; I tried knitting a few years back and was hopeless at it so I didn’t think I’d try something like this again. But they’re too adorable, I was in the mood to learn something new and figured one hook would be easier to manage than 2 needles. Living 5 mins from town is dangerous; I ran straight to the fabric shop, brought a couple of hooks and spent the rest of the evening learning how to use them. 7 hours later, this appeared:

Pattern: http://amigurumipatterns.blogspot.com/2007/05/cat-mouse.html
He’s a little bit wonky and doesn’t quite look like the original, but it was kinda fun. And now my thumbs hurt. I think I may have to get used to that, tomorrow will be spent scouring the web for other beginner-friendly cute things  (or at least it will be until that varnish dries…).

Varnish still isn’t dry; I know if you use the wrong type with polymer clay it reacts and prevents it from setting but I’m pretty sure it’s the right stuff this time…

I wanted to practice making little charms so I’ve been playing with the clay this week, when I came up with this theme I just went with it.

Progress shot from just after baking. Since then I’ve painted on some extra details and am just waiting for the varnish to dry. The drying rack wasn’t feeling very photogenic but the Cheshire Cat was more than happy to smile for the camera.

I need to stop working on the floor, you can’t tell in this picture but the white clay picked up a ridiculous amount of dust. The white rabbit was so bad I’ve had to paint over it, I tried sanding it out but it wasn’t having any of it. So it is now a deep red rabbit and I’ll have to make another one.

Finally finished the drawers this week:

Not too keen on the handles; I just improvised with stuff already in my beadbox so the colours don’t really match, but they’ll do.

It occurred to me that posting an update about a costume long before you wear it anywhere kind of spoils the surprise, so I’ll be saving that post for a while. That and I’ve still got some polymer clay bits to work on so it’s not really finished yet anyway.

Started on the copper bracelet on Friday, to be honest it’s not quite turning out how I’d imagined it in my head. I’ve used too many green beads, I need to go back and drop a few out to let the metal colour take over again. I’ve also realised the wire I’ve got is a completely different colour to the charms; the wire’s a bright shiny copper whereas the charms are much darker and it doesn’t really look that good. There’s this magic goo called Liver of Sulphur that you can use to oxidise it to the darker colour (and apparently yes, it smells as bad as it sounds) so I’ll have to look into getting some of that.

I did however make a rather nice purple wooden bracelet. I’ll add this one to the gallery when the lighting’s good enough to get a decent shot.

This week I’ve been reading through the beginning of the android SDK tutorials. Secretly I’d rather like a smartphone, but it’s such a bit increase on my current phone bill I’m not sure if it’s worth it. So I thought I’d take a peek and see what else I could do with it other than the usual. Still right near the beginning of those but we’ll see.

You can’t go to a costume party as Alice without a white rabbit. I didn’t want to risk damaging the only one I had, so I made one from stuff we had lying around the house. Took about 5 days but it was so worth it.

The star material is a piece of cotton patchwork fabric I had left over from another project, and the waistcoat’s made of felt (yay no seams!) held shut with those little hook things so it’s removeable. I found a bear pattern online to use as a starting point for the proportions and modified it into a rabbit. The pattern attached the head and arms with moveable joints but I didn’t have enough time to order a set so I altered the design to stitch them straight onto the body. Later I realised I could improvise the moveable joints from some stiff cardboard and a bit of string so I did that for the legs . I wouldn’t recommend using cardboard if given the choice though, it’s fine for one night but not a very sturdy solution and I’m pretty sure it’ll break sometime in the future

White fleece fabric, patterned cotton material, felt, ribbon, card, buttons, ballchain
Based on a pattern of “Red” bear, designed by Maryke Wright (site offline)