Welcome to Gaia! ::

Greetings to all who grace my page!
Thanks for stopping by, and remember to check regularly. You never know what I have in store for you.


A Little About Me:
I go mainly by the name of Sarah, but gained the nickname Rah-Sah from a friend a few years ago. See what they did there? Clever, no? Hah.

I come from the land down under, where something something and something something. I should know that song.
I hail from the coastal town/city of Newcastle, which is about three hours north of Sydney. Come visit some time, I have a spare bed.

Currently, I'm studying Fashion Design at college, and want to eventually major in Costume Design.
My penultimate goal is to open a small shop/boutique that sells a range of things. Firstly selling costumes [NOT renting them]. Secondly, selling a small personal clothing range of mine. Thirdly, selling plushies and sculptures and things. And fourthly, supporting local and up-n-coming designers and creators by allowing to sell their things in my store.

Originally I wanted my own couture boutique [making custom pieces for clients] but realised it wouldn't be enough of an income to keep a store open. And then I added my love of costumes, and my interest in fashion [not mainstream]. And then along came plushies and sculpting.
And now that I'm more into fashion design, I know how many of us all just want a little leg-up in life to get into the marketing world. So if my store helps young students reach goals, then so be it.

What do I do in my spare time?
To be honest, I'm a chronic procrastinator. This comes hand in hand with the wonders of ADD.
There are very few things that I can focus on for long periods of time. Art, and writing.
Instead of working on my major assessment for college, I sew plushies and kick myself for procrastinating. I know it's going to come back and kick me in the a**, but I just won't learn from my mistakes!

What's my medium?
I would love to say I have one thing.
I'm a dabbler!
I sew costumes and clothes.
I make charcoal drawings.
I paint.
I make plushies.
I sculpt.
I sketch.

I stick mainly to sewing/plushies, though, I guess. But my dabbling is turning into paddling with sculptures.

Contacting Me:
My Deviant Art Account
My MySpace
I check both of these daily.

BUT ENOUGH ABOUT ME. More about my work.
Please click thumbnails for a larger view.

Ideas and Thoughts In Progress

Patchwork Babies.
A series of baby animal sculptures, along the same lines of Squeekums.

• Rabbit with carrot.
  
• Bear with comforter blanket.
  
• Puppy with bone.
  
• Kitten with 'plush' fish.
  
• Monkey with half-peeled banana.

Plushies on commission
Plushies that I have been commissioned to make:

• Zubat.
  
• Bellossom
  
• Bat
  
• Clown
  
• Barbecue with kebabs.

Completed Works B:

[T.B.A]
Spill-over.

Materials

Post-Work Impressions

Fleecy.
I love this stuff for making plushies. A lot of people use this or felt, and I tend toward fleecy because it's just so much softer and snugglier.
One thing to really look out for is the knit of the fleecy. I bought some one-sided fleecy [fluffiness only on one side], and didn't think to look at the knit before I did so.
It turned out the knit was very loose, and made the fleecy incredibly stretchy, which really isn't good when you're making detailed plushies.
One thing to be careful of is which direction it's going to stretch when it's stuffed. Don't cut out two pieces that will stretch in different directions unless you really want something lumpy and retarded.

Fimo
Oh boy. I've only used this stuff once, and I LOVE it. I've never worked with a material that's so eager to do exactly what you want it to.
A huge downside is us Aussies have to get it shipped over from America into our stores. So where the US is paying $2 a 58g pack, we're paying around $5.
Fimo doesn't seem to be 100% colour-fast, so I decided to use a different pair of gloves per colour, which can get tricky if you're handling the project a lot. I ended up having a Project Glove, for my left hand to hold the project, and then a Cool Glove [for blue, green, purple] and a Hot Glove [for yellow, orange, red, pink].
Maybe it was overkill.

Air-Dry Clay.
I know many people who've used this stuff, and half of them seem to swear by it, and the other half curse by it.
I didn't mind air-dry clay once I figured out how to work it.
Squeekums the mouse-babe is made from air-dry, and he's worked out fantastically.
A few tips:

• Wear gloves. This helps prevent moisture loss from the clay, as well as eliminate a majority of finger-print problems.
  
• Only get a very small amount of clay out at a time. I had about a 1-2 inch diameter of clay out at any time, the rest was in a zip-lock bag. Easy access.
  
• Keep a small quantity of water nearby. Don't overdo it though! Unless you're working with a large amount of clay, you'll only occassionally need to dip a fingertip in, or a little brush.
  
• If you're joining to pieces, such as an arm and a body, cross-hatch (#) the joining areas. Wet them a little bit, cross hatch again, and then press the pieces together. Give it a wiggle and another press, to work out any air bubbles and excess water. It'll give you a firmer bond.
  
• If you start to see cracks forming, don't stress. Also, don't fix them until the clay is 100% dry! It's horrible to mend a little crack, and come back the next day to find it's larger. To patch, you have two options. 1- Fill the crack with superglue. This works fine, especially if you're painting over it. Because of the type of glue, paints won't repel from it unlike craft or PVA glue. 2- Patch with a tiny bit of clay. Make sure it's nice and soft, and try to work it down into the crack. Smooth it down with finger, tool, or brush til it's flawless. This will ultimately give you a smoother finish than glue.

Reserved

Reserved.
Because things you've forgotten can spill onto another post.




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Heh. Thank you! =)