New Video: Vacuum Forming for Miniature Making - A Brief Introduction

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLX0nxIZPXchNj5qMa9aq5A5wU0jMr_lqW&v=eJZmYioN2q4

Hi~! I'm feeling very self-conscious listening to myself, I guess it takes a lot of getting used to. And my voice doesn't sound like me at all.....

I've missed out a few points, but I suppose that will be remedied in future videos, please feel free to leave comments on what you would like me to cover in my next vacuum form video, and I will try to go a little more in-depth to the best of my ability. 

Also, if you have enjoyed my videos, perhaps you would like to consider visiting my Patreon page.

https://www.patreon.com/snowfern

Supporters will receive more perks as I put together some rewards and Patreon-exclusive content. This will include behind the scene photos, technical knowledge and even step-by-step videos and tutorials. I will still create free-to-public content, so for my loyal followers, don't worry :) You can help me keep producing content by sharing and liking my videos, facebook page etc etc :)

Thanks for watching! *embarrassed grin*

Back to 1:12. distractions.

Mmmmmm coffeeeee...... This post will be more of a personal one, so you have been warned.

But first, Coffee! I had had a few ideas brewing (haha) in my head for more than a few months now, but owing to my limited drawing skills, and lack of experience with Inkscape, I put them aside, thinking I will try again if I had the time. And the energy to fail. Cos, I always fail, at least once. Or twice. Just to be sure.

It didn't start with this logo though. It started with LED lights. I had purchased a roll of LED light strips, and wanted to make some lit signboards, and figured that once I succeeded, everything else should fall into place. It was also always a goal of mine to finish a 'proper' roombox, not a piddly little photography corner - which never got completed, and fell apart after I accidentally dropped my re-ment roombox onto it HAWHAW SIIGHHHH.

My previous attempts at signage lighting were....not well thought out. The lights weren't diffused enough, and not distanced enough so you could see the bulb placements, even through a 1mm thick white acrylic sheet. Now that I have enough spare lights, and a bit more experience with soldering, I decided to give it another try.

So I built this first:

Preview #dollhouse #scaleminiature #scaleoneinch #onetwelfth #handmade #wood #woodwork #acrylicsheet #LED #DIY #lighting #signage #fictional #coffeehouse

A video posted by @snowfern on Mar 31, 2015 at 2:52am PDT

which led to my previous post about the ringlight yada yada, and then to the logo.

OOps. forgot to take photos of the signboard. It's actually supposed to be a menu board, but I was a little too busy to concentrate on the menu design. Gave it a forward tilt, 60 degrees IIRC. Though it might seem very 'deep', I will have shelvings at each side, so that will mask it (I hope). The depth is to cater to the diffusion of the light. The 1mm white acrylic sheet helps with the glare, and the logo was printed onto tracing paper and temporarily slotted at the front.

The base of the roombox is exactly 30cm x 30cm , and was a discarded sample that I picked up from the bin area near my ex-office building :X Everything else was either plywood or wooden strips from Daiso.

Grey/white tiles are laser printed sticker sheet that I made a few years ago, that had been languishing in my vverrry thick stash of "might-be-useful-papers". Aluminum sticker sheets from Daiso.

I have done a little more than this photo, put in more polycarbonate/acrylic windows.

Made a wooden form to create some squarish coffee cups, via thermoforming. I -think- the material is styrene sheet, but when I bought it, it was labelled "plasticard"? And it is my favourite thermoplastic to work with. I'm still not satisfied with my clumsy and totally inefficient thermoforming/vacuumform setup, so I'll tweak it a bit more. Curved a piece of plastic around a knitting needle, and drilled a hole in the side to slot it in. 

Probably will re-make this, and size it down, it's quite a large mug, about 9cm wide. But I like how it looks. 

Took me only 5 hrs to come up with ONE cup. T-T. *sardonic grin*

Also, tried to make more bubble tea cups. My previous batch was ...'passable' but not good enough. I hope this batch looks better. Still trying to figure out how to make 'to scale' working straws....will give it another try later today. These were made with 0.3mm clear PVC sheets from an arts supply store.

Welp. That's it. On to the personal stuff.

--------------------------------------------

Ahma has been hospitalized since 26th March, after a week of persistent back pains. She has been diagnosed with myocardial infarction and fractured spine, but is in stable condition now. They are not considering surgery for her due to her age + risks,  and she has been fitted with a back brace to help her move when she gets home.

My health, although worsening, is under management too, with the help from my very very understanding and loving fiance, and an adenomyosis support group on FB. I wish I had found out about them sooner.

I've originally expressed more, but somehow, everything i've written just seems so....irrelevant and reductive. Maybe I am coping better than I expected myself to. That's progress too, and worth noting.

Sorry, I didn't mean to be cryptic. I really did want to write about everything, but...in re-reading it, even -I- got irritated at my own whining. Time to get on with life.

Miniature Bubble Tea and Coffee

heyo~ I've just listed 11 different drinks on my Etsy (https://www.etsy.com/shop/snowfern), these are dollhouse miniature sized, and the first of my new range of takeaway drinks :) The covers are removeable!
(and that beautiful credenza/shelf is by Pepper of mitchymoominiatures.blogspot.com! the pictures i take can never do justice to how wonderfully made it is. anyway, you can see how beautiful it is in itself. ok i'll stop raving about it now.

where was i? oh yeah, hawking my wares. :P here's what i have listed, and i have plans to make more 'starbuck-y' types, with logos and all....but first let's go back to how this craze all started...

so, the 1:3 scale ones that i've been making for BJDs sell out pretty fast, and it gave me more motivation to try and make it in 1:12. the problem is getting the cups. i've not been able to find any suitable for use, and from personal experience with the vacuumform method, it's quite a b*tch to make. I've thrown away countless amounts of plastic (sorry :( ) and still need a bit of practice and refinement, but the first 2 drafts are pretty nifty, good enough to sell, so i'll leave it for now. rather, i'll leave it for as long as i can bear. XD

see? miniaturemaking for me is not a hobby nor a business, but of some obsessive necessity. gyarrrgh.

least it's cheaper and more effective than therapy. of which i think i need. so if ever you see my mini-work start to pick up at a frenetic speed, you know i'm driving myself batty. or the world is.

*deep breaths* okay. so moving on to whatever else i've been up to.

whilst taking photos, I cleaned up the old roombox made specifically for photoshoots and decided to re-do the windows. I have a great love for stained glass, but not for the overly ornate kinds. this is a first try and i will add more details to it later, or maybe do another set since it's easy to remove and re-slot for a different look/feel.

Left to right: Chrysnbon, gift from Sans!, Bozart, forgot, forgot, Re-ment.

the windows to the right are the older ones. as usual, made it out of PVC sheets and aluminum-sticker sheets from Daiso. The black lines are also sticky tape, cut to barely 1mm thickness. then while packing and dusting I brought out my collection of 1:12 chairs XD I cannot remember the brand of the designer chairs, they're pretty popular in the 'modern mini' world, can anyone help identify them? Thanks in advance :) I guess i love purchasing chairs cos they seem like too much precision work for me. but you know, some day i'll do it *insert WINNING meme graphic here* **specifically that baby with the clenched fist one**

i've also been busy with other things, BJD-wise, i guess not that much except for this skirt I made for Clover (should update over on clover-tea.blogspot.com, but it's not significant enough to warrant its own post) when Asuka came over after her long stay in Japan! YAY MISCHIEF! 

so, there's also that little BJD-event where Asuka and I will be collaborating for the first time on a display :) You can view details on when and where the event is at here:

http://www.sgdc2013.com/

am revving up the motor and hope you stay tuned for this long-awaited event :) back to work!

(and say hi please, i'm feeling lonely :( )

Experiment: Vacuum Forming & Macrame

Vacuum Forming

my lame attempt at constructing a vacuum forming box

more than a while ago (haha) i was introduced to this technique via a japanese website:

http://chobiko72.blog95.fc2.com/blog-entry-440.html

at that time, i was still struggling to work with various basics like working with polymer clay, air dry clay, painting, casting resin, molding etc...and so i filed it away in the not-so-massive repository of my mind. naturally, i promptly forgot all about it, more because it involved purchasing a vacuum cleaner and figuring out where in heck i was gonna store YET another 'machine' in my tiny work area. right now, it's under my table where i have managed to stub my toe on it only once so far.

and then, my dear friend Tomohachi blogged about -her- experience, and i went totally berserk. it is because she used very simple and easily available items to make hers! 

http://la-cocina-alegre.blogspot.com/2010/08/vacuum-forming.html

i of course, with my sh*tty luck, could not obtain the wooden box, nor the mesh easily :( Daiso ran out of stocks real fast, i tried 3 branches, ion, plaza sing and sengkang, and last i checked they still hadn't re-stocked. so i used mounting board instead to build the box, cos it was driving me (and thus bf) crazy with frustration. what, me? OCD? HA! :X

the only place i managed to get the mesh was in an industrial area in Kelantan Lane, there are a few hardware supply wholesalers there, and they only had a small sample piece available :( i bought it even though it was no wider than 6cm, i guess i will rebuild it and adapt accordingly when i can find a suitable wooden box. i really loathe the idea of building a wooden box from scratch.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=vacuum+forming&aq=f

you can also google for more info on vacuum forming, or click on the above link for many educational videos on youtube. 

my box is kind of wonky and imploding upon itself now, but what to do? until i re-visit the technique, i think overall it was a fun project and experiment. i managed to get the PVC sheets rather cheaply at art friends, i'm still learning which thicknesses work best. it's pretty disappointing that i can't get the opaque white sheets, but i think i'll do a bit more hunting around for resources when i'm ready to face the noisy vacuum and hot oven again. which reminds me, gotta add 'oven mitts' to my list, i darn near gave my index finger and thumb blisters when i accidentally touched my binder clips while making the few dishes pictured above.

thus concludes my introduction to the noisy and fun and thoroughly satisfying world of vacuum forming!

Macrame

 i had been toying with the idea of miniature macrame for a while, but didn't get round to it because i could never find the appropriately sized/coloured threads. however, fresh from yesterday's rush (ok it's the day-before-yesterday) from successfully making 1:12 baskets at the mini meet (you can see the pics here on Sans' blog! http://sansdollhousediaries.blogspot.com/2011/02/day-231-frame-baskets-for-gathering.html), i could not let it go (again, OCD, what? me? NO WAY!) so i stopped by my neighbourhood assorted goods store and picked up a ball of ....i donno what this is. but it works :D i was originally looking for a similar paper string that i used to make my basket over at Sans' place but i guess that warrants another trip down to Daiso. maybe tomorrow...?

i found this roll perfect, as i could untwist the fibers, i think there are like more than 12 tiny threads that make up the thickness of this 'twine'! it is also ecru coloured, which is great for the macrame projects i have in mind. i googled up 'free macrame patterns' and randomly picked a beginner pattern to work on. this is my first ever proper attempt at a macrame project. when i was a kid, my mom used to take lessons at the community centre, but all i ever was interested in was unravelling knots (one of my ultimate fave hobbies as a kid was knotting and unknotting threads/strings. :-/) in fact, now that i recall, i was often tasked with the job of unravelling mom's projects whenever she made a mistake XD

other than making dragonfly knots with leftover nylon string, i have no prior experience. but i found it pretty easy, as with tatting, it is just a variety of knots. and since Professor Google was always at hand to help out, with MANY MANY PICTURES (omg i suck so bad at reading instructions), knotting this top portion up was rather easy. the hard part was finding a comfortable posture to work in, and squinting to see if i got the knots right. oh, and keeping the thing neat -_-".

here're my 'tips' when working with mini macrame:

1) wax the threads to prevent fraying, snagging, unwanted knotting and overall frustration.
2) when pulling string/threads from a skein, try to work it from the centre of the ball/skein. i have found this to be far better than rolling the darn ball around, and risking it unravelling during storage. this was a 'trick' i learnt many years back when i was knitting alot.
3) if you're working with untwisted fibres from multi-ply threads/strings/ropes, they will tend to be rather weak, so try to keep tension a little loose.

i've yet to complete this project, i intend to better preserve and (hopefully?) strengthen it with maybe hairspray. ionos yet. we'll see if macrame is all that fun by the time i'm done XD

sorry for the lack of pics. i lately have had even less desire to take photos, and it is rather late now...(almost 2am).