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Post by Neyjour on Feb 17, 2017 19:49:26 GMT
Finally got the cork done for the other three. Here's a pic of them (still drying) without the black base:
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Post by Neyjour on Feb 17, 2017 15:48:27 GMT
The alum crystals were a big flop. Nothing grew! And all the crystals I had seeded just crumbled off the pottery shards, as though the glue had dissolved. (It seems a bit odd that you're supposed to use PVA glue for something that's going to be submerged in liquid for many hours...) There's a few possibilities why it didn't work: 1- I used two different brands of alum. One for seeding the pottery shards and another for the solution. One (or both) of these brands might have just been a "dud". In one tutorial I watched, the person said nothing grew, so she switched to a different brand and it was a success. Unfortunately, she didn't say which brands she had used... 2- My water might not have been hot enough. The tutorial just says "very hot water", so I used hot water from the tap. It seemed like most of the alum dissolved (it's very difficult to see because of the food colouring) while I was stirring, but when I actually poured the solution into the jars, there was a lot that hadn't dissolved. If you need boiling water, I'd think they would specifically say "use boiling water", so maybe it has to be somewhere in between hot tap water and boiling water? 3- Maybe there are only specific types of surfaces/materials you can use for seeding the crystals? I'm going to try again, this time using the same brand of alum for both the seeding and the solution. I'm also going to boil the water, and then let it cool down a bit to a temp that's not quite boiling, but still much hotter than tap water. And I'm going to use a chicken egg shell. If that works, then I can rule out the possibility that my brand of alum is a dud, and then experiment further with other things to seed the crystals onto (the pottery shards again, air dry clay, etc.)
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Post by Neyjour on Feb 17, 2017 15:05:43 GMT
skunkape - Thank you! I never did much with the polymer clay... just because some "life" stuff happened, then I got distracted with other things, and I just never got back into it. But now all the supplies I had bought can be used for this crafting, and won't go to waste! Just can't do anything with the clay itself yet, because our oven died a while back. We have a new one sitting out on the deck, but haven't had a chance to have someone come hook it up yet.
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Post by Neyjour on Feb 17, 2017 2:24:48 GMT
*Quietly chants an Incantation of Vinecraft Proficiency* Hehe. I get what you mean. I'm so glad you liked the books. Thanks! Sure, I'll give it a go with CraftWars. I'm assuming entries can be submitted until the end of the month? Or maybe a few days before the month ends? (I didn't see any specific info about that). Either way, I should have more than enough time. Barring anything unforeseen, I hope to have them finished in a few days.
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Post by Neyjour on Feb 17, 2017 0:53:41 GMT
guillaume - Thanks very much. I'm not a first timer to artisan crafts (more like a newbie), but this is my first time making something specifically for tabletop gaming. You can see the things I've made here. And I also have two other pieces that I never got around to posting in my gallery; a small bowl made on a pottery wheel, and a miniature tree stump with long roots, which I was going to use for a diorama. Never got around to doing it, though. But I'm glad now that I didn't, because I have plans to use it for a tabletop terrain project, even though it's really heavy (made with pottery clay and kiln-fired).
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Post by Neyjour on Feb 16, 2017 23:22:31 GMT
Made some progress with one of them: * Added cork pieces with a little bit of sand in the cracks. Then based it in black. * Dry-brushed the vine stalk with brown, and then again with copper. * Did 6 layers (with 2 different colours) on the thorns, and then gave them a single layer of varnish. I'm not sure yet what colour to do the rocks. Maybe keep them black/dark, with just a tiny bit of grey dry-brushing, and hit some of the edges with the same copper I used for the vine. Hmmm... I have no idea how that'll look, but if it turns out awful, I suppose it's easy enough to paint them black again and start over. I may also give the vine stalk a layer of varnish as well. Going to think about that a bit more, because I really don't want to repaint that part if I don't like how it looks...
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Post by Neyjour on Feb 16, 2017 16:00:40 GMT
guillaume - Thanks again!
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Post by Neyjour on Feb 16, 2017 15:34:48 GMT
guillaume - No prob! You had me scratching my head for a while, and searching Google images. Hehe! Here's an example of what I'm aiming for. Sorry the pic is so tiny. I couldn't find a larger version. SpielMeisterKev! - Thanks very much!
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Post by Neyjour on Feb 16, 2017 14:30:05 GMT
guillaume - Thank you! And thanks for the great tip! I'm actually going to try for more of a "broken slab" effect, though. Triangular shaped pieces, with the wide end at the edge of the washer and the pointy end angled up towards the vine. (Similar to how some people use the cork around the perimeter of craters). But, I was thinking I may add a few small bits of rubble around the edges as well, and had originally planned to use pebbles. Your grated cork method will look much better, since it'll be the same material/texture!
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Post by Neyjour on Feb 16, 2017 14:12:59 GMT
* Added thorns to the other two. * Applied a thick line of PVA glue around the base of the vines. Then used a thin-tipped paintbrush to pull the glue just a little bit up the vine, then over the edge of the cardboard circle, and then added sand. * Based it all in black. Next will be to dry-brush the sand (don't know what colours I'm going to use yet), and add the cork bits. Not sure how well that's going to work, or how good/bad It'll look... my cork seems to be a bit too thick for something this small.
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Post by Neyjour on Feb 16, 2017 1:18:26 GMT
margaret - Thanks!
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Post by Neyjour on Feb 15, 2017 10:58:48 GMT
Started my first project yesterday, using these tutorials (with a few tweaks): Crafting a grasping vine tendril for D&D encounters (The DM's Craft #62)Make Slimy Black tentacles for D&D encounters (The DM's Craft, EP 62, PT 2)* I had trouble with the hot glue bleeding underneath the hole in the washer, which made them wobble a bit on a flat surface. So I cut out some small cardboard circles (larger than the hole in the washer), glued those down (with a small line of hot glue around the perimeter of the hole), and then hot glued the vines to those. * Instead of texturing the vines with hot glue, I just applied a few layers of PVA glue, to smooth the "twist" lines out a bit. * I clipped the tips of the vines and replaced them with a toothpick thorn, slightly longer than the ones on the stalk. * Instead of texturing the base of the vine (and onto the washer) with hot glue, I'm going to add some sand to the cardboard circle bit (and a small part of the washer), and then glue on pieces of cork, angled up towards the vine stalk, so it looks like they burst up out of rocky ground. The two on the left still need their thorns. I'm hoping to get everything finished either today or tomorrow. The mini (in all his unpainted glory - LOL!) is just there for size reference. He was one of my Valentine's Day gifts from my husband. I'm a bit shocked at how tiny they are! I had looked at a ruler to get an idea of the sizes of minis... but it just didn't sink in, how tiny they really are, until I finally saw one in person and held it in my hand. How on earth do people paint these things!? LOL! But they're so darn awesome... and cute! I want moooore! Sorry for the crappy, overexposed photo. It's nighttime here right now and the lighting is terrible in our house, so I had to use the flash.
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Post by Neyjour on Feb 14, 2017 12:29:09 GMT
wrr377 - To embed images, try these steps:
1- At imgur, hover your cursor over your name (top-right of the page) and select "images" from the dropdown menu.
2- Find the pic you want to embed (your most recent uploads should be at the top, in descending order) and left-click it.
3- Your image should then enlarge in a new pop-up window, with a bunch of URL/code options.
4- Find the one that says "Direct Link" and left-click the "Copy" button.
5- In your post here at DM's Craft, left-click the "Insert Image" button (8th button from the right).
6- In the little window that pops up, delete the http:// (if it's not highlighted in blue), right-click in that box and select "Paste" from the drop-down menu.
7- If you see your imgur link fill the box, click on "Insert Image", and that should be it. If it worked correctly, your image (the actual image, not a link) will show up in the post you're composing.
If those steps don't work for you, then I'm sorry, I have no idea what might be wrong. Perhaps a browser-related issue? (I'm using the latest version of Mozilla Firefox).
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Post by Neyjour on Feb 13, 2017 9:48:20 GMT
I found some Alum granules at Walmart, in a tiny spice jar. More than enough to cover these shards, with plenty left over. But I forgot I needed more for the solution... I have a bag on order, so hopefully I'll have some more photos to share in a few days. But for now, here's the shattered ceramic bowl with alum coated on the top of each shard: I'm thinking of splitting these up into multiple jars and pulling them out at different times, to test what they look like at different growth stages. If this works out well, I'm thinking the next experiment will be to sculpt some small terrain mounds out of air dry clay and polymer clay, and seeding only select portions of them with the alum. Maybe even do it in multiple stages... let one part grow for the full length of time, pull it out and let it dry, then seed another spot and let those grow for a shorter length of time. That way you could have different sized clusters on the same piece.
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Post by Neyjour on Feb 13, 2017 4:41:33 GMT
Thank you!
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Post by Neyjour on Feb 12, 2017 23:49:42 GMT
sgtslag - Thank you! That sounds terrific! I'll definitely pick some of that up. I'm not finding it with a Google search (nothing with "acrylic" in the name). Could you link me to it, please? Doesn't matter which website. I just want to see what the bottle looks like (and the label/name), so I can be sure I'll be buying the correct one.
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Post by Neyjour on Feb 12, 2017 23:40:43 GMT
The pics are showing up okay for me. Might have been just a temporary glitch. Give it another try: Void Dancer wipIf you still can't see it, maybe try on another device. (I see on your post that you posted via Mobile).
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Post by Neyjour on Feb 12, 2017 9:02:30 GMT
I've also been looking at the Epsom Salt crystals, but it seems they dry out, turn white, and start to flake after a few weeks. And apparently even sealers can't stop it from eventually happening. Such a shame. I've seen some really beautiful photos of them (with food colouring). In some pics they look really thin and spindly, which might make them easy to crush up and sprinkle like flocking around crystal clusters, rocks, etc. The other photos I've seen where they've turned white actually look really nice, and would be perfect for snowy terrain. But if it's all just going to eventually disintegrate... Here's the article I found: Crafting With Epsom Salts
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Post by Neyjour on Feb 11, 2017 16:21:21 GMT
A few days ago I was searching for crystal terrain tuts and stumbled onto this vid: How to Make Borax CrystalsThis might be a really fun (and cheap!) source of crystals for terrain, and even decoration for smaller props and pieces. Instead of plunking the whole chunk down as one piece, I was thinking of tapping it with a hammer to break it up into smaller clusters and shards, that I could then arrange to my liking. But... I have no idea how strong they are, and if it would even work out like I'm hoping. Might end up shattering it into unusable dust... Has anyone tried this? EDIT: Oh! I just found this: Borax Crystal Terrain Part 1. Very cool! I didn't realize you could just stick the pipe cleaners in straight. I thought it had to be coiled. But I'm still curious about how well they can break into pieces. Would be great to be able to do a broken/shattered column. Crystal rubble... EDIT-2: Or... what about alum crystals? It looks like you can grow them on just about anything. Here's a tut for using a chicken egg (shell): DIY Crystal Egg Geode. Gives me ideas about sculpting two halves of a mini egg (with Amaco Air Dry Clay), seeding the alum on the inside of each half, and then painting the outer "shell" when it's done. So you'd have a cracked open monster/creature egg sitting in the nest, with crystals inside instead of goo. I'm also going to experiment with growing some on small pieces of fired (but unpainted) pottery, to attempt to get small/tiny clusters.
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Post by Neyjour on Feb 11, 2017 12:34:02 GMT
matakishi - Thanks very much! I'm glad to see it's available at Amazon. I'm going to be getting some supplies from there in a couple days, so I'll order a bottle and give it a try! In case anyone else is interested in non-tacky sealers and such, this is one I've tried and would not recommend: Americana Triple Thick Brilliant Bush-On Gloss Glaze. Perhaps the results would be different if used on acrylics, but I used it on some dried polypores and it's really tacky. After application I let them dry for several days, then put them into a container together... and they all stuck together in a clump. They can be pulled apart easily enough, but I don't like it. The smell is also very offensive. It's been about 3 weeks now and they still reek of a strong chemical smell. But like I previously said, results may be different if used on acrylics, so if anyone has had better luck with it in that regard, please let me know. Any other recommendations would be appreciated! I may try a few different brands. And I'd also be interested in knowing which ones to avoid.
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