Inktober 2018

I've been wanting to improve my drawing skills, and this year decided to participate in the #inktober challenge on Twitter, and followed the suggested prompts. I'm pretty proud of myself for following through and completing all 31 days.

I learned that I don't much care for using Micron 005 pens for coloring (that's really not what they're for), but they are nice for line work. Most of the illustrations I did do the initial drawing in pencil, then inked it. Some I used a photo reference, some not (some I really should have). I used pencils for color most of the time, and usually used my old Crayola pencils, because I forgot I had the much nicer Prismacolor set I got for Christmas (sitting literally within arm's reach). I like coloring with pencils, because the color is so much softer and more blendable. Anyway.

Here, in one place are all my crude, rude, and in some cases socially unacceptable Inktober ink drawings. I got fairly political and I'm very progressive. Gotta exercise those 1A rights while we still have 'em...

For size reference, the sketchpad I used was this one:

3.5 x 5" Strathmore 300 Series, fine tooth surface

#1 Poisonous, #2 Tranquil

#3 Roasted, #4 Spell [Note: the Greek is thru Google Translate, and I'm sure it's rough]

#5 Chicken [if you don't recognize this, go read this blog post – but pee first]

#6 Drooling

#7 Exhausted, #8 Star

#9 Precious & #10 Flowing

#10 Flowing – if felt like cheating to include two prompts in one, so I did Flowing again

#11 Cruel

#12 Whale

#13 Guarded, #14 Clock

#15 Weak [Mitch O'Connell]

#16 Angular, #17 Swollen

#18 Bottle

#19 Scorched, #20, Breakable

#21 Drain

#22 Expensive, "Ignorance cost more than education..." – Lord Avebury, John Lubbock

#23 Muddy, #24 Chop [Executioner is wearing a pink "pussy" hat.]

#25 Prickly [an unflattering, but not inaccurate, self-portrait]

#26 Stretch, #27 Thunder [my dog, hiding under my desk because of thunder]

#28 Gift, #29 Double

#30 Jolt

#31 Slice

Bonus from 10/2: "In response to a Tor.com article:
'The Peril of Being Disbelieved: Horror Fiction and the Intuition of Women'"

Simple Vertical Hanging DIsplay

I was struggling to find a good way to display headbands for sale, and Pinterest was not particularly helpful. I saw something that was interesting, but also posed its own problem: it needed to hang, itself. But the shape of it made me think of something else: tomato cages.

So that night I ran to the hardware store and got a galvanized steel tomato cage (it was about $5, and sturdier than the usual dark green ones) that had 4 rings. It will sit on the 4th ring as my base, leaving 3 rings to use for display, and the 4 exposed wires at the top (that I trimmed, using a pipe cutting tool) would then be stuck into a styrofoam head to finish the display.

I used a can of spray paint I had from another project to paint it. Some of the wires were welded unevenly into the top ring, and it was going to tear up any table covering I set it on, so I bought some thick batting as a remnant and some clearance ribbon. I cut the batting into strips about 2 inches wide (I only needed 2 strips), and wrapped it around the top (soon to be bottom) ring. Then I wrapped the ribbon around that, securing it with hot glue. It's 2 1/2 inch ribbon, 5 yards, and I used the whole spool. (I did fold the ends over a few times to enclose the raw edges.)

Painted tomato cage, wrapped tier.

The styrofoam head was one that I had, I découpaged it with tissue paper and paper napkins that had a pattern I liked, then painted on a face to give her some personality. After carefully skewering the head onto the wires (it's uneven – that's kind of the nature of styrofoam sometimes, especially when the wires are at angles, as mine were), I put hot glue into the holes to help anchor it in place.

Meet Ophelia

For the display part of it, I ordered wire clips from Amazon. Unlike clothespins, these won't break apart if they're twisted. Plus, I can permanently attach them to my display by bending open one of the loops and closing it back again around the ring of my display. (Clips don't get lost, and I can control the number of items displayed per section, preventing overcrowding.)

Wire clips, pliers wrapped with duct tape (so it didn't mar the coating on the clips).

The clip loops are easily bent with pliers, but I did put some tape on the pliers so the PVC coating on the clips didn't get marred. Once I figured the best number of items per section, I was able to put that number on each section and add the headbands when I was done.

Figuring the best number /section.

The finished display is a little over 4 feet high (50.5", 1.28m), but it's not a floor display – it's intended for a tabletop. On a 30" table, Ophelia will stand 6'8.5" (2m), and the top tier is conveniently at eye-level for most people. The bottom tier I am reserving for kids' headbands.

Filled with inventory.

I suppose my next project could be to find or make a lazy susan sort of thing so the whole thing can rotate, but I have concerns that would make it tippy if someone tried to spin it too fast. Unless I am prepared to anchor it to the spinner (making it less portable), I think I'll leave it as-is, and put it on a corner of a table.

Ophelia, modelling.

The open space under her neck will be used to hang signage with pricing. It will be at eye level for most people and done with the same typeface that I use for business cards and other booth signage. I have some acid-green tulle that I'll use to hang it with.

I'm hugely pleased with the way this turned out, and I hope this serves as inspiration for you, if you have vertical display issues for small items.

Hallowe'en Bead Charms

As promised in my previous post, here are the photos of the individual bead charms. (This is photo intensive.)

The wire I used for all the bead charms is annealed steel, which is dull dark grey in color, from the hardware store. (I don't remember what gauge I used, and I no longer have the package it came in.) It's pretty easy to work with, has a wonderful dark/gothic/vintage look to it, and was perfect for my Hallowe'en charms.

Many of the lampwork charms were bought at the 2008 Bead and Button show in Milwaukee, more than 10 years ago. Whatever business cards I may have collected, I have lost, unfortunately, and the beads don't exactly have signatures on them. I'll indicate where the beads came from if I recall, and who made them if I know.

There are 31 charms because there are 31 days in October, naturally.

Starting from the back and working around the silk braid.
1)

Purchased lampwork pumpkin bead (from the '08 Bead and Button show), a metal charm from a disassembled cheap bracelet, and cotton tassel that I made.
 

2)

 Needle-felted ghost (mine) and purchased lampwork bead (from the '08 B&B show).

3)

Ceramic heart with crackle glaze ('08 B&B), the orange cylindrical beads are ceramic from Greece (ebay), and the other beads are glass from my stash.

4)

Needle-felted bat (mine) and purchased lampwork bead (from the '08 B&B show).

5)

Lampwork pumpkin bead (from the '08 B&B show), wire "vine" tendril and beaded dangle (miscellaneous glass beads from my stash).

6)

Hand-carved ceramic ghost by Melinda Willis, glass lampwork bead (from the '08 B&B show).

7)

Lampwork bead (ebay), frame charm with miniaturized clipart from old Hallowe'en postcards and added text reading "flighty" sealed in with Diamond Glaze. Misc. black glass beads from my stash.

8)

Rolled paper bead (with Sharpie-accented edges) sealed with Hallowe'en glitter nail polish, misc. frosted glass beads from my stash, and a mokume gane polymer clay bead that I made.

9)

Needle-felted Frankenstein's monster* (mine) and purchased lampwork bead (from the '08 B&B show).

10)

Purchased Blue Moon Beads 2-piece cage, held together with an eye-pin, filled with orange organza ribbon, capped with acrylic "catseye" beads (all bought at Joann's or Michael's
ages ago).

11)

Two lampwork beads (from the '08 B&B show) connected with some scrolling wirework and size 6 seed beads.

12)

Needle-felted jack o'lantern (mine) and purchased lampwork bead (from the '08 B&B show).

13)

Découpaged wooden bead with text from the dictionary ("witch"), black Greek ceramic spacers (ebay), misc. orange beads from my stash, and a witch hat charm (from the '08 B&B show).

14)

The orange half-moon and the seed beads I had already, but the three lampwork beads are from the B&B show. I tried to get a decent photo of the black cylinder; it's got orange/copper sparkles in the glass, just gorgeous.

15)

Inspired by Macbeth (Act 4, scene 1), a tiny glass vial containing actual puppy teeth from my dog (snoring behind me). The label reads "tooth of wolf." Orange-red glass bead from my stash. Puppies usually swallow their baby teeth, and they're never found; these fell out on a tile floor and I heard them hit the floor and saved them.

16)

Polymer clay cauldron (mine) with some wirework intended to mimic a tendril of steam rising, and a charm with miniaturized vintage postcard art and added text "the witching hour" sealed with Diamond Glaze.

17)

A lampwork bead (B&B show) and a mini lotus book (from Making Mixed-Media Art Charms & Jewelry). It was fiddly, and being paper/cardboard, more fragile than some of the other charms. There's only one of these.

18)

Needle-felted vampire (mine) and purchased lampwork bead (from the '08 B&B show).

Middle tier:
19)

Découpaged wooden bead with text from the dictionary ("Halloween"), wirework and #6 seed beads from my stash.

20)

Needle-felted witch (mine) and purchased lampwork bead (from the '08 B&B show).

21)

Miniaturized postcard art with added text "heady autumn" sealed with Diamond Glaze in a frame charm, and a glass crackle bead in orange and green (from Joann or Michael's, from my stash).

22)

Another Macbeth charm, this one is "wool of bat." (It's just a bit of black wool roving, no bats were harmed in the making of this charm.) Glass beads from my stash.

23)

Three découpaged beads. The top is wooden, covered with bat-printed tissue paper, and text reading "bats in the belfry;" the middle is also wooden, covered with black and orange mulberry paper, and dictionary text for "bat;" the bottom is plastic and has a line drawing of a bat (trimmed to fit). Seed beads from my stash, black disk spacers are Greek ceramic (ebay).

24)

Spiral of wire and seed beads (from my stash) and a lampwork bead (from the B&B show).

25)

A frosted lampwork ghost (Melinda Willis) on a ring of #6 seed beads (from my stash) and a thin copper wire pentagram.

26)

Felt bead, covered with lace hem facing and beaded (#6 seed beads from my stash). The bead was one of the ones that was... imperfect... so I covered it with lace hem facing, which disguised the flaws in the bead but still showed the colors through the lace, and stitched beads to the top and bottom as I went. It's the same kind of bead as in the center of the top tier of the necklace.

27)

Découpaged wooden bead with text from the dictionary ("ghost"), wirework and #6 seed beads from my stash.

Top tier:
28)

The last of the Macbeth beads: this vial contains small iridescent seed beads (size 10 or 11) from my stash, labeled "eye of newt." Misc. orange and black beads from my stash.

29)

Patterned after vintage Beistle cardboard Hallowe'en cutouts, this is Shrinky Dink plastic, colored on the rough side with Sharpie Marker, découpaged with the dictionary page for "jack o'lantern" and sealed on the reverse with mulberry paper. Lampwork bead from the B&B show.

30)

Needle-felted cat (mine) and purchased lampwork bead (from the '08 B&B show).

31)

Lampwork ghost (Melinda Willis) on a trail of ectoplasm, purchased lampwork bead (from the B&B show).

If you like the way these charms look, I highly recommend that you seek out Peggy Krzyzewski and Christine Hansen's book, Making Mixed-Media Art Charms and Jewelry. I believe it's out of print, but finding a used copy or getting it through your library shouldn't be too hard. I love this book, I sincerely do. I wish I had more hours in the day, or another me, to make things that I get inspired by as I look through it.

 _________________________

*Y'all know that "Frankenstein" was the doctor who created the monster, right? Everyone calls the monster Frankenstein, but the poor big guy with the bolts in his neck (as we know him from the movie) calls himself "Adam" to Victor Frankenstein in the book, but "the creature" is how he is most often referred. Mary Shelley: the mother of modern science fiction. Praise her name.