Thing-a-day.com

Went to the museum tonight with my family.  Seeing great art was a nice way to finish the month.  I really enjoy sketching the sculptures there.  In the India section there were three different Ganeshas from different centuries. 

Trying to draw this playful, dancy figure was fun but the arms were tough.  They went from 2 to 4 then 8. 

Thanks to everyone who had the courage to post were they were at in their skill.  That was very encouraging.  See you next year and Happy Making.

 What to do on the next to last day. 

Quick try something different.   Drive your frustration level through the ceiling.  I had to take a different thing to make this bounce straw ball so I could have straws.  But the straws were thin walled and would not take the pressure.  Quick out to the grocery store and get straws.   But wait they are shooting a movie in the paper aisle.  OOK!  On the way out on the ice cream end cap are bendy straws.  Back home the project looks so fast when Bre does on video.  But he does not tell you how to breathe doing this.  The tension is delicate you could bend a support and need to cut another straw and restretch a rubber band around the new straw.  It can drive you crazy. But hey why drive when you can walk.

So here is day 28.  The bouncy tensegrity straw ball thing.

Saw the how to at, where else, www.Makezine.com

http://cachefly.oreilly.com/make/wp_nerdornaments.pdf

Does anyone elses creative bench look like this???

A month in review.  Who knew I could make so much stuff and try so many ideas.  Thanks TAD for hosting this challenge.

I know that I should do this tommorrow but I will not be able to.  This represents most of what I have done.  Some items are wired into the ceiling so they are not here and some were given away or half eaten.  And one is lost, OOK!

Congratulations to everyone who pushed through and met this challenge.

My steampunk goggles.  Mine are a fushion of the two ideas below.  I used the milk cap idea with plastic 2 liter bottle lens.  I tried the bottom feet of the bottle.  The shape and thickness distort the lens in a great way.  I used coat hangers and painted them bronze for the spirals on the temples.  I am thinking more like reneisance punk or ren-punk. 

 They are terrible to see through so I will wear them on my neck or hat.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Mad-Scientist-Steampunk-Goggles/

http://www.instructables.com/id/Goggles/

I cramed two masks in tonight because I wanted to try two ideas.  The crow is Fun Foam and the green man is a paper grocery bag.

If I had spent more time on doing just one then it would have turned out better.  But I learned alot.  Like do not use gloss spray paint if trying to imatate nature.  Brown Sharpee on green makes black.  Smaller photos hide a multitude of mistakes. 

Both of these were easy.   I will certainly make more masks now that I have let the genie out of the bottle.

Three more projects left which ones to choose.  Aaahhhh.

Ran out of coffee beans so I needed to roast some up.  My roaster is on the right with smoke coming out the top.  That is why I am outside.  As nice as a cup of coffee smells the roasting smell is bad and alot.  It sets off the smoke alarms and persists for days.  The taste however is the best.  Fresh roasted and fresh ground.

The roaster is an old popcorn popper that I refound in my basement.  I took off all the plastic to help keep the motor cool while roasting.  The chimmney is two tin cans covered in mesh to hold the two cans together and on to the popcorn popper. 

Green coffee beans are easy to find on the internet as are roasters.  I save money on roasting my own compared to buying beans.  And I brake even on the mass produced ground coffee.  But neither compare to the taste and fun of ‘do it myself’. 

At last I have made my Indiana Jones pin cushion.  I wanted something more interesting than a tomato.  I can sharpen my needles in his left leg.  The leg is filled with steel wool.  I got the original idea from Craft magazine of a Voodoo doll pincushion. http://www.craftzine-digital.com/craft/vol02/?pg=125

But I wanted something that fit my style more and decided on the voodoo doll from Temple of Doom. 

Day 23 

This stupid sock was made from a Tonks costume on a Harry Potter book release night.  Nothing is safe from the crafter.

There are many patterns to chose from in the book, link below.  I like this one because of the antenna. I think tassles on the tips might be good.  The author has made hundreds of these and the gallery can be seen at http://www.stupidcreatures.com/

 I wanted to do stripes to practice lining up and I did this one on a sewing machine which made the making process a day project instead of three days.

My daughters like making these and great hand sewing projects.

http://www.amazon.com/Stupid-Sock-Creatures-Lovable-Cast-off/dp/1579906109/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203796004&sr=8-1

Day 22 MP3 Pocket

Now I have made my mp3 player holder.  I used last nights pocket and redused the size.  You can see the larger pocket with the tie loop.  The smaller one I made tonight has the other end of the tie attached to it.  Thanks Thread banger for the idea.

http://www.threadbanger.com/thread-heads/episode/THR_20080118 

This is a large pocket that goes on the belt.  It is big enough for a wallet but too small for a checkbook.  The loop on the back is the fat end of a tie.  The fabric is an old shirt.  I got the idea from http://www.threadbanger.com/thread-heads/episode/THR_20080118  and it was a great first time sewing prject.  The video was great and helped with yesterdays coffee bags.   

Any ideas on what should go in one of these?

Day 20

I took an old burlap bag for rice and cut it into two bags for coffee.  I then used yesterdays stencil project and labeled the bags.  One for me another for a friend.  The Morgan Coffee stencil was made with the skull font from www.skulladay.com .  In the second picture you can pick out the skulls in each letter.  The little dots are eyes if you cannot see them.

This is a stencil made using the free font from www.Skulladay.com .  All the eyes are hard to see and so is the skull shape.  I am still going to use it tommorrow when I make a bag to hold my coffee in.  Be sure to visit www.Skulladay.com to see some one who making a thing a day all year namely a skull.

The two lamps I made on previous days and have already been posted.  So what I did make is the copper branches for the lanterns.  It looks cooler without the flash but then you cannot see the branches as well.  Anyway I now have this steampunk copper branch chandelier.

Thanks Craft for the project in your Magezine!

Day 17  Another Lantern turned into a lamp.

This conversion took more work than yesterdays but I got an early start.  I need one more lantern for the total SteamPunk lantern chandelier.

This is turning out great great. Thanks Craft for publishing this in your magazine.

http://www.craftzine-digital.com/craft/vol06/?pg=82

I am going to use copper tubing for the branches. 

Day 16 

I found an old lantern that I have gutted and wired to be a hanging lamp.  I am doing an idea that I got from Craft http://www.craftzine-digital.com/craft/vol06/?pg=81&search=camp%20lantern

I will make a couple more of these as soon as I find more to gut.

Day 15 Made a camp stove from pop cans. 

Todays thing will be passing the half way mark.  Time to take a coffee break.  But first you have to make a stove.  A stove out of pop cans and rubbing alchol.  Fortunatenly I went to one of my favorite web sites to find out how.  http://www.instructables.com/id/Cool-Little-Miniature-Stove!/

Two tries later I have fire.  But is it enough to make coffee.  With an impressive yes.  I am now relaxing and drinking coffee while posting this.  The below picture is my camp coffee maker being heated by the little stove. 

Day 14 Mine all mine! 

I did not make this dragon but the pile of gold underneath.    Lots ot hot glue and glitter.

I also used hot glue that had glitter in it.

Day 13 Flying Paper Dragon

A neat little dragon from Origami Myths and Legends.

Day 12 Blinkybug 

I got this idea from http://www.instructables.com/id/Blinkybug-Maker-Faire-version/

It was easy and fun to play with when it is done.  The anttena complete the circuit and LED lights up.  Sometimes you can blow on the wires and it starts blinking. 

Blink Blink

Day 11

I made this bamboo box for my wife.  Twenty five years ago I made one that was about 5 inches long and this one is 14 inches.