Happy Holidays from the Cardboard Aquarium

I'm taking a Christmas break from masks, though I guess I'll be making a couple tomorrow, so there's really only a few hours that this post will be relevant.... Huh. I received some wondrous new headphones for Christmas and they are absolutely fantastic, were great at work today and are much more bassy than my older pair. :)

Mask #4 - Finders Keepers

I found this fellow on part of a shoebox! I have freed him!

Apologies to Robert who requested a mask of himself today. I didn't have much time to myself to construct such majesty.

Mask #3: Rain Rain Go Away

Rain must think it's awful mean of us to sing for its demise.

Mask #2: Pizza Duck

Duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck.

40 Gallon Riparium/Paludarium Update

Hoorah! With time on my hands thanks to winter break, I've gotten back to my Riparium/Paludarium project! I just foamed in the rock wall and I think it looks spiffy! I used a few rocks from my backyard as well as this bunch of petrified wood shards I had saved. Once it dries, I'll work on sanding and cutting back the protruding Great Stuff. Man is that stuff sticky, I've got it all over my finger tips, probably won't come off for a couple days. There are some purposeful gaps left in the wall for driftwood and plants, which I'll add later. Keep in mind that a 1 inch-ish gap was left for substrate.

I think I'll venture to Home Depot tomorrow and see if I can procure a bit of brown silicone to use for adding driftwood to the wall. I held a CFL lamp at the top of the tank in the last shot to show what it should look like when it's lit up.

Mobile blogging test and Riparium update

Set up mobile blogging and finally got back to work on my riparium/paludarium! Here's a shot of the rock wall being laid out. The extra spaces in my text are just from my wonky keyboard. I stacked books behind the acryllic to ease the strain on the silicone joints. Just about ready to foam the stuff in place. :)

100 Masks in 100 Days

What would a blog be without a 'certain amount of things' being made in a 'certain amount of time'?

But first, a little backstory - 

Today was fairly mellow, pretty darn stormy for SoCal actually, so I hung around the house. Eating leftovers, watching my fishes, wishing I had a car, carousing the internubs, etc; the usual for a lumpy day. Yet, a makey mood took hold of me around 3-ish, wasn't until 4-ish that I decided to do anything. I picked up my handy-dandy idea book that I wore to death up in Santa Cruz and looked for something that I could make with the junk I had laying around.

Headphones? Nah, not in the mood. How about the updating the Sonic Snoozle Snakes? Meh... Giant Abraham Lincoln Robot Costume? Don't have enough sono-tubing around. So, I settled on a few little sketches of some masks I thought up one day. 

The last 5 I added today to let flow the idea of masks.

I decided on the one that resembles an eyeball turned sideways, with the spiral covering the face; and the puzzle piece one. These two were thought up many months ago while I was at UCSC, and to me, they are definitely the most mask-ing of what I threw up. Keeping in mind, I wanted to use materials I had laying around.

The first design screamed "use EL wire" at me, so I did. My favorite color combination is orange and blue which is quite apparent in my life; ex: my couch/bed is bright orange and my walls are a deep, dark blue. 

Mask #0: Hypnaught

The second design however would not get the blessing of EL Wire, really because I just didn't have small enough strands and I didn't wanna chop any up for this simple project. Just cardboard, scrap fabric, and hot glue.

Mask #1: Puzzled Look

They both ended up terrific, I think! :) And so, in completion of these two masks, I inspired myself to  embark on a new challenge for the next 100 days. Thus completes the backstory.

I will make 100 Masks in 100 Days, all out of recycled/scrap materials.

You can expect truckloads of cardboard, gallons of hot glue, and enough tape to feed a small country. Typical blog posts about fishes/events/other art will still happen, but the mask posts will be often and brief, versus long-winded and occasional like my others.

Being the cheat I am, I'll count Puzzled Look as mask numero 1 (consider Hypnaught as #0), but I'll knock off a day. So 99 masks and 99 days to go, kiddies. :)

The Fantastic Cardboard Aquarium

I figured I'd finally post the images of The Fantastic Cardboard Aquarium over on AquariumAdvice - 

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f19/the-fantastic-cardboard-aquarium-137178.html

Losing my Blog-ginity

     So after countless weeks of intenseness at school and being kept busy with work, I think I might actually conceivably have time on my hands. Which brings me to blogging. I've been thinking about starting my own blog for a while because countless posts on FlaccidBook just get annoying to your buddies. Twatter is... Like blogging for ADHD kids. And making a fully fleshed out website with blogging/shop/forum/etc... Takes too much damn time.

I'm going to type just how I would talk (maybe a teence bit more eloquently) and write about all of my projects, journeys, and music I have found, but I'll try and keep it centered around my fishkeeping hobby. It'll be on a near stream of consciousness level, probably a tad more organized. Maybe I just want attention, maybe I just need a place to let my thoughts loose, maybe it's late and I'll forget about this in the morning.

A short bit about me: