Awesome Ahoy! - A Craft Blog

Copper and Tear Drop Necklace

2012-01-30T16:42:00.000-08:00

An adventure in wire wrapping!

Pictures of Beautiful Places

2012-01-17T15:33:00.000-08:00

Well, I haven't been crafting much lately, but I did go on vacation to LA and did a ton of hiking and photography! Here are some of my favorite nature pics from the trip:

Labyrinth of Jareth Costume - Part 1: The Mask

2011-08-06T16:32:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of July, I went with Jess and our friend Kaity to the Labyrinth of Jareth Masquerade down in LA. I'd never been before and all I knew was that it was fantasy masquerade ball inspired by the 80s David Bowie movie, Labyrinth. Being a fan of fantasy movies from the 80s and all things that let you dress up in a costume, hell yes, I wanted to go. Time to get fancy.

My costume began with a sketch inspired by bits and pieces of a fox.

Fox Warrior

To make this costume, I needed to paper mache a fox skull-themed helmet, make a ton of tails and attach them to a belt/skirt, and find black clothing that I could rough up a bit. Of course I started with my favorite part...the mask!

Way back in 2005, I had made a similar mask and separate helmet (below).

2005 Halloween Mask

Problems with this mask include a) I could not see shit and b) the whole thing was impossible to keep on, as the mask was front heavy, and the helmet kind of back heavy. It also ended up being kind of flimsy, and the mask has since been squashed flat in a few separate moves. So I set out to build a single mask/hemlet combo, and improve on the original design. To the crafting montage!

Taped strips of cardboard together, one by one..

And then I had a silly hat in the general shape of my head!

The key to making this mask was building a comfortable, nearly symmetrical, head-shaped cardboard armature. I had to make it a fairly tight grid so that wet newsprint wouldn't sag in between the strips of cardboard. Pro tip for fellow paper machers, add ridges, lumps, and other such details in the paper mache stage, not in cardboard. At a certain sogginess, newspaper behaves a bit like clay. You can mold it fairly precisely, then just drape a layer of paper mache over the wads of newspaper for smoothness. Also, be aware that paper mache shrinks...

Adjust strips, cut extra cardboard off, and add paper mache...

For the paper mache, I actually use flour and water as the glue. Its much cheaper than real glue and it creates a very firm bond. I also like the way water based paints stick to it.

Paint with acrylics...

After a base coat of opaque white, I filled in all the nooks and crannies with ocher and grey. I used the corner of a damp, paint soaked paper towel to simultaneously smoosh dark paint into the low parts of the texture and wipe it off the high areas to let the white show through. Lots of layers of this gives the mask a striking texture.

(I also added some ridges to give the back both counterbalance weight and detail)

And voila! The finished mask!

Paper mache is amazing, I love the rough texture it gives the finished product. After lining the head bits with muslin, this thing was down right comfortable! Mask complete!

Filter Forge - Layering effects towards a more painterly image

2011-07-22T16:30:00.000-07:00

By layering different effects and changing the blending modes of each layer, I made these progressively more painterly versions of this same image. Love it!

Original Photo

Filter Forge - My mind is still blown.

2011-07-22T10:37:00.001-07:00

Wheaty Wallpaper

2011-07-19T14:28:00.001-07:00

More filters!

Playing with Filters

2011-07-19T11:57:00.000-07:00

I'll tell you a little secret: filters are the first thing I loved about Photoshop. Quick, easy to use, instant results... the problem with filters is they look like filters. And I'm gonna guess every designer knows the look of Photoshop's default filters inside and out. So when I just found a neat little plug-in program that adds about a bajillion new filters to the arsenal, I had to try it out. Its called Filter Forge, and its pretty damn cool. Check out what I could do to the photo from a few posts ago in just a few minutes:

Unfortunately, its expensive... so you might see more posts like this for the next month, while I still have the free trial :P

Rock Necklace

2011-06-13T15:53:00.000-07:00

This thing weighs two tons! Made from white and dyed magnisite.

Turquoise and Copper Teardrops

2011-04-29T10:13:00.000-07:00

Hello blog! Its been a while, but I've been busy, I swear! In fact, I've been crafting so much, I don't have time to blog! Hahaha.... Its not a good excuse, is it? But its kind of true...

Lately, I've built a potting bench, painted it in a sort of country "distressed" style, knitted a cupcake and a tea cozy (as yet unfinished), and started painting some minis I got to make my own Descent Journeys in the Dark characters. Oh, and made 3 pairs of the earrings you see above. They turned out super cute! I love the repeat of the teardrop shape and the traces of copper tone in the turquoise...A better picture is definitely in order.

I've also been playing piano like crazy. I heard music from the Pride and Prejudice Soundtrack and pretty much compelled me to pick up the sheet music...So good!

Steampunk Cog Earrings

2011-03-11T17:08:00.000-08:00

I made these ages ago, but they just got posted to my Etsy shop.

Colorful Flower Photography

2011-03-06T14:14:00.000-08:00

This morning the sun came out and Jess and I tried some artful photos with her fancy-pants camera.

Two More Necklaces

2011-02-22T16:34:00.000-08:00

The first is another Myst inspired piece, the second was an attempt to get a different style going. I think these are heading for my Etsy store.

Tribal Necklace

2011-02-18T14:43:00.000-08:00

Tribal-ish necklace made from coral, quartz, leather and brass findings. The top picture shows off its interesting fastening: the leather cord is one piece with the ring and bar attached to each terminal end, seen on the right in the first pic. The cord loops through a ring on the left. To take it on and off, you release the bar from the ring and let out the doubled length of cord. Cute, huh?

Hollow Books!

2011-01-24T12:36:00.000-08:00

I put two more beautiful cloth lined hollow books in my Etsy store! These two turned out fantastic. Unfortunately, I decided to photograph them at sunset, and got terrible lighting on the hollowed out parts.

Wow, I really love the Jane Porter one - what an interesting cover. That book was, oh, a hundred years old or so.... Aren't I an ass for cutting it up? ;)

Baby themes

2010-12-06T11:08:00.000-08:00

Mock up for a wordpress theme I'm making for work.

Draw Once A Day

2010-10-20T10:41:00.000-07:00

I haven't been craft blogging much lately, but thats because I've been drawing! Jess, Nattles and I have created the Draw Once A Day project, because we all like drawing and need encouragement to sit down with a pencil and paper and just make stuff. I haven't been very punctual with my art, but I'm enjoying it quite a bit; even doodling on the bus ride home has its merits. My fav thing I've drawn so far is this:

or maybe this:

Its hard for me to set aside time for drawing, but I guess thats why I'm on this crazy doodle boat. Craft blog? Brb. Drawing blog? ACTIVATE!

Duck Pond Kingdom

2010-09-21T15:40:00.000-07:00

I made a website for Duck Pond Kingdom! Its totally an inside joke.

Sneak Peak: Halloween Blog Design

2010-09-20T16:24:00.000-07:00

I love Halloween! October is almost upon us, so I've made a design for my blogger blog. Zombies ahoy!

Note: the amazing texture here is from ALP-Stock on Deviant Art.

Current Incarnation of Site Design

2010-09-09T15:41:00.000-07:00

I am really bored with this site...Lol.

Vector Flowers and Grey Gardens

2010-09-09T12:12:00.000-07:00

My vine design got nixed. I still have a few leisurely days to come up with something nice, so today I made these lovely grunge flower vectors:

Also, watched the documentary Grey Gardens which has made me even more absolutely terrified of growing old. Really interesting film though.

Grunge and Nature Web Design

2010-09-07T12:27:00.000-07:00

Working with a blue-green color palette, I continue to fuss with the web design I'm working on. This time added some grunge textures and made the vines a little quieter. Check it out:

PS, A big thanks to friend and fellow blogger Catherine for buying one of my bracelets! Thanks buddy!

New bracelets are up!

2010-09-04T13:08:00.001-07:00

My Etsy shop is now populated! Check it out!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/SuzanneDuket

Banner Evolution

2010-09-03T13:32:00.000-07:00

Boss chose banner number 1, but we both decided we didn't actually like it so now this is it turning into an entirely different design that is actually a website. OHMYGOD I LOVE SWIRLY VINES!

PS, I reworked my blog based on the happy ship banner! Woo!

More Bracelets and a Happy Ship

2010-09-02T10:04:00.000-07:00

I've been making tons of bracelets based on that last one I posted. And by "tons" I mean I made two more. They look like this:

And then I ran out of copper rings and made a couple of these:

And then I ran out of African "Turquoise" - which I guess is actually a lovely form of Jasper (and which I cannot find more of in this shape on the internet to save my life... what gives?)- and made just one of these Magnesite and copper bracelets:

And then I thought about posting them in my shop but got distracted by my lack of banner, so made this little thing :

The bracelets are headed for my Etsy shop. Stay tuned.

Hellooooo Blog!

2010-08-27T14:09:00.000-07:00

I haven't been crafting too much, but I do have some banner designs I made for work that I can share:

Yea, its been slow here.

Copper and Turquoise Bracelet Design

2010-08-13T10:47:00.000-07:00

Though not intentionally Myst inspired, I did play Myst IV for a bit before I started beading so...who know? I think it still counts! :)

I tried a couple different photography angles to try to get the neat toggle, the texture of the ring, and the colors right. I might make a couple more and put them on my Etsy.

Ingredients:

From Ornamentea.com
Hammered Copper Ring

Antique Copper Jump Rings

From FireMountainGems.com
2" Copper Headpins (so bendy! so shiny!)
Round Antique Copper Toggle
African "turquoise" 15mm lentil (out of stock?)

I don't usually post things like this, but....

2010-08-09T09:21:00.000-07:00

My weapon of choice is a tissue. ;_; I'm so dying first.

I was showcased on Ornamentea!

2010-08-02T13:37:00.000-07:00

I sent Ornamentea my photo of my bracelet and they decided to showcase my work! Check it out here: http://www.ornamentea.com/CustomerShowcase.html

Dance Mural!

2010-07-29T10:11:00.000-07:00

I mentioned I started a mural at Chris and Danielle's new house, right? So it turned into a really weird sequence of dancing dudes. Its not even halfway finished, so this is the only picture I've got for now! More to follow, when its finished....

Rustic Painting

2010-07-28T10:28:00.000-07:00

I started a new painting two days ago - the view from our patio table. Not very exciting, except for my fun little color adjustments. Brighty bright bright. Also, having strange and somewhat gruesome dreams. Much weirder than my paintings. C'est la vie.

Leather and Copper Bracelet

2010-07-27T09:59:00.000-07:00

I made a thing! Used red leather cord, copper end bars and toggle, and copper chain links (wrapped around the leather) from www.Ornamentea.com. This is the first completed piece of Myst inspired jewelry, as the turquoise ribbon cog necklace was only partially successful. More on that soon.

Myst Inspired Cog Necklace

2010-06-18T16:25:00.000-07:00

My first design:

Ages ago I made Wish a cog necklace for her birthday using lock-washers as fake cogs. I plan on combining those with turquoise ribbon and copper rings and links. Wish me luck <3

Myst Jewelry?

2010-06-17T17:01:00.000-07:00

I am convinced that Myst, the PC game series in which you travel around lost islands while solving puzzles, must have laid the framework for the current mad trend that is Steampunk. This weird thought struck me after seeing an amazing video of a clockwork peep hole:

I was reminded how much I had loved those games, how visually stunning they were, and how they constantly incorporated elegant clockwork mechanisms into previously simple devices...like doors.

Oddly enough, the color schemes of those games stuck with me more than anything. Those rich blue-greens and elegant art-nouveau curves probably influenced my visual design preferences more than I like to admit...

But really, how could they not?

Today, the idea of Myst inspired jewelry got me super excited. Ornamentea.com is going to be one of my prime resources. This is going to be awesome.

Also, I found out that there are TWO MYST GAMES I never played! Good god, what madness!

I've got a lot of puzzles and crafting ahead of me... it promises to be lovely :)

Temporary Tattoo Designer

2010-06-15T10:26:00.000-07:00

Part of my job is to design the temporary tattoos that my company ships with every order of fertility-inducing goods. I haven't been crafting much these last couple weeks so I thought I'd share these tattoo designs instead.

Disclaimer: the horrifically ugly or fertility-related ones were based on customer requests. Just sayin'...

I'm starting my own museum of archaic technology...

2010-06-10T21:30:00.000-07:00

Underwood Typewriter

Finally, time to share my awesome thrift shop / craigslist finds with my blog! I've been getting into archaic things lately. I picked up this 1940s typewriter for $30 about a month ago. Of course I typed a flurry of letters for 4 days and haven't touched it since, but it does make a rather striking decoration. And weighs more than most of my furniture.

Silver hot drink container

This amazing thing was a thrift shop find. As soon as the sun comes out for more than a day, I'm going to fill it with delicious fresh squeezed lemonade!

And now to go watch an episode of my favorite out dated show ever - Gargoyles. But first... LOOK AT THE MACHINERY! SO FANCY!

Conference of Creative Entrepreneurs!

2010-06-03T13:31:00.000-07:00

August 13-15, theres a conference that I think would be awesome to go to. My craft selling has been in remission for a while (my Etsy shop is sparsely populated by a few pairs of earrings) but that hasn't mean I haven't been making things. And the more I make, the more I think it would be awesome to turn it into a side business! I especially want to go see the Lecture on Social Media with Wexley School for Girls. Seattle based, best advertising company ever.... Check out some of the fake ads on their website - http://www.wexley.com/

I think what I struggle with most (besides keeping a full inventory) is marketing myself. This looks like the perfect place to get some tips on that :)

Read about the conference! - www.creativeconferencewest.com

Fancy Friday: Sharing is Caring

2010-05-21T13:18:00.000-07:00

I bought the most awesome Craigslist find ever yesterday...but I don't have any pictures yet so that will have to wait :)

Meanwhile, in the spirit of Fancy Fridays, I'm going to share with you some fancy things my awesome friends have made:

A new sculpture from ceramic artist Shasta Krueger.... Her stuff keeps getting more and more awesome :)

An adorable (and incredibly detailed) tiny felt monkey by fellow Craft Club goer Roz, of Tenshi Studios

And finally....

The image Jess, also of the Craft Club, will be painting tomorrow in Chris and D's new house. I'm also doing a mural, but I have no mockups to share yet.... Since I'm supposedly also starting tomorrow, check back soon for progress reports.

That's enough awesome for one day.
TGIfuckingF

Oi! Blog!

2010-05-15T14:29:00.000-07:00

Well, blog, its been a while since last I posted. Though, for once, this lapse was not do to arts/crafts inactivity! No no, on the contrary, I have actually been too busy to be able to worry about blogging! I will tell you of these things, but a few things need to be discussed before we get to that. MEGA POST, ACTIVATE!

First off, check out my Bear!

Yesterday was his 3 month anniversary of joining my household, and I like to think he's actually (almost) over the misery of being turned into an indoor cat. He an the Qwerp are even starting to be buddies:

Second order of business, I am in love with a band called Dinosaur Feathers and their album, Fantasy Memorial. Don't ask me why, but love it is. I listen to them even now...

Wires! Blobs of clay! Baking pans! This is Jess (left) and my (right) half-finished attempts at doll sculpting, from the Snackluck Craft Club several months (?) ago. Unfortunately, they're still half-finished. Ha. We took a break from these and ended up making tiny felt animals and learning to crochet:

Adorable success! The thing on the left is a crocheted coffee cup. Natalie crocheted a pear, and I was compelled to honor my favorite wordless webcomic. On a non Snackluck Craft Club note, Jess and I have been taking oil painting.

Most boring still life ever:

Color study that turned into a ghostly portrait:

Half way point in a more interesting still life (now finished, will update later):

And I've been on a personal Lace Quest for no apparent reason. I bought these from www.Joggles.com for a surprisingly reasonable price:

So far I've made beautiful lace headbands...

And want to make fancy lace collars!

I bought some fabric from Joanne's online store while there was a super sale. I see summer skirts and dresses in my future!

And bought some lovely little scraps of Amy Butler-esque fabric at the craft store today since they were on sale, thus expanding my collection of fabric I have no idea what to do with!

I'm a pretty happy camper, when I'm crafting :)

Things that make me happy....

2010-04-13T10:41:00.000-07:00

Our window sill garden, from left to right - Larkspur, Ivy, Fuchsia, White Petunia, sprouting purple ground cover of some kind, tropical plant of some kind, and Coffee.

The little tropical is particularly appealing to me:

I've been in an oil painting class, nothing to show for it yet but it reminded me that yes, I do paint occasionally. Here's an acrylic I started and never finished:

Also, I put a couple more earrings on my etsy store, here.

Thats all :)

Cute Earrings!

2010-04-08T00:27:00.000-07:00

Made some earrings a while ago, but I've been neglecting my blog. Sad day.

Spaceship!

2010-03-12T14:41:00.000-08:00

Made this for work in like half an hour. Illustrator is pretty fun :)

A Speedy Self Portrait

2010-02-17T16:55:00.000-08:00

I'm getting rusty.... and I need to dye my hair better colors :(

Art? No. But craft? Definitely.

2010-02-11T16:35:00.000-08:00

I tried my hand at cat tower design and construction. With a little help from my boy friend and room mate (not to mention tips from people at the hardware store and the oh-so-handy D) I turned a vision into a reality! A dream into a castle! A pile of wood and carpeting into THIS:

...Okay, so I guess I'll keep my day job, but at least the cat loves it.

More photos viewable at my flickr site.

Old porfolio site

2009-12-08T13:35:00.000-08:00

This was my old site, suzanneduket.com, that's been down for a while. I was using the beta of an image viewer for my portfolio, and I loved it, but can't afford it, so I should probably rework the site anyways...

Yep.

Something silly for myself

2009-12-02T17:22:00.000-08:00

Oh yea, and this one was an experiment using a palettes I liked from www.colourlovers.com
Who knew good colors could be so addictive?

Freelancing

2009-12-02T17:06:00.000-08:00

Mostly unemployed, I'm now designing a website for Donna Storm - Matt's mom - and her realty business. Thought I'd share the mock up. I'm doing a table-less CSS build, and running into the usual kinks, but so far the real version looks pretty close to the original idea. Once its finished, it will be located at www.DonnaStorm.com

I wish I had more work to do, though I must admit I'm enjoying the mini vacation.

Adventures in Beads

2009-11-18T20:02:00.000-08:00

I've been getting my bead on. Thanks Fire Mountain Gems!

Change of occupation

2009-11-11T12:05:00.000-08:00

As of this week, I'm leaving the horribly un-stimulating world of game testing behind and embarking on an adventure know as Freelance Web Design.

I have inherited a website that is messier and more tangled than a rat's nest made of floss. Egads! Its keeping me pretty busy, not a lot of art to share, but I did find this most useful tool: http://www.cssstickyfooter.com/
For anyone who has tried their hand at web design and wanted a footer that sticks to the bottom and found it nigh impossible to do, a solution has arrived! Huzzah!

Okays back to work for Q. Ciao~

Yesterday was a crafty day!

2009-10-25T19:03:00.000-07:00

The picture above is a little postcard sized collage of painted bits of paper. I had this fun idea of painting a piece of cardstock in floral colors, cutting petals from that, and then assembling the flowers from pieces.

After all that fussy business with an exacto knife, I cut loose and spattered extra paint in a vaguely Impressionist fashion. Go postcards! Ho ha!

Art Show

2009-10-19T22:50:00.000-07:00

Art show is over! Here are some pictures, I thought it turned out nice. Didn't sell anything though : /

Art Show!

2009-09-28T08:19:00.000-07:00

Okay! So I officially have an art show for the first two weeks of October. Reception on Saturday, Oct. 3. The reception is from 4-5:30pm. Stop in and see my work and have a chat!

WOooOooO!

PS. Soul Food Books is located at:
15748 Redmond Way
Redmond, Washington 98052

(Right next to Ben Franklin)

Jewelry! So Steampunk!

2009-08-29T16:14:00.000-07:00

Hi thar! I'm making jewelry now:

The theme was hardware, digital & analog. I gave Jess a necklace for her birthday :)

This was really a sort of test run...There's more to come, but I won't spoil it.

finished (ish) painting

2009-07-28T08:43:00.000-07:00

Woo! I finished it just in time...for the show...that didn't happen. Ah well, finished (ish) is good.

Art show at the Soul Food Books!

2009-07-13T11:57:00.000-07:00

Ironically, now that I have a job, I'm painting more.

My home computer is waiting on a wireless card, so no photographic updates today, but do note that this Wednesday I will be assembling an art show in the Redmond coffee shop called Soul Food Books. Mind, this is the place that postponed me for a month and never told me an exact date to show up with my paintings, but here's hoping for the best.

In other news, today I celebrate 23 years of life! Huzzah, being alive!

Kids these days...

2009-06-24T19:17:00.000-07:00

So, I just got a job! Game testing for Warner Bros. Woo! I'm moving this week, I have a show in two weeks, I start work tomorrow, and I desperately need a car. So of course I decide to finish a really neato photoshop painting I started a while ago instead of being useful. Woo...

SuzanneDuket.com is offline!

2009-06-03T12:55:00.001-07:00

My school stopped hosting my portfolio website, so until I find a good, cheap host, I'm redirecting all traffic to this blog.

If you were not looking for my portfolio, you were probably looking for my Etsy shop, where I sell my crafts:

Etsy
Buy Handmade
SuzanneDuket

If you were interested in ordering a custom book-box, feel free to email me: sumadu (at) gmail (dot) com

Bye website! I'll miss you!

Resume

2009-05-21T16:43:00.001-07:00

Applying to a coffee shop in Ballard, I was asked to make my resume interesting. I used colored pencils :D

I'm still unemployed, but getting many more calls these days. And my art show has been pushed back to July. Woo!

Art is good.

2009-05-15T14:27:00.001-07:00

Danielle and I recently went to the Museum of Glass art in Tacoma, WA. Tacoma, by the way, is the most divided, bi polar city I've ever experienced. Half of the buildings are empty and condemned/falling apart. The other half are like this:

And decorated with Dale Chihuly's glass like so:

(you cant tell from the photo, but this is a view straight up of the roof of a covered walking bridge. The glass is suspended behind a grid of plexiglass and steel)

The glass museum is amazing! Most of it's space is dedicated to a theater hot room - you watch glass artists at work. Danielle and I saw several people she knew from Mass Art making 3 foot tall bell jars and giant ticks.

I haven't worked on it in a while, but I have all these sketches of creatures for nick's story that I thought I'd share. (not listed in order of development or importance.)

Close Up:

Sketchy self portrait:

On last Thursday, Danielle and I set up another booth at an art walk. Across from us, a violinist played:

Art is good.

Cog Necklace

2009-05-06T21:36:00.000-07:00

I made this for Wish for her birthday!

And until I get proper jeweler's tools, I am not making anything like that again. Ha.

Things!

2009-04-24T14:24:00.000-07:00

I have been remiss in my promise to update regularly. Here is what I've been doing:

Fancy sock monkeys!

With wings! And cute eyes!

These puppies are headed for my Etsy shop.

Newest paintings:

My fav new project:

Jess's unfinished birthday present (from last year):

And an octopus:

cheers,
Q

Groovy!

2009-04-03T03:44:00.000-07:00

awesome things from the internet aka inspiration

2009-03-30T02:03:00.000-07:00

I found some crazy amazing old slides of maybe siberia on the internet, and i want to share.

wip landscape

2009-03-29T20:06:00.000-07:00

learning things. blar.

Nick's story

2009-03-25T18:03:00.000-07:00

Nick sent me a series of emails with his story and music that influences it. I read the first paragraph of his email, and came up with this. I still haven't read all of the email...

More to come...

Day Two

2009-03-19T11:52:00.000-07:00

Day two was a successful day in art, except that I forgot to update my art blog. I helped Jess study for her interview, and drew her and I being diligent people. I'm hunched over like a crazy person because the mirrored wall in our house has a split in the panels at my comfortable face level. Also, I cut out some weird pages from one of my books I'm destroying for sneaky boxes. Also, I forgot how to properly frame images. The end.

Art Blog First Post

2009-03-17T18:59:00.001-07:00

So I've decided to start a fresh new blog to chronicle my artistic attempts. I figure that if I can update it regularly, I'll have one more reason to make art regularly. Premise explained, here's what I'm up to now. I've begun learning Corel Painter and this is my first attempt at turning a picture into a "painting" .... so far this seems silly.