Steel and music fail

I've made the ugliest pair of pocket hoops this side of the Milky Way. Don't know where the fabric came from (several degrees of hand-me down) but it's nasty. Pocket hoops involve boning, which in its turn means cutting steel. I dug out the Mighty Things That Cut from the garage, wrangled with the steel and the duct tape, marked the right length, wrangled some more, made a dent, a little bigger dent, managed to cut it, yay !... and... the remaining coil of steel fell from the balcony. Good thing we don't live in an apartment anymore, I'd have been very embarassed to ring at the neighbor's door to retrieve my steel.

Second fail of the day : I have weird cartoon songs stuck in my head (Heidi folks, Heidi !), trying to get them out I open XMMS on random... and out comes Megumi Hayashibara... So now it's no longer just in my head, I have the Slayers soundtrack on repeat. :D

Just for the record : I have a sad and long history of twisted love for awful prints on period underwear. See my multicolored checked bustle for a proof.

A little bear

I already saw quite a few people draw bears for Million Dandelions - if you haven't, I urge you to do so ! I was worried I had missed the deadline, but no, it runs until the 20th of July.

I'm sorry, Lady Fi, I did *not* listen to your color recommendations at all. All I could think off was working with my quills and inks, they're the one medium I feel most comfortable with now. They feel sort of like... home.

J'ai déjà vu un certain nombre de gens dessiner des ours pour Million Dandelions - si vosu ne l'avez pas fait, il est encore temps ! J'avais peur d'avoir loupé la deadline mais non, elle n'est pas avant le 20.
Désolée, Lady Fi, je n'ai pas suivi tes conseils de couleurs. J'avais trop envie de travailler avec mes plumes et mes encres, c'est le medium avec lequel je suis le plus à l'aise en ce moment. Je m'y sens... chez moi.

And there was much rejoicing... err paper-cutting

Today was the day of paper cutting and card making. I'm pulling hairs on the Manesse deck trying to find the best way to make the printed cards sturdy and usable for tarot reading purposes. I know how Lady Fi proceeded with her deck, and am trying to adapt her modus operandi. I want to get the same organic feeling and the same sturdiness for our cards.
I also finally finished the ATCs for the costumer ATCs exchange. I moved away from my first concept and went with linocut prints.

Aujourd'hui était le jour du découpage de papier et de la fabrication de cartes. Je m'arrache les cheveux sur le deck Manesse pour rendre les cartes imprimées solides et utilisables pour la cartomancie. Je sais comment Lady Fi a procédé pour son propre jeu et j'essaye d'adapter le processus. Je veux obtenir le même feeling et la même solidité pour nos cartes.

From start to finish : I went from a personal drawing inspired by some millinery drawing form the 1890s. Drew it on lino, trying to get a feel of how the print would look like. Promptly noticed my design was a tad too intricated for my carving skills. Printed about three times as much as shown here to get the needed number of correct prints. Am now wondering what I can do to salvage the "oops" ones... Ideas ?

Du début à la fin : je suis partie d'un croquis inspiré d'un dessin de modiste des années 1890. Je l'ai repris sur le lino, en tâchant de voir à quoi l'impression ressemblerait. Je me suis vite aperçue que mon design était un peu ambitieux pour mes talents de gravure. J'ai du imprimer trois fois la quantité nécessaire pour obtenir le bon nombre d'épreuves correctes. Et maintenant je me demande que faire avec les ratés. Des idées ?