Crafty Tuesday: Planning and Plotting
Posted By Kathleen David on October 11, 2011
This is sort of a freeform version of how I get from point A to point B with visits to other points along the way.
I tend to plot out how I am going to make something in my head and revise what I am plotting in my head as I clarify what I want to do.
I will also revise what I have in my head based on what I can find to execute the look I want for the piece.
For example Lockheed’s eyes went through a number of revision in my head as to how I would make them light up. I can do the basic electronics and I started with the idea of buying the LEDs and rigging the whole thing but that can be time consuming. I found my LED headlamp looking for something else and thought maybe I could use that. So I was thinking glass beads for the eyes. I found these really great yellow beads with flecks of red. Then the little bit of luck fell in place as I was going through the check out line at my local Joann’s fabrics and they had just put out these finger LED lights that were rather bright. Limited life span but they worked for what I needed them for. By the time I got to the point where I was building the rig for them, I had the whole thing plotted out in my head.
Lockheed’s wings when through several versions before I put the final ones on the Dragon. I looked at various fabrics and sorted out what I wanted them to look like. In this case I ended up making three pair until I got the look I wanted. The first fabric pulled funny and didn’t flow the way I wanted. The second were too small. The third worked for what I wanted but apparently there was a flaw in the sewing because that is one of the things I need to repair.
Then there are the things I work out in my head that just don’t work in reality. Lockheed’s head is a big example of that one. I work my way through the geometry of the head and thought I had all my numbers right. I sewed the pieces together and found that I couldn’t get the head to turn to right side out. Once I did get it the right side out, there were new problems that appeared. So that head got scrapped and I had to redo all my geometry to figure out where I went wrong. I sorted out the errors and gave it another try. Got further on that one but it still was not quite right so that one got scrapped and I worked another way to get the effect I wanted. That did work and became the head.
There are times that I find the perfect solution after the piece is done so I keep that in mind if I am making another one. Occasionally I will go back and redo a piece with the correct material rather than the make do version. One example of this is that the 11th Doctor puppet has had three different coats. Now I have to figure out how to make a Stetson for a puppet because I already figured out how to make a Fez.
And then there are the pieces that you never see because I couldn’t get them to work so they were scrapped until I can find another purpose for them. I have used parts from one thing to help me get another done.
I am grateful for experiments that work.
Comments