January 18

TARDIS Closet

felony_melanie over at Reddit showed off the closet door and wall she recently painted to look like the TARDIS in outer space. felony_melanie is a professional artist, and this was for a little boy. He was in the hospital and when he came home this was in his room.

tardis closet

Her next mural is at a middle school to paint their rotunda like a South Carolina salt marsh.

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January 12

Game of Thrones Crafts: Amigurumi Starks & Lannisters

Game of Thrones Starks amigurumi

Now that HBO has announced the premiere date for the start of Season 4 of Game of Thrones, I thought it would be apt to share some Game of Thrones crafts.

Ravelry designer Kati Galusz has created a series of medieval amigurumi patterns inspired by the GoT characters, including the Starks (Eddard/Ned, Catelyn, Sansa, Arya, & Bran, plus the direwolves) and the Lannisters (Jaime, Cersei & Tyrion), plus Khal Drogo, Khalessi, and Khalessi’s dragons.

After the “Red Wedding” episode near the end of Season 3 (spoilers at GoT Wikia), we can’t wait to see how Season 4 progresses! Will you be following along?

Links of Interest:

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January 8

Hobbit Headwear

Hello All! I hope everyone had a great holiday, and that you’re fairly recovered from all the family and excitement by now. A large part of my holidays was seeing the Hobbit with other geeky friends, which inspires this post about headwear from the Hobbit movies!

Bofur, the optimistic toymaking dwarf, brother to Bombur and cousin to Bifur, can be recognized in Peter Jackson’s films by his distinctive hat and jovial personality. Luckily for all you Bofur fans,  Smree has posted a great crochet pattern that even has the same upturned brim and earflaps! Using a skein of brown yarn and gray yarn, along with an H and I hook, I think she captured its essence perfectly!

Bofur's Hat

Of course, one of the most memorable characters from the Hobbit films is the Elvenking of the Mirkwood elves (and Legolas’ father), Thranduil. Not only does he have impeccable cheekbones (curse you and your inhuman beauty, Lee Pace!), he carries off an incredible crown of branches and leaves that mark him as the elven ruler. Katy R. over at Deviantart has created a beautiful replica of this crown out of wire, DAS (an air-hardening clay), resin and a few coats of paint. You can see her photo tutorial here.

Thranduil's Crown

Hopefully, these projects have inspired you to go see the Hobbit movies (if you haven’t yet), and to made your own stylish hats for everyday wear!

January 5

Con Cosplay: World of Warcraft Leather Armor Tutorial

Leather armor by OrangeMoose at Blizzcon 2009
Blood Elf sporting Valorous Regalia of Faith from World of Warcraft. Photo by Wow.com at Blizzcon 2009

Are you planning to attend any cons this year? Have some cosplay in mind? This World of Warcraft (WoWleather armor tutorial by DeviantArt user OrangeMoose may be just what you’re looking for. Check out her cool leather armor bodice.

Leather armor bodice by OrangeMoose

OrangeMoose has stepped out her armor-making process from pattern to cutting to assembly, including several pro-tips along the way, such as buying the leather in person instead of online, to be able to inspect for hide defects, and using an old bra to help draft out the chestpiece. She also steps out her process for making the Regalia of Faith shoulders from Styrofoam.

One thing she didn’t go into was how she created the pattern – my guess is she took a screenshot of her World of Warcraft character (perhaps using the WoW Model Viewer?), and then highlighted specific design details in a photo editing program. Looking at her tutorial, how do you think she created her pattern?

Be sure and check out her Gallery for pics of the cosplay in action. Amazing attention to detail.

What cosplay projects do you have lined up for 2014?

Links of Interest:

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