Major Projects

All work and no play makes Emmelia a dull girl. Though apparently a happy balance means not as much work. It's funny, but now I have more of a social life, and I wouldn't have thought that it'd make a big difference, but maybe it is... Then again, I tend to feel 80% more stress regarding things than other people it seems, and right now my brain and schedule is overly full, to the point where I actually have to prioritize and give up on things for a little bit. Between school and Etsy orders and show preparation and everything.... Gah!!!

*deep breath*

Really, it's probably not as bad as I think it is. I just have a weird tendency to take a small, relatively simple thing, and take it to wild proportions to make it exceptional.

Example. My upcoming art show at Studio Intent. The art show is called 'White Rabbit', and is was a fairly simple task of having a collection of hand pieces and hoods and wearable pieces. The focus is on the hand pieces and gloves, and being me, I decided to make a whole new set of pieces, and now I am making individual boxes for the different pairs and single hand pieces. Madness? Clearly. Don't get me wrong, they look great.

I went all out with staining the wood, and lining the top and bottom of the box, with the addition of my label (since it's difficult to put labels on gloves).

The rest of the display is coming along well. I was under on the number of hoods I had prepared by two. It will be easy to whip those up in the next couple of days (might I remind you of my impending insanity?), but for now the four mannequin heads that I was responsible for are looking great. The owner of the gallery offered a neat suggestion for sprucing up dull white foam heads, by disguising them with stockings.

It really makes all the difference, and I'm liking how they're turning out.

Now, naturally, while I was finishing a beautiful Etsy order (working with Melton wool fabric! Gorgeous!), my needle on my sewing machine decided to break. This is one of those times where I have no idea if I have spares, and if I do, where they would be is a mystery. This means that I have to venture into the city tomorrow to get some needles and pins. I do believe that I'll stain the rest of my boxes before I leave in the morning, so that they have most of the day to air out on my windowsill. Low odour stains for the win!

Though, interesting tid bit. Today I learned through a friend on Pinterest that you can make a stain from vinegar by letting different metals sit in it for a week or so. I figure that it works in the same way as a patina, only you're using the residue of the patina instead of caring about what the metal looks like. I'll have to consider this for the future. Then again, I don't know if mixing acids and metals is any safer than normal wood varnish. Who knows...