Shop Five

Trophies of the Dark Passenger

2010-02-06T02:32:00.000-05:00

So over the summer, I started watching Showtime's "Dexter" and I became a instant fan. I loved it, I ending up watching the first two seasons in a couple of days. I finished the third soon after then I watched and waited for each episode of the fourth. I even when out and got the first book. But I wanted more, so I decided to make his "trophy" box.

If you are not familiar with the show. Dexter is a serial killer who during every kill takes a drop of blood from his victim. He put the drop on some microscope slides and then saves the slides in a wooden slide box. It is the one thing that connect him to his crime, but they are still trophies.

I wanted to create this box. I first wanted to see if I could buy it. the slides were easy enough to find and I could get a hundred of them for under eight dollars. The box on the other hand was a different story. Most of the slide boxes that I found were plastic. After searching for some time, I happen to find a site that sold wooden slide boxes but they were not right. The boxes opened side ways while Dexter's box opened long ways. also I notice many of the boxes hold fifty or a hundred slides. I knew I was not going to fill the whole box and also I did not want a big box laying around my house.

So I decided to make a box. I wanted it to be small. I really did not care if it was accurate, It was something that I could show someone familiar with the show and they would know it is supposed to be Dexter's box. I when out to a craft store that I knew had different wooden boxes. I found one but it opened side ways. I figured that I could always move the boxes hinges to make it open differently.

I got the box and when i got home I started work. First I removed all the metal pieces. I filled the holes that the screws made with wood putty. I then noticed that the hinges made an indent in the wood. I had to sand each of the box's edges down until they were as even as possible. I did the same for the lid. I then sanded some notches for the hinges. I screwed them in place but it did not see right so I changed where I put the hinges.After I did that the lid sat perfectly.

I then added some balsa wood on the inside of the box. I did this to add ribs to hold the slides in place.

Now I forgot to mention that when I decided to make the box also decided to make the slides. I made them out of plexiglass. They are alot thicker then glass slides but also alot tougher, so I do not have to worry about them breaking. I only made seven of them. I used them to help me cut out the ribbing in the box. After I finished the ribs, I was ready for the last part the blood. I use some red acrylic paint for the blood. I added a drop to some of the slides and put another one slide on top of another.Then I separated the slides and smoothed the paint. I added the slides to the box and now I have my our trophy box.

Here are some more pictures:

A combo with brass and blades

2010-02-03T21:30:00.003-05:00

So about a month ago my girlfriend told me that she designed a weapon for a friend. She was so excited by it that she wouldn't stop bothering me until she showed me it.It was something different.

It was a sword brass knuckle combo. The sword came from the brass knuckles and it was a very cool design. She asked if it was okay to use some of the spare form-board, that I had from my Gunblade project, to make the weapon. I said It was fine with me.

Well she never got a chance to make it. It just sat on the back burner waiting. Well the other night I was wondering about a cartoon that has a special place in my heart, Gundam Wing. I was wondering about something and remember one had weapon that reminded of something. Then it hit me it was the weapon my girlfriend designed. So I decided that I was going to make that weapon.

First, I got one of the quick sketches that she did. Because it was a sketch, it did not have all the details, so I took some liberties with it. Then I drew it on the from board the best I could. I cut it out the used it as a template and cut a second one out . I also cut two other pieces that has a small "blade". I then cut out the holes for the fingers on one of the four pieces I had.

I then glued that piece to another and cut of the finger holes. I also trimmed the excess form-board. I did this for the rest of the pieces then sanded the form to make a more blade like shape and to smooth out the rough edges. After I sanded the edges I began to tape the form-board in blue painters tape. I then checked the the finger holes to see if they fit. which they did not ( me and my girlfriend have about the same size hand so if the holes were not big enough for me they would not be big enough for her.)

I began to sand the finger holes. To do this I wrapped a piece of sand paper around a pen and sanded the holes until they were large enough to fit my fingers. after I finished the finger holes I taped the rest (except the finger holes) of the weapon up. I am basely done because I don't know what color to paint it so I'll leave that up to my girlfriend.

Here are the pictures of the "finished" product

It's amazing who you'll find if you look hard enough (Part one)

2010-01-30T22:11:00.004-05:00

So a while back I was on the hunt for a light weight orange fabric for a costume project. I found a fabric that was what I was looking for in the strangest place ...Ikea. But when I went there they didn't have enough for what I wanted. I asked someone who worked there if there was another bolt (that what they call a bundle of fabric) in the back. They told me no but they get shipments of fabric all the time and just come back.

I didn't come back for a while. It was not until Halloween 2009,when I got a tie that looked like the one that the Joker wore in The Dark Knight. There was also a coat that I got that looked like the Joker's coat but it was a bit tight in places. I figured that I could make my own Joker coat and I remembered that Ikea had Purple fabric that could work so I went there to find it. When I got there it was gone but I did find the orange fabric that I was looking for a few months earlier. So I got it but I also saw a fabric that was cool and on sale. It was a red and white stripes. I was looking at it wondering if i got it what would I make from it. My girlfriend said that it looked similar to one of the jacket that a character name Fujimoto(picture) wore in the movie Ponyo. I figured that it was close so I got the fabric. After looking at a picture of Fujimoto's jacket I saw that the stripes on the fabric I got were a lot closer to one another, but it did not matter much because the fabric was cheap and I was sure that I could use it something.

Flash forward to now, I figured out what I could use the the fabric for a jacket. However, not like the one that Fujimoto wears though. It was going to be something for a costume that I made for a school project. It was going to be a Waldo Jacket. Since the jacket was going to be something that Waldo wears, it could not look like a sport coat, so I decided that it was to look more like a track jacket, but I also wanted it to have some flare. So I am going to add some shoulder tabs, a back belt, and lots of pockets.

Once again I notice that the fabric's stripes are a lot closer to one another then the Waldo's stripes but I still decided to make the jacket because it will also be useful went I ride my bike to school. Even if the jacket is not like Waldo's it would be perfect for biking because it will be bright and make me very visible to people in cars.

So I got the fabric and a pattern for the jacket. After some quick modifications I was ready to start cutting the fabric. I usually would make a muslin mock up but I just wanted to jump in. I knew that the modifications that I did would not cause to much of a problem because I was not changing the shape on the jacket too much. I also wanted to start right away because I had to a very little amount of time because school started back up.

Here is the fabric

I will show the finished product and explain how I made it in part 2

Don't bring a sword to a gunfight ....unless it's a Gunblade (Part one)

2010-01-30T03:12:00.005-05:00

I am a fan of many things. One of the those things is video games. I like all types of games but I have a special place in my heart for RPG (role playing games), and one of my favorites is the game Final Fantasy 8. I know that it is not everyone's cup of tea but I liked it. I liked the characters, the gameplay, the story, but above all I liked the Gunblade.

It was one of the coolest weapons I have ever seen. It was not just a sword but it was also a gun. many people that I know that dislike the game say that the Gunblade is a cool weapon. Because It was so cool I always wanted to make it. And that what I started to do a couple of months back.

I started by trying to figure out the actual size of the Gunblade. I had a toy of the main character Squall. the toy also came with a toy version of the Gunblade. I also knew that there is a 1:6 scale toy that they sell. So I looked up how long the 1:6 scale is. It was 9 inches long then I measured my toy which was 6.5 inches which makes the toy version a 1:8 scale of it. Then I also noticed how big the Gunblade was compared the the toy of Squall himself , which was up to his shoulder. This meant that The Gunblade was BIG, very big. It is a 54 inches or 4 and 1/2 feet long.

After I found this out I stated to measure everything on the toy and multiplied it by 8 (8.3 actually). I did this until I had all the sizes of all the little details (even the chain which is 13.2 inches long). After I got all this info I began to wonder how I was going to make the Gunblade. At the time, I did not have a Dremel tool so I could not use wood to make it. I decided to use form-board because early that month my girlfriend used form-board for a prop that I wore for Otakon. So I knew that form-board was strong when layered and that if made right can look really good.

I when out and got some form-board and some blue painter's tape. I then made a pattern for the Gunblade out of card stock. I laid the pattern on the form-board and traced it. I had to to this four times for the blade and four times for handle. I then glue the four pieces of the blade together and the four pieces of the handle together. After I did this, I sanded the blade part to a make it more like a blade. Then I sanded the handle to round it and give it a more smooth look to it. I glued the blade to the handle but it was a little weak so I drilled and put wooden dowels to make the blade a lot more sturdier. Then I stated to tape it up wit blue painter's tape to smooth it up. I began to add the little detailed like the barrel and hammer, but some reason I just stopped making it. It has been sitting in my apartment for a while and I am going to finish it some time.

Here are some picture of the full Gunblade.

The ruler is 15 inches long. The Gunblade is about 56 inches long I was two inches off.

and here is a close up of the handle

To be a Timelord you need a nice Suit

2010-01-18T03:14:00.013-05:00

So for the people who know me, they know that I am ~~obsessed~~ a fan of Doctor Who and the tenth Doctor, David Tennant.
I love the suit (and his coat) that he wears during his run as the Doctor but I like many others have not been able to find the fabric to make his suit . Some have got the fabric custom printed, which I might do in the near future, but I still wanted to try to buy a fabric that is close to what he has.

But Jo-ann fabric doesn't seem to have anything close to what I have been looking for. So I when to a fabric store that has a much wider selection then Jo-ann. I have been checking this place regularly to see if something comes in but for a while I found nothing. Until I saw something that I Thought just might work. It was a white shirting fabric with really bright blue pinstripes. From all the Doctor who web sites that I visit I learned that the suit that he wears is cotton and very thin. So I figured that I can work with this it was white, light, and cotton. I was going to dye this and make this the Doctor's fabric.

So I got seven yards of it (it is 42 wide so I needed more) then I got dark brown dye. Before I could dye all the fabric I got I had to do some tests. I cut some swatches of it off and started the tests. The dye bottle said that for sink dyeing I needed to put half (4oz) the bottle (8oz) in to three gallons of water but I only wanted to test the fabric so I cut that in half, 2oz in a gallon and a half in hot water, and I did several swatches at different times but I did not record those times so I had no idea how long I needed to dye the rest of the fabric for.

Because of my slip up I had to do a second small scale test. I cut some more swatches and this time I set different times for the dyeing. I did three test one at seven minutes and thirty second, another for ten minutes and one more for fifteen minutes. After I finished I noticed that the one closest to the color I wanted was the fifteen minute swatches. So it was time to do the real thing, I took the numbers I recorded and times it by four. So I poured six gallons of water in to a storage case and poured a whole bottle in and got ready to dye the fabric for an hour. However I could only stir the fabric for fifteen minutes, I thought that it was good enough but after it dried, the fabric was way too light. so I had to put the fabric in another dye bath but I dumped the water with the dye and I had no dye left so I had to wait until the next day to get some more.

The next day, I when to three different crafts stores to find the dye I wanted, but could not find any. I lucked out in the last store (which was where I got the dye the first time) when I got the last bottle of brown dye (which was one that I pasted up a day before because it was an older bottle of the dye). I got it and put the fabric in for another dyeing, I did it for another fifteen minutes. After that I dried the fabric but once again it was still light, so I had to do another dyeing and find another bottle of the dye, but I had to wait until the next day.

It was not hard to find another bottle of the dye. I found it at the crafts store near my house (I have about five or so in about five miles). It was time for the third bath which I did in the same fashion as the other two. I knew this time I had to dye it less then the last two so I figured I'll do it for ten minutes. I put the fabric in and stirred for ten minutes. Then it was time to dry it, I was not sure how it would turn out. But After It came out the dryer I was pleased with the end result. I was worried that the blue lines would be completely gone after the dyeing (or multiple dyeing) but they were not. They are toned down but I think it is a pretty match for the Doctor's suit.

Here is the Fabric:

Now I just have to create a pattern for the suit.

Shop Five

2010-01-18T00:26:00.001-05:00

Welcome to Shop five,

This blog is for all the things that I create may it be art/crafts/props/clothes/everything. It is not just a blog about the finished product but one about the process that goes into making something.