Too picky?

I needed a new watchband and didn't want to spend $$ so I found some interesting prospects on etsy and even contacted one to see if they could make their leather cuff into a watchband but they wouldn't. I was going to email another seller but started thinking about what it would take to actually make what I wanted, a leather strip with snaps for the watch face and fitted so snaps on the ends instead of a buckle.

I checked out Tandy Leather to see what it would cost, less than $10 but then I'd have to drive there.... and laziness took over. But wait I don't have to actually hand tool some leather, I can find a belt and cut it up and it might even have something I can paint. Yes I actually did that. I stopped by the mall and found something at the Gap for $20. That night I cut it to length, painted it and added the snaps. I misjudged the length so one snap is almost too tight and the other is too loose. I might have to refine the technique.

The watch face is from the Inemployed Philosopher's Guild with Shakespeare and a quote that circles around as a second hand. Watch Link

Spring Break

I took the week and did a lot of nothing. BUT I did redo my website. I did like it before done in fireworks, dreamweaver and photoshop, I just thought it could look better. I found a lot of free templates and then tweaked one to fit.


Subversive Crafting

Bird Cage Light

My living room has no overhead light and this annoys me. There is no wiring to hook anything up to either but I'm working on that.I first grabbed a plant hanger and tried to decoupage tissue paper to it but it didn't work. I was thinking of a Tiffany Lamp, so I got some white cotton fabric and bunched and sewed it to the plant hanger. Then I took a sharpie and drew in the lines of the hanger and colored some in. I used an Ikea light cord (Ikea) and hung it inside the bowl.

 

I'd recently seen an awesome hanging bird cage light for $65 and really wanted it but thought I could make it for cheaper. I went to Tai Pan Trading and found a white bird cage that had a top I could easily remove to add the light and cord. I dremeled the top off and then spray painted it black, thought it would look better against the light. Plastic Land

It was a windy day and got paint everywhere so that was fun. I used the chain from the plant hanger and cut 3 5 inch pieces and bent them to the cage top with a center ring to add the part that hangs from the ceiling. Then I grabbed some unbleached cotton muslin and glued/sewed it to the inside to mute the light. I'd glue up about 5 bars, let it dry and then sew it onto the last bar then repeat.

While buying the bird cage I saw a small wooden bird and grabbed it too. I didn't really have a plan, maybe inside the cage or something. Hanging from underneath the cage sounded good so I drilled a hole in the top of the bird and pounded a hole in the bottom center of the cage and epoxyed some hooks. My drill bit was too big. After drying I connected the two with a short chain.

$30 bird cage

$2 spray paint

$1 fabric

$2 wooden bird

 

I actually used two of the Hemma cord sets because the fabric muted the light a little too much but it's done and looks fabulous.

Froggies

I bought some plastic animals from a party supply store recently. I didn't really know what I was going to do with them but something chimera-like. I played with that a bit and then decided to put some pink frogs on my earbuds. I tried using a dremmel to hollow out the frog but it was too rubbery so I used some lino cutting tools. Then I epoxyed them and they work great. I just had a coworker ask if I meant to do that. Yes. The goal was always 100% to make frog earbuds.

Mr T was a stamp I opened up and glued a thumb drive into. It works pretty good. I had to fill parts with polymer clay and bake it but using epoxy it stays really tight.

Embossed Die Cuts

I'm trying to use up my tea stained pages and made this over the weekend. It's the same embossing but with some die cut gears. I used a cereal box and then covered with a brown paper bag.