Annatar

Project Updates

Dollhouse - On hold, temporarily. I need a stand for the house, so that I can build a yard, primarily a side yard, and a greenhouse. This all falls under *“long term projects”, of which I can really only focus on one at a time.

Sea Holly Impasto Painting - the textures are built up, so progress.

Furbinator - Untouched*, see above note about “long term projects”

the writing project - Untouched*

the shrimp - Untouched*

the window book - Untouched*

Temperature Quilt - Untouched*, sort of. I’m tracking the temperatures still, and now that Annatar is complete I have emotional space for this other sewing project.

my Voynich Manuscript - 15% complete. I’ve also created a digital layout with the intention of creating a print version of my manuscript once it’s completed - with 7 foldout tipins it will probably require a Kickstarter to fund, which works out anyway because what else will I do with all of those copies?

With Annatar finished and PCCKC over, I have a lot more time to work on things, and clean up after myself, and go to the gym. Speaking of which…

With the “Witch-Queen” of Angmar, aka the Witch Kings wife

…and the Witch King, who needs to go find his wife.

I had a great time giving out rings, seeing my friends, and going to panels. Of course now I want to grab my favorite local photographer, Russ Matthews, and get some foresty glamour shots of all of that hard work.

I am tired, & we haven't even started yet.

Omg the last 30 days… to say a lot has happened is an understatement - and that’s personally in addition to everything else in the wide world at large. To address the personal items without the external chaos feels cheap and disingenuous, so…

To say I’m unhappy with the outcome of the election would be to put too mildly what has become an ever present booming of foreboding in my ears - flowery language for “I don’t feel good about this at all” - and at the same time I remain completely unsurprised. That a populace with decreasing media literacy has taken that same unwillingness to read between the lines into the voting booth was honestly to be expected. That fear-mongering dominated over hope is unsurprising. I feel there’s been a long tradition of voting against something else rather than for something - and by and large that pretty much played out last week exactly.

I am still processing it all, unsurprised and still stunned and forming all of my usual backup and contingency plans. To voice too loudly the concerns I have about future policies seems hasty, and also I’m too preoccupied with that effing Cabinet nominations. Mostly I think I plan to read a lot, and think about what I’ve read.

And make a 2025 bingo card, for my sanity.

In a more personal mode - I finished some things. Two things. The beetle impasto painting, & the tattoo design. I haven’t finished any of the books I start reading, but I have purchased 9 more volumes of varying subjects.

We (husband and I) also went to the Nelson to see the Hokusai exhibit - which I may have to write about later because this is enough of a disjointed mess of a post without dragging another artist into it.

And then there’s Annatar…

That’s actually coming along really well.

Morgoth’s crown - constructed of wire, paper maché, hot glue, more hot glue, heavy gel medium, paint and silver gilding is finished. There was a moment when my husband - coming home from a long library day to find me on the couch covered in paint and things, made mention of the fact that I could probably find a 3D print pattern of it in a minute and use either of our college’s labs to print it out in a fraction of the time I was spending on it. And yes, I could - in fact I did. One etsy vendor selling the pattern for 6 dollars, and another selling the print for less than 40. But that wasn’t the point. The point was to make it - and it turned out pretty well.

The belt - pattern changed for reasons is also pretty much complete - it just needs grommets which will take all of 5 minutes. I learned a whole heap about crafting with EVA foam - how to carve and cut and paste it. Priming, and the 7 layers of paint it took for full coverage.

The robe/dress is coming along - I did a muslin mockup for the first time in my life. Ordered fabric swatches from Mood and a company in Portugal to find the right fabric - which I then silkscreened to get that gorgeous pattern onto. That pattern itself was about 8 hours of obsessively studying various screen shots to find most of the angles of, and it’s close. Not perfect, but 75% accurate. Fortunately I work at a company that does silkscreening, and was able to have the screen burned there, and then do the actual printing myself after hours on the partially sewn robe. I may yet go into the seams and create joining lines so that the seams all “match”, but I also may not as they are largely not too noticeable and the paint strokes I’d inevitably make may stick out more than the gaps do. There’s some possible refitting to do, embroidery to add, the trim to finish which is a beautiful gold print fabric I’m going to foil stamp over as the very last thing as the foil itself probably won’t stand up to excess handling.

Additionally the shirt is 50% complete. And after all of that, or next thing to start at least is that leather wing collar. And buy a wig. And then it’s done?

And once it’s finished I expect to collapse for a bit in a fit of “what now?”

Probably some coding.




October Accounting

Current List of Unfinished Projects

  • Dollhouse

  • Beetle Impasto Painting

  • Sea Holly Impasto Painting

  • Tattoo design for a friend

  • Furbinator

  • the writing project

  • the shrimp

  • Books I’ve started reading:

    • Morgoth’s Ring, J.R.R. Tolkein

    • Paths Through the Forest: A Biography of the Brothers Grimm, Murray B. Peppard

    • An Encyclopedia of Fairies, Katharine Briggs

    • The Ladies of Grace Adieu, Sussanna Clarke

    • Jefferson’s Daughters, Catherine Kerrison

    • The Book of Frank Herbert

    • Acceptance, Jeff Vandermeer

    • Unruly, David Mitchell

    • Poverty, by America, Matthew Desmond

    • Into the Bright Sunshine, Samuel G. Freedman

    • A Life Discarded, Alexander Masters

    • The Code Book, Simon Singh

    • A Forest of Kings, Linda Schele and David Friedel

  • the window book

  • Temperature Quilt (doesn’t really count because it can’t be finished until 2026)

  • and probably some other things I’m just forgetting right now…

…which is to say, I don’t need to add another project to this list, but I am creating a Rings of Power Annatar cosplay, and I’m starting this weekend.

Because why wouldn’t I want to dress up as a femme version of this toxic obsessive gaslighter? And honestly I relish the idea of running around at a Con handing out rings to people, especially all of the Galadriels on the floor.

The first thing to take care of is making the crown, which I can do without any of this things I need to order to make the rest of it - wire, paper maché, plaster and paint - all which I have on hand; while I wait for leather and patterns and fabric samples and fabric. How gloss and metallic can I get a finish with no metal involved? I intend to find out.

And maybe inbetween steps while I’m waiting on materials I can finish one or two things off of that list…