Inspirations

All posts in the Inspirations category

Rediscovered Sketches & Comic

Published February 29, 2012 by kurolace

A few days ago I found one of my old notebooks tucked away in my room. Its a grid-design, top-spiral bound note book that I used back when I was in driver’s ed to kill time (nope, not a single driver’s ed note in it – lol, so maybe THATs why I had that accident about 3 years ago). I was “in my prime” as an artist back then. Sad, I know, considering the quality of drawings. These days I’m not even this good, since I don’t practice often 😦 I really should get back to it.

Just for fun I thought I’d upload the scans here so you can see them. The highlight of the bunch is the 3 pages of comic-intro that I was making. I’ve always wanted to make a comic / manga but I often get stuck trying to figure out a good plot. After looking at these pages, I feel kinda like I want to restart PROJECT PEACH (which btw, was inspired by my love of peach-buns from the Chinese buffet! lol).

So… here are the pictures… lol. Tell me what you think of my mad16-yr-old drawing skills (other than the obviously lack of understanding in regards to human anatomy). At the time I was  trying to move away from manga style drawings… with a mediocre amount of success. Unfortunately, this notebook is from the time right around when I started to develop serious symptoms of narcolepsy… I pretty much slept through the last 2 years of high school and stopped doing everything.

Hair Accessory Madness

Published February 22, 2012 by kurolace

Hiya! Lately I’ve been somewhat obsessed with making hair bows, bead barrettes, and other hair accessories. So today I thought I’d show off a few of my creations. 🙂

For the beaded things, I use a mixture of glass beads and swarovski beads… I actually have a ton of crystals in my beading collection, but haven’t had anything to use them for… so I figured barrettes were as good as anything… After I use them up I’ll have to decide whether or not I want to stick with using glass beads / pearls, or keep using some crystal beads / pearls.

I bought some display /packaging cards at Hobby Lobby, because I thought I should maybe use them to help me remember which barrettes are made with which materials. However, considering the cost of the cards, and the fact that they are actually too big for the baby barrettes that I made, I might try making my own in the future using paperboard or something like that.

Okay, so here is the gallery of creations…

Review: Unquiet Grave (The Ultimate Goth Collection)

Published February 19, 2012 by kurolace

I have a lot of crafting and DIY posts I want to write, but I haven’t had a chance to get some pictures taken… so in the meantime I’d like to write a brief review for one of my best purchases ever!

Now, I’m not exactly a scene kid, mind you, and my musical taste is rather eclectic. I pretty much never listen to the radio and I don’t really go clubbing… so I discover most of my music via random searching on iTunes.

Image

Cover

About 8 months ago I was on iTunes, trying to find some new music to listen to. I decided to go ahead and just type “goth” into the search bar to see what would show up. There were a few results, but the one that caught my eye was “Unquiet Grave.” Apparently this collection was originally released on several separate discs… but iTunes offers the entire collection for just $16! And its 131 songs! I pretty much thought that given how many songs there were, I was guaranteed to like a least a few of them. So I went ahead and bought the album / collection… it took awhile to download, but as soon as it finished I put it on my iPod and started listening…

I was really thrilled to discover how many of the songs I liked. I recognized some of the artists, but other than Abney Park, I hadn’t really listen to any of them. There were a few songs which I immediately loved:

“Dark Romantics” by The Awakening

“Breathe” by Flowers & Machines

“Vision in Black” by Advent Sleep

“Love Lies Bleeding (Part Two)” by Black Atmosphere

“Funeral Night” by Bella Morte

“Vote for Love” by Tiamat

And a handful of others….

When I first get a CD, I click through all the songs and pick out the ones that catch my attention. Later I’ll listen to the whole album while I’ve working or crafting, and then I discover a second set of great songs. So, for Unquiet Grave, the second set of songs that I fell in love with tended to be some of the slightly slower / softer songs, such as:

“The Sky is Blushing” by Jennifer Hope

“This, My Melancholic Masquerade” by Autumn Tears

“Bell, Book & Candle” by Stare

“Doganch” by October Hill

“Raining in Kyoto” by Adenosine Tri Phosphate

“Fireworks” by Ocean 8

“At Mortlake” by Peter Ulrich

“Dragon Song” by Corpus Delicti

“myphilosophy” by Inner

“Desert Snow” by October Hill

And other…

The collection has a pretty wide range of music types.. from industrial, to IDM, to rock, to “ambiance” types… One thing you’ll notice is that none of the stereotypical, old-school goth artists are present (Sisters of Mercy, The Cure, etc)… but in my opinion that is a good thing, because we’ve all heard of those artists anyways!

The only disappointment came when I decided to get back on iTunes to check out some of the artists that I had liked songs from… Either I couldn’t find them on iTunes (I guess they aren’t popular / current enough), or I didn’t like what I did find. Of course, as we all know, sometimes it can be hard to decide if you like a song just by listening to the sample snippet on iTunes, but I also don’t want to buy an entire album just because I happened to like a single song by that artist. (So I guess what I need to do is go to Barnes & Nobles and see if I can listen to some longer samples.) I also am guessing that perhaps some of the artists featured in the collection were sort of “one-hit-wonders,” at least in regards to goth-y music, or that their usual style isn’t properly represented by the single song included in the Unquiet grave collection.

That being said, I highly recommend this collection of music. Especially if you are new to goth music or are looking to sample a larger selection of artists. I mean, come on, its only $16! Which is like $0.12 / song! I’m sure that you’ll find at least a few songs you like, and perhaps a lot more than that!

How To: Straighten Ribbons

Published February 14, 2012 by kurolace

I use a lot of ribbons to make hair accessories and jewelry… and sometimes I buy those “grab bag” deals at my local craft store. Inevitably, some of the ribbons are crumpled up… to the point of being unusable. But ribbons are expensive… so I don’t want to throw those crinkled ribbons away. Fortunately, there is a very easy, and fast, way to straighten ribbons.

Hair straightener & wrinkled up ribbon

All you need is the crinkled ribbon and a hair straightener. I think a large curling iron would also work, because large, loose curls in a ribbon aren’t obvious in most projects.

The process is simple and probably obvious to most people, but here’s a quick step-by-step:

Plug in the straightener and turn dial to lowest setting. Remember most ribbons are made from synthetic materials, which can melt if you use too high of a setting.

Slowly and firmly start to straight iron the ribbon. Start ironing just above the wrinkled part, moving slowly along the length of the ribbon to the end. Repeat this over and over until you notice the ribbon looking much better.

Depending on the type of ribbon you are working with, some creases might still be visible. The red ribbon pictured has a more paper-y feel to it, and still has creases… but it’s now much more workable than when it was all wrinkled up.  Straightening works very well on satin ribbons, although I sadly don’t have any pictures to show you that.

Yes, still creased, but much better than before!

So, there you have it… No reason to buy a fancy “ribbon straightener”… (yes, they do make these).

Anticipating Spring

Published February 14, 2012 by kurolace

Spring is my second favorite season… autumn being my favorite 🙂 . So although today was cloudy and cold, I keep thinking spring should be here soon… Fortunately I live in a warmer climate, so spring does actually come a little bit earlier here than other places…

But flowers are a long way away… So I thought I’d post some pictures that I took last year, just to remind us all what we have to look forward to!

Here you go:

Blue Blossoms

Cute Craft Kit: Fuwa Fuwa Fun

Published February 10, 2012 by kurolace

Boxed kits and a package of refill clay.

About a year ago I discovered some cute clay modelling kits from Japan, called “Fuwa Fuwa.” (In Japanese “fuwa fuwa” means something like “very soft.”) They follow in the tradition of cute miniature foods… which can be used in “deco-ing.” The kits include some clay, molds, glue, and rhinestones & other embellishments. The clay in these kits is something like paper / foam clay, which is extremely lightweight and air dried. While the clay is still moist, it smells a tiny bit, but that goes away once it dries. Some of the kits come with a special “mousse” clay which is very soft and can actually be pipped just like frosting. If you use up all the clay that comes in the kit, you can also buy extra clay (the normal bricks or the mousse clay). It comes in a several different colors, including pastels colors, “chocolate” colors, white, and even some “sparkly” colors.

The kits have different themes like: chocolates, doughnuts, deli, ice cream, etc… The first kit I bought was for making miniature sweets to use as charms / cabs. It included the eyepins, charm loops, and even a ball chain necklace. It even included a bonus antique key plastic charm. Although the instructions are in Japanese, there are illustrations – not to mention that its pretty easy to figure out how to use the kits in general: put clay in mold, remove excess, carefully take out of mold, arrange pieces and glue together, allow to dry, and voila! – you have a cute mini doughnut, cookie, or whatever. The only annoying part was that the molds often leave seams – although you can work these out if you are willing to take the time to do it (in the picture below, you can see that I did NOT take the time to do this with all of the charms in the first batch I made, lol).

After having used up all the clay in my first kit, I thought it might be fun to get another couple of kits to make different things. I mistakenly assumed that all the kits made charm-sized items – which is not true at all. In fact, the last time I looked at etsy (which is where I bought my kits – in the “supplies” section), most of the fuwa fuwa kits make larger items. So please pay close attention when you’re choosing a kit.

I suppose that its fairly obvious that these kits are aimed at a younger audience, but I like them because they are so easy. Sitting and playing with the clay – pressing it into the mold, putting the pieces together – these are great stress relieving activities, in my opinion. Perfect for a day when I want to make something, but I’m feeling a little too tired to be super creative. I played with these a lot while I was studying for my comprehensive exams last spring! Also these kits might be a good starting point for someone who wants to get into making mini-foods – later you can graduate to making them without molds!

Fuwa Fuwa Charms

Review: Gothic & Lolita by Yoshinaga

Published February 3, 2012 by kurolace

Review: Gothic & Lolita (book)

Cover of the book.

Masayuki Yoshinaga – Phaidon Press Inc. – 2007- 200+ pages

ISBN 978 0 7148 4785 6  –  Amazon: $22.83 (at time of review)

I bought this book about 3 years ago, so it’s not exactly a new product. However I figured it didn’t hurt to add a review for it here!

To start out with, this is a photography book, so it’s not like it provides a lot of actual information on gothic lolita fashion or street fashion. That being said, the photographs are great and beautiful to look at.

One important thing to note about this book is that the photographs are not limited to people in Gothic Lolita fashion. There are quite a few photographs of people in other types of alternative fashion – cyber/club wear, western goth, and a few real oddballs. However a majority of the pictures are of girls in some kind of lolita fashion (mostly “gothic” but also a few sweet, classic, wa, etc.). This fit my needs well, as I was primarily looking for a collection of good lolita photographs so that I could practice drawing lolita style dresses.

On each page there is a photograph of either one or two people. The model’s name and age are written vertically on the side of the photo, and there is a small bit of text toward the bottom of each photo which I’d call a “stats box.” This text includes things like: current obsession, clothing brands, and “point of fashion”.  These bits of info vary from person to person and convey a bit about the model’s personality and preferences.

While I wish the book had a little bit more actual “Gothic Lolita” and Lolita subtypes pictured, and less western goth / club goth outfits, overall I really enjoy this book. I get it out from time to time to do a quick sketch or two in order to practice drawing, and also just to look at the pictures. Since this is Gothic Lolita / Goth that we are talking about, each person has a unique and interesting outfit on, so looking at the pictures never gets old.

While $22 might be a bit pricey for some strangelings’ wallets, I think its worth it, and I would certainly purchase this book again!

Jewelry Photography Accessories

Published February 1, 2012 by kurolace

A simple set up using a wooden tray and black background

Browse through Etsy, DeviantArt, or any number of jewelry maker’s blogs, and you’ll see that jewelry photography often makes use of a variety of props in order to enhance the presentation of the jewelry. In the past when I’ve photographed my jewelry, I’ve only had the intent of posting the photographs on deviantArt in order to share my creations. The quality of those photographs were mediocre and often didn’t include any props other than a black flock background. However, recently I’ve taken an interest in listing my jewelry on Etsy.com with the hopes of someday selling a piece or two. In order to do this, I decided that I need to try taking my photography up to the next level. 🙂

Today’s post is a summary of a few of the things which I’ve decided to use in my photography, and perhaps this post will give ideas to others like me.

Basic Jewelry Photography Equipment:

  • Camera  – In the past I used a Nikon Coolpix S203. It’s a true P&S pocket camera and fairly decent. It has a slew of presets and a few creative settings, but it doesn’t exactly have the greatest macro, and it doesn’t have the PSAM controls that I wanted. So I finally gave in and bought a Nikon Coolpix P7100. While it’s still technically a P&S camera, it sure as heck isn’t a pocket camera. Jewelry photography isn’t the only photography that I like to dabble in, so having this “pseudo DSLR” is ideal for me. The P7100 has great image quality – a huge improvement over my other coolpix camera. If you’re into photography and can afford a PSAM camera, I would suggest getting one – it helps when shooting macro. Otherwise you can stick with a P&S pocket cam.
  • Tripods – Yes, multiple tripods. You can probably get by with just one, but I like having both the tall, stand alone type (50″), and the tiny table top type (4″). I also fancy my dad’s gorilla tripod, which can wrap around things like rails to take pictures at fun angles… In case you didn’t know, having a tripod dramatically reduces the shake you experience when you take a picture without a tripod. Less shake = higher quality, sharper images.
  • Backdrop – A bed sheet, some card stock / poster board, or a blank white wall… each will do nicely as a backdrop for photos. I decided to go with the poster board method: I bought 2 sheets of black poster board and 2 sheets of white poster board. One sheet serves as the horizontal surface, and I tape / hang up the second sheet to be the vertical background. This gives the photograph a nice, clean background.

Additional Photography Props:

  • Jewelry Displays / Forms – These are available in sooo many different sizes and models. You can order some fancy ones from stores like

    My recently acquired props.

    Fire Mountain Gems, but you can also find them on the cheap at stores like Michaels. This past Sunday Michaels had one of those coupons for “25% entire purchase,” so I finally was able to buy a few displays. I bought a black flat necklace board, a white necklace form, and a set of 3 black pillars. I already also have a 3-tier bracelet display and 2 earring displays, but I use those more for storage of finished jewelry than as displays.

  • Trays / texture pieces – Trays can be useful in displaying the jewelry. I recently bought a wooden centerpiece dish from target for about $20. I love the way wood looks with a lot of my jewelry. I kinda wish my new wooden tray was a bit darker and a bit smaller, but its pretty nice as is. I also bought a pink ceramic flower dish.
  • Scarves / cloth – One of the quickest ways to add interest to the photograph is by using scarves or pieces of cloth. I like to sometimes spread the scarf out to cover the entire background, but other times I just use it as an accent around the piece of jewelry. Throw blankets and towels can work sometimes too. Today while I was at the craft store I saw variety of really nice looking plush / fur cloth, which I  think I’ll add to my “props wish list” 🙂

One thing about these photography accessories that I’d like to mention is that I prefer finding things to use that I have other uses for as well. For example, the wooden centerpiece. I fully intend to use that as a centerpiece tray when I’m not using it in photography. The same goes for the flower dish (I’ll use it as a ring dish on my dresser), and the scarves. I live in a small, cluttered room already, so I can’t be adding too much more stuff to my collection!

Some of my scarves

A few other props I’ve seen used that I don’t currently have / use are: glass stones (like they put in the bottoms of vases), stones / rocks, nature, and fake flowers. Of course, if you have the space for all that stuff, then you’re lucky. The larger variety of items you have to use, the better chances are that you’ll be able to set up a photograph that matches the feel of that particular piece of jewelry.

I’m hoping that tomorrow I will have some time to go out in the backyard in the morning and make good use of the indirect sunlight. Trying to take photos indoors with flash or with light-bulb light tends to cause a lot of glare with glass beads.