The Indigo Phial

I have a blogger-enabled phone

2011-12-28T21:58:00.001+11:00

I'm excited to announce I have acquired a Samsung Galaxy S II! Hopefully I'll br sharing more wuick posts from now on...

Form-fitted case using expanding foam - I've been looking for this kind of tutorial for ages!

2011-09-01T09:13:00.000+10:00

How-To Geek has posted a tutorial titled 'Create Customer Tool Drawer Liners with a T-Shirt and Spray Foam', and I couldn't be happier! Whenever I am making gifts, I love the idea of creating a custom-fit box lined in velvet or something equally luxurious - and using the concept explained in this tutorial, now I htink I can do it.

Lots of free public domain books

2011-08-04T20:21:00.000+10:00

Hello world,

Just a quick note to share this link with you - I have been drooling over all the dressmaking anf patternmaking books available on there, and that's just a minute sample of the almost 3 million books they have - let another their other media!!

Check out http://www.archive.org.

~Eyespiral

Supercool reverse geocache wedding gift

2011-07-06T21:56:00.000+10:00

Hello world,

Just a quick on to share this absolutely amazing reverse geocache puzzle box by arduiana. It is just so cool that he made this for his friends' wedding gift. I am astounded and impressed.

~ Eyespiral

Tineye reverse image search - very cool

2011-06-13T20:45:00.000+10:00

Hello world,

Long time no update - we got engaged while on holidays, so I am knee-deep in wedding planning bliss right now. I've been madly trying on dresses all over the place. I really liked one I had the store note down for me, but of course they didn't give me the actual designer or style because otherwise what's stopping me trying to get it at a better price from another retailer?

However, luckily for me, the dress shop happens to feature the dress in the header of their website.

Enter Tineye Reverse search! http://www.tineye.com/ allows you to either upload an image or enter the URL of an online image and then it searches the web to find where else that o,age appears online. Hey presto, I found my designer!!

Thought I'd share the love since it's exactly what I wanted and worked perfectly for me. :)

~Eyespiral

Projects on their way

2011-05-02T11:13:00.000+10:00

Hello world,

Soon I'll be posting pictures of a few fun projects that I've whipped up in limited time - a Combi cushion for my little sister who we call miniTim, a Black Swan style tutu for her costume for her birthday party, and a quick and fun craft utility aprol for mum for mothers day. I might even do a tutorial for the tutu since finding a decent tutorial was such a challenge!

~Eyespiral

Custom gold and silver henna patterned gumboots

2011-03-12T13:49:00.000+11:00

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.

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

I promise it's coming...

2011-03-11T15:28:00.000+11:00

Pop-up books, moving books, 3D books

2011-02-08T14:14:00.001+11:00

Hello world,

Just quickly - I've had this site saved on my browser tabs for eons now, so I thought I'd share. 23 Sandy Gallery has a great online catalogue of handmade books that do all sorts of interesting things as part of Pop up now!

Jump over there and take a look.

~Eyespiral

Mobile blogging & new project sneak peak

2011-02-02T13:09:00.001+11:00

Hello world,

Just a quick note to test out my mobile blogging function.

I've started work on a quick project involving the sexy item pictured - any idea what to expect? :)

Hopefully I'll share this project with you as soon as Sunday.

- Eyespiral

mydeck - Personalised playing cards using cityrail train tickets

2011-01-30T11:46:00.000+11:00

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

Snag it

2011-01-30T10:19:00.000+11:00

Hello world,

Just a real quick one - I recently had the need to do a scrolling screen capture, which sent me on a forage through the internet that led me to TechSmith's SnagIt. This software is very clever and at $49.95 I decided to purchase after my 30 day free trial. It's really useful for me at work where I often put together how-to documentation, and I think it'll also be a great help for this blog, too!

Thought I'd share the love. If you ever need a handy screencap tool which includes editing capabilities, scrolling capture, live links in screen captured PDFs... at least give the trial a go.

~Eyespiral

Mum's geocaching starters kit

2011-01-29T23:06:00.001+11:00

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

Arise_Victorious trading card #32

2011-01-29T16:05:00.000+11:00

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Arise_Victorious trading card #31

2011-01-29T15:55:00.000+11:00

This is one of the series of trading cards I am making using my own artworks. See the original (in higher resolution) and all stock credits on deviantArt: Bewrecked.

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Arise_Victorious trading card #30

2011-01-29T15:45:00.001+11:00

This is one of the series of trading cards I am making using my own artworks. See the original (in higher resolution) and all stock credits on deviantArt: Eternally preserved.

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Arise_Victorious trading card #29

2011-01-29T15:38:00.000+11:00

This is one of the series of trading cards I am making using my own artworks. See the original (in higher resolution) and all stock credits on deviantArt: Only the dead.

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Arise_Victorious trading card #28

2011-01-29T15:32:00.001+11:00

This is one of the series of trading cards I am making using my own artworks. See the original and all stock credits on deviantArt: With new eyes.

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Arise_Victorious trading card #27

2011-01-29T15:09:00.004+11:00

This is one of the series of trading cards I am making using my own artworks. See the original (in higher resolution) and all stock credits on deviantArt: The sea ladies.

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Arise_Victorious trading card #26

2011-01-29T14:54:00.000+11:00

Made this image using a tutorial and stock from a Photoshop magazine. Thought it was an appropriate choice for a geocaching trading card. :)

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