Craft(y) Project: Mixed Media Neckpiece

I'm trying to go through absolutely everything I own and finish all of the projects I've started and left to collect dust or just straight up forgotten about as well as made gifts and more things to sell before I jet to Korea.

Currently I'm working on a dress, 6 bags, 5 pairs of embellished gloves, 4 hand-painted shirts, 5 scrap pillows/cushions, two plush toys, a small series of felt goodies, a trinket box with a portrait painted on it, two other paintings, a collage that I hope will also become a painting, a bunch of deco'd accessories and things, 7 pairs of earrings, 2 rings, 2 hair accessories, 7 necklaces, and some other stuff.

Yeah, I think I'll probably run out of time, too. "Too broad in scope and subject matter to possibly execute well or completely" describes every aspect of my life up until this point.

Anyway, here's one of the things I made for myself out of two appliques, a pendant Angelique gave me, silver chain and broken jewelry findings:

Cute Shit: Googling Nature

I noticed that I tend to overthink my posts a bit, or only try to post only the best stuff I can possibly come up with. I'm starting a new segment (e.g. Giftage, Craft(y) Project) to encourage more frequent, easier, shorter posts, kind of like the few art ones I've done. Even these shouldn't be mediocre, though, so I'm going to bookmark the most unique cute shit I find.

Today it's puffball flowers and the heterohyrax brucei, which is easily distinguished from the homohyrax by its conspicuous lack of brand name accessories and the fact that it doesn't complain about its hair nearly as much.

I've always loved the puffball flowers on the acacia trees we have in Arizona; there used to be one outside my window and I wasn't even super allergic to it, believe it or not.

These are button bush flowers, also known as honeyballs or honey bells. Apparently they've got a lot of them in Florida and they smell just like honey. 

I was thinking about getting some seeds and then I was like, "Oh yeah, I'm going to be leaving the country". By now I know myself well enough to accept that I'd forget about planting them even if I did get them.

But wait, they come in purple, too!

Now for the heterohyrax, which sounds like something that died out in the last ice age. It's kind of like a lemming or a pika, but African and more smug. In a good way.

Look at this photogenic little bastard! Aww.

Don't you just wanna squeeze it? ლ(◉◞౪◟◉‵ლ)

よわよわカメラウーマン日記

How awesome is this? I just wish she was still posting them..

http://yowayowacamera.com/

Giftage

In an effort to celebrate my friendships and use up my stockpile of art supplies and findings before I move, I've been making stuff left and right. It's so nice to finally be done with school (and the massive stress associated with it) forever and have my creativity back, though it'd be nice if it were my full time job. Hopefully I'll get to that point one day.

First there's the "Obamegoma" keychain I made for Carl as a get well present. I just copied pics I found online, but they're hand-drawn and painted either way, so, still counts.

This Tweety brooch is obviously based off an image as well, though I only used it for the silhouette and ended up making the proportions completely different anyway. Maybe I'll make some more and sell them?

Angelique gave me an awesome octopus ring after I commented on the one she was wearing, and I got the idea to make these ostrich and goose feather earrings for her in return. They were going to be hair accessories, but that didn't turn out too well, and they achieve something like 90% camouflage in her hair.

And finally, I did say that I'd post the first painting I've completed in 5 years, so here it is. The more I look at it, though, the more I regret not spending enough time on her face and want to add shoulder blades and detail to the bikini top and tail.. 

I've also been doing a lot of cooking and baking. A couple of other random things I've made include this little scrap Totoro pin (while working) and this collage (while watching Firefly), from which I'd like to do a painting.