We did a little more work on the dollhouse, which is about 90% complete, and just mostly needs decorating at this point. I also started work on a suspended “reading nest”. The rigging needs to be fine-tuned still (parts are static and parts are dynamic, so it’s not hard to adjust), and it needs upholstery (that’s just a blanket), as well as a curtain that attaches to the top ring. I’ll probably get something cool custom printed at spoonflower, who let you print on 54″ wide upholstery fabric among other things.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Plenty of dollhouse progress, but for a change that’s not what I’m posting about (so maybe tomorrow for that). This afternoon we went to a Halloween party at Nefarious’s school (hopefully Caitlin posts a picture of her amazing costume) at which we carved pumpkins. Here’s a picture of the two that we did, left being Nefarious’s, and right being mine. There were plenty of aweful parents for me to complain about including one that I’ll mention — I told Nefarious to make sure she did a good job finishing up her pumpkin in case there was a contest, and this parent upon overhearing me loudly said to their kid, “Don’t worry Tommy, there won’t be a contest because everyone here is a winner.”
Way to go killing off drive to be best and even just work ethic in your kid. Like it or not, there are winners in real life, and given the choice (which we are given), you’re probably better off aiming to be one. The attitude that one should just relax, and do a piss-poor job if that’s what you feel like that day (because that’s all it takes to be #1, along with everyone else), and then trying to apply that life ethic when you leave the nest is the surest way to find yourself deeply disappointed with your meh-themed life. Anyway… more pumpkin pictures after the break.
Oh and in my defense, the pumpkin was unexpectedly really thin-skinned, so I only had to go down half an inch to hit spaghetti filling. So I was unable to add any real detail — even doing what I did was very difficult and had the face on the edge of caving in. It looks a lot lamer than what I’d pictured in my mind, but it did impress some of the kids (and really that seems like my primary goal these days).
(Continued)
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Today I started doing some experiments on plastering the walls to cover up the gaps, brackets, and so on, as well as giving it a more interesting texture. I tried a bunch of things including “big gap” filler and wood filler but what worked best for me was flexible gap filler. None of it held my intended stamped texture very well, but I did manage to impart a nice brick texture onto the mini-tower. The hill was done by roughing out the form with some spray insulation, fine tuning it with crumpled up newspaper, and then laying down a shell with plaster bandages that we’d cut into strips an inch or two wide. Nefarious and I did all of this together and had a great time and even greater results. There will still be some sanding and smoothing (and painting and decorating of course), but the basic shape is there.
As always, here’s one picture to get you started, and there are lots more after the break.
Keep going for more.
(Continued)
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
So I get a call from one of the geneticists that’s working to find out the source of my problems, and they’re currently booking for late March 2010. And if it’s the same wait as last time, I’ll get the results in 2011, and then they’ll book my follow up in 2012, and get those results in 2013. I suppose that’s one good way to save money in a healthcare system… Make the wait time long enough that if you’re “lucky”, the patient will be dead by the time anything expensive has to happen.
Anyway, let me share with you the progress on the house. There are a bunch of pictures, including the very pretty night-time lighting system after the break that I recommend checking out, but these first ones give you an overview. As you can see, the greenhouse is finished, and I’ve build a larger base (which is sitting on some no-scratch pads) with an organic shape. The curved “hills” coming out of the sides like buttresses are just that — hills — and are going to support the land surrounding the building (the bottom story is actually the basement) which we’re going to make out of plaster bandages over top of crumpled paper. I have loads of plaster bandages that I was going to use for casting but didn’t. So the house is going to sit on top of a little hill, and I’ve also added a little light-tower (that I still have to mount a light in.
Please do check out the rest of the pictures.
(Continued)
Unfortunately it’s looking like Blob as won the Toronto mayoral election… thanks so much amalgamation for really lowering the common denominator as low as it can go with a bunch of dumbasses from the suburbs buying the “let’s stop the gravy train” bull. When you make your decisions based on catch-phrases then you deserve what’s coming to you… Problem is, with so many fools out there, the rest of us get what’s coming to you too. The only good news in this household about the election I’m guessing is that Nefarious got to be late for school because she joined me in the voting booth and filled things out for me. That’s probably illegal but no one complained (same probably goes for taking a picture).
I sure hope I’m calling things early and Toronto gets its first publicly gay mayor instead.
Work on the Burrow-inspired dollhouse is going well. Tomorrow I’m going to use the Dremel to cut up some acrylic sheet to build a greenhouse catilevering out the side of the roof. I built a mock-up out of cardboard which is also precise enough to act as a template from which to cut the acrylic. I tried cutting it with a razor knife and then cracking it, but I just broke it instead which is why I’m going to use the Dremel. I figure this project will be done for the weekend, and I’m enjoying every moment of creating it. Anyway, here’s that mock-up:
While I read the bedtime book sci-fi by Garth Nix (with a tough warrior girl that I think Nefarious can relate to nicely), she worked on various carpeting ideas, occasionally taking a break to chase me around with fists-a-flying as I changed to words in the book to teasingly amuse myself. It’s now a fantasy of ours (the three of us) to build forty-odd dollhouses like this and create a neighborhood and rent the studio out as a birthday play space… although I’m quite certain that boisterous kids without a sense of ownership and responsibility could easily destroy eons of work in an afternoon.
Other than that I have an awful lot of blood pooling in my foot from some heavy-duty internal bleeding that’s making me believe I’m walking on a broken leg (it’s in the leg that I don’t have proper sensation in, and while there is no obvious pain, it does feel “weird”), so I think tomorrow I’m going to have to go and get it x-rayed. I do always enjoy scans of this sort at least.
