Well what can I say? What a big year this has been for me. I looked back over 2012 thinking, "Hmmm I haven't really done all that much, another year has just plodded on by." But when I really thought about it, I'd actually managed to fit quite a lot into these last 365 days.
I started off the year wanting to reclaim my childhood obsession with craft as a hobby, so embarked upon a journey. First stop was making sock monkeys. My enthusiasm meant I bought a lot of pairs of stripey socks, buttons, thread etc ready to take on the world. Unfortunately my interest in pulling out the sewing machine, cutting ends of threads and lining up stripey legs quickly led to frustration and my bits and bobs have now been consigned to a shoebox packed securely within a storage box out of sight.
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| I'm sure I'll pull these babies out again one day and finish them off |
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| I actually managed to finish one. Yay for me! |
So onto my next project...
Somehow I came across the book "Hello My Name Is Amineko" by Nekoyama. I hadn't crocheted for many years but thought I'd try this out, after all, it didn't need any machinery, didn't make mess and was completely portable. I started off making one in front of the tv...and that's where it all began. I made one, then two and quickly grew into a family. This extended into a monkey family, a one-off gorilla and a ginormineko. I've made 50+ crochet creatures this year, more than one a week!
So what now for 2013? Well now that I've gotten the ball rolling with Amineko, I've got so many plans, ideas, thoughts arrrgghhhh. Too much to do, not enough time. Here's a list of things I have planned for 2013:
* more crochet creatures (zombies, monsters and a giraffe)
* get started on a bit of woodwork. I've got these beautiful handmade wooden fenders for my bicycle and was so enamoured of these that I bought offcuts of different colours and would like to make jewellery out of these, or something. A scroll saw has been added to my wishlist.
* and have just bought a Sizzix die cut machine, so would also like to play around with paper a bit once it comes in. Pretty labels to send out with my cats!
In the meantime, my year was also filled with doing other things I love. My day job is within the Dental Industry. I make false teeth. What??!! Yes I hear you, I MAKE false teeth for a living. More specifically, single crowns, bridges and implants. The dentist takes an impression of the patient's mouth and sends it to us. We pour it up in plaster and work on this model to make a tooth (or teeth) out of wax, which is then cast in a gold alloy and porcelain is built up on top of the gold to match the existing teeth. Nifty, huh? I only just started learning the porcelain build-up technique this year so will spend 2013 refining my work, but who knows, 2014 could lead to making other things out of porcelain...more jewellery perhaps? My favourite part of the crown-making process is painting on the colours and stains to make the tooth look realistic. We add touches of blue to cusp tips to make them look translucent and add tiny dots of brown into the fissures/valleys to give depth. Absolutely love it and can't wait to get better!
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| PFMs, Porcelain Fused to Metal crowns. |
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| Umm, yeah we can also make poo. This was made out of plaster and coloured with coffee grinds. My colleague also added his breakfast cereal to it to make it look more authentic. |
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| Except it turned out kinda looking like a cookie. It's best we stick to making teeth. |
Ok so there it is, 2012 done and dusted. On to bigger, better and brighter things in 2013!
