Dice Storage!

I admit it, I love dice. When I got a custom order recently asking for gold plated d20s (that's a 20 sided die) I was in heaven! Digging through dozens of gaming sites, looking at all the beautiful colors. Yes, I may just be a bit of a geek.

One thing every gamer needs is a way of transporting their favorite dice! Making these bags are almost as fun as playing with the dice themselves. Of course, you can put many other things in these as well, some of the more elegant designs make for great evening bags!

But, for the geek at heart, a triforce protecting your precious cargo:


As previously mentioned, shiny dice are my friend. And I know I'm not alone in the need to collect epic looking dice. So why keep them hidden? Show them off with this loose weave bag:


I've got a lot of supplies on the way, the sci-fi convention cleaned me out! Here's a sneak peak at what you might be seeing in the future:

Vacation!

More or less anyway. I think I'm physically incapable of taking a "real" vacation.

However, I am spending a week and a bit at my parent's place. Eating their food, and generally being lazy. But, I get bored easily, so I'm still playing around with my wires :)

Gave wire braiding another go, this time using 19g copper only. MUCH MUCH easier! I brought home some 20g aluminum that I might try later. I'm still getting the hang of finishing the ends, but I think having one longer to wrap around might fix that in the next one. There's also the issue of how to have them keep their shape. Maybe wire a 12g frame onto it?


The other thing I've finished as of today is this lil japanese ball. Nice bright colors!

Learning new things

While I have a broad range of products, they use a lot of similar weaves. It's easy to see the Euro 4-in-1 similarities between my chainmaille tie, and chainmaille bags, but even things like this use the same weave:



I'm actually still a bit of a newb when it comes to mailling, and anything to with wire. Well the weekend I decided to try my hand at some new things. I don't have any pictures to share at the moment, mostly because the vast majority of the attempts no one will be allowed to see. So many tool marks!

First I tried full Full Persian. I was... surprised. This was a weave that last time I tried I ended up nothing but frustrated. This time it was as easy as making a ham sandwich. I think my proficiency in byz helped to understand how the rings needed to fold. That was happy.

Then I tried Half Persian. Not so good. It seemed like I was doing it right, but it just flops into a mess, beats me.

Then I tried to make ear cuffs. This was kind of successful. My Mum bought me a magazine while we were at the craft store for wire stuff (can't remember the title!) which included tutorials in how to make spirals and such. With this info I dove into making some cuffs. They actually turned out really well... shape wise. They'll take some practice to get even, but my biggest issue with it is tool marks. I end up with having to pick between marks due to slipping, or marks due to the teeth on my other needle nose pliers. I'm going to have a look for some coating and some stubbier pliers which might help. If anyone has any advice for this let me know!

Happy Accidents

Anyone growing up in the 80-early 90s remembers Bob the Painter. I can't remember why we used to watch him, but I do remember me and my sister watching him paint his paintings, totally unaware that it was supposed to be teaching us something (like most PBS shows of the time). One thing that sticks out was his love of "happy accidents."

Well, when you order as much online as I do, there are bound to be happy accidents. The first was when I ordered 1" aluminum rings. I got my package (which has a lot different products in small amounts, I was intending to experiment), opened up, and cursed. "What the *bleep* am I going to do with this" was probably my exact words.

Well, one day while trying to make celtic stars I was getting frustrated. Mine were so floppy they looked dumb. I needed somehow to get them to hang without drooping!

Then inspiration struck!



Since then I've been using the 1" rings so much I had to order more, I make a wide range of "dreamcatcher" style pendants now! And all thanks to a Happy Accident.

Why do I bring this up now? Well, it happened again.

Not sure why or how, but I ended up with TEN bags of 12g 5/8" ID blue AA rings. 1500 rings that I had no idea what to do with. It seemed like such a waste, they'd never get used. But, given my past experience, I set to work doing some basic weaves with them to see how it worked. Other than my hands hating me (perhaps doing this on the same day I just started with SS was a bad idea), I'm pleased. Almost pleased enough to order a mixed bag of the size!

One pill makes you small

As a child born in the 80s I grew up with the joy that was shrinky dinks. Watching them shrink was always the best part, and the products generally were discarded shortly after.

Well it turns out they still exist! Found some at the local craft supply store, in the scrap booking section of all places, and quickly grabbed them up. I excitedly did up a whole page of things, debated if my hole punch was too big, and pulled up a stool in front of my toaster oven. Which I now realize really needs to be cleaned.

I did a whole selection of tetris blocks for sale, with a bit of experimenting with colors. However, my geek-gasm came with the idea of making these:



The science ones have already become my everyday wear!

Also, displaying my lovely new creations is my lovely new creation!



I started organizing my chainmaille/crafting supplies into the new container I bought (more on that next post!), and was distracted by the first item I put my hands on: my large spool of wire.

I'm really impressed with how it turned out for a first attempt. I was fearing something unusable, but it's actually pretty nice. And more stable than I gave the small base credit for. It's currently on my floor with cats running all around it, yet it's still upright!

The earrings will be up for sale once I get some nicer pictures of each one individually, so sometime this week! As you may have noticed my light box was make shift out of scrap paper.

... And there goes the tree