Nostalgic Nerdom

Origami Jewelry!

2011-07-16T11:11:00.000-07:00

Supplies are *slowly* coming in, finally! My origami paper came earlier the week, and my bottles finally came yesterday so I've been playing with that!

I hit some snags with the costume accessories, but I should have some progress to share soon on that front.

Onto the Origami!

Only listing my bottled origami on Etsy so far, worried about the rest getting crushed in shipping, but gotta share anyway!

I covered the earrings in mod podge to protect them from water and give them some strength, so happy with how they turned out! =D

Sewing for Dummies

2011-07-07T12:50:00.000-07:00

Made the boyfriend try on women's leggings today to see how they wore on him. Shame has no place in cosplay! LOL! I think I have a good idea of how I'll need to adjust the pattern for him though so was worth while. And, I finally managed to find a leggings pattern locally! A good day indeed.

Pretty much all the fabric is from Fabric.com, a company which I have come to love. Their return policy really is no questions asked, which is great when you realize the teal fabric you bought is actually a flower print!

Basic orange and black:

The fabric for AndrAIa

This is a tissue lame... and while not as impossible to sew as the internet makes out it will take some figuring out. I'm thinking that there's no way to have the seams completely neat, since the act of sewing tends to leave a black line where the foil has been moved. Also flash pictures makes the whole thing reflect, but it's darker than it looks there. I may look into different needles? Not sure. I think using tissue paper on the back will help keep the teeth from biting at it too much too.

Spandex for Bob:
The darker blue I bought was almost too shiny and too dark, but I think the reverse will work ok:

Here's the two sides combined with the teal:

The spandex is much easier to sew than I expected, at least on the small scale!

The vinyl wasn't too bad either, but I won't have to sew that much anyhow, just to add some velcro or maybe elastic depending on how I decide to attach it.

I've learned that the fanexpo wrist band has to go on my wrist, but can be covered by my costume most of time.

I also realized that AndrAIa's fins go through some of her jewelry :P not sure exactly how to work some of that, I may need to make the fins around those bangles LOL!

Arm bands and Icons

2011-07-03T06:38:00.000-07:00

Had the lightbulb go off for AndrAIa's arm jewelry to use wire in tubing. My first try I used to thick of wire and it was impossible to work with. Second try I used thinner wire and it's malleable enough to take on and off.

Trying to take a picture of your own arm... not so easy. So ignore the terrible angles!

And not on my arm:

I also went and got the icons printed on photo paper! I designed them myself and I think the shadows on the game and guardian icons turned out the best! The game icon is folded which makes it really stand out =D

Trident (almost) done!

2011-07-01T09:22:00.001-07:00

As much as I'd like to keep tinkering with it (and completely redo parts), I've declared it done other than a spraying with sealer. That will have to wait til a nice day when I can take it to the park I think... Or at least an ally! That would seem sketchy at ALL

Here are some pics, the weather is crappy so the lighting isn't the greatest but it gives a good idea how dynamic the gold is!

Top view

Bottom tip and full view!

Looks much smaller disassembled!

On the Glitch front, still not happy with the cog... but I think I might get it printed! First off, I discovered that Google makes a free CAD program called SketchUp which is surprisingly easy to use. I did some measuring and tweaking and came up with this:

It tis a bit costly just for a small ring, and they have a minimum order of $25 so not sure. I may know someone with access to a 3D printer so I'll try the beg route first haha.

Glitch!

2011-06-29T04:48:00.000-07:00

You know what's hard? Trying to find reference photos of Glitch from ReBoot :P

Some of the edges aren't as sharp as I'd like... I like the method I came up with though! While I was designing it the boyfriend asked if it'd be possible to have different modes., so in an effort to please I have so the cog can be pulled off the center, and the insert changed.

Here are the four inserts I've designed:

For the cog itself I used a paper craft version of Glitch as a template. The cog actually has 11 teeth, which makes designing it very difficult. I traced it out onto a sheet of foam board and cut it out of two sheets glued together with white glue.

The middle circle is cut entirely out of the top, and slightly wider out of the bottom sheet. That circle will be glued to the glitch part of box, and you can pull the cog off it to replace the inserts!

As you can see some of the edges aren't a clean as I'd like, I'm tempted to redo the cog but I don't think I'd do any better cutting the teeth with a second go. I do need to invest in a new exacto knife though, paper kills the blades! We'll see how it looks when painted.

Next on the docket... AndrAIa's jewelry!

Clay (almost) done!

2011-06-28T08:43:00.000-07:00

Just about ready for painting! I may go over with a fine sand paper first, but it's pretty much ready I think. I don't know if I'm just getting sick of sanding tho!

Picture dump!

Here we see the remaining (semi) major issue with the trident, one of the connections is a bit loose. I think I can build it up with some tape and keep it from bending so much. But, I'm holding off on that until I'm done construction since paint may end up in the connector and doing it. I already had to file down one a bit because of glue.

Problem #2, some cracks. I've filled most of them with Poly Filla (awesome product, but not good to breath), but some are happening at slight flex points which won't stay sealed. I think filling with paint will work fine though.

Better view of the top half.

45 degree view of the tip

Close of the handle. Quite happy with its strength, I don't think it will will crack with use :)

Top down view of tip.

Very productive week! I think I might move onto jewelry next. I have a start on Bob's keytool, so that will probably be the next post :)

Trident Skeleton!

2011-06-24T05:12:00.000-07:00

Success!

I cut off the old pegs and created new ones, which shortened the trident significantly.

I duct taped the posts to test the height before doing the final gluing and such and it is about 6'4", a bit more than 1' than my height. I'll be wearing heals, so it will be about right judging from the reference photos I have!

I still managed to make a couple of the pegs too small >_< Only one that has a noticeable wiggle tho! To ensure I don't have bits falling off during use, I added small holes to allow me to lock in the poles:

I'll use small zip ties (probably two, going around each side) to lock in the poles during the convention. Right now I'm using bits of pipe cleaner heh.

I'll set up a better shot of it before I start the next step against a dark background. I'm not sure exactly where I'm going to go from here... Figuring out how to sculpt the flares is going to be the most difficult part. I'm considering getting some wire mesh just to make it easier. My biggest fear is the handle cracking where I have to hold it.

Trident Construction - Oops!

2011-06-23T06:47:00.000-07:00

I started construction of the trident! However, in addition to "Measure twice, cut once" I should add "Design three times"!

I had my mind set on 1/2" dowel, but finding fittings that would work with that size was difficult. I had wanted screw fittings, but I'd have to do some real messing around with them adaptors and even then I couldn't find enough that were for 3/8" (inner diameter of them are 1/2")

What I ended up getting were some cheap PVC pipe fittings designed to go inside the other pipe, so their ID was somewhat smaller than 1/2". They were long though, which will help avoid the wiggle issue that the short copper fittings tend to allow. I can also drill a hole through them and the pole to allow a zip tie to add extra support.

The theory was sound! I did over sand some of the peg ends, so the error I did make will allow me to fix that as well.

Doesn't look very big does it! Buuut, all assembled it is nearly 7.5'! A good foot longer than I wanted! I think the error occurred when rounding the sizes, and adding an inch here and there as I cut the dowel. I also forgot to get enough dowel for the sides of the trident, but I've gotten more now :)

So, perhaps today I shall chop em down some, and be gentler with the sanding! Thank god for my dremel, I'd never have gotten that sanding done.

On the shoe front, I am leaning towards these.

I will be painting them with semi-transparent blue in the spot pattern, but silver should make a great base. the shape looks close and price is right ($35 including shipping). I have silver vinyl bought to make her cuffs and belt as well, which I'll be painting the same way so it should all match!

Cosplaying!

2011-06-20T18:36:00.001-07:00

With only so much time in the day I don't really find the time to post here about what I'm at. Heck, lately I'm lucky if I manage to get pictures of my items before they sell at the Farmers Market (not that I'm complaining!) So, I've decided to use this blog to also chronicle my else-wise geeky life!

So, my main distraction these days has been prepping and researching for my AndrAIa costume from the very awesome show ReBoot!
Here she is:

So far I've got her trident sketched out:

I bought 1/2" dowel to use for most of it, but my initial plan to use a smaller dowel to connect the bits is too wobbly. I had planned to use plumbing fittings, but I was going about it wrong in the store. I now know that the measurement for copper pipping is the INNER diameter, so I actually need to use 3/8" fittings! I shall head to the store soon. Why do I need to do it piece wise? Well, I need to fly with this as I'm making it to go to Fan Expo in Toronto! The max length of any one piece is around 25", but even with that limitation it's looking at a good max of 7 feet! Given that I'm only 5'3", I'll probably scale it to a bit over 6', meaning piece "A" would be about 22" total. I hope to have threaded fittings but we'll see what I find.

For the top I have 1/4" dowels that will go between the main post and the two side posts that I'll attach by drilling a hole and using hot glue to keep it all steady. I have air-dry clay for the details, but we'll see how well that works. I'll be doing a step by step of this taking as many pics as I can!

While for her pants a stretch fabric would be ideal, I found this tissue lamé and had to go for it. I don't think I could get any closer if I tried!!

So, pants will be a challenge and will likely need a zipper. It was also half off, so I got a bunch extra just incase I mess up! I was hoping to find a pattern for like, tight leather pants or something but nadda.

For her jewelry I'll mostly be using craft foam which you can apparently shape slightly with heat. I found an amazing tutorial for making it look like metal, so fingers crossed that it works! I think I will use scuplty for the gems? I will be asking my friend who uses it a lot!

I also have my wig! Need to trim the bangs but I will save that for when I've gotten better at putting it on.

I am also making Bob for my boyfriend to wear (I keep tell people we're going as a bad fanfiction), but I will save those details for their own post!

Glow Photo!

2011-05-16T06:05:00.001-07:00

First, I'd like to share this article from Cracked:
8 Celebs You Didn't Know Were Geeks

I'm really proud of the photos I took for this one, especially for the glowing ones! I'm starting to get the hang of the manual settings on my camera.

Glowing Ectoplasm Pendant on Etsy

The dark photos only required a slight amount of editing to touch up the backgrounds which had some artifacting. My camera is pretty simple, only a couple of settings to play with. I actually took these photo in semi-dark, with a black light on them. This allowed me to use a higher shutter speed, which greatly reduces blurring which had been a problem in the past.

I actually used a cloth black storage cube that I got at Walmart to take the photos in which made for a great solid background and was the right amount of light that I still ended up with some bottle details in the images.

The coloured glow turned out the best:

And here's both of the styles together:

Like the phoenix...

2011-05-15T07:50:00.000-07:00

Wow what a busy term (being a university student my life is measured in 4 months stretches)! Had a great time at Sci-fi on the Rock, finals were kick ass, and the custom orders have been trickling in.

Was inspired last night to do a Nyan cat! If you haven't heard of this, check out the original website, and buy a super awesome t-shirt while you're there! The music is seriously grooving!

Get it on Etsy

Oops

2011-01-03T23:59:00.000-08:00

I've been neglecting the internet world unfortunately, but for good (for me) reasons. When I made the switch over to Nostalgic Nerdom, finally completely giving up chainmailling I expected about equal sales. Not hardly. I was going to school full time (albeit a reduced load) the summer, and doing this as a side job. Which I quickly had to schedule time for as it began taking over my life and my living room.

Success: Good
Cat chewing through my bag of beads: Not so much.

My framed items took off, and in retrospect it made sense. The sprites I make are things I grew up with, are iconic to those of my generation. However, a large portion of folks my age have done this whole "becoming an adult" thing, which means have "real" decor. Frame = Grownup, Sprite = Awesome. Who could resist!

So, struggling to keep up with local demand, I all but shut down my online presence. I literately could not make things fast enough, even with recruiting my boyfriend to do much of the framing work. Once the Christmas Rush hit I had to thicken my skin and deal with folks being disappointed because I already sold out of every single megaman creation I had.

But all good things must come to an end. The market that I'd been selling at once a week for nearly a year has inexplicitly been booted out of their current location, and are still homeless. Therefore myself and my partner in geekery Angry Owl are also homeless. Now, she has kept up with her store being much better at time management than I, so there's lots ot see over there. Over at my own store. Nostalgic Nerdom, I'm still sweeping out the cob webs.

I have learned many lessons about organization in these past few months, and have a better feel for the geekery markets! I've learned that MegaMan > Mario for hyperactive fans, unless Mario is riding Yoshi. I've learned the power of multi-compartment containers, and I've learned the mailing schedules for my favorite suppliers.

I've also gotten my boyfriend suckered in to help me with mailing which is great. He is much more detail oriented than I, and if I've given him a set of requirements for packing they will be met or exceeded. He is also much better at dealing with the post office than I!

I will be around, slowly refilling my store. I may go on a dice posting binge after thing. There really are only so many ways to say d20s are awesome and roll and stuff, google may have to just put up with some repetition!

If you have some cool handmade geekery that you think my readers might enjoy, send me a message!

Now, as a side effect of all this, I've been completely lax about photography. Many of the pieces I've been most proud of I never snapped a single shot! The ones I know in person I've started demanding shots :D

In the mean time, here's a good shot taken by a friend of mine of my Christmas-tree/Storage Device!

Updates and changes

2010-08-14T03:48:00.000-07:00

I'm a huge fan of having domains for my businesses. They're cheap, I have webspace anyway, and people can remember them much easier.

I had been using my domain to redirect to my blog, which contains my contact information, but I ran into a couple of snags. One, people keep going to the domain of one business actually wanting the other. Two, the information was quietly to the side so I think it gets missed a lot. Three, most people visiting my site don't care about the blog, they just want to email me or look at my gallery.

So, I've relaunched my main page at NostalgicNerdom.com! It's kind of boring, and when I get the store open I'll probably put a mini cart on the side. BUT, it does what needs to be done. I included a contact form so I don't lose people there.

I put up an almost identical page at ChainedtotheStrange.com, so hopefully I won't lose people who go to that site looking for NN =D

I finished finals yesterday, and plan on spending this vacation working on the business. So, lots of updates planned! Next is some behind the scenes work making my spreadsheets more manageable, as well as tidying the business folder. Later I will be taking advantage of my Dad's power tools to cut my circuit boards into smaller sizes that I can work with easier. Might even be able to get fancy! I have some space invaders to paint and drill (more on them in a later update!), and of course beading to do. My tiny beads finally came in (never buy from hamabeadsonline, seriously), so expect some itty bitty goodness!

Let me know if there's anything you'd like to see done!

So much new!

2010-08-07T04:21:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of updates those who follow! Tis that wonderful time of year for those of us who keep doing classes through the summer, exams! I keep Facebook relatively updated, so if you aren't already, follow me there! I also post most of my stuff on flickr if you aren't on facebook.

You may have noticed I'm not selling online yet. Quite simply, I can't keep up with local demand yet, let alone selling online! I'll be bringing in one of my friends as slave labour in the fall, and will be making a large order of beads to have my supply stock full. 10k of black, I think so! Honestly, sprites use so much black LOL. If there's anything you see on the blog, facebook, or flickr that you'd like let me know and I can do a custom order!

I leave you with my favorite creation. I really hope someone buys the whole set, it really is too awesome

It's a secret to everybody that the cake is a lie

2010-07-25T03:41:00.000-07:00

Busy busy! Between school, work, and making these items I've been neglecting my blog!

Generally I won't post simple direct sprite magnets (become a fan on Facebook or check out my Flickr Stream for all my pics), but these two made me giggle.

I really think there needs to be a keychain version of that yoshi, I know *I* had fun running around the apartment having him eat things!

To the unknowing outsider, this is a simple sprite in a frame. To the real gamer this will be a point of beautiful frustration! Chase your significant other around going "Hey! Listen!" until they crack! Or... just leave is on display as a silent testament to the fairy known as Navi. (I prefer chasing people with it but that's just me)

It's so delicious and moist! And Plastic!

I really need to find a better set up for my large items, I could not get a good picture of this guy! For some reason the camera make it look warped, but it is perfectly square!

21" by 20", this is a scale rendition of this famous Legend of Zelda scene. 0.5cm = 1 pixel! Comes with two picture hooks securely attached to the back so you can hang it with ease.

Up next... I am Error!

This is my own creation, everyone's favorite chemical - caffeine! The Carbons and Hydrogens are left off to keep it from getting bulky. I think it'd look great in a window!

There's more to share, but must go work on Math! Classes during the summer... not the best idea lol

Hello World!

2010-07-15T10:50:00.001-07:00

Just getting things started!

The prime reason for this blog is, of course, to show off the awesome geekery I make! However, I'll also be sharing other fantastic finds from around the net!

Still setting things up, but for now you can:
Visit my (currently empty) Etsy Shop,
Become a fan on Facebook,
or follow me on twitter @NostalgicNerd!

About Nostalgic Nerdom

2000-01-01T00:05:00.000-08:00

I'm Jennifer, the person behind Nostalgic Nerdom. I'm a *mumble* year student attending Memorial University where I run a group called The Geek Society. My current plan is to study astronomy, as I'm a huge space nut. I'm a very crafty person, and like to go outside the box with my art. This results in unusual combination of materials and styles for truly unique geekery!

Nostalgic Nerdom is the name under which I sell my geekery. Some of it is subtle, and some of it rather in your face! There's something for every type of person, even those of us still pretending to be mature.

My main form of artwork is using fuse beads to create pixelated creations. These are often closely modeled after real game sprites, and can really make you feel like you are part of the game. They can range from tiny - pokeballs that fit in the palm of your hand - to very large. My biggest single sprite so far has been over a foot and a half across, with my biggest set (MegaMan 10) consisting of 9 large (one very large) sprites.

Follow me to keep up to date on not only my own geeky endeavors, but to see what other folks are up to as well! Things that catch my eye I like to showcase here to help spread the word!

Custom Orders

2000-01-01T00:03:00.000-08:00

Wondering if something is possible? Just ask and I'll see what can be done!

Perler Items
Looking to have your favorite sprite adapted? Email jennifer@nostalgicnerdom.com with a link to what you're looking for and I can get a quote!

For standard perler creations each "pixel" is 5mm (0.2"), so a 16x16 pixel item will be ~8cm (3.2") square.

See a keychain/magnet/wall hanging, and wish it was a magnet/wall hanging/keychain? Most items can be easily modified for you! Keep the size in mind, especially for keychains. In some cases mini-perlers can be substituted, but this will cost a little more.

Pixel Paintings
A variety of sizes and resolutions and sprites are possible. As well, they can be combined with perler creations to form 3D works of art.

Block Keychains and Jewelry
These can also be mixed up, keychains re-done as pendants and vice versa.

Circuit Creations
For the most part I use blank boards which have never been soldered, so many shapes can be cut. Because of the nature of this process only straight lines can be used, so keep that in mind when requesting speciality shapes.

FAQ

2000-01-01T00:01:00.000-08:00

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me!

Q: Why would you call yourself Nerd or Geek?
These words have been used in the past (and present) to hurt or put down. But I am a firm believer that words only have the power you give them. To me, being a geek is a thing of pride! It means I'm willing to explore new ideas, try new interests, and bold go where no.. oh wait I still don't have a space ship. Darn. But in all seriousness, why wouldn't you want to be a geek? It's fun, and on the whole we don't care what other think, just have a fun time!

Q: Why Nostalgic Nerdom?
I prefer my games pixelated and rich in story, and am much more of an old school geeker in general. It only follows that my creations would be along this line. Many of my items will bring you back to a simpler time, when all your problems could be solved by blowing in the cartridge.

Q: Wait a second... I remember you! Didn't you use to do chainmaille?
Yup, I also sell under the name Chained to the Strange, although much less frequently these days. I still do chainmaille (see my dice bags), and am open to custom orders! Both shops use the same Flickr Page, so take a poke around there if you're interested.