Just text this time

@masseffect Nyreen hood, cowl and collar drafting took one and a half Eddie Izzard shows. That is not normal for a hood! It does crazy things and I get to decide where the seams go in the cowl because there are none. Sigh.

No it’s okay. The rest is easy. right? Cry!

But basically the hood and cowl and collar are going to be one piece regardless of what the artist intended šŸ˜‰ It’ll snap to the harness though. Which will snap to the tunic. Sadly the Obi is not self supporting, that downward curve of the belt piece really does stop it being an effective cincher. So internal trickery shall be needed.

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@masseffect Nyreen progress! Again sorry for bathroom photos but this is the best lit mirror in the house at this time of day and I do not fancy setting my tripod out and all the rigmarole it takes to get my camera to focus when taking self portraits (I need to have a stand in or the camera focuses on the backgroundā€¦. I usually use a Christmas tree stand, vacuum tube and wig head, it can be entertaining)

Anyway so this is the first successful cast! I will be using this but I want to make as many sets as I can before the mold loses too much definition. I love the texture I got on the skull but it will eventually go bye bye. The very last set will be a semi rigid urethane which I will also use to cast my Asari pieces from and any other plaster mold looking a bit dodgy.

Also, I will be using various means to hold pieces together. The pins forced curves not present and the underside of the upper lip sticks out but will be glued flat to the inside. I will be using a lot of velcro dots. They stick very well to latex indeed and will allow for fast removal in case of heatstroke. Cough, not that that happened at the Dragon*Con parade at allā€¦ cough. ehem.

I may go try and test the hood pattern. Itā€™s crazy with overlaps and stand up collar and all that jazz.

(ETA: I use @XYZ because I cross post to twitter on this account šŸ˜‰ )

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1 @masseffect Nyreen tunic mostly patterned. 2 It is a turian explosion in my workroom!Ā 3Ā And why you canā€™t really use more than one mixture of latex in a mold. Twisty twisty mandibles from the latex on the outside shrinking more than the latex on the inside. Also from being pulled from the mold before the inside layer was fully cured.

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See that? That is effed up latex that is. I should not be able to scratch the latex like that. The liquid latex can part and as the liquid evaporates I ccould create channels, but a sharp brittle stratch in still white latex? No.

Latex in its natural state is a white liquid that turns a murky clear colour when cured. This in not cured. this has gone really horribly wrong. Eventually it will cure, oh yes. But it does so by going through a jelly like stage. This causes it to crack because there s no stretch when it is like this but it still shrinks as the water evaporates.

I thought it was me. But it is not. I tested all my methods but frankly that above should never happen.

My latex did have a pinkish tint to it, but Iā€™ve had that before and no issue. Now to retro-research what went wrong (I have my suspicions).

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operafantomet:

glassprism:

ā€¦No, I actually, genuinely like it. Itā€™s not my favorite of Christineā€™s dresses, but at least itā€™s better than the original ā€œHersheyā€™s Kissesā€ dress, at least in my opinion. Iā€™ve also seen the dresses other productions used, and thought they wereā€¦ just okay. (Hungarian one looked a little too modern, the Polish one a bit cheap, mostly because it looked exactly like the dress they used in ā€˜Think of Meā€™, only a shade of pink.)

I don’t like the current UK versions of the dress, especially not the sleeveless one Sierra Boggess wore in the Royal Albert Hall concert and ESPECIALLY not the butchered one Katie Hall wears in the UK tour. I think the colours are too bright and the materials looks to synthetic. But how can you not like THIS?Ā 

image

Or this?

imageĀ 

Crazy. Crazy, I say.Ā 

I agree. I hated the way the dress was a flat shiny cone when I saw the London cast. But I do adore the US and Aussie versions so much. I think it is because there is a subtler layering of so many nets as well as the balance of the neckline that extends in to the sleeves.

One day I may make that dress. Gotta admit, of all the masquerade costumes I most want to make the Monkey Girl šŸ™‚ The first time I saw the show the ballerina absolutely understood her role as a symbol, to provoke so many varied responses in Christine. Never seen it so well played since. Sigh. And her little shaking paws at the entrance of Red Death…. Wow.Ā 

digitalsprawl:

vertisol:

letsdothewave:

myallyistheforce:

Cats do this because its a hunting instinct to snap the neck of their prey.

*the more you know*

still adorable

those are the eyes of a cold blooded killer

and suddenly everything strange about my catā€™s behaviour becomes startlingly clear.

More like disemboweling/tear apart/just break now damn you- cat prey is usually about the size of that ball.

When I play games with my cat it usually winds up with him trying to disembowel my arm.

He’s just a big softy really.Ā 

I am in misery due to health problems spiraling ever down. Also Nyreen molds work but are super hard to use right now. All in all I am finding the will to complete this project more difficult to summon. But here are the best of the bad pulls test driven. They need interior support but are comfy to wear. These probably need the latex mix fine tuned, also the expensive prethickened latex at that.

Phone tumlr doesnā€™t allow multiple images šŸ™ or tags šŸ™

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My specialist says there is no point getting more xrays. Pretty conclusive there.
From Hand Surgery: Rheumatological and Degenerative Problems, Nerve Compression Syndromes (see link in text)
That bone is not normal
And to show I’m trying hard to show it as it really is.

My hands. They are deformed.

I have a degenerative disease caused by my immune system attacking synovium tissue throughout my body, this surrounds joints as well as tendons, ligaments and internal organs.

Fricking awful right? Yep. And it has a pretty benign sounding name which makes it really hard to get across why this is such a devastating disease: Rheumatoid Arthritis. This is not benign. The disease and medication is pretty hard on the whole body. Heart disease and liver failure, oh and a highish risk of lymphoma.

But lets look at the reason for the name: the arthritis. This is not a bit of achey and painy. This is full on erosion of joints that never get better. That never stop getting worse. Once you have a joint where the immune system has had a really good go you are ****ed. All that is left is waiting out the pain for surgery. And let me tell you. It ainā€™t pretty.

Given my age (young- compared to the age they will generally do this in NZ) I am not likely to get replacement but fusion. Which means no flexion at all. Iā€™ll have to waggle my arms from the elbows. This book explains a lot of the issues specifically related to the wrist (also fingers if you go searching). BE WARNED. Graphic photos of surgery. The snippets view can give you warning of the pages in particular.

As to my other joints? Well my specialist has called them a few names but there is a fairly restrictive view of what is ā€œactiveā€ but there is some activity in my knees, ankles and elbows. Oh a lot in my elbows. Funnily enough with synovitis! There are pockets of liquid at large joints (in particular) and I get a lot of inflammation of these near my elbows, knees and hips.

So when I say I canā€™t do something I canā€™t. Itā€™s not I wonā€™t. A small bit of damage today leads to a few years less functioning.

And I am currently experiencing a fairly active flare up as I have been off my monoclonal antibody therapy (aTNF inhibitor)Ā for 2 months. This is because the other fantastic side effect of the drugs and the disease is recurrent and long lasting infections. I think I have spent 9 of the last 12 months on antibiotics. And of the last 10 years.. I think I have seen my gp more than I have seen all of my friends combined.

Just to put the work I have done in to perspective and why I take so long between days of activity.

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Nyreen @masseffect This was the final test before making the mold. There is no nose on the form and I forgot to put some clay under there to give a better profile, but it shows the pieces still do line up as intended šŸ™‚

The jaw is more heavily layered in the chin as the latex fully cured overnight and I didnā€™t expect it to- so I hadnā€™t slushed it around properly. This is a test anyway šŸ™‚ The jaw hinge is feathered out so that it can be clipped to shape once all the pieces are assembled.

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Todayā€™s work.

About 3kg of clay to create a wall as a guide for the plaster and to support the head. About 6kg of plaster. Maybe moreā€¦ yeah.. it was about 6L of water.

I managed to make this as a one piece mold after all, thank goodness. I was worried about seam flashing and how to support the full mold once made and in two partsā€¦ I used my hand as a guide. So long as I can get my hand in the neck opening Iā€™ll be able to clean the clay out and also slush easily once casting begins.

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