Category: Crafts

Halloween Costumes 2010

Halloween Costumes 2010 (mleiv.com)
Medium: Cloth Size: N/A
These costumes were a blast to make and 'shopping the photos to make them look like authentic publicity stills was one of those gleeful Tank Girl moments where I thought, "You know, I could make a living doing this!" ^^

If you don't recognize us, these two characters are The Middleman and Wendy Watson from the eponymous ABC Family TV show ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Middleman_%28TV_series%29 ) - since cancelled. They fight evil. And monsters. And robots. And aliens. Under the guise of the Jolly Fats Weehawkin Temp Agency. And Wendy ("Dubbie") paints on the side.

You can see more photos on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffrey_sewell/sets/72157625284007742/ .

Technical Details:
  • The jackets were made from the Yugo Officer Army Dress Tunic at armynavydeals.com. I had to chop them up a bit (especially mine) to make them look right and buy new buttons (and then spray-paint them silver/black, because I am too obsessive).
  • The guns were just nerf knockoffs from Target that I spray-painted black and silver (and may I say, that they make plastic-specific spray paint now just made my day? :) ). They still worked and a little kid at the party last night spent the whole evening shooting people with foam darts after I loaned him my gun (he had damn fine aim, too!).
  • Everything else was just JCPenney or Target. Although I had to get my skinny tie on Amazon because I wanted a *really* skinny tie.

Pumpkins 2010

Pumpkins 2010 (mleiv.com)
Medium: Pumpkin Size: N/A
Here are my pumpkins this year. TLM theme. As always, the tools of my trade are my serrated just-for-pumpkins scoop and my serrated battery-powered just-for-pumpkins carver. I am so delighted that there is a whole world of pumpkin carving tools out there to spare my fingers from being sliced to pieces. If only someone would make a detail sander for pumpkins, I could try the multilayer carving effects again.

Locked Maze Necklaces

Locked Maze Necklaces (mleiv.com)
Medium: Glass Size: 1-2"
These are made of glass with a hand-painted (slightly metallic) decal backing, silk/velvet/organza ribbons, and fake murano glass beads and bits of other stuff. I haven't made any jewelry since high school, so they were quite an adventure of mistakes and glued fingers. :P But they are really damn gorgeous to look at. Although they started out as a stained glass effect, I quickly realized that I liked the metal look more, so they are too opaque to be proper suncatchers at this point. I will keep experimenting on that, though, see if I can get a more translucent layer of paint. This is my first batch, and in subsequent attempts I've learned that printing a base layer of color really adds to the traditionally-colored glass look.

I started this project with the idea of making them an optional add-on for the comic orders at a nominal fee, but they have proven fairly spendy to construct - I'd have to price them at $25 or more. :/ I dunno, feel free to weigh in on your opinions. Maybe I could just make the glass charms without the beads and ribbons.

Photos by juliantheapostate.

Pumpkins 2009

Pumpkins 2009 (mleiv.com)
Medium: Pumpkin Size: N/A
This year's pumpkins. Skinny cat made an appearance on the small pumpkin (10 minute carve), alongside the Locked Maze laughter pumpkin (8 hours carve). The latter is sadly quite literally made from my blood, sweat, and tears. The inside was bright red by the time I finished after carving up my fingers in addition to gourd, x-acto knife NOT being the ideal tool for this type of carving.

Some other angles of the Difficult Pumpkin: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4445312&id=127815620329

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2006: http://mleiv.com/pumpkins_2006/
2007: http://mleiv.deviantart.com/art/Halloween-Pumpkins-2007-69206355
2008: http://mleiv.com/pumpkin_2008/

Day of the Dead Candy Skulls

Day of the Dead Candy Skulls (mleiv.com)
Medium: candy Size: 4"
Made from rice crispy treats. Decorated with m&m minis and other candies.

Halloween 2008: The Shadow

Halloween 2008: The Shadow (mleiv.com)
Medium: fabric Size: 8
This is a highwayman costume - specifically The Shadow, from BlackAdder's "Amy and Amiability."

I purchased the pieces form various websites and altered them to fit me. Since women only wear slutty costumes for halloween, apparently these were all made just for men. Tall, fat, broad-shouldered men.

More photos and Jeffrey's costume at Flickr.com.

Pumpkin 2008

Pumpkin 2008 (mleiv.com)
Medium: Pumpkin Size: 12"
I am gonna try to take a twilight picture tomorrow if the pumpkin lives that long. My camera sucks at really low-light shots like this. :P

The image was a little too complex and the carving was a little too clumsy on this guy for my tastes. I prefer the traditional clean-cut, no midtone chunky cats of years past. But this design will make a nice painting later. :)

I was a highwayman this year (went to my costume ball on Saturday). Inspired by Black Adder's "Amy and Amiability." The event photographer was a French aristocrat and I swear, if I was socially well-adjusted in any way at all, dammit, I would have snuck up behind him with my pistol and demanded he hand over all his valuables. *sigh* Missed opportunities.



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2006: http://mleiv.com/pumpkins_2006/
2007: http://mleiv.deviantart.com/art/Halloween-Pumpkins-2007-69206355
2009: http://mleiv.com/pumpkins_2009/

Jeffrey's Bday Cake

Jeffrey's Bday Cake (mleiv.com)
Medium: Frosting Size: 8"
No fondant, this is homemade fudgey frosting and impromptu tube of frosting white decoration. That store bought stuff is crap: my hand hurts now.

Painted Tin

Painted Tin (mleiv.com)
Medium: Acrylic Size: N/A
I've been wanting to do this particular stripe painting for awhile, but I just never got around to it. I'm not good at doing "practice" paintings in general because they seem like such a waste of my very scarce time. But I needed a birthday box and I hate going shopping, so I figured it was a way to kill two birds with one stone, eh?

It turned out very nicely and I am a little sad that painted functional objects are viewed with such disinterest when compared with painted canvas, because I actually find it much more enjoyable to paint some existing object than a boring flat piece of paper. C'est la vie, I suppose.

Pumpkins 2006

Pumpkins 2006 (mleiv.com)
Medium: Pumpkin Size: N/A

I got to carve pumpkins this year! Yay! The cat is my previous skinny cat pumpkin design, rendered beautifully using one of those $5 electric carving blades. What a great idea that was! And I roasted pumpkin seeds after with sage and black truffle olive oil. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

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2007: http://mleiv.deviantart.com/art/Halloween-Pumpkins-2007-69206355
2008: http://mleiv.com/pumpkin_2008/
2009: http://mleiv.com/pumpkins_2009/

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