Circus-a-Day Recap of Week 7

Day 43: Lion Head Necklace (K) & Skirt Apron (M)

K’s creative day did not go to plan. I got started out with a plan to solder those fortune cookie charms, but the jumprings were not cooperating. After several aggravated attempts, I realized that I was using aluminum jumprings, so the solder wouldn’t stick. I couldn’t find my steel or silver-plated brass jumprings, so that plan had to be put on hold. I ended up using some heavy chain I had lying around and this great lion pendant to make the brass lion necklace.

M finally got around to finishing the Apron Front for the Striped Bustle Skirt she made several weeks ago. I am not pleased with the way it turned out and think I know where I need to adjust the pattern. I also believe part of why I am not happy with it is the cotton fabric doesn’t drape well and if it were made of a silkier or more fluid fabric I might be more pleased. Here’s to learning through trial and error!

Day 44: Mini CroBot (M) & Pencil Drawings (K)

M decided to get out her crochet hooks and dig through her yarn stash today. I made this little guy from a pale blue yarn and a brown sparkly yarn. The two yarns were a different weight so it made it kind of awkward when using the same hook. His mouth is a hook and eye slot, his legs are some old lock nuts, his arms are bobby pins, and his antenna is a curly hair pin. He isn’t very circus, but he is darn cute!

K got started on two separate drawings, but decided she wasn’t entirely happy with either one. The proportions on the circus performer looked all wrong to me. The other drawing is not exactly steampunk or circus, but here’s the story I made up to go with it: She’s a young, Victorian lady with contacts and prospects, but her heart is with the circus, and in this photo, she is stealing away to join the merry band of carnies passing through her town.

Day 45: Colorizing (K) & Narwhal Drawing (M)

So, K decided to finish something she started (sort of). I decided that some color would go a long way to making me feel better about yesterday’s unfinished pencil sketch. I have to say, I’m pretty proud of it. A while ago, M asked several of our male artist friends why they draw so many naked women, and if clothing was just hard to draw. Many of the men commented that a) drawing clothes IS hard, but that b) men like naked chicks. I have to concur with both points: drawing clothes is very hard. But I think women may be better at it because we spend so much time thinking about clothes. Or, I could just be a nutter”¦

M decided to try her hand at a little drawing while watching back episodes of “Castle” . My obsession with narwhals is reaching new heights as I feel the need to create my own! I am not too terribly embarrassed by this one, which is rare. I drew it in pencil and then photographed it and imported it into the Adobe Photoshop App on my iPad. This was my first go at the program and there is definitely a learning curve when using the Pogo stick to color. I gave up before completing it as it got very late and I was doing more erasing than coloring.

Day 46: Carnivale Earrings (K) & Circus Haiku (M)

K went less “circus” and more “carnivale” today with these turquoise and brass earrings. For whatever reason, I was feeling the color combination and the skulls today.  My inner punk winning out, I guess.

M wrote a Circus Haiku very very late at night and thought it was brilliant! I put it to this pretty paper the next morning to jazz it up a bit as it turned out to not be brilliant after all. Please excuse my sleepy ego and terrible handwriting.

Day 47: K IS the Circus & Circus Bustle Skirt (M)

K IS the Circus – I was dancing around the fool when M said “we should film that and then you could BE the circus today!” So I put on all the crazy clothes I could find just lying around the workshop and used a rolling stool to “dance” on. If you want to see the video, click HERE –it is so worth the chuckle!

Today M decided to make a prototype of something she had been talking about for months. I chose to use some crazy awesome fabric and turn it into my circus for the day (2 birds + 1 stone = genius!). I made the pattern out of tissue paper, cut the pieces and then sewed like a fiend. It helped that the lovely Kara Markley was in the workshop and was excited about modeling the finished item. Future options will have trimming and elastic waistbands!

Day 48: Miniature Collages for Resin Pendants

M and K both worked on making some miniature collages so that when we’re ready to cast resin we have some items ready to set. M is very proud of her first miniature collage (shown to the far left of the photo) and has a newfound respect for K’s abilities to cut out tiny people. K is also counting the walking stick and medal she made today as we took photos for our walking stick and medal tutorials, but we didn’t edit those photos yet, and they are not particularly circusy.

Day 49: Crayon Drawings

It was a very long day in the Frenzy Universe today. Both K & M decided they were both really tired and didn’t want to have to be serious, so we cracked out the crayons and pencils and made silly circus drawings. M made a Steam Elephant and Snazzy Monkey using only crayons. K (who is infinitely more talented in the drawing field than M) drew a Steampunk Carousel Horse after rejecting about five other drawings she felt were either not Steampunk or not Circus.

M’s Insights for Week 7: Things always take at least twice as long as expected, sometimes even longer. It will be very difficult to stay on task and energetic while we are traveling over the next few weeks. Working in miniature is still hard. Crocheting is fun, but time-consuming. I should leave drawing and the like to the professionals. If I can call myself an artist, I definitely must clarify that I am a fiber artist.