Merimask Goes On And On

So, this is my latest project.

Cherry Blossom Dragon.  Technically, it's the "spring" dragon in my dragon plaque series, but it's so different in composition from the others that it sort of stands alone.

Everything you see there is leather.  The plaque itself is wood, but I stretch black suede over it.  The branches are gold acrylic paint.  The leaves, the flowers and the dragon are all sculpted leather, pieced together.  I used amber crackle glass beads for the eyes.

Here's the head up close.  Little blurry...*shrug*.  I'm especially pleased with the head because at the last minute I decided to add extra eyebrow and nose ridge bits.  Asian dragons all seem to have lots of dangly crap all over their heads!  My original dragon head was too sleek.  So I jazzed it up...it was fun!

I'm still too close to this piece to know if it's good or not.  I think it's pretty neat...but I've been slaving over it for days (and thinking about the design for a lot longer than that...since March!) so I just can't be objective.  Anyway, it does what I wanted it to do, I think.  I'd like to add a large "pearl" to the dragon's claw...something big and shiny for him to be carrying...but maybe next time.  I definitely need to do another one of these.

Ok...I REALLY want to share pictures of my very cool new designs...but I CAN'T because my husband has neglected to load my pics!  *foot tapping impatiently*   I don't dare try it myself because he has some kind of weird system...I've even tried to learn by watching him do it but he just seems to randomly click things as FAST as he can and I don't know what the hell he does.  

Grr...

So instead I'll tell you about going to Canal Days with my daughter and her friend yesterday.  We played a few games of chance, (which I am secretly addicted to but you never heard it from me!).  We played the coolest carny game ever...mouse roulette!  It was so WEIRD.  There was a central turntable that looked like a roulette wheel but horizontal.  The wedges, instead of being red and black with numbers, had colorful, innocuous pictures of watermelons or rainbows...you get the idea.  It had plexiglas all around the outside of the wheel and holes at the end of each wedge.  We all placed quarter bets on the table...you could pick symbols that corresponded to the ones on the wheel.  The barker spun it (not too fast, just enough to turn it slowly) and lifted up a lid in the center and out runs a little brown mouse!   The mouse sniffs around and eventually dives into a hole, and someone (sometimes a few people) wins a prize!  Then the barker pulls a drawer out, snags the mouse and the whole thing starts again.  The mice got rotated out every few spins, so it didn't seem particularly cruel, and we had fun cheering for the mousie to pick our symbols.  I only blew five bucks there and Char's friend actually won once, so it was all good.

We also went on a few fair rides.  I LOVE Tilt-A-Whirl...it's just my favorite little spinny ride.  The carny folks they hired to run Canal Fest this year had really nice, well kept, liberally greased rides.  I did not take this into account.  I was spun within an inch of my life.  Char and her friend in the next car over, were hysterically laughing at me because every time my car flashed past them I was pressed firmly against the back of it screaming "OH CRAP MAKE IT STOP!!!".  Apparently that's pretty funny.  I needed help getting off...couldn't walk straight for about a half-hour.  But you know, I secretly loved that too.  :-)

Of course there was funnel cake.  The only thing better than fresh funnel cake is fresh funnel cake sprinkled with cinnamon sugar.  Oh my, yes.

Anyway it was a good time even though I felt like the carny folks had taken me by the ankles and given me a good shaking, so as to dislodge every last cent I had on my person.  

There is something fundamentally hilarious about allowing vermin to determine your gambling success or failure.  I say, one more election like the last two and we should permanently switch to a mouse-generated voting system.  Couldn't possibly be more irritating (or less random) than the currently accepted way of getting the job done. 

Meh.  Tonight, I suck!  I'm supposed to be working.  I have about a hundred of these guys...

...cut out and half finished on my desk.  Just sitting there, mocking me with their half-painted state.  Normally, I like doing the butterfly pins.  They're easy to make.  They calm me.  But tonight?  I'm useless.

I actually think I'm coming down with something.  Mom was sick last week (and stayed here at my house 'cause she doesn't like to be alone when she's sick) and now I think I'm getting whatever she had.  I was tired all day, dragging my ass around and taking cat naps.  I went for my evening bike ride with Char, but it was TOUGH and I was only good for eight miles when I usually do twelve or more.

And you'd think I'd be sleeping now, but instead I'm up being non-productive.  *sigh*

Could just be the weather.  A big scary storm front is moving towards us right now (I know this because all I've been doing tonight is watching the Weather Channel...snoooore).  Anyway it should be here in an hour or so.  It'll definitely help me sleep...something about thunder and distant lightning (as long as it's not a Wrath-Of-God kind of storm) is very soothing to me.  Like waves on a beach.

Waah.  I think I left my bottle of blue paint open on my desk...

Oh boy!  In just forty-eight hours I'll be in Tamarindo, Costa Rica.  Doing...whatever the hell one does in Tamarindo.  Surfing, I'm told.  Looking at monkeys.  Avoiding the drinking water.

My passport photo is quite possibly the ugliest picture I've ever seen of myself.  I look like a cheerful bag lady.



 That's about it for now.  I'm done makin' stuff until I return from the trip.  I hardly know what to do with myself tonight...   I know!  I'll write some fanfic!  *clubs self like a wayward baby seal*  ...on second thought...naaaah.  ;-)

Here.  I'll share my favorite joke in the world with you.  Because I love you all.

 :::ahem:::

;-)

So! I-Con was a hoot. It claims to be the largest sci-fi/fantasy convention in the Northeast, and it sure looked that way. Over six thousand attendees milling around the Stony Brook Campus...none of which I got to see because I was so freaking busy.

( The Roadtrip. )

( The Convention. )

( Woo! Cosplay! )

( On ass-kickage. )

Aaaand...that's enough for now. My fingers are bleeding!

Hiya all.   Back again from the edge if despair (or maybe that's just the two big fat mega-mugs of coffee kicking in).  Thank you, thank you to all the sweet people who e-mailed me (especially rumdiculous and karenebl, who have such kind hearts and make me smile).   Also, a big hello to new friend moonphased :::waving:::, who is SO fortunate that she missed my ouchy growing pains when I had NO clue how to format a damn thing or how to do LJ cuts or any of that fun stuff...I used to make such a freaking mess in here!  I'm much better now :::pats self on back and gives self a cookie:::

I've been busily making things.  I did another Phoenix.

So many of my masks are black, basically.  It's fun to do one that's very very not black.

I also made a few Anubis masks.  I changed up the design a little, with larger eyes and a slightly different molding technique, so I need new pictures (maybe I'll snap one later today).  I've found it's best to have a few Anubis (anubisses?  anubii??) on hand these days at the larger shows, because for some reason there are a LOT of people out there who are into the Egyptian god of the underworld.  Everyone wants to smite their foes, I guess?  Go figger.

And, because I want to have GOOD things to plan for and look forward to, I have officially overbooked myself.  I'm doing a moderately big event this weekend and an absolutely HUGE show next weekend.  This weekend's event is nearby, fortunately.  Next weekend, however, is waaay off in Long Island (a good ten hour drive) at Stony Brook University.  I-Con, to be exact, which is a rather large Sci-fi/Fantasy convention.  I got the confirmation packet yesterday.  Do I have a hotel reservation?  No.  Do I have my new table display finished yet?  No.  Have I made my new signs yet?  No.  Am I still working feverishly on re-stocking from my last big show?  Oh yes.  

This is what I call a "Twitch".  In horse terms, a "twitch" is a little pinchey-thingy you clamp onto a horse's nose when you want to do something to the horse that he may not exactly like (like administering a shot or removing a stone from a hoof, or any number of really gross stomach and intestine-related procedures that I don't feel like thinking about with breakfast in me).  The horse is so busy worrying about that twitch on his nose that he could care less about the tube being inserted or the shot being given.

I have just administered a "twitch" to myself.  A little self-inflicted anxiety, that I know I can handle, in order to distract myself from the larger anxieties that loom on my horizon.   Does that seem a little nuts?   Meh,  :::shrug:::  whatever works, I guess. 

Back to work!

So!  This is absolutely the coolest mask I make.  Medusa.

It's really really difficult to cut out, carve, and shape.  So I don't make them very often (this is the first Medusa I've done in three years).   This one has eleven snakes, shaded from gold to copper over a black base.  I thought green eyes for the snakes would really stand out nicely with all that gold so I used 3mm malachite beads.  Those eyes are a PAIN in the ass to sew in.  I sew them onto a small scrap of suede, cement the suede into each head after I position the eyes in the sockets, and then cement another piece of black suede under the chin, to hide all the sewing work.  ELEVEN TIMES!  Auuugh.  But, it's worth it because this mask really rocks (in my not-so-humble opinion) and is a total show-stopper.

You can see the heads just a bit more clearly from this angle.   That's all one piece of leather, by the way.

I did a ~second~ Medusa (eh, it keeps me busy) but the picture didn't load correctly so I'll post that another time.

Also, I had the best conversation with rumdiculous today, which unfortunately I failed to save.  Talking points:
1.  Someone really needs to cosplay Naraku, complete with Shard pasties
2.  Where might one tuck a $20, should one wish to tip a strategically sharded naked Naraku?
3.  '80's fantasy movies are mucho fun.  Glitter = magic!
4.  "Legend" is more disturbing than "Labyrinth".  Labyrinth has David Bowie's mesmerizing spandex-clad "area"...but Legend has Tom Cruise in a disturbing chain mail mini dress that shows off his hairless boy-thighs, and that wins.

...'cause it's just better that way.  This coming weekend is a huge event for me, in Kalamazoo.  I've never been to Kalamazoo, so I'm sort of looking forward to it.  Also, I just like saying "Kalamazoo", it sounds like the magic word you have to say three times in order to turn yourself into a frog.

I'm in dire need of big masks after the last show I did, which was surprisingly good for mask sales (they're kind of expensive so you never know if they're going to sell well or not).  My table display screen looks naked and pathetic, and I only have a few days to fill it in.  Last week I sold this mask (below) and I need to make some more.

Plus I have no more of this mask (below) and I really ought to try to bring at least one, since everyone loves the wolf mask.  It's a "sure thing", sales-wise.

And...that's it.  It's awfully freaking windy here.  Still no snow though (although about 15 miles south of here there's about a foot of the stuff, blowing around and closing roads...).  Location, location, location.