Gifts and Curses

First off, we have the gifts, both for friends' birthdays.

One is a Christmas ornament, featuring needle felted miniatures of Rufus and Marlene, the two cute little dogs a friend of mine adopted from a shelter rescue group this year.  It's kinda like those "Baby's First Christmas" ornaments, only... for a birthday.  In July. With doggies.  The dogs are attached to the base with magnets, so they can be removed and placed elsewhere if desired, and because it seemed less messy than gluing them on.  This is my first attempt at needle felting, and believe me, I was not expecting it to go as well as it did.  The base gave me more trouble than the dogs, but we'll get into that later.

The other birthday gift I finished this month is for a friend who loves dinosaurs, and also enjoys Doctor Who, so the obvious thing to do was to make her a snowglobe.  Only, with orange glitter and an erupting volcano... so it's really more of a fireglobe.  It's really hard to photograph a group of miniature things surrounded by stuff that magnifies, distorts, and reflects.  Who would have thought? It was nearly impossible to capture the post-shaking drifting glitter in a picture, so the photos below are unshaken. 

 

Now for the curses.

When I was working on the base for the felted ornament, I was in a hurry and was not being very careful... so I got a big glob of hot glue on my thumb.  A number of rather angry words crossed my mind, but all I actually said was "OW! Ow, ow, ow, owwww!!!!!" Not the most eloquent way to express my feelings, but it was not so much what I said... it was how I said it.  Loudly.  And with vigor.

I hate hot glue.  It's horrible stuff.  When you touch a hot pan or something, you can jerk your hand away and that's the end of it, but you can't escape hot glue.  It clings to you, searing its way into your very soul as you tear across the kitchen toward the sink, yelling and flailing.  Cold water does little to ease the pain as you peel the evil rubbery substance away from your blistered skin, and you may find yourself carrying an ice pack with you for the next couple hours because it's the only way to make it tolerable.  This is particularly annoying if you happen to be meeting someone for dinner at a restaurant.  "Oh, don't mind me, I just like having one hand shrouded in a kitchen towel when I go out. Can I get the chicken wrap?"

The fireglobe was not without its issues either, because it involved resin.  I utterly loathe resin.  Sure, you can do nifty things with it, and I actually have used it on a considerable number of projects, but it almost always goes wrong.  Mostly because I use it for weird things instead of just pouring a bit in a pendant tray or mold like  most people do.  It gets very sticky as it sets up, and then it gets everywhere.  I've had to frantically try to clean up numerous oozes, globs, and overflows, unstick things that weren't supposed to be conjoined, wipe down things that weren't supposed to have resin on them at all, and in the end, try in vain to get it completely off my hands.  Usually I give up and dust my hands with baby powder to get rid of the stickiness. It has often kept me up late fighting with it.  Then the next morning I find it has oozed or stuck some more after I left it, and then hardened that way, or simply not hardened at all.  Yet, I continue to use the stupid stuff...

Ribbon Shoes, and a "Pros and Cons" Reprise

I like ribbons.  I use them often in jewelry making, I've hung pictures with them, and I even bought a pair of shoes that was otherwise unsuited to me because of them.  It was many years ago, and I was young and foolish... willing to overlook the wedge heel and peep toe for the sake of the frilly bands of satin with which they were tied.  I don't like wedges, and I HATE peep toes (my second toe is longer than the others and kinda pokes out all by it's lonesome... so it looks somewhat as if I'm flipping everyone off with my feet) plus I somehow managed to get one size too big, so they don't even fit me properly.  So in an effort to correct this shopping mistake, I searched far and wide for a pair of shoes to transfer the design element I liked to.  Finally, after a number of years, I found them: neutral colored, open sided, T-strap, spool heel, and most importantly a closed toe.

 

 

I  also liked the contrast in textures on the original shoes, but I was willing to give that up for the sake of eliminating the things I didn't like.  The new ones are a little narrow, so they're still not a perfect fit, but I'll deal with that... at least for now.  On to the modifications!

 

I cut a bit off the center tab for the T-strap, and tucked it inside, holding it in place with glue and a line of stitching.  (Stitching not shown in picture, but that's what the spool of matching thread is for.) I removed the existing ankle straps completely and replaced them with antiqued brass grommets (C) which blend in nicely with the tan leather of the shoe.  I made some staples out of antiqued brass jewelry-making pins (A) and poked them through the sides of the shoe, right by the sole.  I used a large pin to punch holes for them.  To keep them from pulling out, I used some spacer bars, (B) another jewelry thing, on the inside of the shoe.  The super long tipped pliers were absolutely necessary for putting in these staples and bending the ends over, and even with them it was tricky.  The grommets were simple though! I just used a hole punch (Silent Setter by Provo Craft- the funny looking thing at the bottom of the picture) and a pair of grommet setting pliers. (The Silent Setter comes with grommet setting tips too, but the pliers seemed easier.)  It was a snap.

The result was a pair of VERY customizable shoes.  The antique brass blends in well enough that the ribbons can be left off entirely, and since it's just a series of places to loop ribbon through, I can experiment with different ribbons and lacing patterns. They can be altered to match just about any outfit (assuming the tan shoes themselves go with it) just by switching up the ribbons.

 

And as a final... thing.  I'm including the shoes I posted to The Hutch.  The one and only project to be posted there before it was locked up forever.  My altered-logo Doctor Who Cons.

 

 

 

This mod requires nothing more than the shoes themselves, some printable transfer paper (available at Walmart) and of course a computer and printer with which to design and print the new logo.  Easy to do, but be careful ironing the new logo on.  The original logo is very thick and rubbery and it can ooze and burn if you have too much heat and pressure on it.