I love this ring on sew many levels.....

Perri Jackson is an amazing wire artist. She makes some of the most amazing wire wrapped rings. But this one....

POD on a Hand
Originally uploaded by ShaktipajDesigns

This one I LOVE!

Let me tell you a little story that might explain why:

Once upon a time a crazy girl went to the movies and there was a poster for an upcoming movie. A revisit of a classic by a wacky film maker. Some nice gentleman in the line to see the next movie offered to take a picture of the crazy girl and her friend. And thats how it all started.

Here is the picture, as you can see there I am, and there behind me is the Mad Hatter hat. And look its a mini, and notice how my hair matches his hair?

Well thats where the idea came from: I need a girly mad hatter costume! Can you see it? a mini hatter hat, a corset instead of a vest, a plaid tutu instead of the kilt at the end? Of course Im built a little more like the Tweedles (Dee and Dum) so Im going really sssslllooooooowwww on the construction of this costume.


Step one: theHat

here I am in my finished mini version of my polymer clay hat--its heavy but it works


Now back to the ring.....

Here we have Johnny Depp in full costume. And almost impossible to find is a picture showing him with the pin cushion ring.

See? The Mad Hatter wears a pin cushion ring!!!
But his ring is not nearly as awesome as the ring by Perri!
Heres a link to her Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/shaktipajdesigns
and a link to her blog http://shaktipajdesigns.com/blog/

And because I love this ring so much, I need to wrap up this post with another picture of it

Plain POD
Originally uploaded by ShaktipajDesigns

OMG OMG OMG

OMG OMG OMG
Originally uploaded by Zoeowyn

I was definitely surprised!
I won Silver in the accessories category with my "hair piece."

In so stoked.

Now how do I top this? (get it its a hat how do you top a hat--yeah ok lame)

Brainstormin for the blog

I am currently not a romance novelist, it could happen. If I were I would definitely participate in beefcake Monday. Gena Showalter, a paranormal romance novelist does something like this on her blog. Every Monday she posts a new shot of a hot male model, romance novel hero image fodder

So I am thinking I don't do anything along those line.
I don't have tutorial Monday, or technique Tuesday.
I think I need to really have something like that.
I dont troll flickr for flickr finds Friday, maybe I should.

Inspiration Wednesdays?
Something simple, something that I could post a quick image.
I teach art history, there are lots and lots of inspirational art works out in the world,
and something from one medium can inspire in another medium.

Wednesday I think will be my day for this....
This will be inspirational images, by that I mean an image that has influenced me to create something, or that makes me want to create something.
I need a catchy name....
I will keep working on that part.

First installment, the hat. Here is Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, wearing the hat that I discuss in previous posts

The Hat

I have been mildly obsessed with the Mad Hatter's hat from Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. Im not exactly certain why. I have also been fascinated with the mini victorian style top hats, and how they really work in Steampunk fashion.

So where did it all start? Well I am a fan of Tim Burton's movies. Simple, easy, to the point. I admire Johnny Depp as an actor, no he's not hard to look at but I actually do not have a movie star crush on him.
And well, I believe Tim owes me some royalty fees for using my hair. Oh yeah, thats my hair alright, down to the color.

And well if its my hair, then its a natural to think I should be that Mad Hatter for some costuming event (no I don't have a specific event). But Im not a boy, and I don't want to dress as a boy; no I want to do a girlie version. So naturally the feminine mini hat seemed like a "oh why not." Gives me something else to try to make.

I am soooo not a hat maker, I have tried, and I understand why they cost what they cost. But I still wanted to make that hat. Out of clay! So I have been working out in my head for just over a month how to construct a hat in polymer clay. I have 3 designs I want to try out. Will I make more after that? Don't really know, lets see how these 3 go first.

I finally was able to spend some quality time working on the hat. I made my pattern, modified it a bit and remade the pattern. Then I cut the pattern out of screen door mesh. Then I cut it out of clay. The assembly required some curing of bits before assembly, and super glue to help. Along with some strategically placed wads of paper for curing support.

So far I have 5 curing rounds, I have a few tweaks to do so there is at least one more cure. The hat as pictured is not quite finished, there are some details that need to be finished, like the hat pins across the front, and the tag needs the 10/6 written on it. its "lined" in orange, because I wasn't sure I was going to actually do this hat at the time, but I like it. I'm pleased with how it has turned out. I will finish it up in the next day or two, and do a trial run on actually wearing it; its heavier than I had originally thought it would be, so I am thinking I should try out the featherlight sculpy product--that stays light even after curing--for some base construction.

The pictures: in progress, you can see the mesh; assorted views