Finally, an update!

Hi again everyone!
Now that I have my life back, (it's funny how one show can consume your entire life and leave you with nothing but a musical on repeat in your head...) I can go back to blogging!

Etsy's been doing great this holiday season; the stats on sales and views are fantastic! 2 million + items sold! I've done a few custom orders in the past couple months, and it's been so fun. The people have been great to work with, and it's so nice how they took the time to post feedback and even convo me to tell me they liked the piece!

Also, the biggest news EVER! My parents bought me a Nikon CoolPix P100 as an early Christmas gift! It has a gorgeous 26x zoom that I drool over constantly, and wow. My pictures are getting to be pretty neat. I love Christmas!

Check these out:

^_^

Dragon*con and Costumes!

Dragon*Con was a BLAST! Last time I went was back in 2007, and BOY has it grown since then. Instead of the three host hotels, there are now 5. We went to some wonderful panels, including one about the physics of the Whedonverse (including Firefly!) and an interview with the Tams. (Two of the actors from Firefly) Also, we went to a stage combat panel and a costume contest panel for The Wheel of Time, and I went to a polymer clay panel. TONS of good information!

I didn't get a lot of my own pictures since my camera decided that it would be more fun to watch me squirm because I can't get a shot of that really awesome costume that just walked by. But here are a few! My boyfriend's camera worked like a dream.

At one of the panels, we ran into some more Firefly cosplayers! And they had everyone (Pre Persophone Pickups...yay alliteration!) except Mal and Inara. (Wash was at another panel and joined in after this) So Elliot and I filled in the gaps!

I made my entire costume, and Elliot's jacket, although that's pretty hidden.

I found Severus Snape in a coffee shop! He even had the scowl down pat. That's Elliot in the background as Captain Hammer. We made his shirt and my groupie t-shirt.

Penny found us! She was so pretty!

That's all for now! ^_^

School!

School time Everyone! I finally got myself moved back to school and settled in. Unfortunately, I've realized I don't have the wonderful workspace I had over the summer. So! This weekend I figured out how to get my room in working order. Also, I've been working on a few things. A friend of a friend contacted me on Facebook saying I should make sushi plugs. They were a blast to make! And the only gamer plugs I could find were resin. So I'm making a few more styles to see how they go!

Paupu fruits from Kingdom Hearts. Which is one of my favorite games in the whooooole world.

Umbrella Corp!

Hair!

Hello all! No more sickness, so I thought I'd share a few new Stuffs. I've branched a little again and made a few barrettes. They're cute! One is classy, one is steampunk, and the last one is PacMan. Everyone loves PacMan!

Classy first. It's got a mirror on it, and the polymer clay is black and gold. I really like the Sculpy gold. It's not too flashy, but it has a nice shine to it. And it leaves "fairy dust" on my hands after I use it. :)

Steampunk! I got the cogs a while ago, but never got around to using them on anything, so I figured this would be as fun a use as any. (I think I'm going to wear this with my steampunk outfit I made for Dragon*Con) The wires in it are fake; all clay! 

Waka waka waka. 

Sickness...

Word of note people: sickness sucks. Fortunately, before sickness came a wonderful time with my boyfriend for his birthday! And now that I'm halfway better, I've started making things again. It feels so nice. I've made a couple cute cakes, including a two-tiered wedding cake! I'll have pictures up soon, but I thought I may as well make a virtual appearance, since I dropped off the face of the earth.

Please, everyone! Don't catch sickness! It's not fun!

Awesomeness afoot...

There is much busyness and awesomeness afoot! As I've been saying, I've been working to get my jewelry into a real brick and mortar store in Topsail Island, and that wonderful shop I mentioned in the last post did it! They got a bunch of my jewelry, YAY! This was a huge order for me. Since I'm used to doing one piece at a time, and doing a lot of experimentation, this was a completely different world. But successful! 31 pieces in 2 days, all of them tested and double checked to make sure they were good. ^_^

A friend of my parents also lent me two GORGEOUS sergers, and I bought myself a "My Double Delux" form because it was on sale. I can finally start with the clothing part of my ideas! And the costumes for my boyfriend and me for Dragon*Con.

My new work space! And epic magnifying lamp. ^_^

My dress form! and mannequin in the back. The mannequin has the core of my steampunk costume, and my dress form is all ready to make one of Inara Serra's glamorous dresses.

More news, more stuff, more naps

This has been a busy, busy week! I've been working at the art gallery, and that's normal, but extra things have been popping up all over. For example, my two violin teachers from high school dropped by the Gallery to ask if I wanted to play with their chamber orchestra next weekend. YES PLEASE! This is such a great group of people they have. So, in addition to working, making Stuff, and trying to work on Mal and Inara costumes (from Firefly) for D*C this year, I've picked up my violin and practiced.

I could tell you it stopped there, but I'd be lying! A friend of the family who knows Topsail Island very well convinced me to try and get my Stuff put in a shop on the Island. Unfortunately, we didn't quite think it through, and looked for places on a Sunday. However, we found the perfect place! I went back up this morning to meet the owner, and it's looking pretty good! I'm waiting to hear back from her tonight. Also, I'm scheduling a time to meet with a boutique in Wilmington on Thursday, and working on some Stuff for a shop downtown.

BUSY!

But this is my favorite for this week; a sculpture of otters. So cute, otters.

This one shows the otter's back and the environment with all the river rocks and wood and grasses.

This is their faces! The big one playing around the log, and the little one playing inside.

The back, with a little bit more environment stuff.

And there they are! 

Tasty treats

Once again, I've been overcome with the urge to consume every sweet in sight. And I found the PERFECT place to get them! There's a store in town that is a real Italian pastry shop. Everything made from scratch every day, all of it delectable, and all of it makes you gain ten pounds just by looking at it. Not only were my taste buds inspired to taste it all, but my hands were itching to make some of the treats! So far, I have the fruit tarts, with kiwis, blueberries, strawberries, and some unknown fruit that I should probably find the name for. Also, I have donuts. Because they're cute!

Multicolored sprinkles!

Oh, and cinnamon buns, I forgot about those! I'm pretty proud since I got the translucent clay thin enough to show through without making holes all over the place. ^_^

News Flash!

I've been wanting to get some of my jewelry out in a real store as well as online, so I've been looking at places that have my sort of style. Then I rediscovered The Fairy Circle! (fairycircleconsignment.com) They have the most awesome stuff. Lots of name brands, but you can find vintage dresses, really great shoes, bohemian type looks, anything!

I went in yesterday to check out their jewelry section and see if my items would be comparable, and yep! They were right in that price range. The two girls working there let me bring my Stuff in from the car, and ended up letting me consign a whole bunch of it! I wanted to keep a few so I can keep showing it, but my Stuff case now needs repopulation. I'm really excited!

Check out The Fairy Circle if you live in Wilmington, NC!

Expansion!

I've officially expanded outside the world of jewelry! Not that I'm going to stop doing earrings and things, but it's fun to create other Stuff as well. This time, I'm making little creatures, starting with dragons.

This week, I made two little guys, a juvenile red and gold dragon, and a little baby, still halfway inside the egg.

He's made of a mix of pastel colored scraps I had as leftovers from my earrings I had been making, so he's a little green, a little yellow, a little purple, and a lot of blue.

I was finishing this little one up, and a friend of the family came by and saw him. She has a 10 yr old granddaughter, and she immediately wanted the dragon for her. So, he was sold even before he was finished baking! 

This is my larger dragon, named "Rand" by my boyfriend. (He's reading The Wheel of Time, and one of the main characters is Rand, the Dragon reborn, and his symbol is a red and gold dragon, so it fit perfectly.)

Rand is also my first experiment with Pearl Ex Pigments! His wings are coated in gold, and the rest of his body is just slightly dusted. He's a mix of red and yellow, with a solid purple belly and tail tip.

So there they are! The most recent members of the Stuff! Rand is already up on Etsy as well.

ETSY!

www.etsy.com/shop/lyssasstuff

My Etsy store is now officially up and running. Not completely filled up yet, but it's getting there. My computer was slow, so the images were taking quite some time. Today, the rest of them go up, hurray!

For those who don't know about Etsy, you should. It's a fantastic place to get handmade or vintage stuff, and there's a huge selection of everything. Want an PS3 controller-shaped soap that smells like Mountain Dew? Here. http://www.etsy.com/listing/49757343/ultra-realistic-playstation-3-controller?ref=cat1_list_9. Want watermelon/honeydew candles? Those are there too. And the fun doesn't stop there!

There's a full range of clothes, accessories, jewelry, patterns, geekery, woodworking, glass, pretty much anything you can think of. And it's all for sale by the people making it. So support handmade!

Bleach!

Bleach masks! First I was playing around with making them out of papier mache, but then I found Model Magic. Love it! I ended up making two masks, Nel's and Loly's, before I ran out of white. On my to do list is to make the costumes to go with it.

Here are the pictures! First the one I worked off of, and second, the mask I made. I'm pretty happy with them, especially since these are the first masks I've ever made, and my first time working with Model Magic. 

Neliel Tu (I just have to add in black fabric in the eyes)

Loly

Next on my Bleach list is Starrk. I just need more white.

Addendum...

An addition to the family! And I'll never be required to incinerate.

Companion cube! It's going to be a thingy for a cellphone. Maybe I'll put the cake on the same chain.

The cake is a lie!

I'm loving this whole "making stuff" scheme! I got a few requests this weekend for some sushis and cakes, so when I got home from my trip to see my boyfriend (and buy a textbook, which shouldn't cost as much as it did, grrr) I spent some time with clay. In order to get the extra slice I needed for the earrings, I ended up making two whole cakes. I should really just make one cake for the sole purpose of cutting up, but I haven't yet. And here I am with an extra cake minus a slice. What does any good Portals fan do? The Cake Is A LIE. (Plus, I got the comment that the cakes I had made looked similar, but weren't THE cake. So here is THE cake.)

Maybe I'll get some gray and make a companion cube. I had to incinerate mine. 

Dessert, anyone?

Chocolate makes everything better, and these are diet-proof! I haven't been getting out to exercise so much, so I haven't been eating as much chocolate as I feel I need. I'm trying to satisfy my craving for sweets by making them out of Sculpy instead. Truffles were the first ones up! They make cute little dangles.

They've got raspberry filling, and chocolate shavings on top. Again, I debated about the glazing, but my dad pointed out that we should "do research" on truffles first; namely go out and buy a box and see if they're shiny. And then consume them. I concur. So the next ones may be shiny, or not, depending on the results of our findings.

I also baked cake. With whipped cream and strawberries. They still need to have findings put on, but the slices will be earrings, and the cake is the pendant.

Geekery!

Geekery! I love mushrooms. Therefore, I love marioshrooms! So I made a pair of shroomy studs :) They were pretty easy, but they turned out really cute. I debated forever on whether or not to glaze them, but decided not to. I think they're adorable anyway.

Then I got asked to do Sailor Moon-ish earrings, which was a little hard at first just because I've never watched or read it!  So I started looking things up on google images, and found a cute little wand thing. (Feel free to tell me what it's really called ^_^) And I made studs out of those! Now they have probably the most comments of any single thing I've made.

Along the Mario lines, I did a little cellphone charm shell. 

Lastly on my geekery list so far is Chibi Cthulu! My boyfriend's a huge fan of H.P Lovecraft, and there was an adorable little chibi in Munchkin Cthulu. So it's his surprise this weekend. Shhh! ^_~

Sushi Earrings

Since this was the first thing I made, I guess it makes sense to start here! I read about polymer clay canes, and thought that would be such an easy way to do sushi, so, here was my first attempt. The wasabi swirls were really fun!

Since I rolled it so thin, I got about 32 little sushi out before running out of usable cane! Hence my making several different versions:

And the dangly ones:

They're all about the same size, and the first two are stud earrings. I'm on the hunt for my elusive jump rings to finish off the pendants. I think they're hiding in my sewing box...

Hi Everyone!

Hi guys! It's Lyssa. Now I'm over here too. I'm really glad you all checked out my "stuffs" on Facebook, and I wanted to put stuff up on here too. Partly because no one can see my Facebook except friends, and I'd like to have my things up on the web, and partly because I'd like to babble a bit about what I'm making.

If you think somebody would like the things I do, please send them my way! ^_^ I really like making stuff, and every bit of income helps! As soon as I get enough things to made, I'm going to start putting them up on Etsy. I'll let you know when that happens! So, if you like the pictures, please recommend them to people, I'll love you forever!

<3 Lyssa