Engraving Flasks

The struggle of figuring out what to get for someone who has everything has been around as long as gift giving holidays themselves.  I love giving handmade gifts, but let's face it, they're not always practical.  Luckily for me, a few months ago, my boyfriend casually mentioned that he didn't own any flasks, and he thankfully didn't go out and buy one for himself.  I figured a plain steel flask would be a little boring, and Casey's not super into all the cheesy booze quotes that can be found on most novelty flasks.  He's a bit more snobby classy when it comes to his whiskey, so I figured a personalized flask with his name on it would be the best course of action.  Besides, this way I could experiment with this cool stainless steel etching technique I saw on Pinterest, and he doesn't have to worry about anyone stealing his alcohol.


The first thing I did was order the flasks. I decided on this six pack from Amazon, since I figured I would need one to practice on, I would probably mess at least one up, I didn't know how many I wanted to make in the first place, and I have my own 21st birthday coming up (29 days, but who's counting?). I also picked up a funnel, but that's another story.

My initial setup

If I learned anything from high school physics, it's that Christmas lights are a great source of cheap rubber coated wire in a pinch.

The next thing I did was assemble the mechanism.  I used this tutorial as a guideline, and kind of adjusted things as I went along.  I eyeballed the salt and vinegar solution and stirred it with a cotton swab for the test flask.  The most important thing I learned from that is that the solution became more potent the longer it sat.  The first etching didn't go so well, but after the sodium and chloride were allowed to fully dissociate overnight, the next few sets went a lot faster.

I read that the current was too small to do any damage to humans, but I wrapped my fingers in electrical tape just in case.  It ended up being unnecessary.

The first couple marks I made were just to play around and test out the etching mechanism.  Then, I practiced using stickers to make a stencil.  I saw this guy on YouTube who said that nail polish was actually the perfect paint to use, since it won't let the current pass through and, in my case, was readily available. Looking back, I probably should have used white because not all of it was dissolved when I put the acetone on it, but a subtle hint of red isn't very detracting.

Anyway, I first tried putting the stickers on, painting the nail polish on top, then immediately removing the stickers.  Most of the nail art tutorials on Instagram do this, so I figured it must give a cleaner line than waiting for it to dry.  I was wrong.  It smudged a lot, and made a huge mess.  What worked much better was to allow the polish to dry overnight before I tried to take the stickers off, and it gave a much cleaner relief.

The first flask I did for Casey turned out a little more rough than I had liked.  I took the capital C and D stickers, stuck them to the flask, used electrical tape to tape out a square around them, then just went to town burning the metal away.  I stippled the cotton more than I rubbed it for this one, so it ended up looking vaguely like hammered metal, but I think it looks cool and rustic.

Everything's so shiny that it's hard to get a decent picture of the finished flasks themselves.

For the next one, I arranged his name in stickers, painted over them, waited a day for the paint to dry, then removed the stickers.  It was harder to see the difference between the original steel and the etched steel since there was a smaller surface area and it was hard to compare with the bright red polish between the two, so I went ham.  I did a lot more tracing motions this time around, and ended up with a pretty cool looking etch.

Some things I learned:  Definitely do this in a well ventilated area.  I started in my bathroom with the fan on, but my dorm bathroom is tiny as can be, so I moved over to the stove I don't use because my burners don't work, and used that hood as a sort of a fume hood.  The reaction does produce toxic chlorine gas, but not enough to do serious damage unless you hover over it and purposefully inhale as much as you can.  Also, it smells kind of bad.  The cotton will start to discolor as a result of the reaction, but it doesn't have an effect as far as I can tell.  The only result of using the discolored cotton is that the salt solution will start to turn that burnt brown color on the steel, but it is easily wiped up with a paper towel.  Definitely let the vinegar solution sit overnight.  I used the same solution for the three days I was working on this, and it seemed to get stronger with each day.

Before the etching

After the etching

Honestly, I think the hardest part of doing this is making sure the stickers are aligned properly before you try to paint over them.  This is a technique that definitely works better for shorter quotes, as longer ones will probably tend to get tedious.  I will say that I am looking forward to the one I'm going to make as a 21st birthday present to myself.

Note: I was so excited to give these to him that I forgot to take a picture of the finished ones together, so as soon as I get one from the man himself, I'll post it here.

Making a Tutu

Here at Florida Tech, every fall, the president hosts a huge event called the President's Picnic.  There's free food and drinks for students, entertainment from his band and other music groups from campus, and lots of fun and games sponsored by different clubs.  My primary organization, the College Players, is always asked to dress up in costume, walk around, and generally entertain children.  When I heard that this year's theme was going to be "Vintage Carnival," I was super excited and had visions of tightrope walkers in my head, and I knew I wanted to make a tutu.  I had just bought this book, and figured with a couple of months, I could definitely make a pretty decent tutu.  Well, months turned into weeks, which turned into days, which turned into hours.  I promised myself I wouldn't procrastinate this badly again, but doing a musical and having to pick up a lot of extra parts takes a lot of time and energy.  Before I knew it, it was roughly 24 hours before I had to report to the theater to get ready for the picnic.  Luckily, I at least had the foresight to stock up on tulle and fabric when Joann's had a huge sale the week before, so I had all my fabric and findings that I needed.  I figured at this point I would have to revert to a romantic tutu, so I decided to just go with that.

Soundtrack provided by Pandora.  This section sponsored by The Producers! I believe it was "The King of Broadway".

I had never worked with muslin before, so I figured why not give it a go here.  I didn't have the time to figure out how to make a proper basque, so I tried to make a belt thing instead.  I cut a piece on the fold about 4 inches tall and the length of my waist circumference, plus about 4 inches.

I wasn't trying too hard for it to be super perfect. I wanted it to sit really high on my waist, and I figured that the bodice would cover most of the top part anyway.  Now comes the part where I kind of messed up.

Monty Python's Spamalot

So my original plan was to cut a bunch of tulle the same length as the "basque," then with the extra 4 inches, it should overlap and there wouldn't be a gap.  Well, I forgot that a single rectangular piece of fabric creates a tube, not a bell, when coiled, so after I attached and sewed the first 4 pieces of tulle, I realized my error and started over.  I ultimately used 16 yards of different colored tulle, with the colors staggered between layers.

I ended up using about a 4:2:1 ratio of pale pink, pink, and coral.

My supervisor was watching me the whole time, judging me.

"Stop fussing with that tulle and give me more food!"

 It took 3 pieces of tulle to complete each layer, and I staggered each layer about one inch apart from each other. I wound up pleating the tops of each piece of tulle and pinning it to the muslin.  I didn't want the different lengths of tulle to show, so I planned for the outermost layer to be the longest, so that layer was sewn on first, with mostly pale pink tulle.  It wasn't until the second and third layers that I began to add in more color.

After one layer to make sure the pleats would fall the way I want them to.

One full layer, comprised of two smaller layers stacked on top of each other.

A few more layers later, I had somehow crammed 16 yards of tulle onto the tutu.  Somewhere between the first and second full layer, I realized that all the tulle sections within the smaller layer ended at about the same place, and might result in a gap if I were to do a turn, so I started staggering the layers so the tulle would be evenly distributed.

Detail on the pleating

It would have been wise to cut out a matching piece of satin from the muslin before I started sewing tulle onto it, but I didn't have that kind of foresight.  I cut a piece to match, figured that no one would see the "inside" of the skirt, and made sure that at least the outside looked nice when I sewed it on.  I kind of just finagled with it until it looked presentable.

I did at least finish the edge of the outside section.

I needed help to sew on the hooks and eyes, mainly to mark where they go, so I sewed on the eyes, and waited until I got to setup where someone could help me place the hooks.  It ended up being too loose and I had to safety pin it anyway, but that's beside the point.

I lucked out that the default tulle length was the length I wanted the skirt to be.

Next, I moved on to the bodice.  I figured that since I had worn so many in my career as a dancer that it couldn't be too hard.  I quickly drafted out the basic shape on muslin, made cuts where the book described, used those patterns to cut out the actual muslin pieces I used with seam allowances, then used those as a pattern to cut out the satin.  

Drafting the pattern.

By this point, it was very late, and I wanted to get dinner with my boyfriend and go to sleep, so I just basted the muslin to the satin, then sewed those pieces together.  

So much pink

I ended up restitching a little bit around the bust and the waist to make it fit a little bit better, but ultimately, it didn't fit well.  As much as I love my fish, he's very bad at helping me pin to make alterations.

Mostly finished

I wanted a longer bodice to cover up most of the "basque."  It also had a little more of a vintage feel than the shorter ones I was used to wearing.  I also realized right before I started making the bodice that I had forgotten to run out and get pale pink bloomers to wear underneath, so I knew I would have to wear my lavender leotard underneath, which I had to cover.  I decided that since sewing on the elastic shoulder straps, along with the hooks and eyes, would only take about an hour, I decided to save all of that for the morning.  Ultimately, it ended up not fitting that well, which doesn't surprise me.  I was walking around with a ridiculous amount of safety pins in it, trying not to look like a sack of potatoes.

Excuse the poor lighting.

I found a brooch I made for Vintage Hitchcock in the costume loft, so since I didn't have the chance to do any embellishing on the actual bodice, I slapped that sucker on there and called it a day.  Now that I have more time, I hopefully will have the chance to open the bodice back up and do some alterations.  I'd like to add interfacing, boning, and beaded embellishments at some point, as well as altering the fit itself.  It definitely needs a lot more work, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Ice Dye - Updated

Some wet, some dried

So I was browsing Pinterest, as always, and was looking for new dye techniques.  I came across a few posts with some really pretty fabrics that were made using a technique called ice dying.  I decided that it would be a really suitable pattern for making bow ties, so I took a trip to my local craft store, ran into one of my aunts and one of my cousins there, got some necessary supplies, and got to work.  I ended up following this tutorial.

Just pretend like I rotated it.

This is my first time working with soda ash, so once I see how this turns out, I might consider investing in more from here on out.  I just wanted to use the normal storage tubs I always use, so I found this rubber basket thing that I decided to cut the bottom out of and I figured I would use that as a rack on top of the tub.

A long 20 minutes later...

After the fabric soaked in the soda ash, I dumped out the water and used the same tub.  I ultimately decided on scarlet, purple, and royal blue dye.  The tutorial said to use plastic spoons, but I couldn't find any since Mom rearranged the pantry, so I just used these little bathroom cups.

Clockwise from top: royal blue, scarlet, purple.

A quick trip to the kitchen for ice later, I was ready to start the fun part.

The setup

In retrospect, I probably didn't need to cut the basket apart, but it makes potential adaptation to a larger container easier.

About 5 minutes in

It's hard to believe, but somewhere under that ice that looks like charcoal is a piece of fabric about to have a lot of color thrust upon it.

I thought the melting ice looked really cool. 

Well, I have no idea how this is going to turn out.  I guess we'll find out in about 24 hours.

UPDATE

This is a second batch.

I ended up rinsing the first piece of fabric after about 16 hours because I panicked when I looked at it and saw a solid black lump.  I was worried that I used way too much dye and that it would be so dark that all the colors would blend together into some form of dark mass.  Once I washed it and let it air dry, I was pleasantly surprised.

The bottom left one is fully dry.

In the picture, the light purple one in the bottom left corner is the first piece I did.  The other three are still wet from being washed, so I'm looking forward to see how they look once they're dry.  I did let those sit for about 24 hours though, so the color had a little more time to saturate the fabric.  They may turn out a little lighter than what I would like, since I used about half the amount of dye in these than I did for the first one.  I look at them, and they remind me a lot of watercolor paintings.  I really like how this turned out, and will definitely be using this technique again in the future.

Directing a Show

Directing a show is probably the most challenging thing I've done so far, but it was also one of the most rewarding.

So the show I directed was Vintage Hitchcock: A Live Radio Play.  Instead of treating it like a serious retelling of the Hitchcock films, I decided that what I wanted to do was to give the audience a look behind the scenes into what happens during any production of any show.  Being an actor and former dancer, I realized that by the end of the show, my fellow actors and I have our own inside jokes and there's an entirely different story happening backstage.  I thought how unfortunate it was to the audience that they never get to see that, so I wanted to bring that on the main stage.  The fact that it was in the form of a 1940's radio show was just icing on the cake.

When it comes to the 1940's, the style of the day is very important.  While the gentlemen basically only had to wear a higher waistline for their pants, the ladies had a much more complicated costume scheme.  I had a specific idea in mind for what I wanted the jewelry and accessories to look like, and having a limited budget, I decided to make them.  Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures of everything, but I did get most of them.

Painting white orchids lavender.

One of my actresses decided she wanted to portray a snooty Hollywood starlet type who, even though she never had a real gig, decided she was better than everybody else.  I lent her one of my own purple dresses, and I figured if anyone should sparkle, it would be her.  I used an iridescent purple watercolor on the inner bits of the orchids so they wouldn't all blend together.  I ended up giving her a set of pearls with AB finished crystals between each one to make sure she glittered with every movement.

Brooch and Bracelet

I attempted to hot glue a bead identical to the one in the bracelet to a ring back, but the glue didn't like the metal too much.  We found a way to make it work, but I forgot how we did it in all the general hecticness.

The "peach set" was another favorite of mine. I found these really pretty connector beads, but thinking they were too plain, hot glued a flattened bead cap to the center.  I made drops with pearls and used those both in the earrings and in the matching necklace.  I had intended to make a seashell brooch similar to this one, but time ran short on me.

 I also was interested in trying to make fake Bakelite.  Unfortunately, I didn't have access to colored resin, so I improvised with red polymer clay.  We didn't end up using it since the actress I made it for had her own set of beautiful diamond and pearl earrings.

As far as the set goes, I knew from the beginning I wanted a blue-based gray.  I think the most exciting part of being the director was knowing that I was able to make those decisions.  I was backstage for most of the show, so unfortunately, I wasn't able to get many pictures of the completed set.  I picked a few posters from popular movies to put on the walls.  I promised some pin-ups, so I made sure I included Ziegfeld Follies and Moon Over Miami in there.  I added in The Lodger since that was one of the plays in the show, and one of my personal favorite movies is The Great Dictator, so I didn't hesitate to get that one in there.

My wonderful production team.

I could go on and on about the leadership skills I learned, the patience I acquired, and the teamwork I helped throw together, but that might have to be its own separate post.  Meanwhile, have some assorted pictures from the show.  You can probably tell which ones were from dress rehearsal and which ones were from the actual show based on set dressings and people present.

I do have to say that at the end of the day, this was one of the best experiences of my life.

Cherry Blossom Bow Ties

For those of you who don't know, my favorite crafty pastime is making bow ties.  I've made so many different ones, and I've learned so many different dying techniques in the process.  I've learned how to dip dye, ombré, and tie dye.

A watermelon I'm quite fond of.

Tie dyed Mardi Gras puppy bow tie

I was thinking of things that I haven't tried yet, and I realized I haven't done much in the way of painting.  Inspired by the impending springtime, I thought I'd try my hand at painting some cherry blossoms.

I soaked a solid white tie in water to help the dye absorb better.

The first thing to do was to prepare a background.  I figured a nice light blue for the sky would be a good effect.  I ombréd the blue the same way I usually do.  First, I added a little bit of water to my little plastic tub and got a solid white bow tie nice and soaked.  Then, I took the tie out, and added a kettle full of boiling hot water.  I eyeballed roughly a half cup of salt, which nicely dissolved immediately.  I ended up adding 3 teaspoons of Aquamarine Rit Dye.

Note the vinyl gloves.  Learn from your mistakes, kids.  Especially when you have to keep your nails painted for four solid months because you accidentally dyed them purple while making tights.

I don't usually worry about the neck strap too much when I dye because it ends up being hidden under the shirt collar anyway.  I accidentally got some drops of concentrated dye on the tie, so I just decided that would be the darker side.  I didn't let the dye sit too long, since I wanted a nice light blue.  The color always turns out a little bit lighter once it dries, so I pulled it out when it was just slightly darker than what I wanted.

Fresh out the dye bath.

After rinsing in my bathroom sink, the dorm gods smiled down upon me and graced me with an available washing machine.  I live in a building made to house 150+ people, and there are only 4 washers.  One of them is currently broken.  This building was not planned particularly well.

Freshly washed, hanging out to dry.

Once it dried, it ended up fading to a beautiful light blue color.  It's always tricky figuring out exactly how long to leave the dye to set, especially when it dries so drastically different from the wet color.  I guess I just got lucky this time.

Perfect sky background color.

Next came the actual painting.  I have never done this before, so I figured a few practice branches and flowers on a test scrap of fabric would probably be a good idea.  Once I painted, I realized that since I was using so little paint on the fabric itself, I didn't worry about it bleeding through.  Even if it did, I could cover it up with an identical stroke on either side.

I decided on larger branches with dots instead of individual petals.

The best part about nature is that it rarely follows a straight line.  As a result, I could pretty much take the branches in any direction I wanted.

Branches that look like veins ready for petals.

On the test strip, I realized I like the look of red layered under pink petals, so I scattered dots along the branches in red first, then pink.  I added a few blowing in the wind, as well.

Ready for pink.

I'm not going for anything too terribly realistic, so there are a lot of petals floating around in space.  At first, I was reluctant to add the pink, since the red looked so good on its own.  Once I did though, I was quite pleased with the result.

The final product.

Hopefully within the next few days, the rain will subside enough to go outside and, with my lovely model Casey, take a few pictures in the sunlight so the colors will show up better.  He doesn't know about this yet, so that'll be fun.  It doesn't rain often in Florida, but when it does, it rains nonstop for 4 days.  At least it hasn't been colder than 61 degrees this week.

Check back eventually for updates with better pictures!  I'm not sure why I was so shaky this time around.