Contest The Great Triathlon Exalted!

Thanks!! I think the aerie is my favourite of my 3 projects, I made it to fit my doll's character more than anything else, so I'm definitely keeping it despite the lack of space at my place! It seemed such a good idea when I planned it... Until I realised that the wrapping paper/plastic stuff is really hard to lay flat & glue and then the photos...

It's been really interesting seeing how everyone came up with their wings; more than anything else I think they were the hardest to try and work out the methods used! Quite a few of the wings - like the paper ones or the metal framed ones with tissue/mesh are even more impressive now that their construction methods are out!

 

Vetinari, that mirror trick is really cool! Yours was another one I'd been wondering about when it was posted, the two sets of photos somehow seemed strangely incongruous and somehow my head didn't go to "two way mirror." I still loved the look of it, even if I couldn't work it out at the time, and loved the concept of the carnival tent on it, too.

 

There are three books in particular that gave me much reading pleasure . #1 was simply gorgeous with the leather cover. When I saw that right off the bat I knew I was in trouble!
I was also amazed by Ariel and the Shiny Wings, the binding and the artwork--gorgeous.
But I think I enjoyed the pop-up book of pirates the most for its humor. I kept going back to it just for a laugh!

 

Congratulations to the winners!! All of your creations were fantastic and I'm certain you're proud! I'm glad to see some that I greatly admired at the top, makes me feel wise for voting for you I'd like to think I helped give you a nudge (oh my the hubris!!)
It's really interesting seeing how some of you made your wings!! I've been devouring the project journals that have been popping up, I wish I'd had the forethought to take pictures as I went I was very impressed at how many different methods everyone devised... not to mention all the new ideas I will have to try out!!

I really like the leather harness and clockwork of your wings AmyAngel, I'll admit I have a soft spot for steam and leather is always so attractive when it's used to pull everything together!! The construction looks very neat and professional from the photos on your Flickr, thanks for posting them ^^

It looks like a lot of research went into the construction of your wings eosthilas! I love how flexible they are and how they can wrap around your doll!

Beanbags, Layn, are and awesome idea!!

I'm hugely impressed by the technical skill it took to complete your wings AENEAS! I voted for you in the first round because all those clean lines really appeal to me, they give a sense of movement while remaining stationary (if that makes sense heh)... The layering effect is really neat ^^

I must shake my first at you vampy! That yarn, I fear it will be a slippery slope for me as I immediately went online to search for some for myself It's a very neat idea and I envy your ingenuity!!

I was really surprised by your wings minimoon!! I would never have guessed that they were made of fabric!! I thought they were done in the same way as a paper doll, and jointed that way, very neat!

Wow Vetinary, your wings have a HUGE range of movement!! I'm really impressed with your engineering skills! I also would have loved to see your two-way mirror trick, what a neat little innovation, it really makes your aerie unique ^^

For my part, I've been dying to spiel about my wings since I made them, as I though they were quite different (though I got no votes hehe), I'm still super happy with them :P
I went with the traditional wire frame, with a twist... I wanted a fantasy look, like butterfly wings, as my doll's personality is quite girlish and young


What gives them the twist is that they are made of actual crystal!!
- I started by making a paper thin layer of acrylic nail filler in the wire frame.
- I then painted my design so it would show though the back.
- Then I used clear nail polish to imbed little grains of Alum on the painted surface.
- Then I submerged the wings in a supersaturated solution of Alum and Water to force grow crystals over the surface of the wings (about 2 days... ARG! The wait was terrible!!)
- When the crystals were grown, I sealed the edges of the wings with more clear nail polish and voila.... real crystal wings ^^

*phew* I look forward to reading more of everyone's stories!!

 

it's good to be able to put some more names to dollies! and I'm loving hearing more about everyone's work.

I'm planning to make a video talking through all of my stuff, but I've got roofers making all sorts of racket at my house for at least another day, so I'm not sure how soon I'll get that up.

this is a larger version of my wings picture though, to at least start things off.
Lena is named for the song Helena by My Chemical Romance, which is from their second album, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge.
her wings were made using the booklet from my copy of the album, which I've had with me for ten years (it was released 6/8/2004)
also the tank top she's wearing, though I didn't actually make it specifically for the triathlon, is made from what was my first ever MCR t-shirt that I'd had for probably almost as long as the album.


three cheers for sweet revenge. by Eleanor_Anne, on Flickr

 

Congrats to the winners!
It was fun to do creative stuff with a deadline. It made me finish things for once. I call myself the misstress of unfinished projects for a reason
But I guess there will be no last hurrah for my entries. (on holiday right now and other reasons). And if anybody wondered the studded red/black feather wings are mine

 

Toxic - Those were cool, and I felt the tug of several of my dolls pining for them! Nobody's ever really wanted wings here before...

Ellipses - wow, had I known you grew your own crystals on the wings, you definitely would have gotten my vote! I somehow missed that bit of information while going through the materials photos.

I am really enjoying all the background and information on how things were made!

 

Haha! Thanks aernath, that does make me feel better!! It was killing me not to tell everyone

 

Yeah, I had no idea about the crystals, that sounds really cool. I didn't even know that was possible... It really would have been great to have some description with each stage.

 

ellipses, I also had no idea, but that's such a cool concept for your wings! It's a shame there wasn't any description at the earliest stages, I would have loved to know little things like that.

 

Thanks Aernath
So maybe more of your dolls are getting wings now after this contest I'm thinking about doing another pair in white (for his long awaited gf) but they were quite timeconsuming to make. Took me 2 hours before I had the internal frame (metal wire) bend right. The total thing took me about 8+hours (40cm doll) I guess. My sister said she loved them so much she wanted a pair in human size. Well that's not happening sometime soon

 

Ooh, Ellipses, that's very nifty! I, too, wish there had been more discussion space for the earlier two challenges. I feel that some people's wings and Aerie didn't get as much attention as they deserved, simply because it was difficult to tell just from a materials photo exactly what was going on, even though I know I literally looked at every picture. I think most of us did. I am disappointed that I didn't do better in terms of scoring, expecially because I had a full, coherent plot since the beginning of the wings challenge, even though I didn't know that's where it was going, and elements of that were included in each photo. I am very pleased though, in the end, with what I constructed, and I'm glad that I made it through all three challenges. It's exciting to be able to share about the process now! I'm excited to learn about all the different techniques people were using.

I made my doll's under wings out of carefully shaped wires of different gauges, then overlayed two layers of plastic cling wrap (I used a generic brand) and then heat shrunk and bonded them together with a hot air gun. Let me tell you, after that, I not only wanted to make full-sized wings for myself (which would totally work), I wanted to shrink wrap EVERYTHING in sight! It's still a possibility, and the next time I want fairy wings, I will do it this way. You could even paint then with a thin paint or a nail polish to give them a little transparent color (I tried it on a couple versions, and it was very pretty, but looked too "fairy" and not "beetle" enough for this purpose). Here are my galleries, now public. Yay! Even though the contest is over, I have residual feelings of naughtiness for posting these in public...

My Wings and Aerie!
http://s23.photobucket.com/user/EriChanHime/library/DoA Triathlon 2014

My book!
http://s23.photobucket.com/user/EriChanHime/library/DoA Triathlon Book 2014

 

Oh gosh, EriChanHime, I LOVED yours! You did get one of my votes at the end, because I was so impressed how completely you'd pulled everything together (and your book kind of wowed me too). I do wish you had done better, because seeing how everything of yours came together, I felt like you did deserve more votes. That's really cool to know how you made your wings, too, it makes me want to try it myself.

 

This was awesome, Eosthilas! I am very impressed with your details and understructure. Great articulation. I also really enjoyed reading your story. I'm sorry I couldn't read it in GIF form! You made me wish I'd kept some kind of construction journal, too. Beautiful job!

Thank you so much, Vicemage! Yay! I really appreciate that (And so does Arthur ). Also, YES, go forth and make cling wrap wings for everyone. They are not only dirt cheap, they are really very pretty in person and weigh absolutely nothing! MB Lilac on DoA (I usually see her in the JID threads and drool over the amazing outfits she makes for her dolls) has a great tutorial on her linked website for adding wire frame wings to bodices and corsets that would work great for this kind of wing, too.

Now I'm really enjoying looking through everyone's background work. I'll have to wait till I get home to view some of them, though, since my work computer doesn't load Flikr properly. Looking forward to it! Congratulations to all the winners, and to everyone who put love and effort and attention into these projects. I'm enjoying learning from you all!

 

EriChanHime​, I also loved, and voted for, your beetle wings. I liked the originality and the execution of the concept. And I like bugs!

 

Oh man. I did my wings & the seat of my aerie with a garbage bag and a heat gun, and I felt the same way! Shrink wrap EVERYTHING!

I had a blast doing the contest, though I wish August hadn't been such a mega super busy month for me, and that I had access to all of my craft tools and supplies, which are in a storage shed right now I gave myself a mini-challenge not to buy anything at all, and just use stuff we had lying around the house I'm staying in. Even though things didn't turn out as awesomely as I visualized, it was still a really fun process, and I cracked myself up putting it together. Definitely thrilled I managed to make a book that's barely bigger than a quarter, though I wish I'd thought to write on the pages BEFORE I bound it

 

EriChanHime, I just may! Even though I don't really have anyone who needs delicate insect wings, per se, that doesn't necessarily mean I can't give them some! (And I'll also have to pass that info along to my friend who's doing a fairy garden of tiny dolls, I bet she'd love to do it... and if she doesn't have a heat gun, I'll encourage her by loaning her mine.)

merethien, I tried to do the same thing... only ended up spending money on the aerie, because I decided I did want something I could use long-term and didn't have the right materials to build such a thing to contest specs, but I really felt like it made the process even more interesting. For the parts other than that, though, I really had fun digging through all my supplies around here and finding all the fun things I could use to build something. I think that part of it is most likely to get me to try this again next year!

 

Very neat EleanorAnne! I love how much your wings tie in with your doll's backstory... but to cut up that booklet!! Your hands must have been shaking!

Haha, thanks minimoon!! It was kind of touch and go, as I had never seeded a space so large as the wings before, but chemistry is one of my loves, so they were quite fun for me to make

Me too!! I'm sure there are many wings that would have been 1000% neater if we'd know their significance or how they were made!! ...though I guess that would have also made the arduous voting that much worse It was soooooooo hard to choose!!

Thanks EriChanHime! I love shrink-wrapping things too!! I used to work at a bookstore and we'd have to re-wrap books when customers opened them... it was my favorite job ^^

 

Congratulations to all the winners and participants here. I was blown away by all the ideas and new interpretations. Just fantastic work, everyone! I have new respect for repurposed items. I don't think I'll look at the stuff laying around my house in the same way. Now it's like, hmmm, what can I make out of this scrap wood or old jewelry? I found that I liked making something out of nothing most of all.

I had to drop out after round two since I was working on the couture contest too. I think I did the right thing since I'm not sure if I could've uploaded a book using my IPad. I had been using it as my camera during the competition.

I'm curious as to how you made the books turn the pages? It looked like a video. I have no idea except that the images needed to be in gif format. Could you please let me know how to do it? The books were awesome! And I especially liked seeing the photos of your dolls in their niches reading their books. So cool!

 

It really was hard to choose! I've still got my list of votes saved, from where I was narrowing it down... just for the wings round, I had 48 different ones in my first round of narrowing it down, and even THAT part was hard! Getting that list down to just 3 took me almost all week!

Pony, they're animated gifs, much like the emotes here. You build them frame by frame in a photo-program or a gif-specific program. I know there's a tutorial down in the Photography subforum, but since I already knew how to make animated gifs, I haven't actually looked at it and don't have the link.

 

Thank you! I'll check it out.

 

I really wish as stated we had been able to EXPLAIN our wing and airie entries and had known our explanation of the book was going to be shown.I kinda just was like blah here.


So! I did My exalted Waterlily for the contest. She is a chosen of luna and a high priestess! making wings for her was hard at first because do to her nature, she doesn't NEED them (ie she shape shifts into a bird).also i didn't feel bird wings were what i wanted(though i did come up with some ideas for them) and i did not want to go steam punkish as i though it would be the most common idea. I decided on a dragonfly/Lady bug hybrid.Also I wanted them to move, since thought it would make them more interesting.(though I need to work on something to make them move more) I did like how they turned out, since to me as stated they are simply a Fashion statement for the Doll/character.I used alot of stuff from my work, stuff we throw away like tissue paper and coffee bags every single day.


My Arie, was a Broken, hidden Shrine to Her goddess. The roof was really hard for me and i was displased with it.Though the idea was to Have it be in disrepair. The pillows and the Offering bowls I was really happy with. The pillars as well made me happy, though i have decided to refine them a bit!


The book, I made it to be a way of her Children(all under the age of 9) to show their love and devotion to their Distant, Powerful, Gentle mother.To Them she is good and Sweet, playful when she can spend time with them.(hard at times when you run a large temple in a big city And have to go off and Help save the world to spend tie with family). so it looks a bit childish but it is ment to, the poems, they were the hardest part of the book for me to do since i WROTE them and i used Terza rima style of poem.

Anyway That's my idea and why
Thanks for reading

 

I definitely waffled for almost a whole day before deciding that I was okay with cutting up the cd booklet xD
it seems silly, but I've always saved them for every album I have just because I like the art; so letting go was hard, but it was the only thing that felt right for her wings so it had to be done.

and your wings are so neat! they're another case where I really wish we'd been able to explain 'cause I never would have guessed you'd grown your own crystals since I don't really know much of anything about chemistry.

 

I'm gradually working my way through all the photos I took during the triathlon and writing up blog entries on them. I've done my niche now, which got the most votes out of my three entries, so I'm pleased with it. http://minibjdkei.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-47.html

There's a few other photos from the photoshoot on my flickr (in my signature). I thought I'd actually be able to use this as a little box room for my doll but now she has too much furniture, I'm going to need something bigger! I want to still use the window from this one though because I loved how that looked.

 

My book was a small grey book about my beloved Skaia. I made it out of layers of paper, and it got a grand total of four votes ^_^' My husband keeps telling everyone about it and how proud he is of me, but I'm just happy I completed the triathlon with a sick baby grumping around the place!

And even though I didn't win a prize, I ordered a Doll Leaves Wish, as a gift to myself for all my hard work.

 

I thought your layered paper illustrations were beautiful!

 

I loved everyone's entries. Here's some of the shots I took for this contest. I'm a little upset that the gif was too fast for someone to read so I'll probably post the story somewhere else later.

http://s752.photobucket.com/user/PrinceMonochrome/library/DOA 10 Anniversary Contests?sort=3&page=1#

 

Ahh, thank you! I really enjoyed making it and trying a new process for illustrations. The entries this year were just phenomenal, I hope everyone feels very happy with what they achieved

 

Thank you so much Phanuel! I was #1 for the 3rd challenge. I so enjoyed making that book. I don't think I would've been able to create a tiny book for anyone else than Finster, especially in such a short delay. I knew he liked old, damaged things, though, so I didn't have the pressure of making something *perfect*. I thought I could always burn away my failures anyway. ^_^;;

The second challenge taught me a lot too: I was aware that most spray paints weren't safe for styrofoam as they could ravage the texture, but I'm pretty proud I dared try an old can of paint on my aerie. I was afraid my experiment would ruin everything, but the paint melted the already uneven surface just enough to create a rough, stone/concrete finish. ^_^ (I was #43 for that one.)

***

Thanks everyone for posting all those inspiring behind-the-scene pictures and explanations! So many amazing ideas... I love how you made your crystal wings, ellipses! Your knitted wings are really impressive too, vampy.

***

To the creator of Entry #11 of the Third Challenge: your little book made me cry, and I usually never, ever cry. The pictures you took were just so incredibly touching. You got my vote for the narrative. Despite all the other amazing stories, I just couldn't get yours out of my head. ^_^

 

hehe, sorry to be an enabler! It is really fun to play with though, and pretty good value for money as you get so much of it on each cone.

I loooove your real crystal wings, they are awesome