Category: Miscellaneous

Jewelery Making

December 14, 2014

How are you enjoying

so far? Is it everything you dreamed? 😉

Todays post is about KLS’s new hobby – jewelery making. Or beading maybe. Making bead jewelery perhaps?

Either way she into beading and uses beads to mostly make jewelery. Today she is making a pair of earrings. Here’s a shot of all the material before assembly begins:

The first step is to put loops on all the beads. She’s got a large amount of specialized tools to help with all the different steps:

Here’s all the beads once the loops have been fashioned:

The excess metal (stainless steel) is then snipped off:

And the beads are added to the silver piece one-by-one:

Once all the beads are on, it’s just a matter of adding the hook (also silver) and the earrings are complete:

These took her about fifteen minutes, and all the material on the first shot are in each of them. Note that she added two tiny silver beads on each side of the fancy bead in the middle of the bottom. These aren’t as complex as some other earrings she has made, but I’m sure you’ll agree they are quite pretty!

Here’s a shot of some of her beads:

And her Swarovski beads:

The beads are all made of glass, crystal or (not precious) gemstone. The fancier the cut the more expensive they tend to be, with the Swarovski ones being the priciest. The beads are much more expensive than the metal used in the jewelery.

Here’s a collection of other items she has made and wears herself:

And she even made this frog, which is only about an inch high. I love his little crown!

Many of you have received jewelery KLS has made. Now you know how she makes it 🙂

Sounds Of The Universe

December 13, 2014

Well my friends it’s been altogether far too long since my last blog post! I won’t list the reasons since they are history now, and truth be told I was holding back a little, since today begins my third ever ‘blog event’! I present to you:

What does this mean? A new post a day, for twelve (very majestic) days! You can look forward to posts about crafts, weird collections of mine, year-in-review posts and even a secret or two (bears??!?).

What better way to start this cosmic event than with this:

Yes, it’s a vinyl record. I obtained this prize from a second-hand bookstore when I was in San Jose earlier this year. Although Bernard saw it first, he was strangely uninterested and I knew it had to be mine! Here’s the track listing:

This is not a music album, this is a sound effect album! None of that ‘Doctor Who Theme’ stuff here, no sir. This is a record for true fans!

Yesterday, I removed the album from the sleeve for the first time, spend about 10 minutes trying to remember how my record player worked, and gave it a spin:

The sounds that came from the speakers were not like anything on this Earth! It was as if I was right there on Exillon as I listed to the sonorous droning of ‘The Central Control Room in Exillon City‘. It was bliss.

But the next track blew me away, and since describing it is almost beyond words, why don’t you listen to ‘The Dalek Control Room‘ yourselves:

And so it continued as I listened to such wonders as the electronic hum of ‘Styre’s Scouting Machine‘ or the astral winds of ‘Sutekh Time Tunnel‘. I was being whisked from planet to planet with each new track.

Side two continued the trend, although the tracks are a lot more uplifting than on side one. As en example, here is ‘The Mandragora Helix‘ in it’s entirety:

Beautiful isn’t it? Believe me when I say the rest of the tracks on the record are just as good 🙂

This album was released in 1976, and I have the US version from 1978. It’s in astonishingly good condition for something 36 years old, and even though I will go to the grave without ever playing it again, it is certainly a jewel in my record collection!

I think these guys may agree with me…

Musha Gundam Mk-II

November 25, 2014

You may recall that a couple of years ago I made a Gundam I had bought in Japan back in 2010. I loved making that kit, and last year during our Japan trip I purchased his cousin. Several weeks ago I decided it was time to put him together:

This is a ‘Master Grade’ gundam kit which means two things:
1) It’s pricey! (I paid about $45 in Japan but it costs $75 or more to buy on import)
2) It’s much more complicated than most models.

Here’s the contents of the box upon opening:

Lots of pieces! As usual Bandai impresses with the engineering. Not only does this piece have pieces painted with reflective gold paint, but this is also the first Gundam I’ve seen with transparent plastic on the same runner as opaque plastic:

The build was meticulous but not particular difficult. I had more trouble with Liger Zero than this guy. The instructions, which were all in Japanese, were easy to follow and the pieces clearly marked, and the superior engineering of the molding meant that removal was trivial and very little filing was needed. Here’s the workspace:

And a couple of in-progress shots:

The articulation is mind-boggling. Each arm and leg has many points, and the hips actually have two settings for action poses. Everything snaps together perfectly as well, and the final kit is incredible poseable and solid. Here’s a shot of the leg before and after the armor is added. You can get an idea of the articulation in the first shot:

I didn’t keep very good track of time, but I’d estimate this kit took me about a dozen hours in total. I didn’t apply the decals or paint it (since I’m not a maniac), but I think it looks pretty good finished:

Here he is on the shelf with his spiritual cousin:

As I like to do – and to demonstrate my inadequacy – I’ll end this with a shot of a heavily customized build of this very same kit. Not only did the person who made this ‘Ieyasu Tokugawa version’ modify some of the parts, he also extensively painted the kit and even applied ‘itasha-style’ floral pattern to the upper thighs. It all looks quite incredible:

My ‘to build’ model stack is now at an all-time low of only two kits: Sengoku Astray Gundam (MG) and the ‘Dark Horn Harry Special’ HG Zoid I purchased a few weeks ago. I wonder which one I will make next…?

Robot Claw