life, the universe, and donna

So I’m on this craft kick, right?

I suppose it really started about … 6-7 years ago, when I first learned to knit. But knitting was really my only craft until the last year. Now I do candles, soap, knitting, a little sewing, and my latest obsession: Polymer Clay.

Jenn & I hit up the craft store on Tuesday, and I went from confident “Hey, I’ve researched this stuff on the internet!” crafty crafter to … “holy fuck, there’s a lot of options. What do I need?”

So, I bought a book. My eventual goal is to make some cool Steampunk stuff, but I’m rather fascinated by the whole genre of polymer clay, and not just things with gears and sprockets and bits of watches poking out. I also picked up some clay, paint, a couple of tools, and a bevy of “what the hell am I doing?” doubts. I also dipped into next weeks “discretionary funds”. Dang. Note to self: Update budget spreadsheet. (Damn. Frivolous spending gone way over due to gifts. Must budget better for gifts. Or crafts. Oh well. Otherwise doing well so far. Will find out how well by the end of the month. Wasn’t expecting perfection in my first month anyway.)

Anyway. Less about budgets, more about clay!

So I set myself up with a half-assed clay setup. Was missing a few things, like a smooth surface to clayify on. Turns out, do not have a spare piece of glass or ceramic tile lying around. Solution since then: Buy document-sized picture frame from the dollar store, toss frame but keep glass. Voila! Small but totally usable surface.

Anyway, my first attempt was to make six small brown buttons. I’m actually quite enthralled with them. Sure, they look kind of amateur, and sure the indentations and holes are a bit off centre (note to self: Stand up when trying to centre things. Eyeballing it from an angle doesn’t work At All.) and yeah, you can see the indents of my fingerprints pretty clearly… but they are totally usable buttons!

Now I just need to buy some sandpaper and borrow Nick’s dremel with a buffing attachment and shine ‘em up all purty. I tried painting them with this interesting two-toned metallic paint I bought, but … eh. Will sand most of it off, and perhaps try something else.

Next, I tried my hand at a pseudo-steampunk hearts. Pseudo, because they’re missing all the parts that make it actually steampunk, but based on these awesome steampunk hearts. I’m actually pretty happy with this. Again, it’s a bit fingerprinty, but sanding & buffing should take care of that. Another note of pride: I took a hook from a christmas tree ornament and embedded it into the top. So, now it’s totally usable as … some sort of hanging thing, once I make it prettier. Turns out, brown clay is boring.

Nothing spectacular overall, but I learned a LOT, and feel much more confident at my next attempt.

To top off the crafty goodness: Last night I made some opaque purple loofah goat milk soap. It’s got a stronger scent than the last stuff, and I like it quite a lot. Did not realize that the two dye colors I had were red and purple, not red and blue, so when I initially tried to mix the colors together (expecting purple) I got … pepto bismal. Huh. So, added more of the purple (not blue) and finally got a nice lavender colour. Phew. The pepto bismal color was pretty awful. Nobody wants to scrub themselves with pepto bismal.

And just because I’m very proud that I’m not the only crafty person in the house: Nick built a wall this week. What? Everybody needs a wall…

For those who’ve been to my place, picture the black doors that block off the laundry area, and the stairs next to said laundry area. Between the two, there used to be this awful white tulle-like lace curtain crap. Now, is wall! Should help soundproof a wee bit, so running the dryer at midnight doesn’t annoy me like it does currently (sometimes I realize that if I want clean pants in the morning, I’d better run the dryer RIGHT. NOW.) More importantly, will have shelves on the inside for Nick’s INSANE dvd collection (and my apparently not-so-large addition to the INSANE dvd collection) and space on the outside (next to the stairs) for all of Nick’s game memorabilia. (You know those framed pictures they give to rock stars who’s albums have gone gold or platinum or whatever? Nick has those, but for the games he’s worked on. For some reason, this amuses me greatly.)

Tonight, I hit up Value Village and try to find things I can use in this new craft without fucking my budget EVEN FURTHER. Tune in later to see how successful I am!