Tag Archives: crafts

AGENDA: FEBRUARY 2023 MonSFFA e-Meeting

AGENDA: FEBRUARY 2023 MonSFFA Meeting

Note: Our meetings take place both on our webpage and on Zoom. To request a link to Zoom, contact <president@monsffa.ca> .

1:00PM, Post 1 of 8 (Meeting Opens!)

Release (Photos of) the Kraken! (This is a quick feature showcasing recent pictures taken of the rarely photographed giant squid, inspiration for many a sci-fi monster.)

1:30PM, Post 2 of 8 (We’ve Been Framed!)
Presentation—Framing Your SF/F Artwork. Keith, with membership participation presents tips on how to show off your projects to best advantage.

2:30PM, Post 3 of 8 Page and Screen: “What Are You Reading/Watching?”  (ZOOM)

3:00PM, Post 4 of 8 (Break): Snack Time, Virtual Display Table, Today’s Raffle Prizes (ZOOM Chat Continues)

3:15PM, Post 5 of 8 (The Purge!)
Discussion: Moderated by Cathypl–Why readers find it so hard to give up books we have loved (It’s not hoarding if it’s BOOKS!)  (ZOOM)

4:15PM, Post 6 of 8 (Show Us Yours!)
Show-and-Tell (ZOOM Chat)

Gallery: Celebrating Famous Sci-Fi Couples (In honour of Valentine’s Day!)  On line

4:45PM, Post 7 of 8 (For the Record!)
Special SF/F LP Record Offer! (Courtesy of the Legacy of Sylvain St-Pierre)

5:00PM, Post 8 of 8 (Wrap-Up!)
Thank You!

Date of Next Club e-Meeting: March 11, 13:00h. Guest speaker, Lloyd Penney

Sign-Off

Post 4 of 5: May 9 DIY Virtual MonSFFA Meeting

12) Cathy’s Crafts: SF in the Workshop

If you have been to a MonSFFA meeting, you might have seen the wooden projects I often give to the club for use as raffle prizes. I make these with a scroll saw.

This is a hobby I’ve been pursuing for a long time. I’m especially fond of scrolling wooden stand-up jigsaw puzzles, but I also do some fretwork, mostly in the form of Christmas tree ornaments. I also make clocks using fitups like these:

https://www.woodparts.ca/premium-clock-inserts.html

This is a short video (8:49) in which I attempt to explain my hobby.

Welcome to my workshop!

Addendum– (0:56) — The puzzles being oiled, some are to be raffle prizes.

If you find this an interesting hobby, there are far better videos on Youtube made by professionals. There are also some facebook groups where scrollers show off their work.

 

How to make a sock puppet

At our October meeting, Josée demonstrated the making of a sock puppet. We had planned to have a workshop this spring, and Keith was to write a script for a sock puppet play, but now we are waiting for “things to get back to normal.”

One of our members has already been inspired to make a puppet at home, maybe more will follow?

 


 

Genre Easter Eggs from Quarantine

During my isolation I decorated a dozen Easter eggs.

The first one was a dragon egg. Since the thumbtacks I found were gold I didn’t want to completely cover the egg so I lightly dry brushed it with red paint and gold glitter. I finished with a coat of varnish.

 

 

Then I did a set of eggs that are shaped like cut crystal and come in the colors of the rainbow. So red, blue, yellow and green were used for the Hogwarts house colors with sequins, the purple was decorated in usual Easter colors and for the orange one I used
autumn colors.

The rest I decorated with sticker gems
from Magi-Prix. I painted them then applied the
gems in various designs. The final one I also used fake
flowers.







 

Finally, since there won’t be a family
party this year, I won’t need the Easter Bunny cake
patterns but maybe somebody can enjoy them.




Happy Easter to all

August 28th Meeting

Aug 28 is Project Day!

Members are being asked to consider what projects or hobbies dragon in colour with hammerthey would like to introduce to our members in hands-on workshops.

Cathy will give a crash course in using Word Press in hopes of temping members into being contributors to our website.

If the force is with us, and everyone and everything needed to complete our stop motion project comes together, we will complete the stop motion project we started last year.

The theme for the snack table will be “Alien Food” so cooks, get your aprons on, and be creative! Yes, the food has to be edible, but not necessarily attractive!

 

 

CREATIVE GROUP PROJECT PLANNED FOR AUGUST CLUB MEETING

 

We’re changing things up a little as we resume the club’s regular meeting schedule with our traditional August “fancraft” meeting this coming Sunday. Rather than the familiar series of hobbyist and crafting workshops we’ve been hosting for the past several years, this year we’re planning a group project. We’ve come up with the idea of making a short stop-motion film employing paper cut-outs.

Keith Braithwaite has devised the proposed film’s simple story: a variety of dinosaurs are grazing in a prehistoric landscape, when suddenly, a meteor streaks from the heavens, dropping onto one of the dinosaurs and crushing the hapless creature. Then another, and another meteor falls, each taking out an individual dinosaur until there are none left. The title of the piece is Theories of Dinosaur Extinction—Number One: The Meteor Theory. The potential for sequels is apparent, should this venture prove successful!

We will create the characters, backgrounds, and other elements from coloured construction paper and such, artistically enhanced using crayons, pastels, or pencils. We may also, perhaps, incorporate parts of photographs culled from magazines or newspapers to further heighten a particular look.

We’ll tap the artistic talents of our members to draw, colour, paste, carefully cut-out, and animate the piece. MonSFFen are therefore asked to come prepared: bring in a couple pairs of scissors or a utility knife, a roll or two of scotch tape, and any scraps of coloured construction paper, cardboard, wrapping paper, and such that might be applied to the project. A couple of glue sticks, too, would no doubt come in handy. Note that for practical reasons, we’ll be working with dry mediums, so no paints, please.

If you have old magazines, posters, or photos that you can contribute to the project, bring these in, as well. Of particular interest would be any organic images of nature—plants, forest or meadow landscapes, etc.—or anything in the green or brown colour ranges that might be cannibalized for the purpose of decorating a prehistoric landscape.
Time allowing, we’ll set up an animation stand and shoot the picture at the meeting. We estimate that a 30-second short will require some 720 individual frames. If that proves too ambitious to manage within the few hours available to us, we’ll simply complete the project at a subsequent meeting. But we certainly expect to have enough time to design and create all of the elements needed, and at least get some of the animation completed.

So MonSFFen, bring your supplies and drink deep that morning of your creative juices!