Wednesday 16 October 2013

Ali pali



The Alexandra Palace Knit And Stitch Show

On Thursday 10th October 2013 my Mother and I went to the Alexandra Palace knit and stitch show. We both had a wonderful time and I can not wait to go again.



We awoke at around 6:30am and got ready, then my Father dropped us off at the train station so that we could catch the 8:15am train. Our travel time was an estimated hour and a half. We then arrived at Euston train station in London, before catching a taxi and arriving at the show for 10:30am.

The first thing when we arrived outside was a taxi, in a completely knitted cover. When I talked to some of the people who did the cover they revealed that they were a knitting group called materialistic's who had undertaken the challenge on behalf of a new author who's book comes out November 2013. The project had taken the group approximately six weeks of which they had the taxi for a period of two days. The taxi itself was covered with brightly knitted panels and decorated with little knitted creatures like ladybirds or caterpillars with French knitted words along the back of the sides. The knitting was very well done and you could see that they had put a lot of time into it.

Materialistics website: http://susan-mcbride.wix.com/materialistics

We then went inside. There was a large queue of people when entering the exhibit due to the fact that they had not brought their tickets before hand, luckily my Mom had so we did not need to wait as long. We then began to look around the few exhibits that had been included in the corridor outside of the hall. Including one from a group called FAD (Fashion Awareness Direct) when a lovely lady who was one of the exhibitors approached us and asked whether I would like to join a sustainable fashion workshop. Of course we agreed and she pointed us in the right direction towards the stall where the workshop was taking place


F.A.D website: www.fad.org.uk

When we arrived at the workshop we saw that it was being ran by a group of about five different university students who all worked with FAD. The first thing they did was ask my Mom to sign a piece of paper whilst one of the other girls asked me whether or not I could knit. When I replied that I could they were all very surprised.
I wheeled up to the table and they gave me a selection of different patterns from which I could chose one to try. I chose the bow tie necklace that I would then make whilst my Mom went and had a look around.
The first step was to make a plat long enough to fit around my neck, before moving on to the next step that was to knit a rectangle. Finally make a second plat and tie it around the rectangle to form a bow and pining it to the longer plat. This is your finished necklace.
The girls were all very impressed with my skills . Then we signed the last of the papers before carrying on with our day.



The next thing we did was have lunch which was a sausage roll for myself and a Cornish pasty for my Mom.


Once we had finished our meal we continued to look at the stalls set up around the hall. There was a great variety of things either on sale or at least on show. I brought several balls of wool in different colours like red, purple and even multi coloured for Harley Quinn, Lockheed the dragon and my Mermaid respectively



Then I went to a workshop that my Mom had signed me up for earlier in the day. It was learning how to make a mouse with Vanessa Mooncie a new author who has recently published her new book on crocheting animals. She was a really kind person and I even got to ask her a few questions like: How long have you been crocheting for? She replied: I learnt to crochet back when I was a young girl but never really got into it until about ten years back. I also asked her what is your favourite thing about crochet? She replied: My favourite thing about crochet is probably how portable it is as you can take it practically anywhere with you. I really enjoyed the workshop and had a lot of fun whilst making my mouse (named Marshmallow).At the end of the workshop if you had not already completed your mouse you were allowed to take the pattern away with so you could complete it at home.

Her website: www,vanessamooncie.com




When we finished at the workshop we continued to look around the stalls that shelved everything from wool and embroidery floss to buttons and bejeweled crochet hooks and knitting needles. It took quite a while for us to get around simply due to how many stalls there were and how busy the show was. There were quite few people crowded with in that room.

Then eventually when we had manage to look at, at least most of the stalls when went into the hall opposite and began to look at the exhibit. Though it was mostly knitting it was still very impressive to see all the different styles and stitches on show. The exhibition was made up of several different exhibitors including the
London School of Fashion. Fashion was most defiantly the item that was on show the most but it was interesting looking at the different jumpers and other items on show.




The last thing we did was look around the last few stalls before we caught a taxi to the train station, had dinner and headed home.

As I have previously stated I very much enjoyed the show though the only problem was that the hall was far to crowded and to a wheelchair user like me this could become very distressing. Another problem that the two of us encountered was that the only way that the Alexandria Palace was in any way accessible was via taxi though I understand that this is not the organiser's fault. There were many workshops going on throughout the day and with more awareness we would have been able to attend more. The stalls themselves were all lavishly decorated with different items and I believe that there was something there for people of all skill levels.

Overall I can honestly say (as previously mentioned) I very much enjoyed the show and hope to go again.

pattern 1

Pattern

This is the pattern I have used for my first doll, it is a revised version of this pattern:

http://hook-and-stitch.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/ida-pattern-basic-female-doll.html

So all the original credit goes them.

Amigurumi

A Basic Female Doll.

This is how to crochet a basic female doll it takes practice but make a great doll in time.

You will need:
some yarn
something to make the face of the doll.
A small crochet hook
some toy stuffing.

Abbreviations:
Stitch (st)
Increase (inc) = Two stitches in one,
sl st= slip stich
*....* = repeat until you have the number of stiches in the brackes

Doll pattern:

Head:
  1. Magic ring of 5 st (5)
  2. inc in each st (10)
  3. *inc st* (15)
  4. *inc st* (20)
  5. *inc st* (25)
  6. - 12. (25)
13.*3st, dec* (20)
14. *2st, dec* (15)
  • begin to make face and stuff shape.
15. *st, dec* (10)
Fasten off with sl st, put to one side

Arms and Legs
  1. Magic ring (5)
  2. inc (10)
  3. - 4. (10)
5. dec st in next 7 st (8)
    1. - 14 (8)
if making legs do an extra 5 rows.
Stuff
Fasten off with sl st, make two arms and two legs

Body:
hold together legs, insert through one loop in each and yarn over.
Continue corocheting on stiches of both legs until you have sixteen stiches- this is how the body starts

1-7. (16)
8. dec, 6sc, dec 6sc (14)
9-10. (14)
11. inc 4 (18)
12 – 13. inc 1 (19)
14.dec 1 (18)
15.Attach arms the same way as legs
16. dec, 5 st, dec, 5st dec (12)
17.(12)
Stuff
Atach head

add hair and clothes and enjoy your new doll.

Enjoy. :)

Arts Award

Silver!

Hi,

I am about to start my third of four arts awards my arts award silver.
 
Arts Challenge: My arts challenge is to improve my crochet and amigurumi skills by creating several crochet plushes (dolls and a dragon).

goal for completion: 6 months – september 2013to April 2014.

Dolls i will make:
Storm   
A Mermaid  
Harley Quinn
Lockheed the dragon
Hawkeye 
 Black Widow
 Shadowcat (with mini lockheed)
Nightcrawler
Kidflash
Nightwing
Batgirl 

I will be posting my progress onto my blog and i shall be keeping a scrapbook throughout my journey.

I am excited about this challenge and hope that it will be as much fun as my previous award.

Wednesday 17 July 2013

My Influences


Michael Lee Lunsford:

My first of two influences for my costume design is Michael lee lunsford he is a male free lance artist aged twenty seven who is currently based in the USA. His main drawing interest goes to making his web comic Supernormal-Step, he too does commission however he does not do as much as Elizabeth as he does not have as much time.
Michael Lee Lunsford who had recently given himself a challenge. He has completely redesigned some of Dc's (the comic company behind heroes like Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman) most famous heroines.

His aim was to design the characters outfits in a more realistic and appropriate manner. As many super heroines are known for wearing really quite revealing clothing. A problem which I personally believe he has solved.

I found Michael’s artwork really inspiring as I also feel that he has brought new ideas to their many costumes, which I must do agree can sometimes be far too skin tight.

Looking at this from a cosplayer or costume lover point of view it makes me have even more respect for these pieces because not only do I feel that he has been able to not only redesign the characters whilst keeping to their original themes but also I feel that if people were to cosplay the characters like this instead of how they do, it would be a lot more respectful.




















Drawings are as follows: Zatanna, Supergirl, Wonderwoman, Power girl, Batgirl, and Phsylocke


Elizabeth Beals:


Elizabth Beales is a female artist who is currently a free lance illustrator who is based in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. She did go to an Art College though I am unsure which one as she has not disclosed the information of where it was.Elizabeth currently lives off of the money she makes from doing commissions and other pieces of art work.Elizabeth designs characters as if they were real people alive today based around their super costumes.


I enjoyed the concept behind her artwork and find her style of technique useful when wanting to do a subtle character inspired outfit. Where the clothes are concerned I think that she did a good job (some better than others) at portraying the characters concept.






Characters are as follows: Zatanna, Supergirl, Wonderwoman, Power girl, Batgirl, and Starfire. 

 I chose these two artists because I loved their approach to the characters. Michael Lee Lunsford not only makes these famous heroines fully clothed (unlike so many of the offical comic artists) but also makes them take on a more military style all wearing gloves and combat boots for instance, that i wanted to reflect in my costume. Elizabeth Beals take a more real world spin on the characters, as they all wear modern day clothing. This is another aspect of the characters that i wanted to show.

I found out about these two artists through the internet, as they were featured on a website that I follow.www.nerdygirl.com The first step I took in my research was to google them and go to their websites/deiveintart accounts, where I then looked futher into their art before continuing to find out some information about the two of them. Once I had done that I built up my research piece  

 These two particular artists influenced my art in the following ways: Micheal's artwork inspired me to take on a more miltary approach to my costume for example:my gloves, utility belt style and combat boots. Elizabeth Beals inspired me to take a more modern twist on the character for example:my t-shirt and leggings making for a more interesting costume.

I Guide The Guides

I guide the guides.

At first I knew I wanted to do something to do with my cosplay, I was unsure how this would work short of making an entire costume, which we obviously could not within an hour and a half period. I then thought it may be easier to focus on one skill. I made a list all the skills I had used before chosing the most important one: Sewing.

The the thing I thought about whilst planning was skill: was the activity i had chosen the correct skill level for the people attending the session. Once I had thought that through I began to think about the equipment I would need to commence my activity. Eventually I fished planning and I could get on with my lesson


I went to my usual Girl Guides meeting, to hold a sewing lesson where we did the activity I had chosen sewed felt designs on to plain t-shirts. 




After we said our promise and had greeted each other, we got the tables out and sat down. First I told the girls what we were going to be doing before getting out the equipment and handing each of them a t-shirt. After that I showed the anyone whom did not know, how to sew the basic running stitch. I then let them draw out their own designs out on to the felt before cutting it out. Then each girl was given a needle and some thread and began to sew their design onto t-shirt. I spent my time helping each of them in turn with their new skill until all the t-shirts were completed. We then went and got changed before having a fashion show




I personally feel that the lesson went rather well and based on this lesson I would defiantly like to do another one.

Before the lesson I felt rather nervous about what the girls may have thought but then once we started I gained more confidence and I had a lot of fun.

Through the feedback forms I gave them I know that the girls enjoyed learning something new and they loved to take home something they had made. We have even inspired the guide leaders to do a craft badge.

The three things that I feel went well are: The first thing that went well was everyone who took part in the lesson finshed their t-shirt, which was an achievement for everyone. The thing i found quite surprising was how focused the girls were, each of them worked really hard on the project. Lastly everyone learned something whether it how to sew, or that felt could by applied to t-shirts everyone left the meeting with a new skill.

 The three things I would change are: Firstly I would tell explain the activity to the girs the week before hand so they more time to think about their disigns. The next thing would be if i had more time time I would have invited the girl's parents to come and see the fashion show. Lastly i would have made the evaluation forms easier to understand, as some of the girls found the questions hard to understand.

There is no particular thing I would like to improve but one thing I will note is that it was quite difficult to give each of the girls one to one help. I did however manage this by working my way around the table and I spent time with each girl in turn.

As I have previously said I very much enjoyed teaching the girls and I can not wait to do another lesson.

Friday 28 June 2013

Bristol Comic Expo 2013.


On Saturday 11th May my Father and I went to the Bristol comic convention. I really did enjoy it. Here's what happened:

I woke up at around half past six and got dressed into my batgirl costume before doing my make up so I looked like this.


We then left the house at around half seven. We then drove down the motorway to arrive at the hall at around nine thirty. We then queued for half an hour until it opened at ten.

When we arrived in the hall we started to walk around looking at the tables set up and occasionally stopping to talk to people that my Dad knew. We were making slow progress around the room when we bumped into my Dads friends. We were introduced as I had not met them before and they volunteered to go around the hall with us. We walked around and I brought a keyring as my dad brought some comics. Then we went across to the hotel to have a look at the stalls they had there. Then my Dad and I stopped to have lunch.

After lunch we met back up with the pair of them for half an hour they had to go to a signing. My Dad and I made our way back to the main hall and looked around again as we found an area that we had not been to yet. I then saw two Harley Quinn and Batman cosplayers and we got a photo together.



I then went over to one of the stalls and brought something that I had seen earlier before going to my Dads other friends table. Me and one of them then had a lengthy chat about X-men and such things.

We then decided to head over to the hotel as my Dad did not want to miss this talk about his favorite comic. When we got there however we discovered that it was running half an hour later then people had originally thought. So we sat down with some of my Dads friends whom I had met throughout the day and chatted until it was time for the talk,

We sat down at the talk where they basically just discussed their favourite things about the comic. Before we said goodbye and went to car and started to head home. They did have other talks but none of them featured costumes.

During the convention we saw quite a few different costumes including characters like: Zattana, Spiderman and Wonderwoman. Some cosplays were defiantly better than others though there were plenty of good tries. Where my own cosplay is concerned I am very happy with the reaction that it received. Quite a few people told me how much they liked my costume and one person even asked for a photo.

As an overall event I am quite impressed with the way it was run apart from a few minor problems. For instance I as a wheelchair user found the hall to be quite crowded which could be quite stressful. Another problem that I had was the fact that the lift was not working in the hotel this however was not the organizers fault as it was just a technical fault. My only other problem that I had personally is that their was a lot of foul language and I know that they could not have stopped people using said words in the daily conversation but they could have at least asked people to have more appropriate stall names, which is not good as there were younger children around. My favorite stall had to be the geeky vintage stall as I loved the dresses that they had made, not to mention the bags and pillows. I do not have a least favorite stall simply because of the diversity between them. My Dad usually goes to this particular comic convention and he told me that it was actually pretty quiet which just shows how poplar conventions are even though they are not very well known throughout the general public. I liked the general layout of the convention as the stalls gave you plenty of room to walk around, plus as they weren't just set in rows it meant that you could just walk freely around the hall at a steady pace without having to rush to much.

I met many people whilst at the convention some of whom were freelance artists. Their names were Owen Watts and his girlfriend Jazz, Conor boyle and Kev Crossley. Owen and Jazz draw and run a comic called the psychedelic journal of time travel. Conor has recently published his own book called Pirates of the lost world, whist Kev draws for 2000AD.We also met Mike Carrol author of the quantum prophecy. Talking to these people was both interesting and informative, I learnt some useful tips about comics and writing,

I would like to think I will be attending more comic conventions, and I certainly would jump at any further opportunities to go again. I have enjoyed visiting conventions more as I have matured, an example of this is how I now love comics, enjoy drawing and writing.

If I do go to another contention I would certainly like to cosplay again. As to who it would be, it would most likely be another comic character perhaps someone from marvel like a member of the X-Men. My abilities will only be enhanced by my gold award as I will be learning more about machine sewing. I defiantly look forward to cosplaying again.

I really enjoyed cosplaying at the convention, we saw some great costumes. It was a really fun day to just be nerdy with some nice people. I had a great time and I cant wait to go again.

Thursday 20 June 2013

Book tour


Eoin Colfer WARP Book tour.

A few weeks ago my Father and I went to see a show about the author Eoin Colfer's new book called W.A.R.P: The Reluctant Assassin. I very much enjoyed it. The show was held at the Birmingham conservatoire theatre as part of his tour around the UK.

When we arrived at the theatre (armed with some sweets) our tickets were checked and we bought our copy of W.A.R.P. before heading inside. Once we were inside and had found our seats, we sat down and looked around. In the rows around us there were many people either finding their seats and sitting down or already beginning to read their copy of the book. You were able to tell that people were excited to see/meet Eoin Colfer as the air was full of chatter not to mention turning pages. You could see people beginning to set up the stage in preparation for the actors performance.

After about a ten minute wait Eoin came out a told some funny stories to break the ice for both his sake and ours. He seemed a little nervous at first. He must have been a little bit because he was stood there about to introduce his new book to a group of readers who had enjoyed reading his older books and he had no idea whether they were going to like his new one. After about a fifteen minute chat, he sat down on his comfy looking chair and began to read. That was when the show started.
The first character we were introduced to was Chevie Savano, the F.B.I.'s youngest member. Eoin read a small passage from his book about Chevie then the actress playing her made a rather impressive entrance. The actors performed a scene from the book that explained more about her we then 'travelled' back in time to the Victorian era where we then met Riley,the main hero of the story and Albert Garrick, the assassin for hire that is trying to kill Riley. Both of the actors did a great job. Once we had met all of the characters that we needed to for the show, they then proceeded to act out a chapter of the book but with a few changes for instance they included the audience in some of their magic tricks.

Then when they had finished the actors went backstage and the audience had a question and answer session with Eoin Colfer about his books and characters. We then thanked him for coming before he started to sign books. Once he had signed our books we headed home.

Looking at the costumes and props that were rather impressive and yet still simplistic I have to say the team did a very good job. The costumes themselves were very simple consisting mainly of a t-shirt for Chevie that had the words F.B.I with jeans, as well as Rily who wore a plain white top with trousers, a waist coat and a hat. Where as Albert had a basic suit. The props them selves were even better using very realistic items to bring the show to life. They used items like a face gun and blunt knifes to help them with the magic part of the show.

The actors themselves did a really good job with the characters, they really brought the characters to life. They even did things like change there accent depending on the character because most of them played more than one character during the show.

The best part of the show for me was the gun shot at the end as I found it really unexpected and realistic. If I had the option I would defiantly go to see this performance again.

buy the book here from Amazon: Amazon book link

Wednesday 19 June 2013

Arts Award Bronze-


Costume design process.

  1. The first thing I did was chose a character I was going to cosplay as. The character I chose was Batgirl as I feel that we look quite similar and we have a similar personality.

  2. Then I decided how I was going to make my costume.

  3. Next I drew up designs of of how my costume should look and made mood boards about the character.

  4. The next step was to go shopping:

  1. Then I made a template of the bat symbol


  1. I then drew around the template onto some felt and cut it out.
  1. I then pinned it into place


  1. I then sewed it into place

      

  2. The next step was to start the cape. The first thing I did was cut a neck hole.

  1. Then I hemmed the seam I had created.

  2. The cape itself was too long so our next step was to cut it shorter.



  1. Then I hemmed the rest of the cape
  1. I then made the batarangs by cutting them out of cardboard and spray painting them black.


    14. We then went and brought my utility belt.

  1. I then stripped it of all tags and zip covers to enhance the look of the belt.

  2. I then made my mask. First I drew it out onto the felt before we cut it out and attached two pieces of elastic.



  1. Then I made the headband. I cut out four felt triangles of equal length and two pieces of wire. I then sewed two triangles with the wire trapped between them that were then attached it to the headband.
  1. Next I made the gauntlets using the same principle as the headband except we sewed them into the gloves.

  2. The actual costume was now made the next step was make up

  3. I used black I shadow and pink lipstick

  1. Here is the finished costume:

Looking at how I made my costume retrospectively one thing that I would change is how I sewed the wire in my headband as it was still visible. If I was to do my costume again I would take more care sewing the bat symbol to my t-shirt as I feel I could have done better. 

One thing I did not like was the cape needed a lot of caution as it could get trapped quite easily in the wheels of my wheelchair which became a hindrance when moving around.

The positive attributes of my costume were that it was all made from quite comfortable material which was easy to move around in. This is a good thing because uncomfortable material would have been difficult during the long day that we had.

The negative attributes of my costume were that I got quite cold as the materials used are quite thin and I could not have used a coat to warm up as it would have ruined the look of my costume. Another precaution that I had was using wire to hold my gauntlets in place as occasionally it would come through my gloves and scratch my skin.

The most enjoyable thing about making my costume was watching it all come together as I made it and then when people appreciated all the time and effort that I had put into my costume I found it very rewarding.
The thing I did not enjoy when making the costume is the worry that you would not finish on time that accompanied it. I tackled this problem by making a time table with all the things I had to do inside it. The worry itself can be very disheartening but the feeling of satisfaction is defiantly worth it.

As I have all ready said several times I found this to be a really enjoyable experience and I can not wait to cosplay again.

Introduction

Hi! I'm Hawthorn Crimson, I am a very geeky teenage girl from England meaning I love Doctor Who, Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, the entirety of the Marvel and D.C universe and many other fandoms. My main passions are reading, writing and arts and crafts, which then brings me to the reason for this blog: because I am home schooled I am now completing a program called Arts Award. This program allows people to have qualifications with in the genre of art, and this blog is to help me along the way. I am currently completing my bronze Arts Award about and entitled  Costume And Cosplay I will be posting weekly (hopefully) about what I get up to.