End-of-year review

Well it’s this time of the year when you look back and forward the same time learning from your faults and making plans.

The last year was a good one artwise; a bad one personalwise; satisfying jobwise; really good I think blogwise.

The blog get a new design twice, there was a birthday give away. I tried to make the posts bilingual and include some more SEO. I let you look over my shoulder during creating and offered a beading course at the Aethercircus.

But what do you think?

Is there anybody reading the english translations? And do you understand them?

Did I annoy you with the Kallaina-WIPs?

I would like to make another tutorial but don’t know what. Any wishes? I really hope you liked the last year here on my little blog and you will stay with me next year, too.

P.S.: The comments should work properly again for everyone!

End-of-the-year review

Coat of arms of the Hessian society of aether voyages

Last August after working on the coat of arms for Frankfurt and Kassel I also did the one for Hesse. But I wanted to give you some rest between all these emblems - and forgot it. Now it comes back to focus.

But let us start wit the original coat of arms of Hessia.

Quelle: Wikipedia

The Lion is nice but these red-withe stripes give me the creeps. Well let’s try a cog to fix it.

I came to a shape which don’t fit the common Wappen shape but nicely goes with the Tartschen (sorry german only, the english version don't give the relevant information) shape.

Doctopus

Yesterday a dear colleague and good friend of mine had her masters defense. Because she really liked my Octoplushes I made one for her with a graduate cap.

Pine cones

Maybe you saw the progress of this piece on Facebook. It’s a combination of earrings I bought at the Apfelmarkt in Naumburg (See here the post about it) mit seed beads and Swarovski Elements bicones. The earrings are pine cones manufactured into jewelry by Detlef Menzner. He’s a local artist using everything woody including coconut husks and cones. Each piece is unique.

The Bezel for the pine cones was done pretty fast. The netting technique I used resembles the natural structures of the cone. The process you can see in the collage of #dailydetail pictures.

After a poll on FB which favored the drop shape I can now present the final piece:

Steampunk November

The last weekend was all under the sign of steampunk. De Schnidder had invited to a ride with the Hessencourrier and also come up with some framework program. So the journey through time began on Saturday with a leisurely stroll through the Karlsaue. Although the first day of November the weather could not have been better. With mild temperatures, the sun brought the remaining autumn leaves to glow in brightest colors.

For refreshment, we then went to the Eberts. The day completed with a short visit to the Museum of Sepulchral Culture. There, in celebration of Diá de los Muertos the gates were still open until late at night.
On Sunday, we met in the Hessencourrier station. There, the steam locomotive has been extensively used for some nice photos.

But now: Get in, ladies and gentlemen!

Destination was, as usual, Naumburg, where the apple market took place this weekend. There was to learn about all sorts of Pomology, to taste various apple specialties and to inspect and purchase regional products. I fled the well heated train compartments for refreshing trips to the platforms between the cars and accompanied the smokers out there.

Finally, we had to return to the 21st century. With this a wonderful weekend ended at the Hessencourrier station Wilhelmshöhe-South.

Kallaina - Fascinator

As I said I wasn’t happy with the Kallaina outfit. A first step to overcome this is this fascinator.

Base as well as the crinoline is from Nehelenia Patterns, the metallic band I already used before.

DNA - Code of Life

Some weeks ago I stumbled about the blog of gwenbeads. Apart from many mathematical beaded beads you can find a video tutorial for DNA earrings. It’s obvious that my inner scientist have to have one.

Contrary to the tutorial I put the color code in the middle of the helix next to the buggle beads. I did this because the outer sugar-phosphate-backbone is the same for each nucleotide. The difference lies in the bases within the helix - adenine, guanine, thymine, cytosine. Here I used the colors: nickel, black, silver (galvanized) and jet-haematite.

I converted my nickname into an amino acid sequence by using the 1-Letter code: Ala-Leu-Glu-Stop (there’s no X so I used the stop codon next to Y [Tyr]). By the genetic code you can translate it into a base sequence as long as you don’t make a mistake like I did.

Finest lace

The Lace Cufflette that’s beaded lace and it’s in black - this dream was designed by Mikki Ferrugiaro. I saw it the first time at Ondori’s blog.

The cuff consists of a heringbone weaved bracelet tho which the lace is attached. Due to some unknown reason my bracelet was wrinkled so I had to to start over again with only half the width.

~ - ~

Octoplush

This tutorial already crossed my way several times. At first I could resist it but then a good friend of mine had some spare fur fabric.

The first octopi (black and neon green) was for her.

The second one matches my brown-olive steampunk ensemble but the head ist a bit too big. Maybe I’ll make him a new one later.

O-Mosaic by Akkesieraden

Akke Jonkhof has made many wonderful design of genius simplicity including Half Tilas, Rullas or O-Beads. If I could I would make each of them. So I started with the O-Mosaic Bracelet.

This one is really nice to wear despite the width. So I’m quite sure I will do another one of these but in black.

Kallaina jewellery set

Due to the bad weather and other circumstances both events for the weekend were canceled. So my new steampunk outfit has to wait in the cupboard until FaRK next week. In the meantime I can show you the close-ups of the jewelry. The set consists of a necklace, a slave bracelet and earrings.

I think at least for the earrings I will write a tutorial.

Steam emblem for Frankfurt

This emblem für the steampunk group Frankfurt is the result of a democratic process. There were drafts, new ideas and elections. This version won:

An airship above an alternative skyline of Frankfurt.

You might think the airship is a little bit cliché but since the visit of the Zeppelin museum in Neu-Isenburg we know there’s been an airship station right beside the airport Frankfurt which has been the starting point of the “Hindenburg” and the “Graf Zeppelin” for their transatlantic flights. The latter also modeled for the airship in the emblem.
The skyline beneath is Frankfurt’s but relegated in time. I changed the silhouette you would see from the bridge “Alte Brücke” in the style of old skyscrapers from the beginning of the 20th century. The cathedral is a little bit closer than in reality and I also have to place the Paul’s Church to the left. This one was requested by Audiovisionär as a symbol for the first - very short - democracy on German ground.

New wardrobe - Kallaina - WIP part 3

This is the last teaser for the new steampunk outfit. It’s ready for the Multiperiod-Picknick on Saturday.

But bevor the whole thing will be revealed I can tell you the name of the ensemble: Kallaina, derived from the Greek word for the gemstone turquoise.

Steampunk Dawn

I've been thinking about doing some cosplay since quite some time now but never found a matching character. It should be visually matching and I have to be comfortable in the costume.

After thinking a lot about this last weekend I got an enlightenment:

Joseph Michael Linsner’s Dawn.

I really like the mythology behind this character and enjoyed the dialogues in the comics. The look of the stories is an interesting mixture of different epochs. So a steampunk variant of Dawn ist truly obvious.

As a basis for my redesign I primarily used Dawn’s main manifestation. The roses and chains stand for anarchy (hell) and strict order (heaven), respectively. As well do the masks.

Whether I implement this design into a cosplay or not I don't know. Earliest next year.

Casseler Steamwappen - Update

Seems like being ill helps my creativity. Because of a serious flu I have to stay at home since one week now and during this time this blog got a new design, the matching business cards are almost ready, I started to draw again, the emblem for the Steampunk Frankfurt group is ready and in the course of doing this I also edited the Cassel emblem

Zu letzterem Punkt hier das Ergebnis in seiner ganzen Pracht:

Textures are wonderful, this one is Chestnut from Wieselblitz. Additionally a added shadows to the vines.

New wardrobe - WIP part 2

I’m still working on the new steampunk outfit. The corset has already arrived. Waistcoat and overskirt are finished.

Festival of Lights

Some weeks ago I beaded the Festival of Lights Bangle from Jill Wiseman. I didn’t stop with this one. Because this project is very fast I beaded two other ones.