Color Theory Collages, Delta Kites, and Mini Lanyards

We got our abstract collages back on Tuesday. They’re nothing too special, but I am posting everything I make, so I’ll post these as well. They are not supposed to be anything in particular, just random shapes to demonstrate that we know how to use color. The first one I made uses analogous colors. This is just a grouping of adjacent colors on the color wheel. The ones I used were all in or related to the blue family of colors. The background is tissue paper, and the rest is construction paper.

The next uses complimentary colors. These are colors that are opposites on the color wheel, and go well with each other. I used purple and Yellow, but another example would be seen in Christmas decorations, as Green and Red are opposites on the color wheel. This one is entirely construction paper.

The last one is mono chromatic. Mono chromatic color schemes use varying hues of one color. I chose red tissue paper, and used pink construction paper as the varying hue.

We turned in our 4 drawings today. I was up until almost one finishing mine. He said that they were due at the beginning of class, because we would be reviewing material for the midterm quiz. (Midterm already?! We just started didn’t we?) There were quite a few people who did not have them done though, and worked on them all through our quiz review. I hope the get counted down, because we were repeatedly told when they were due, and we had plenty of time to finish them. I have no excuse for waiting till the night before to color in my last two, but at least I made the deadline. Our teacher is way too lenient. There are lots of slackers in the class, and I hear “I’ll make an exception this time,” from the teacher a lot. Not to me personally, but to all the people who keep missing deadlines.
In my Design 1 class, we are still working on our kites. I’ve now decided on a Delta kite, but the hard part has been finding some good clear plans on the internet. I found some, but they’re for a kite using a garbage bag and bamboo skewers. I want mine made out of cloth. I did put together a small kite made out of paper and balsa wood,

(Not a flying model) but I want a different design. One that I can take apart for storage, since I have no place to put a full sized kite. I remembered today that dad has a collapsible delta kite in the attic, and I told my teacher about it. He said I could bring it in, and we could make some plans based on the design of his kite.
In our speech class Tuesday night we had to give our process speeches. A speech explaining how to do something, using visual aids. The choice of the night was food, and most of those who chose to do food, brought in what they made to share with everyone. Everyone who did food, did desserts, so I had enough sweets that night to last me the rest of the week. There were two demonstrations on homemade ice cream, one by machine, one using ziplock bags, a demonstration of scotcheroos, Taffy Apple Pizza, and the most original one, gobbler goodies. I took a picture of mine to share here.

As you can see it’s really easy. You just make a batch of rice krispy treat mix and form it into balls. Then twist an Oreo in half, and using chocolate frosting, glue it and some candy corn to it, and you have a little turkey. I liked that she used Halloween Oreos, since the orange cream gave some more color to the turkey.
Other speeches explained how to make homemade jewelry, and how to meditate. Joel did his speech on folding an origami airplane. I didn’t do so well on mine.

The top looked ok, but the underneath wasn’t right, and it didn’t fly well. It took a one way trip to the garbage can.
My speech was a demonstration on how to make something I invented called a mini lanyard. I’ve been making things out of paracord, but I always have extra bits left over after I cut off the ends of the cord. I hate wasting the cord, so I came up with them as a way to use up the extra. Since my speech was mostly ad-libbed I’ll post my outline for you to read, then you’ll know how to make one too!

Topic: How to Make a Mini Lanyard
Purpose: To teach the audience how to make a simple keychain or zipper-pull.
Central Idea: Making a mini lanyard is a simple craft that only takes a few minutes to put together.
Introduction
I. When I make a lanyard or a paracord bracelet I always have extra cord left over at the end.
II. I don’t want to waste the cord, but what could I do with it?
III. I designed a simple use for it using just a bead and a lanyard hook.
Transition: Tonight I’ll show you how I do it.
Body
I. If you want to make one, you can start with an extra scrap, or you can choose your own color and cut a length to your own specifications.
II. Then gather your materials, you’ll need what I mentioned above, plus a lighter.
Transition: Next you put it together.
I. First you fold the paracord in half.
II. Next you take your bead and twist the cord through the hole.
III. Once the cord is through, you take your lanyard hook and you clip it to the loop at the top of the bead.
IV. Then you tie knots at the bottoms of the strings that are hanging down.
V. Trim the ends if desired and use the lighter to melt the ends, so that they don’t fray.
Transition: and that’s all there is to it.
Conclusion
I. There are multiple uses for the mini lanyard.
A. You can use it for a zipper pull.
B. You can use it for a decoration for a backpack or other bag.
C. If you leave the lanyard hook off of it, you can put a chain through the loop and wear it as a necklace.
II. You can also make them in specific colors for different causes, such as pink for breast cancer awareness, or yellow to show support for the troops.

 
This is the one I made during the demonstration. I attached it to one of the zippers on my new backpack.

I also brought supplies so that everyone could follow along and make their own. I was afraid that my speech would be way under the limit, because the speech was supposed to be between 4 and 5 minutes long. My speech ended up being 4 minutes and 58 seconds! I made it just under the wire!

Our teacher has been trying to get us to use more gestures in our speeches. Since we were to use visual aids I planned some gestures into my speech. Gestures are much easier when you are showing things to the audience. At the beginning when I was explaining about what I make, I held up a couple of lanyards that I have hanging on my backpack.

I also rolled up my sleeve to display a survival bracelet I’d made.

Gestures were also easily incorporated all throughout my speech, since the whole time I was putting a mini lanyard together. Then at the end when I was explaining all the uses for the mini lanyard, I pulled out a necklace I had made from one that I had hidden under my shirt.

I’m not really sure what I’ll do for gestures next time. It’s so much easier when you have something to show the audience. Gesturing doesn’t really come naturally to me, at least when I’m giving a speech. If I’m thinking about gesturing, I feel like I’m just randomly waving my hands about.
Remember last week when I told how in drawing 1 we had to draw a pile of boxes? I expressed the hope that the next assignment would be more fun. Well guess what. It wasn’t. This time it was even worse. This time there was random junk piled all over the boxes. Broken mannequin chunks, rope strands, torn cloth, and all manner of random rubbish. Because nothing says great art like a broken mannequin's upside down butt. *eyeroll* At least this time we are using pencils instead of charcoal. This drawing we are taking two weeks to do because it is a lot more detailed, plus we are using an inkwash for the shading. I think I will probably enjoy that part a little more since that’s something I’ve never done before. I’ll be glad when we move on to something else though. I would much prefer it if our still life drawings were of something nicer.
Well, that’s all the latest news from school. Now I need to get onto my online psychology class and make a post on the discussion forums. This weekend I have another test due. >Groan< Hopefully I’ll do better than last time…

A Little Bit of Random in my Life, A little bit of Crazy by my Side…

Yeah, I know this was based off another song, but this is the good one.

 

Well, I’d say that was a sufficiently random way to open a post about randomness.

So today I got home from work and made a shocking discovery above my desk. James had decided to hold an execution using a length of my paracord. I was unaware that hanging was an acceptable method of execution these days, but perhaps that only applies to humans, and not gummy bears.

The poor guy never really stood a chance, but I guess I can’t argue with the charges James brought before the accused.

The notice of execution reads as follows: Hung on this, the twenty-sixth day of August, two thousand ten, for the heinous crime of being delicious!

This should stand as a warning to all sweet and chewy creatures out there. Stop being so tasty!

 

Yesterday I went to the new wellness center for the first time. It’s a really nice place. They have any sort of exercise equipment you can think of there. I chose a machine that was like a stationary bike, but the handles were different and the seat had a back. The seat was still not that comfortable though. Sure there was something to lean back on, but there’s still the problem of a rock hard bicycle seat. I suppose it wasn’t too bad, but I really could have used a cushion. As I got into my pedaling, I looked up at the TV. I hadn’t been paying attention, because I had my ipod with me and I was listening to that. What channel do you think that they had it set on? A talk show, or political network, like most places seem to have every tv set on? Something to motivate people to work out and get healthy? Something funny to take their minds off the agony of the exercise? No, no, and no. The Food Network. The Food Network? Seriously? in front of a bank of exercise machines, where the last thing people want to be thinking about is food, they set the TV to show nothing BUT food? The only explanation I can come up with is that they knew what the chef would be preparing and they figured it would kill anyone’s appetite if they happened to see it. The host of the show was stuffing some sort of suspect looking gloop into a bunch of giant shriveled up flower blossoms. He then proceeded to dip them into some sort of white batter and deep fry them. If I hadn’t already been full from lunch I may have lost my appetite. What kind of show was this anyway? Who in their right mind would want to chow down on deep-fried glop-filled flowers? Not me. I think that failblog would give that recipe a “delicious fail”.

 

A few months ago I had seen a site on the internet that was advertising something called survivor bracelets. It was a bracelet mainly for men made out of something called paracord. This peaked my interest, because I have been trying to find out about more types of jewelry for men. I like making jewelry, but there’s only so much that I can wear myself, so I’m always on the lookout for new designs for men’s jewelry. The bracelets looked really cool, and they were also functional. If you were ever in a situation that called for rope, you have ten feet of it on your wrist, ready to unravel and use. Unfortunately the site was a business site and they were selling bracelets, not instructions and materials, so I left and I forgot about it. Until a few weeks ago, when Joel began making keychains that looked eerily similar to the designs on the survival bracelet site. Joel had found tutorials on youtube and a site that sold paracord and had started making keychains. He even had a coworker ask to buy one off him, and he has since started his own “Mini-business” and even set up a facebook business page for them. I am now adding knotwork to my repertoire of jewelry-making skills, and am practicing a bunch of techniques. My first bracelet I used a rather simple knot. It doesn’t take as much cord as a survival bracelet, but it’s still something you could unwind in an emergency. I just took this picture and I’m using the SD card slot in my laptop for the first time! Isn’t that exciting? No? Well it is to me. I need a life.

After that I decided to try tackling a survival bracelet. I used a plastic side release buckle for the clasp, and I think it turned out pretty well for my first try.

I also have started trying the keychain designs as well. I got a bunch of different findings to use, mainly split rings, but I got some large lobster clasps, and a couple of Spring Snaps too. I’d post some pictures of those as well, but my camera decided to die on me, and I have no idea where the rest of my batteries are. Actually I don’t know where pretty much all of my belongings are since I packed everything away after our basement problems. I may just have to buy new batteries.
Anyway, It’s getting late, or should I say early, and I need to get to bed. I start my Drawing I class tomorrow. I will try to get my first school related post up soon, and I will be posting my artwork, for better or worse. It may not be the greatest work, but I hope to get better, and by posting it from the beginning, you’ll get to see the evolution of my skills.