Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Night Photography, Huzzah!
So, last night was lovely and clear, so I thought I'd have a go at playing with the exposure time on my camera. All were taken with a tripod with a 15 second exposure time.
Monday, August 26, 2013
Steampunk Masquerade Mask
I've been rather crafty, lately. And by that, I literally mean using craft supplies to create a thing.
I started with a cheap, plastic, yellow-gold coloured mask with feathers poking out the top and a funny gold-glittered paper overlay, (I have no photos of this, I forgot to take progress shots, I'll try to remember for future craftilies) and ended up with something that I'm rather proud of.
After a surprisingly gruelling battle with the grommets that held on the overlay, I covered the base with spray paint primer and black matte paint. While that dried, I carved up an old plastic 'pirate telescope' for the eye-piece, trying to get it to somewhat match the shape of the mask, by heating up my craft knife over a candle and using the hot blade to cut the plastic. Possibly not the safest method, but effective.
Then it was some primer and black matte for that, too, followed by three or four coats of bronze paint alternating between horizontal and vertical paint strokes. Then a bit of glitter and blue plastic for the lens, a bit of 3D paints for rivets, and the eye-piece was done.
To stop the eye-piece from just sticking out of the eye in the mask with great gaping gaps around it, I cut up an old wide belt to the shape of the eye, cut a hole in it and stuck it behind the eye of the mask for the eye-piece to sit on. Once that was glued on I used some leather thonging to cover up the conspicuous errors I'd made in shaping it.
That done, it was simply a matter of some more bronze 3D paint to line the eye, and an old brooch glued in the middle of the forehead to get this:
That was stage one. Stage two involved more bronze paint, some silver chain, green glass gemstones, and brads:
And stage three involved probably the worst time-consumption to actual-difference-made ratio ever:
Creating the lace ruffle meant I had to glue it, fold it, more glue, fold it back and then repeat that for each ruffle/pleat. It was oddly exhausting, because I had to hold it down at every stage for the glue to tack or dry sufficiently, which also meant my fingers were completely covered in glue. It was worth it though, because I like the overall effect. And I'm pretty happy with the mask as a whole.
I started with a cheap, plastic, yellow-gold coloured mask with feathers poking out the top and a funny gold-glittered paper overlay, (I have no photos of this, I forgot to take progress shots, I'll try to remember for future craftilies) and ended up with something that I'm rather proud of.
After a surprisingly gruelling battle with the grommets that held on the overlay, I covered the base with spray paint primer and black matte paint. While that dried, I carved up an old plastic 'pirate telescope' for the eye-piece, trying to get it to somewhat match the shape of the mask, by heating up my craft knife over a candle and using the hot blade to cut the plastic. Possibly not the safest method, but effective.
Then it was some primer and black matte for that, too, followed by three or four coats of bronze paint alternating between horizontal and vertical paint strokes. Then a bit of glitter and blue plastic for the lens, a bit of 3D paints for rivets, and the eye-piece was done.
To stop the eye-piece from just sticking out of the eye in the mask with great gaping gaps around it, I cut up an old wide belt to the shape of the eye, cut a hole in it and stuck it behind the eye of the mask for the eye-piece to sit on. Once that was glued on I used some leather thonging to cover up the conspicuous errors I'd made in shaping it.
That done, it was simply a matter of some more bronze 3D paint to line the eye, and an old brooch glued in the middle of the forehead to get this:
That was stage one. Stage two involved more bronze paint, some silver chain, green glass gemstones, and brads:
And stage three involved probably the worst time-consumption to actual-difference-made ratio ever:
Creating the lace ruffle meant I had to glue it, fold it, more glue, fold it back and then repeat that for each ruffle/pleat. It was oddly exhausting, because I had to hold it down at every stage for the glue to tack or dry sufficiently, which also meant my fingers were completely covered in glue. It was worth it though, because I like the overall effect. And I'm pretty happy with the mask as a whole.
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Stupidity
Sometimes I really just hate the world and all the people in it (I'm obviously Hexus. Ferngully.)... maybe not all the people, but a great number. It's the stupidity of everyone that gets to me. And the immaturity. And the stupidity. I genuinely feel nauseous at the sheer vastness of stupidity. Since when was "fuck off" the epitome of wit? A sensible way to address another person's reasonable concern? (And why on earth does my device want to change 'concern' to 'donald'?) And since when did offering a new point of view (and hardly a controversial one) and some information warrant it?
What gets to me isn't that you called me a "fat slag," a "whore," a "bitch," or "stupid," it's that you think yourself so clever and witty for doing so.
There's a huge line, and a cliff, and two large rivers (one treacherous, the other filled with flesh eating water creatures) between childlike and childish, and somehow you jumped right off that cliff, and marched straight through the rivers to childish. It stuns me. I am genuinely dumbfounded. We could, y'know, address the conversation, but, no, let's just jump to calling me a condescending arsehole. Yeah, that's intelligent and relevant. And then let's not actually read what people are saying. You want to run a public page, you need to deal with the public. Appropriately and civilly.
And you think you win. Although, I suppose, in some way, you have, but only because you have stunned the intelligent so expertly that there is no possible way to crumble the wall of stupid around you. You think yourself profound. I think you profoundly thick.
No wonder the world is filled with so many misanthropists. Are they still recruiting for Mars, by any chance?
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