My Crafty Things

Monday, April 24, 2017

Index

Since I've done quite a few projects over the past few years, it might have become a bit hard to find the things you like to see.

Therefor; an index:

Furniture:

Courses:

Props:

FruitCorso:

Signs:

Animal houses:

Sculpting:

Miniatures:

Random:

Side note: Some projects can be subdivided to multiple categories, I tried to put them in the most obvious category.

Serving Tray (2017)

For my housewarming party I made some home made industrial looking serving trays.

Serving well as a serving tray.

These are made from plywood and metal rings from (industrial size) filler/ paint bins.

Plywood circle

Metal ring

There's not that much to tell for a tutorial. You trace a closed ring on a piece of plywood. You cut these out slightly bigger (5-8 mm depending on the size of the ring).
Sand the edges to make it fit into the rings.

Then divide the board into 3 smaller boards and use a ruler and awl to scratch that line.
With a pair of scissors or another sharp object you can make some wear and tear cuts on the surface of the board.
Then add a layer of stain. When that layer is dry, sand the middle.
Add a new layer of stain and add black tones around the edges.

I made a stamp out from craft foam and added these after the staining was done.
I choose the name "One of a kind" because they are hand made, which makes them similar but unique.

Add at least 2 layers of varnish and close the ring around it.

Different rings mean different sizes.

I'm planning to make these into small side tables. I will give an update when I've made those.

Sidenote; Make sure the rings are cleaned; use a good cleaning detergent and a scouring sponge. Especially when it's going to be used in combination with food.

Sunday, April 2, 2017

Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them: Bowtruckle (2016)

This might be a very quick tutorial.

After seeing the movie "Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them" I decided I wanted to make my friend a figure from that movie as he wanted to come with me, but I didn't know that in time.

This isn't the perfect photo, I'll try to make a new one soon.

To start of I looked at footage/ photo's of the actual Bowtruckle from the movie.
From that I made a wire frame from electric wire (I don't really recommend this afterwards as it proved to be way to bendy.

The tiny frame was covered with a bit of clay and some basic shapes were added.
I left 2 antennas sticking out of his head. Later on the leaves would be glued to these.

I used some expensive new clay for this project instead of the regular cheap one I use. It's a nice smooth clay but it breaks rather easily. So not that suited for this tiny project.

Wireframe

Covered with clay

Once the clay part is done I gave it a solid green layer. On this I added all the variety of brown and greens.

The leaves were made from regular (eva) foam; 1mm. I cut this in shape and with something sharp I added the lines of the leave.
With help from the heat of a lighter I was able to make the leave a bit thinner and bend it into shape (it will stay that way once cooled)
This was also painted several shaded of green.

2 coats of varnish (semi-gloss on most of it, gloss on the "wet parts" like roots, tips of his fingers)

In case you wonder: The "Pepernoot" he's holding is an inside joke. (This is also made from clay)

Birdhouse Clock (2016)

As a present to the designers of the Fruitcorso cart I've wanted to give them something in spirit of their design. I came up with a birdhouse clock, because the design was a clock with gears, carried by birds and butterflies.

NOTE: PLEASE DO NOT USE THESE FOR REAL BIRDHOUSES
I've been told that they serve as an oven when they're put in direct sunlight, cooking the little birdies.

Open and closed "clock"

I went to the local thrift shop and got 2 cookie tins.
There were spraypainted black.

2 nice cookie tins

Black cookie tins

When the tins were black I added chains, hinges and a front plate.

Some chains are added

The front plate was covered with a printed clock. The hands of the clock are put at 17:09
The Fruitcorso took place at September the 17th.
The tins were then painted gold.

Basic gold

I added some darker colors around the edges to make it look older and I made a template which I then dabbed with black/ dark gold.

2 layers of varnish finished this project.

Witch Head (2016)

Which head? A Witch head.
At the corso works a man who always had a witch on top of his chimney. Unfortunately, the witch fell down and he wanted to make a new one. He's a fine welder so he could make the dress/ broom, but he didn't know how to make a face.

Finished face, only needs some outside varnish

I can do a face. Clay isn't a stranger to me. Yet it had to withstand the forces of nature and well, clay isn't the most trustworthy companion when it comes to rain and frost.

Therefor I had to make a mold from a clay model and use some sort of resin.

But first start with the clay model:
I use tin foil to make a base (which saves up a lot of clay)

The tin foil is covered with masking tape, this makes the clay stick on a bit better; it doesn't really want to stick to the foil.

Tin foil base

Same base, covered with masking tape

After a bunch of carving and adding/ removing clay I ended up with this face:

Finished clay model

I used cheap air drying clay. Normally when you want to make a mold you might consider using plasticine or something similar. This type of clay stays soft and can be reused for your next project.
Anyhow, further methods remain the same.

Give the head a mohawk makeover. Because it's not possible to make a one piece mold with the nose and such you have to make a seam somewhere. I did this at the back of the head, because the hair will cover it up. The pouring hole will be in the top (a hat will fit here later on)

Witch with a mohawk

Now add layer after layer after layer of liquid latex. I added some harder to the latex to make it thicker. In the end I noticed the mold shrinks a considerable amount (at least 10%). So I'm not sure it's a good thing to use.

When the rubber is finished a two piece shell will be made from polyester (with glass fiber).
To make a two piece mold you need to make a barrier the whole seam around. For this I did use plasticine.

Rubbermold with half a polyester mold

Other side

Now the hard part is done it's time to pour in the resin. At first I tried the regular resin (polyester) but it takes a lot of time before it solidifies. Next to that it doesn't cover everything + it is rather fragile.

I went online and found some better resin: Smooth-Cast 65D
This is a quick solidifying resin used for this type of hollow cast molding.
Mix the 2 parts, pour it in and keep swirling it around so everything inside is covered (yes, it's a messy process)

You'll be left with a nice lightweight white duplicate of your clay model. (The only sidenote is that it leaves some small bubbles at the surface; you can fill those with primer when you start to paint)

Casting process

The only thing left is to paint your new model.
I used a dark grey primer and added some light grey by dry brushing.

Front side of the witch.

Next it's making the actual witch, which probably will happen at the corso next year)

Sunday, October 2, 2016

Writing Desk Make-Over (2016)

This is a project that's already been finished some time ago. I just needed some last things to paint, which I just did.
Due to an error to my camera memory card I've pretty much lost all the before and process pictures. I found a similar looking writing desk online, which makes it able to show what it looked like before I even started.

On a second hand website I had found this writing desk. The people selling it didn't ask for much. They wanted a plant for it in return. For a project that's a very nice price. :)

It was an oak laminated writing desk, nothing fancy.
Before painting the desk was sanded and the knobs were removed.
From aliexpress I ordered some new knobs, which might have been a that bit bigger than they turned out to be. But it looks kinda nice.

After the sanding 2 layers of brown primer were applied. When the last coat was dry I added some hair straightener fluid on the edges so the white coat wouldn't attach to the layer underneath.
Then several coats of white were added. The paint I had was quite crappy (Hema) so it took me like 4-5 layers of paint (Take Histor or something similar; this takes about 2 coats. It might cost a bit more but it takes less paint.)

When all that was dry I scratched the edges lightly with a putty knife. On the places the hair straightener liquid was added the white paint would scratch off, leaving the rest of the paint intact.
And last but not least the new knobs were added

Sunday, September 25, 2016

FruitCorso: De Tijd Vliegt (Time Flies) (2016)

Another year, another FruitCorso.
This year we went a bit smaller than usual. The cart has the name "Time Flies", it's in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the club.
We did a literal interpretation of "Time Flies" by having a pocket watch carried by butterflies and swallows.

The cart during the FruitCorso Parade.

I was asked to help out with the design of the birds. I had to do a drawing of one in several positions with the wing width of 1,5 meter.
I made 3 flying designs; 1 flying, 1 braking and one with its wings half folded (that last one was skipped). Next to that I also designed a sitting one.

Top view of my sketch.

From this I made a metal design together with the welder. Me and the designer decided it was easiest to do the wings out of carton with a simple metal framing inside; this makes the wing look thinner and the separate feathers are easier made.

Metal frame with a Styrofoam head.

The metal frame with a cardboard wing glued to it.

During the metal work I was trying to make 11 swallow heads. Birds aren't easy so there's a bit of difference between them. (There's one that looks more like a pigeon)
At home I used clay to improve the faces of the birds.
In all honesty I was skeptical about the size of the birds; they were the same size as the butterflies, but looked even smaller since their wings have less surface. None the less, no discussion, they were approved by the designer. The sitting ones were allowed to become a bit bigger.

After the metal work I could attach the wings. This took a lot of work so I was lucky there were some folks to help me out.
When that was done the feet/legs could be welded and attached. It was a bit unclear if we had to wait until the chain was done (making them fit better), but we got a go to just give them feet.
Now the paper team could finally add paper to them, to which we could add plaster (takes the metal framing edges away and makes sure the neck runs smoothly to it's back/chest)

"Birds falling down the rooftops..."

The bird finished with plaster.

After all the "paperwork" it was time to draw on them. I had miscalculated how much time would go into this. There were a lot...a lot of feathers! One of the designers stepped in and helped me out with this.
When everything was drawn and painted, people could finally start gluing on all the different kinds of seeds.

Painted bird.

The product design was also part of my "job", I made a 2:1 sketch to make it clear to other which and how the products were going to be glues on. (I made a copy which I colored and gave it a caption what it all meant). Unfortunately, time was our enemy, so we had to change the design and switch some products. All in all I'm quite happy how things turned out.

The sketch of the different types of seeds/fruits/vegetables that had to go on the bird.
Left = back, right = stomach. In the end we did some changes due to the time consuming design.

My bird, finished with the seed part.

The backside still needs a lot of work. Therefor it will go home with me.

It barely fitted in the car.

When everything was done, every seeds was glued on, every tomato was in place, every bird/ butterfly was welded where they needed to go it was finally time to go outside!