doublexgeeks

There’s only so much chainmaille you can wear yourself, and it’s a bit of an expensive hobby as well. The best cure for both these problems is to start selling it! So, I’ve opened a store at Esty called Chained to the Strange! I think it’s a great title, especially considered the oddities I like to create (I have a plan for a chainmaille mouse cover in the future).

However, I quickly ran into a problem with putting my stuff up… the pictures looked horrible! Especially compared to some of the great ones others had up, and at the high resolution the recommended. I knew my main problem was lighting, so off to Google I went to help find a solution.

I eventually started reading about jewellery photography specifically, and everyone said the same thing - I needed a light box. This seemed like an expensive solution, until I came across instructions on how to build one.

Basically, you take a good sized cardboard box, cut out three sides (top and sides), cover the wholes with white tissue paper, and insert a piece of white Bristol board. Alas I did not take pictures of this process, but the wiki I linked above does a great job explaining it.

Here is an image of the 1d20 pendant I took with a normal flash:

It definitely could be worse, but it’s not up to snuff.

Here is the completed light box. I’m using two desk lamps for light (plus the sun!), but I really need something brighter. For those who don’t know Canada has almost completely switched over to those florescent bulbs, so these are 13w, which is about the same as a 60w. I think I need a set of emergency light things!

The string is great for showing off how things hang.

And here’s a new picture:

It isn’t the best example honestly; I’m having stability issues now which are making my pictures a little blurry. I think it uses the flash to help stabilize the image.

Here are some of my favourites so far!:

I finally got a bunch of stuff cleared off my desk, and was able to open my lovely package from The Ring Lord!

It was extremely well packaged, so armed with a key a dug into my new treasure! I had ordered an assorted kit, as well as two sets of pliers. They weren’t much more expensive, even with shipping, to buy from them than to find my own, and I figured I’d have a better chance of getting what I need direct from them!

Yay ziplocks!

And as an added bonus my pliers have their logo on it. Neat!

I decided that the easiest thing to start with would be a 4-in-1. I found a great tutorial over at from CG Maille that really helped me get the hang of what I was doing… sort of.

My intention was to have the blue rings around the edge, with silver in the middle. Not sure how I ended up not doing that…

The necklace is a pattern from from Art of Chainmail.

Let’s poke around Etsy for a while. It’s a treasure trove of fun, geeky, things, and is the place for finding unique handmade products. I’d love to get some stuff up on there, but as you can tell from the late post, tiiiime.

My favourite that I found: Jayne Cobb’s hat from his mom.
Created by fadingendlessly, it even includes the letter from Jayne’s mother! Pretty cunning don’t you think?

I almost never wear matching earrings, which is a feat since I have 5 holes in each ear. These would be the PERFECT addition to my growing collection of “weird” jewellery (although my kitten broke my d20 necklace, sad).
Created by reddhynes, there are other geek and non-geek products on her page as well!

Up next: w00t.
I use this word far too often, and ended up having to explain l33t sp33k to my mother because of it. I think what I like best about it is how traditional it looks. It’d look great in any home or apartment, or even office!
Created by thepinksamurai, who also has a number of interesting comic book images turned into buttons!

Mario is gaming. He is the icon for it, known by gamers and non-gamers alike.
RipleyBean created this lovely Christmas ornament. I’m impressed with the colours!

Add a bit of geek to your sense of class with these cufflinks from nephilimdesigns.

Myself I do a lot of cross stitches. I wish I could show you guys some but I’m mostly working on Christmas gifts right now. After the holidays prepare for a craft explosion!

As I’ve said before, geeks come in many flavours. While living with a fellow geek has its advantages, it can also be a pain in the rear when they have different interests that take over your living room.

While I’m mostly a sci-fi and technology geek, my boyfriend is more of a horror movie, anime and gamer geek. He also likes to collect action figures and other figurines. Lots, and lots of figurines. We’ve come to some agreements with the decor in the living room (I’m going for an Asian style), and he can put whatever posters he wants up in the music room, and the hall/kitchen area are full of geek. But there are the figurines.

I have to admit, some of them are pretty cool looking. He doesn’t get crap, they’re all true to the show and some even beautiful (don’t let him hear me say that). It’d be a shame to have them shoved in a box in the back of the closet where no one can see them. However we live in an apartment, and we can’t put up normal shelves without heads getting knocked. So what to do?

Disclaimer: I haven’t tried this myself yet. It may or may not work. However, it sounds like it should and if I try it I will let you know.

The biggest problem we were having is that our hallway is fairly narrow, but is the only place other than the living room to show them. Shelves would have to be at about 7” in order to prevent head bumps, but at that height a normal wooden shelf would not allow you to see the figures very well. A clear shelf would work much better don’t you think?

Glass isn’t really an option; it’s hard to work with, expensive, and easily broken. Luckily there is a cheap alternative: acrylic sheets. Also known as Lexan, Lucite and Plexiglas. You can get sheets of it at your local hardware store for about thirty bucks. I’d personally go for the thicker stuff as you’re less likely to crack it during construction.

Now there’s a few ways to make this stuff into a shelf, depending on the weight of the figures you are going to be putting on it. I’ll be doing a medium duty method that should hold up all your non-metallic figurines.

Our shelf will consist of a Plexiglas (or whatever brand you use) shelf and backing, with dowels for bracing. You can use other material for the bracing, but this seemed easiest

First, figure out how long you want your shelf to be. The easiest way would be to go the length of your sheet of Plexiglas, but shorter ones can work as well.

You don’t want your shelf to be any wider than need be. 6 inches should be plenty. You can cut it with a saw, but the simplest method is to score and break the sheet. You can use a knife, but there are also tools specifically for this task that will make it easier. It’s up to you if you want to spend the money.

Cut your shelf, and then cut another length the same length about 5 inches wide. Take the backing, and mark every 8 inches, 1 inch from the bottom side. At a 45 degree angle, drill out where you’ve marked the same width as the dowel. The dowel shouldn’t be any more than 3/8th, else you’ll run into angling issues.

Next, we need to make this a little sturdier, using braces. There’s a few ways to do it, but I’m going to go with dowels for ease of use. Drill a hole the same diameter as the dowel you’ve chosen, and if you can drill at a 45 degree angle (this won’t matter if your Plexiglas is thin).

Take the shelf and attach it to the back, ensuring that the shelf is on top of the back, and that your holes are in the correct orientation. Use either glue or caulking specifically designed for this job. You can get glue that essentially dissolves the acrylic and then allows it to solidify together: this would be ideal. You may wish to combine methods for increased strength. Allow to dry before proceeding to the next step.

Take your dowel and cut the end off at a 45 degree angle. Then feed the dowel through the first hole, marking where it is flush. Cut at this point, and then repeat for the rest of the holes drilled. With the backing side down (on the floor or work surface) use caulking to attack both ends of the dowel to the Plexiglas and allow to dry.

To attach to your wall, simply screw through the back plate into the wall, into a stud. Pilot holes will make the process easier. Tada! You have a clear shelf for your toys.

It doesn’t end there either; there are plenty of additions you can add. First of all, if you know exactly what is going up there you can arrange your figures before installing the shelf, and add tie down points. Drill small holes where feet and other bases will be placed, and use wire or clear string to keep your figurines from moving around.

The coolest part about using Plexiglas is its natural light transmitting properties, as shown below. Yes, a purple elephant was the best image I could find to illustrate this. Drill small LED sized holes along the back of the shelf, leaving enough space for the back panel. Wire some LEDs into these holes, and attach to a power source (a batter will do). Now your shelf will glow! If you add some etching to the bottom of the shelf you’ll get patterns in it as well. You can also try this with the back panel.

Let me know what you think, and any suggestions you have for construction! Be sure to take any safety precautions needed during construction, especially safety glasses while cracking the sheets.

First off, I’m in absolute love with these:

Found at Think Geek, I would love to put this up… somewhere. I am attempting at having a theme and decor in my main living areas, however the hall is full of geek currently. Anyway, the point is moot as these are 75 bucks USD, which means by the time I shell out for shipping I’d pay almost $125 Canadian. Yea… no.

I thought I was doomed to a life without cool decals on my walls, but then LIGHT BULB.

First of all, I came across this site at Instructables, which gives instructions on how to make your own vinyl decals like this one:

Basically you take contact paper, like what’s used as shelf liners, and cut it out and put it on your walls. They give more complete instructions, but that’s the gist of it. Also note, it’s recommended that you test that it will come off your walls before putting it somewhere obvious.

Ok, that’s all well and good, but unless there are Nintendo themed shelf liners out there, how am I going to get those stickers at home?

Well, I had a theory. Paper is white, many shelf liners are white. Can I print it out? I decided to test with this image:

I bought a roll of shelf liner that was 12 inches by 30 feet for about ten dollars. You need a type that is unpatterned, and smooth. It might also help to use the narrower type (as I found) to reduce wastage. The type I bought doesn’t have a backing, but I was able to apply it to a sheet of paper.

The next step will require some design skills. You’ll need to create the images you will be printing out, and in the right size so that they’ll match.

Then… print! Careful, the ink takes a while to dry completely. The longer you can leave it without touching the better.

As you can see there’s a small kitty print on the right side. What can I say? The cats like to help.

Other than taking forever to dry, this was amazingly simple. Enjoy!

Stumble It!

Forgoing history Friday today to bring you costume updates!

Ok, I didn’t take nearly enough (read: any) pictures of the construction, but it was fairly straight forward.

NOTE: I got my camera working again so this has been updated as of 11am

The fur was REALLY thick, and I had to sew with the foot up! I also couldn’t get it pinned very well either, so that was interesting all around. However furry fabric is forgiving when it comes to messing up, and the fur hides everything pretty good.

Let us start with the bag part of the costume. If you recall the fabric was about 11 inches wide, and about 3 feet (ish) long. All I did was fold it over a third, and sew the sides shut, making sure to go over the edge a few times for a tight seam. Now this does lead to a twist where it closes, but the fur hides it perfectly.

The boots were simple, stitching the sides closed leaving the top and bottom open. In order to be able to put them on easily, I left the top a bit wider, but I made it too wide.

So to keep it up I needed to add elastic. However, the prospect of trying to sew a pocket at the top of the cover was not pleasant given how hard the stuff is to work with. So to avoid that I cut out small strips of generic fabric I had left over that was easy to hold, about one inch by less than half an inch. I sewn six of these around the top of the boot cover on the inside, and threaded the elastic through that. Worked perfectly!

I’m borrowing my boyfriend’s practise sword (it’s wooden), but needed a sheath to protect/hold it. I created one from the same fur, sewing a tube with a closed end, simple!

Another piece is my arm/shoulder protector. It’s folded over and sewn shut at the top, and chains sewn to it in a crossing pattern.

Before sewing it closed I attached elastics to the underside to keep it on my arm.

I used the same type of chain to attach my bag and sword. The ends of the chain are attached to the bag, stitched at the corners. The top of the sword sheath is also stitched to the same chain so that it sits at my shoulder level.

If you look close at the sword picture you’ll notice a tied piece of string. On its own the sheath would just hang lose, but by tying it to the chain at the right height it keeps it in place. I also use a piece of string to tie the chain together where it crosses on my side.

Finally, I made a belt with two lengths of fabric to hang from it:

As it turns out this fabric is sensitive to heat. Oops. You can’t really tell, and most of it is covered by the velcro anyway. I attach to the other side on my front, and it’s covered by the front panel.

And now we come to a very bad picture of me wearing this. My camera is OLD, and not steady at all. Attempts at mirror shots failed, so I had a box on top of my sewing basket, on top of a cooler, on top of a chair and rested the camera on that. Set timer, attempt to position self, and try not to look like an idiot. Hopefully I’ll have better pics from friends!

Happy Halloween!!

If you’re like me, you have some jewellery that proclaims your geekiness. My favourite peice is the 1d20 necklace that I got from ThinkGeek.

(‘cept mine’s blue. The dice is actually removable too so I could color match!)

However, while that’s not too expensive, the same can’t be said for most tech jewellery. Here’s a project that you can do yourself! I’ll post more projects in the future as well, and hopefully have pictures.

Wire Jewellery
You can do a lot of things with wire shapes. Make sure you have a variety of sizes of needle nosed pliers for bending it. We’re going to focus on one project: binary dangle earrings.

First, pick a message you’d like to say in binary. You can use this translator to convert it to binary. Don’t make it too long though; each character will be a separate chain on the earring. I’m going with GEEK for this project.

GEEK in binary is 01000111 01000101 01000101 01001011, so we’re going to need a total of 18 “0”s and 14 “1”s for each earring.

The “0”s are fairly simple, take a piece of wire about an inch and a half long (make sure all the “0”s are the same size is the only thing, you can decide how big you want it) and bend it into the right shape. For the “1”s, take a peice that is 3/4ths the size of the “0” wire length. On each end make a hook slightly larger than the diameter of your wire, but don’t close it. Now you’re ready to assemble!

Let’s start with our G. Take a “0”, and hook a “1” on, close the loop. Easy so far! Now add another “0” on to the end of that and close the other loop. So far so good? Now we come to a problem, two 0s next to each other. For this take a small length of wire, about 5-6 times the diameter of the wire. Use that to loop around the “0”s. The easiest way is to make a C shape, then close it off. Do this with the next “0” as well, and add your next “1”. Now we come to two “1”s next to each other, but this is simple. Just close the two end loops together so that one is at a right angle to the other.

Here are what the pieces should look like:

Keep doing this until you have each letter created separately. Then string them onto a fish hook earring like the one below:

There you go!
A smaller variation of this would be to use two colors of beads, one being 1 and the other representing 0.

Take pictures if you try this!