June 14

This High Schooler Turned Her Prom Dress Into a Work of Art

For this post, I’d like to suggest that the site be temporarily renamed, “Geek Arts,” because this girl went green with her art and prom, and has way surpassed any of us!

18-year-old Julia Reidhead, from Mesa, Arizona, knew that she wanted something special to wear to prom. She decided she would design her own dress. She and her mother purchased a used wedding dress for $40, and then Julia painted her own version of one of her favorite pieces of art — Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” — over the fabric, creating a gorgeous, one-of-a-kind dress.

prom dress

She sketched a design on the dress in pencil, then tested her acrylic paints on an extra swatch of fabric to make sure they would work. The overall process of painting the dress took more than 40 hours spread out over one week. She gradually worked her way up the dress, ending with the starry sky. Reidhead was still drying the gown with a blow-dryer five minutes before her date came to pick her up for the dance.

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June 7

Leon’s Window

Knickertwist (I love that name!) posted a really lovely tribute on Craftster to Leon, The Professional, a movie that came out in 1994, starring Jean Reno and Natalie Portman.

window

It measures 5″ tall and is built upon a Graphic 45 matchbox. It slides open, and features a Madonna, bullet marked wall and two quarts of milk inside, all part of Leon’s apartment in the movie. For more pictures of his window, check out Knickertwist’s blog.

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May 25

Battlestar Galactica Craft: Starbuck’s Mandala

Crochet Starbuck's Mandala by Angie Pedersen

It’s been a while since I shared one of my own geekcrafts, so in honor of Geek Pride Day, I thought I’d share this little beauty – a crochet representation of Starbuck’s mandala.

In the rebooted “Battlestar Galactica” TV series, the character Kara Thrace, aka Starbuck, paints various versions of the same mandala image throughout her life, her unconscious attempts to recreate the “Eye of Jupiter” (depicted  in the above left image, from the second season episode, “Valley of Darkness”). I was immediately drawn to these abstract paintings with their bold colors and strokes, and thought it might be fun to recreate in crochet form (as I’m not much of a painter). When I found Marinke Slump’s Crochet Mandala pattern, I knew immediately how to put it to good use. The pattern was quick to work up and I completed it in a weekend. I stitched it onto a light blue canvas for hanging on the wall.

Interesting geek trivia: the mandala on the wall in Starbuck’s apartment was actually painted by Starbuck herself, actress Katee Sackhoff, according to the Battlestar wiki.

We previously featured a Starbuck’s mandala knitted hat project here on GeekCrafts, and I’ve also seen a quilt that incorporates the image. Have you seen any other mandala geekcrafts floating around the Internets? I’d love to try out some more!

Links of Interest:

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May 17

Modifying a Monster High Doll

I’ve always thought those Monster High dolls were pretty unique, but then I saw what FreakieGeekie, a crafster from Louisiana, did with a Deuce Gorgon doll on Craftster!

darryl from monster high

She removed Deuce’s “snake-hawk” and molded hair, his face-up, and the tattooing on his left arm. Daryl’s new face was painted using watercolors then sealed.

Daryl’s hair is made from a long pile faux fur, his shirt is a poly-cotton remnant, and his jeans are a denim remnant. His vest started its life as a doll’s leather jacket and the wings on the back are made of iron on fabric and were hand-drawn then outlined in Sharpie. His clothes are all hand-sewn and the worn look on his jeans was achieved by rubbing them down with coarse sandpaper. His crossbow is made of a wooden dowel, plastic canvas covered with yarn, hemp cord, a piece of bamboo skewer, and a bit of cardboard; the wooden and cardboard bits are painted with black acrylic paint. His bolts are made from slivers of plastic canvas and little bits of felt.

His motorcycle was a gift from Freakie’s sister. It’s from the Bratz Boyz “Motorcycle Style” Cade doll. Freakie repainted it so that it would look like Daryl’s motorcycle. The crossbow is just propped on the motorcycle.

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May 11

Star Trek Craft: Bajoran Earring

Bajoran earring by Patrick Hassel-Zein
Image courtesy Patrick Hassel-Zein

Being a fan of all things Star Trek, I was pleased to find this write-up on designing a Bajoran earring by Patrick Hassel-Zein.

If you’re familiar with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, you would have seen Major Kira almost always sporting a Bajoran earring on her right ear. Ensign Ro Laren also wore one on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

On his webpage, Patrick provides a little historic look into the Bajoran earring, and then offers some suggestions for designing your own.

Links of Interest:

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May 3

Even Your Ta-Ta’s Can Be Geeks

Xandrigirly over at Craftster posted the greatest bra of ALL TIME (all time, all time). Sorry, I just felt like it needed an echo there for the importance of her posting. She made her own superhero-themed bra!

bra

She describes herself as a geeky artist and designer (she works in a craft store and teaches kids how to sew), but as someone who can’t sew without swearing, I’m seeing some real talent in the creation of this bra.

Ladies, this might be something we need to look into: most commercial bra patterns rarely hit a DD cup (not that I personally am that well endowed), but Xandrigirly researched it, and found a few independent pattern makers. She went with a pattern from MakeBra, mostly because it includes a foam lined cup. She said she only spent about $25 on this bra…and now I’m thinking I need a Spider-Man bra!

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