Custom gold and silver henna patterned gumboots

Hello world,

Here they are! My beautiful custom gumboots. I may even do some more work on them in the future... depending on how I feel. There's space for more but I do love them as they are.

To replicate these all you need is:

• A clean pair of gumboots - I picked up my pair from Bunnings for $20
• One or more permanent paint markers with a fine nib - I used gold and silver Artline 999XF with a 0.8mm nib
• And internet connection or a library where you can look up examples of the many and varied awesome henna patterns... or, you know, innate artistic talent (I went with the internet connection and the library books as my Mum funnelled all of her drawing talent into my little brother Michael)

I also used a couple of stick-on jewels I had left over from my cake pop bouquets a few years ago. If you're planning on adding anything like that, I suggest using construction adhesive (in careful quantities) because hot glue won't stand the elements (Selleys in a good brand; they even have one specifically for rubber).

Method: Just go for it! Hmm, but if you're concerned about not getting it right first time, I'd recommend first doing some practice on paper. e.g. I made one of my zine-per-diems just henna patterns - they're fun, pretty, easy even if you're not good at drawing, and you end up feeling quite calm and tranquil while you're doing it.

For a great resource on the mechanics of drawing henna patterns, as well as examples of some masterpieces and descriptions of the different styles of henna around the world, check out The Henna Page.

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What's the story?

I decided to make these beautiful gumboots for an adventure EJ and I were planning - foraging down an old abandoned train tunnel at Helensburgh. We originally discovered the place while geocaching - Dub Side of the Moon is hidden sneakily at the mouth of the dreamy location. Take a look how romantic a scene it is:

Sorry for the low-quality image - we left the photo-taking 'til the sun was high in the sky and it was a sweltering 40°C, making for harsh lighting conditions. That and trying to hash the image size down for the internet means this doesn't even show you a fraction of how beautiful this place is - if you're anywhere nearby, go and check it out!

Inside there was an escape from the stifling heat, not to mention a canopy of glow worms that have aligned themselves with the old brickwork. The mud is the perfect thick glompy kind, and you see frogs hopping around and other creatures too.

The mud was the reason we left exploring the tunnel for another day - giving me a week to make these babies! Below is a comparison - my gummies in their, uh, natural habitat on the left, and on the right, after our adventure.

Yes, they survived. The mud came off easily, and any spots that had dried too much to come off under running water were easily removed with a soft damp cloth. In face, the walking and the cleaning didn't affect the drawn-on patterns at all. Success! The only smudge is from where EJ's ridiculously heavy torch was resting on them in the bag on the way home.

OK, I won't post any more pictures (I have roughly 100... yes I always take things overboard).

Au revoir,

-Eyespiral

mydeck - Personalised playing cards using cityrail train tickets

Hello world,

I should have posted this a while ago but I'll cite the adage "Better late than never" as an excuse.

This was the xmas present I made for my Dad. It was fun to put it all together but I really left most of the work to the last minute. While I'm citing trite adages: "If it weren't for the last minute, nothing would ever get done."

I should also apologise for the low quality photos - I didn't realise until xmas day that I hadn't taken any pictures for my blog, so I snapped a few on my phone while I was at Mum & Dad's place.

Dad enjoys playing cards (and we all enjoy playing against him slightly less, because he always wins). He's also somewhat tight fisted. And the final ingredient in my idea: I pay a whopping $74 per fortnight on train tickets for work. Together with the fact that there's four kids in our family, two boys for the black suits and two girls for the red suits - what a great concept, I thought.

I had already put together a small collection of train tickets because I like to keep them to use in my Zine per diem project So when I decided this was what I was going to give Dad, I started saving them more, and picking up discarded ones that I found at the station that were still in good nick. I didn't have enough of my own saved up to make a full 54 card deck (52 + 2 jokers).

The train tickets were good because they're all a uniform size, and have a uniform back which is perfect for playing cards.

The next step was making the faces. Again I apologies for the really shocking quality of this photo! But hopefully the screencap from InDesign will make up for it.

I've uploaded the InDesign CS3 file that I used to print these out. Download it here. The image links will all break because they refer to the original files on my computer, but you can relink them all to your own images to make your own personalised deck!

I printed these on sticky-backed photo paper and proceeded to cut out each card with a pen knife and stick them to the front sides of the train tickets on the night before I was heading down to Mum & Dad's place (and gave myself a painful RSI which felt like a dislocated shoulder after a few hours in the car - ouch!). Do not do it all in the space of a few hours is you can help it - or engage some friends/family to help out and set up your own assembly line.

The final touch was a custom card box. Again, I have uploaded the InDesign CS3 file for anyone to use - just update the text and you're ready to go! Download it here. For fun, and to appeal to my Dad's monetary mind, I summed up the price of each ticket I used and put the total on the box. In effect, he go the most expensive present of anyone that year: $1125.30.

I printed this out on the photo paper, stuck it to a sheet of thin cardboard, cut it out with a pen knife and glued it together. Those lessons in making nets of prisms from primary school is finally paying off!

I hope you enjoyed this one. :)

~Eyespiral

Mum's geocaching starters kit

Hello world,

It's about time I shared something other than a trading card! But in keeping with the geocaching theme, today I'm going to show you the starters kit I put together for my Mum's birthday present.

Mum has come along on a few of our geocaching adventures and quite enjoys it. So when it was coming up to her birthday, I started thinking about getting her her own GPS so she could do some geocaching on her own. When I spoke to Dad, it turned out he had the same idea. Of course, he doesn't know anything about GPSes, so he asked me to check them out and get one for him to give to her.

Which sent me on the tangential idea of putting together my ideal geocaching starters kit. They do sell them at some of the US geocaching stores, but I wanted something elaborate. And Mum can be a difficult person to buy for, so I spoke to my siblings, and they were happy to go in together on all the bits and pieces that made up the starters kit.

We started with some tricky items first - she wasn't sure why we gave her gardening gloves, bandaids, batteries, a torch (with batteries already inside), insect repellent and sunscreen. She also didn't know what the 'G' symbol meant.

Then Dad gave her her GPS. I chose a Garmin Dakota 10 which we bought from Johnny Appleseed GPS. It's small and pretty simple to use, plus it supports paperless geocaching, which makes life even easier. (My mum isn't great with technology. At all.)

After that, the cat was out of the bag and so we could carry on with the rest of the prezzies. I made her a personalised logbook to note down her finds, swaps, etc. I used a lovely watercolour called Silent Planet by twiggyabi from deviantArt for the decal and added their Geocaching.com username.

Inside the cover I created a hint decoder. This is really useful for us as our GPS doesn't support paperless and so when I want to read a clue I need to decode the one I've noted down in our book. Since Mum's GPS automatically decodes it when she chooses to read it, I guess she won't get as much use out of it as I do, but it'll be handy if there are any hardcopy encoded clues along her adventures. Plus it's pretty!

There are pockets on the inside covers, too. I popped in one of Groundspeak's Geocaching guides - I figure it's always handy to have one of these with you in case your stealthy movements are misinterpreted as suspicious by security guards, law enforcement officers, or anyone else!

I recovered some snap-lock bags from Aldi and re-branded them as geocaching swag bags, just for fun.

We ordered a travel bug and another trackable in the form of a puppy from Geostuff, because Mum loves dogs. She's always impressed to see how far a trackable has gone, so I think she'll really enjoy seeing where he own ones go!

As part of my Zine per diem efforts, I also made up a zine of clever geocaching containers. On the front you can see a photo we took when we found Phytology at the Wollongong Botanic Gardens. I gave it to her inside a standard traditional geocache container - a small hinge-lock waterproof container.

Next came a simple sneaky hide, a key rock I picked up at a cheap shop near my work. These are good to hide just about anywhere that people won't be moving the rocks around regularly.

The next part is the really fun part - I found an Australian lab supplies site, Lab Direct, which sells these little 2mL micro centrifuge tubes - the perfect nanocache containers!

The only hitch was that they came in packs of 1000. While it's great value for money, we didn't really need quite that many. Fortunately, an appeal in the Geocaching Australia forum found a number of fellow enthusiasts who relieved us of the excess.

These tubes are just fantastic. Look as the size of the cache:

Easy to hide in any number of sneaky places. Inside, a scroll-type log:

Aren't they just perfect?

The best part is turning them into the kind of sneaky hides I put in my zine.

These ones are some smoothed river stones which I also marked with the 'G' symbol to make life slightly easier for the searchers. These can easily be pushed into a hole in the ground you make with a stick or an existing hole in a structure or tree, if the situation suits.

A wood chip is similarly a sneaky disguise:

This one I just think is so funny! My sister is terrified of spiders, so I made sure she was the one to give it to Mum - and I am happy to report it elicited the desired shiver from her. :) Doesn't it look especially effective in the snap-lock box?

This next one is sweet. I named the cache for her - 'Snugglepot'. I also made a matching one for myself, called 'Cuddlepie'. If you don't understand, read about May Gibbs. We haven't placed them yet, but aren't they perfect?

These bottle caps will be sneaky driven into the ground, so I've added the 'G' to ease the stress of searchers also. A note to others who may be planning to make these - scrape off the waxy coating on the inside of the caps, otherwise your adhesive won't stay.

And this 10c piece has gone to good use. We'll have to put it somewhere that general traffic won't find it, because otherwise it'll be picked up by goodness knows how many non-geocachers.

Another one for fun is the trophy - I figure it always feels like a a real achievement when you find a cache, so why not let the full imagery for that shine on through?

Finally, a whole lot more nanocaches so she can create her own ones. And, of course, a pile of replacement logs for when they get filled out by the many enthusiastic treasure hunters!

I also bought her a membership to Geocaching.com so that the paperless geocaching function would work correctly on her GPS. I printed out a membership card I designed, too:

And really finally, I planned to make up some geocache labels using the Groundspeak cache note template, and I even got through making them up in InDesign, but the waterproof inkjet label paper I ordered didn't arrive in time. It got here the next Monday though, so I will be printing them off and giving them to her soon!

And that is the geocaching starters kit Mum got for her birthday. What do you think?

~Eyespiral

Dorothy Gale/Judy Garland costume

Hello world,

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

Yes, for my work xmas party the theme is superheroes and movie stars, and I am going as Judy Garland in the guise of Dorothy Gale from The Wizard of Oz. I just finished my costume:

Ah I love it! Costume making is the best. :)

So how did it all come together?

• Light blue socks
  
• Butterick 6671 smock pattern from the op shop + Free Burdastyle pattern Danielle #9306 + blue gingham + white muslin = the outfit (check out the rocking job I did with the pleated sleeves - I'm so proud!)
  
• Blue ribbons
  
• Two braids in my hair
  
• $3 sensible heels from the op shop + tub of red glitter + fabric glue + patience = ruby slippers
  
• Lavals long coyote black fur + an adjusted version of nunodoll's life-size dachshund pattern = Toto (oh yes he is such a good dog!)
  

I finished Toto yesterday. I decided not to get a basket until I was sure what size he would turn out. I have some extra gingham left over, so next weekend I'm going to take him for a walk to the op shops around Sutherland to find a picnic basket that's the right size for him, and then I'll line it with the gingham. Perfect!

So, do y'all think I'll win the best dressed contest?

~Eyespiral

Hunt the Wumpus, (evoke), Wumpus Noir, and Wumpus Intergalactica

Hello world,

Now that the hubbub of xmas has passed, I've found a few moments to upload the four versions of Hunt the Wumpus that I mentioned in my pre-xmas post.

Hunt the Wumpus is an old computer game, originally text-based when it came out in the 70s. During my last programming subject at uni - CSCI337 The organisation of programming languages - we had four assignments in which we were to develop Hunt the Wumpus using a different programming language and programming paradigm each time.

I just signed up to MediaFire and uploaded my files and so I'll explain how to run each one in a Linux environment like Ubuntu. You will have to download a couple of packages (as I will instruct) for my games if you do not already have them installed. These games should all also run in a Unix environment and in some cases will do so more easily, but I will only give the instructions for Linux and those Unix users can figure out the differences themselves. :)

Scroll down to view each set of instructions in turn, or click on the name of the Hunt the Wumpus you're interested in below to jump to that one.

• Hunt the Wumpus - Lisp (Functional paradigm)
  
• Hunt the Wumpus (evoke) - Fortran (Imperative paradigm)
  
• Wumpus Noir - Literate C++ (Literate paradigm)
  
• Wumpus Intergalactica - Prolog (Logical paradigm)
  

Hunt the Wumpus - Lisp (Functional paradigm)
This is basically the original game as from its creator (Gregory Yob), but programmed in Lisp rather than BASIC.

1. Click on the name of the game above or click here to download the file. Choose to save it rather than open it in a text editor. Remember where you saved the file.
   
   
2. Open terminal and navigate to the folder containing the file you just downloaded. You should be able to see ass3.lisp in the list of files in the current directory when you type ls at your terminal command line.
   
   
3. In order to play the lisp version, you will need to download and install the clisp package. To do this, enter the following into your terminal command line and follow the prompts:
   sudo apt-get install clisp
   
   
4. Now that you have clisp installed, run it by typing clisp into your terminal command line. The programme will display a header and all will be beautiful.
   
   
5. Type (load "ass3.lisp") to load the game file.
   
   
6. Type (wumpus) to start playing the game. Enjoy!
   
   
7. After you have finished playing Hunt the Wumpus and have quit it, you will still be in clisp. To quit this, type (bye). You will be returned to the terminal command line interface.
   

Hunt the Wumpus (evoke) - Fortran (Imperative paradigm)
This follows the same narrative of the original game and the same rules/events/hazards, etc, but I rewrote the story to be a bit more evocative. Programmed in the dinosaur language Fortran77.

1. Click on the name of the game above or click here to download the file. Choose to save it rather than open it in a text editor. Remember where you saved the file.
   
   
2. Open terminal and navigate to the folder containing the file you just downloaded. You should be able to see wumpus.f in the list of files in the current directory when you type ls at your terminal command line.
   
   
3. You will need to install the package gfortran, a fortran95 compiler. The assignment required me to programme in fortran77, unfortunately however Ubuntu does not support a fortran77 compiler like g77. Since fortran95 is an extension of fortran77, gfortran still correctly compiles g77 code - the problem that most of my fellow programmers had was that they used functionality that did not exist in 77 and so they lost marks for failure to compile.
   
   You need to type the following into your terminal command line and follow the prompts to get and install gfortran:
   sudo apt-get install gfortran
   
   
   
4. Compile the wumpus.f file by entering the following into your terminal command line:
   gfortran wumpus.f
   
   
5. Now when you type ls into your terminal command line it should list both wumpus.f and a.out. To run Hunt the Wumpus (evoke) type the following in at your terminal command line:
   ./a.out
   
   
6. Enjoy the game! If you'd like to quit mid-game, use Ctrl+C.
   

Wumpus Noir - Literate C++ (Literate paradigm)
Here is where I start to make it a bit more fun! The Wumpus is now a mafia boss, and you are a detective on his tail. It was great, though my darling Karina pointed out after I'd finished that I'd consistently spelt labyrinth incorrectly the whole way though - 'labarynth'. Not to worry. Anyway, this one is using C++ and the literate programming paradigm, one that is very smart and really ought to be used all the time, in my opinion! It forces you to document your code, something which future programmers will thank you for.

Literate programming allows you to generate both a machine-compilable file and a human-readable pdf file from the original web file. I will give you instructions on how to generate both before running the game.

1. Click on the name of the game above or click here to download the file. Choose to save it rather than open it in a text editor. Remember where you saved the file.
   
   
2. Open terminal and navigate to the folder containing the file you just downloaded. You should be able to see wumpus.w in the list of files in the current directory when you type ls at your terminal command line.
   
   
3. In order to process the wumpus.w file, you will need to install cweb. Click here to get cweb and install it as per the instructions.
   
   
4. You will also need to download and install pdftex in order to generate a pdf. Click here to download and install it.
   
   
5. Finally, you will need to install 'build-essential', which contains a number of essential development tools that are used for compiling C and C++ files. Type the following into your terminal command line and follow the prompts to get and install build-essential:
   sudo apt-get install build-essential
   
   
6. Now we can get down to business! First, type the following into your terminal command line to prepare to create the pdf file:
   cweave wumpus.w
   
   This will have generated a collection of different files.
   
   
7. To generate the final, readable pdf file, enter the following at your terminal command line:
   pdftex wumpus.tex
   
   You will now find a file called wumpus.pdf in your current directory which documents how I developed this particular version of the game.
   
   
8. To generate the compilable version of the game, type the following into your terminal command line:
   ctangle wumpus.w
   
   This will create the file wumpus.c in your current directory.
   
   
9. Since I work in C++, not C, you then need to convert this into a C++ source file. To do this, enter the following into your terminal command line:
   mv wumpus.c wumpus.cpp
   
   
10. Nearly done. Now to compile the C++ source into an executable, enter the following:
    g++ wumpus.cpp -o wumpus.out
    
    
11. To execute the final game file, type the following into your terminal command line:
    ./wumpus.out
    
    
12. Enjoy! If you wish to exit mid-game, you can do so by pressing Ctrl+C.
    

Wumpus Intergalactica - Prolog (Logical paradigm)
Finally, we have the sci-fi variation. You are a bounty hunter off to neutralise the Wormhole Union of Marauders, Pirates and Unsavoury Scoundrels, aka the WUMPUS. Written in the very frustrating logic language Prolog. While nowhere near the insanity of Lisp, this language is tricky to get used to, and should be left for AI and not games.

1. Click on the name of the game above or click here to download the file. Choose to save it rather than open it in a text editor. Remember where you saved the file.
   
   
2. Open terminal and navigate to the folder containing the file you just downloaded. You should be able to see wumpus.P in the list of files in the current directory when you type ls at your terminal command line.
   
   
3. You will need to download XSB in order to run this game. Click the link to go to their website and follow their instructions to download and install XSB. The game will run with XSB 2.6 and up. Remember where you unpacked the file to; I put mine on the Desktop.
   
   
4. Now you need to run XSB without leaving the directory where you have wumpus.P saved. To do this you need to type the absolute address of the XSB executable into your terminal command line. The XSB executable will be located the the XSB folder you saved, in the bin subfolder, and it will be named 'xsb' (note the lower case). For example, to access my XSB, here is what I typed:
   $HOME/Desktop/XSB/bin/xsb
   
   Once you have opened XSB it will display its header in the terminal and you will be ready to load the prolog file.
   
   
5. Load the wumpus.P file by typing the following:
   [wumpus].
   
   Don't forget the '.' at the end of the command, otherwise XSB will keep hanging, waiting for you to finish your command!
   
   
6. Run the game by typing the following :
   go.
   
   
7. Enjoy!
   
   
8. In order to exit XSB once you have quit Wumpus Intergalactica, type the following:
   halt.
   
   You will be returned to the terminal command line interface.
   

And there you have it, four varieties of Hunt the Wumpus. I hope the sparse few who find this interesting enjoy playing my own personal spin on the game, and that those that stumble upon this in search of help with the programming languages used herein find the code useful to help them learn. :)

Just for funzies, I made an image to go with Wumpus Intergalactica. I actually made it because I was originally going to post the game files for download from deviantArt, and I wanted a thumbnail image for them, but I only made this one before I changed my mind and when with MediaFire. Anyway, here it is:

I altered it a little so it would suit the narrow size of this blog post, but if you click on the image you can see the original 640x480px version.

~ Eyespiral

A note to all those would-be code plagiarisers: If you are planning on ripping off my code for the same class at UOW as I took, be warned - I don't doubt that Ian will remember these particular assignments. So be smart, and only use them to help you understand the languages and as a reference while you are building your own programmes. Toodloo!

Xmas crafts! Seatbelt covers, sewn luggage tags, laptop sleeves, crochet Rorschach mask, diary cover, eye mask and peg buddies.

Hello world!

Here's a quick post of the xmas crafts that I have finally finished - just in time. :)

For my darling friend Kylee who came to visit I made a couple of my long seatbelt covers since she admired the idea - she too suffers from the sharp edge of the seatbelt and the short length of standard seatbelt covers. In addition I made her a collection of luggage tags since she and her husband travel a lot and own their own place now - meaning that their address shouldn't change for a good while, and they can therefore keep using these tags for the foreseeable future. I love my iron-on stuff - didn't it make adorable tags?

Next we have these two laptop sleeves which I made for my sister and brother. The idea came when we found the comedian tshirt for special ($5!) but they didn't have any big enough for my brother. I filled them with batting to give them some cushioning and went with a simple flat button closure instead of velcro because I could just imagine how wrecked the ole hook'n'loop would make the fabric in a short time. My sister's one is actually made of this awesome patterned velvet-type stuff that my grandparents' old lounge chairs are made of - I'm sure she'll appreciate that.

Since it was pretty simple, I made up a pic showing how I made the patterns for them. If you can't figure out my super-secret code, L, B and H stand for length, breadth and height, and all measurements are in millimetres. It has a 10mm seam allowance. Cut one of main fabric, one of lining, and cut a rectangle of batting 20mm shorter and narrower than the pattern, minus the flap. Pin the fabrics right sides together and pin the batting on top, sew and leave a hole in one side for turning. Trim the corners and the curve, then turn. Fold up, main fabric on the inside, and sew along one side with 5mm allowance, go around the flap and down the other side. Turn right-side-out, add a button and button hole and you're in business!

I also made this mask for my brother. It's meant to be like the one that the character Rorschach wears in The Watchmen. Can you tell he's into it? :) I would have posted a pic of me wearing it but it's far too big - my brother's head is mammoth. Anyway, it's crocheted with ivory bamboo thread, just like a long beanie, and then I made my own inkblot-type image with fabric paint and pressed the mask into it to get the pattern. Not bad for an experimental piece, I think.

For EJ's mum I made a diary cover which I like, but I'm worried she won't:

And for his sister a rice-filled eye mask:

Ooh and this is how I've wrapped all the prezzies this year - I love the look and I reckon it's tres classy. Not to mention cheap!

For my grandparents I put together a little composition of photos from my graduation since they couldn't come. It's cute, don't you think? Anyway, it's big and framed and now they can brag to their friends about how clever I am.

And now, my favourite item of crafty goodness this xmas - please meet the peg buddies!

This little guy is for EJ's grandparents. Do the penguin walk!

Then we have this wise fellow for my grandma. Yes, it's an owl. I will not listen to anyone who tells me it's a platypus. It's an owl!

And finally, this happy amphibian is for my Mum.

Nourish them with pegs and they'll help you hang out the washing! What a fun way to use little bits of fabric and reuse those little useless hangers you get when you buy new underwear. Eco-friendly and cute, people. That's right.

Say goodbye guys! It's time to be wrapped up for the relos.

If people are interested, I may be able to put together a tutorial/downloadable pattern for the peg buddies. But really, it's just an idea that you can execute on your own, making it up as you go along - that's what I did.

Anyway, it's time for me to get going - we've found our new place and I need to get into the business of packing.

Merry xmas everyone!

~Eyespiral

P.S. Apologies for the poor image quality for this post - normally if they turn out this bad I just go and take some more photos, but since these all needed to be wrapped I can't retake them.

P.P.S. This might be the first post that I've written and posted all in one session. Amazing!