Costumes, Art, Opera, Torture, and Comics

10/26/2014 House of Geekiness 3 Comments

We had an amazing weekend that started with an exhibit of amazing costumes! These were my favorites.

 
Angelica Houston's gown in Ever After 
 
 
Jack Sparrow's costume from Pirates #1

 
Keira Knightly's from The Dutchess 

 
Kate Winslet's from Sense and Sensibility


Emmy Rossum's from the Masquerade in Phantom of the Opera

 
The gorgeous red gown from Land of the Blind!
 
Next, we were off to the BYU Harris Fine Arts Center

 
The kids especially loved the interactive pieces like walking this floor maze and ringing a huge selection of very loud hand bells. 
 
There, we got to enjoy our first opera experience, a special family presentation of
The Marriage if Figaro.


 
The kids LOVED it (shocking because they were dragging their feet saying how opera was boring.)

 
The amazing performers even came out for a meet and greet afterwards.



 
Our youngest was pouting because we tried to make him take a picture with "yucky girls." Apparently, we love to torture him... 
 
 
 
We topped off our fun weekend with a trip to the comic book store (Dragons Keep in Provo),
where we met Captain America!

3 comments:

perler beads

Perler vs. Hama

10/13/2014 House of Geekiness 0 Comments

You guys asked, so here it is: Hama vs. Perler Beads..

I'd never tried Hama Beads before (they're not as easy to find in the USA), and I was very surprised by what I found.

Hama beads have a much different feel to them than any bead I've used. They are actually a bit smaller than other beads (making it difficult to handle them with the perler tweeze tool, and they didn't want to stay in place on the pegboard!) The plastic feels almost soft, and when they're fused, they become almost spongy--they still retain their shape, but they're much more flexible than any other beads so far. This flexibility might be helpful when crafting items that will be handled by children who tend to bend them. They will break if handled too much, but they'd probably withstand more than other beads. ***Please remember that ALL small items can be potential choking hazards for babies and small children!***


(Pictured above, Hama Beads: Dark blue, light blue, yellow, white, and red.
Perler Beads: Pastel blue, light yellow, pink, black, green, purple, and orange.)

Hama beads have a lower melting point than perler beads, and you can see from this picture that they look quite a bit different when melted. The hama beads ended up being noticeably shorter and more rounded at the top (like nabbi beads) than perler beads. They also have a bit more gloss to them than perlers.



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Crafting The Guardians

10/01/2014 House of Geekiness 0 Comments

I finally got to work on my Guardians of the Galaxy inspired bead sprites! Here's a bit of an inside look at how I designed them.




I always start by looking at a picture of my subject and creating a color pallet for each project. 



Designing Starlord


 Had to make one with and without a mask, of course! 


Gamora


Nebula
Nebula was difficult. When you have a huge block of one color, it's hard to make it look good. Adding details like the stripes in her clothes helps break it up. 


Rocket
The basic outline that I did for Rocket was based off my Teemo pattern, 
but I altered it quite a bit to make it work for him. 
I started with a different color pallet to see the design more clearly, 
then incorporated the real colors later. 


Baby Groot
Believe it or not, Groot was actually the hardest to make. 
I started with a design that was much bigger and more complex, 
but wanted to keep it simple and cute. 



Drax
I put the basic design together, then add details.


And here's the final product! Find these cuties in my Etsy shop or Storenvy. 

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