Synacthen test, dolls, and now to sleep. Maybe.

Synacthen test, dolls, and now to sleep. Maybe.

So Synacthen is an alternative to corticosteroids but that is not what I had the test for. The test is to make sure my own body is producing cortisol after more than a decade on steroids. There are no genuine long terms studies that I know of. Long term studies usually only cover months of use not years (osteopaenia shot out!)  But I haven’t really delved PubMed for a while so some studies in the last few years may have popped up.

So the synacthen was painful. The nurse said right from the start it would feel like a punch in the arm. Yes. Yes it did. A punch with a thumbtack hidden in it. But it wore off so really was like a prolonged B12 injection.

It’ll take 5 days for the results as a pathologist has to look at it. I’m hoping it’s clear because this long term use has been preying on my mind for five years at least. So that was after 8 years of use… that may put in to perspective how long term this has been!

But then I got to catch a bus to Newmarket so I could get some fabric geek on. Centrepoint has moved their fabrics around and there is some glorious stuff there. Glorious. I wanted to hug everything. And at a reasonable price! They had $5/m fabrics! They have their $200/m stuff as well but wow! Also perfect pleather for my Maleficent Onsie. Her action suit. Sorry, I keep avoiding the term body suit because yes it’s very tropily me.

And I got alginate to get a cast of my face! Figure now is ideal. And I have enough resin for a really solid, solid cast proper. I don’t know if there is any reason to not cast resin in alginate- I suspect due to the porous nature- but a slick of release/sealer or whatnot will help. Just gotta determine what the whatnot is based on either chemical/physical properties or experiences. I just don’t want a cast I can’t move around myself. I have enough molds like that.

http://www.make-up-fx-forum.com/index.php?topic=535.0

My go to, love this forum. I am a lurker but read read read.

http://www.taxidermy.net/forums/FishTaxiArticles/04/l/04836EAE7D.html

And this is what I mean by don’t even rely on costume specific references! I am not in to taxidermy but hey, this covers many of the issues shared by trying to cast from a body. I have also used car modding forums and outdoor sculpture sites.

 

And today I have the side effects I was supposed to watch out for- itchy face and tired and a need to.. go. Go, go.  So I may have a nap during this weird weather spell and see if I can at least tidy.

 

And I need this doll:

http://www.stitchkingdom.com/disney-toys-r-us-sdcc-exclusives-71544/

(Winged Fairy Maleficent — Relive the fierce and exciting battle scene from the hit Disney film Maleficent. Maleficent is ready to seek vengeance, dressed in a true-to-character fitted black body suit with knee-high boots, dramatic black wings and elegant horns.)

Reasons are obvious-references especially of the back. The headpiece is not the right one but wow they went the whole way with even stitching details (due to scale I didn’t expect some of them to be there.)

But it has also confirmed to me how I’ll make the wings (yay working out hinging.)

July 2, 2014  
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Quickie update, state of the Elsa, Maleficent and me.

Quickie update, state of the Elsa, Maleficent and me.

I need to leave soon to get the final of a three step vaccine. And next week have to go to hospital for a blood test (to make sure my body has not gone a bit skewy with the old cortisol and not producing any) which will take an hour and a half. Gah. But then I get to go to another lab and get tested for adrenal antibodies and then another for TB testing. Again! really!!!!!!!

So yes, my disease is nasty enough that we use hard core front line stuff that makes medical practitioners freak. Like this is seriously the sixth time I’ve had a test for TB of some sort (chest xrays, and the blood test before each request for these medications and then again once approval has been gained.)

I cannot have the skin test, again. We had them when I was 13 and with no follow up even though I presented with a rash for.. oh… a year after. So no. No we will not be doing that again. Mess with my immune system in some ways but not in ways I know will trigger an uncontrollable reaction.

Anyway so I’m possibly feeling the Mabthera slowing down/RA catching up as I have hot joints symmetrically across my body. So I’m slowing down even computer work.

So that gets me back to Elsa.

I have stalled her for a few reasons. First is above, second is all the Maleficent Feelz (I love me some flawed IPs I know, will post about it as there was a tumblr post that touched on it) and third is it is a hugely popular costume and I feel a bit worried about it all.

I don’t do popular costumes. I just don’t. So finding myself ranking high in google searches has made me pull back a bit as I haven’t even got anything cut yet. Well my tests yes.

But it’s also popular here. And with my moderate position of “power” I hesitate to do something in case a contestant is put off or thinks I’m going to be thinking “that’s not how I’ve done it” because that is not how the judging process works. And not how I work. I love seeing how people tackle engineering issues and come up with different methods :)

I also feel guilty because at each show this year people have been asking when I’ll wear Elsa and so again the Olde Guilty “I’m taking focus” thing comes in. But then I’m also excited when I see other people doing things I love so….

Anyway, I have just fired up photoshop and will also fire up the Scan n Cut website to see how I can get the snowflakes laid up and also how to vectorise them (I may need to reinstall Illustrator though I am just not good at all with it…) so that I can get them in to all sorts of portable files. And I need to see how small the knife will go so as to see if I can get sewing holes in my sequins 🙂 And I will hunt out some sample from other stores after all and see how they work 🙂 I’m more worried about the shipping and customs of 25kg of sequin film than anything.

 

Anyway, I now also have a partial head cast- for making a perfectly fitted set of horns and cheek prosthetics. I soloed it, which is possible but so not safe! I only did because I know the product (how hot it gets and heavy and how far I can push proportions) and my own levels of panic and how to do things in stages so there was no risk of being encased in plaster. So what I have are perfect ear molds, a nearly great back of head (it fits perfectly just has big gaps) and what is essentially the mother for a face mold. It’s too big (did upper and lower in two stages) and so I’ll have to fill it with something that will take fine detail and not stick to my face. Or be something I’m allergic to. I also learnt that my ears are seriously defined and not very squishy.

So salt dough/play dough is my current option. It’s also biodegradable 🙂 But I’ll have to make, press and cast from it in one day so that may be a day where I have people around to get some help (hold my mold while I strap it together! Smash my ears!

Anyway so massive mess has been sorted and that was after a day of social times where people cae

June 24, 2014  

2 Responses to “Quickie update, state of the Elsa, Maleficent and me.”

  1. Meilin / 25 Jun 2014 3:34pm #I hear ya on Elsa popularity. But… If you love it and have invested so much effort so far (hello, sequins?) then just make the fricking costume already.

    TB test, gah. Even with a seriously compromised immune system I have trouble figuring out where you would pick that up. Better safe than sorry I guess.

    Reply

    • admin / 26 Jun 2014 12:13am #Unfortunately I do live in a high risk area- an area with a lot of migration and people with low vaccination rates etc.

      The effort invested so far is not so much that I couldn’t just pass the costume elements on and not be too far out of pocket (the experimenting has been a bit hit and miss.) I think it’s the specific way I want to do this and being burned out on corsetry having done so much historic stuff. But I have to remind myself this is more like testing out the 7 of 9 undergarment than yet another hourglass corset. 🙂 Yay spanks with a bra! Essentially. I want that effect of her dress being a floating layer- or two floating layers and the only way to do that is have the support completely separate from the gown and make the gown just barely skim. Difficult normally but extra difficult with a ridiculous wide lower rib, narrow waist and wide upper hip. There is so little room for vertical movement.

      Reply

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Ouch

I did a tiny bit of texture work tonight to try and record- so difficult when trying to avoid shadows falling across the sculpt and/or camera and with a phone that has no screw mount…- and my wrist audibly crunched. I think I managed to grab a video after that (I really did not want to listen out for it) so hopefully when this video finally uploads I’ll have a reasonable presentation of an actual part of sculpting that is actually “easy” because of time invested in to making a tool that allows for fast repetition but also some variation!

But er, I am definitely feeling the benefits of my infusion in joints that are so far undamaged but there is nothing for already damaged joints.

In case anyone has forgotten, my wrists are borked:

18350_277833250619_1355222_n

And that was several years ago already. The ends of both of my ulnars have moved further in to the middle of my wrists.

Bone doesn’t disappear like that without a nasty cause.

I am however one of the lucky few who have this many views of their wrist before and after damage. The first xray was within a month of my trigger event so I technically had RA but it hadn’t caused erosion.

Still can’t get over that one bone that has eroded to a pea shape from being shaped like a banana. That is some serious erosion. Yet my results only suggested a mild joint space loss. Yeah because the freaking bone has gone! And the end of my radii have eroded too!

Actually I need to email my specialist to let him know about the anaemia situation. He may want me to have the injections even though they caused so much tissue damage last time. Muscle degradation in that instance. And two years of pain. Okay maybe not. Maybe I’ll just have to keep up with the Floravital even though it’s about 20 times the cost… more I think. Sigh.

 

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Anyone indertest in 24kg of PET?

Just worked out what a “roll” of sequin material actually is.. it’s not quite as advertised! Not going by photos.. in otherwords do you know how ridiculously overengineered my Elsa gown will wind up being?

I am even looking at making my own sheeting from urethane. Yeah.. it’s a bit softer than I expected but it possibly could be screen printed… coo.. omg! yes, yes it could! But it would be flexible however my mind went immediately to Dame Vaako… that mesh is definitely screen printed in some way because you can see how the texture pattern has slid a bit…. Which you see a lot in screen printing.

Meanwhile I am also scoffing all the B12 and all the iron as yes. RA is to blame for the fatigue, again. And no we are not having injections as they didn’t actually raise my stores much last time. And I now have deep pits in my hips from them.

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So tired…

Posting from my desktop as my WP app seems to not be happy. The camera icon can’t be clicked in any orientation of the screen except sometimes vertically but generally I wind up scrolling or clicking another ico next to it. It was always tricky but with…

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