G[r]eek Alphabet : D is for Dalek

Too tired for more than a few pics - will update with text later.

Updated 27/08/2013

D for Dalek was one of the relatively easy ones, Less different fabrics and I decided relatively quickly that the letter D would be made of the dark blue ribbon I had lying around. It was a little thin so in some places I did two rows.

Because the dalek has quite a lot of fine detail I decided rather than try to cut certain parts out of cloth - e.g the eye stalk and arms, I would just do them in embroidery.

I'd traced a dalek to make it look right in my design (free hand didn't work too well) so then I set out to try and copy all the details through from the back.

The major colour choices here were about the colour embroidery thread to use.

I didn't entirely use one image to decide but there was some borrowing of ideas from this image

One of the things that immediately got away from me was that although thread can be about the same width as a pen line, it's not so easy to control and so I ended up with two rows of the hemispheres and deciding the rest were hidden by the D. I also ended up simplifying some of the design around the middle and neck and head.

Another part that became obvious was that unless I wanted to choose a very dark grey, I was going to need to outline in part the arms and later the eye stalk in black to make it more obvious against the red and blue. In addition the arm and the eye stalk went across both red and blue which broke them up, so I had to fill in with grey in a way I'd not originally planned.

All in all it came out OK I think. The final shot includes my hand to show you quite how small he his and how hard it is to sew something quite that small.

G[r]eek update the second - now finished letter C, onwards and upwards!

Hi everyone,

Thought as part of updating I would start showing you bits of the process of making the letter.

First stage is trying to plan out all the major fabric colours so all the letters will fit together, particularly the base fabric, but also any other major colours in the picture.

They're laid out more or less where they'll be eventually but the areas covered are obviously larger since the fabric isn't cut out.

There are some colours that I can't really alter - e.g. Elmo must be red, Big bird has to be yellow, the unicorn (pretty much) has to be white). Other colours I can be flexible with.

Once that's done I started cutting out the front's background fabrics the right size (I'd already done the back plain fabric and two layers of interfacing to stiffen the square).

I could do these letters in any order, and when I did the cloth book I did do them in any order, but as a librarian of about 9 years and library worker of about 11, I couldn't resist the urge to alphabetise the making.

Anyway, skipping to letter C:

Firstly I try and finalise any remaining decisions on fabric and colours. At this point I have not chosen what colours all the letters themselves will be so this is the first thing I try to decide. Then if there are any other fabric colours/choices I go on to them. I also debate about whether a details will be fabric or embroidered. Embroidery is easier but if it's a large area, it can take ages. I'm not very patient.

Letter C I already knew that it was a green background and that the cat would be fading out using gauze from a very orangey yellow.

I really wasn't sure what colour letter to choose so I asked my mum about colours and she reminded me about that thing they teach you in primary school (oops) - the colour wheel.

From that we talked about choices and I finally came up with purple because it looked like the purple I had would be complementary with yellow and OK with the green (yes really).

So on to cutting out the top layers of fabric. I make templates and then draw them on and cut them out :

 The trouble with purple is I have no ribbon, so it's insane folding and pinning time

I then have to carefully think what gets sewn first. In this case, the letter goes on first and then the teeth of the cheshire cat, then the gauze of the fading cheshire half face, then the yellow of the currently present, then the nose.

I can't always draw on the base fabric either because it might show or because it's too dark to pick it up, so instead I trace the design onto one of the sheets of interfacing (stiffening material used in collars etc). I trace it through the right way, and then the reverse as once it's pinned in place I can only see the reverse.

This is the interfacing pinned in place.

There are no inbetween shots for this one as I got anxious early on and wasn't sure it would be OK.

Looks pretty darn OK to me I think

G[r]eek alphabet - update have started making and designs are finalised for X and Z!

So I finally decided on some designs for X and Z. Also I needed a second H and 2 more Os. I've designed one of those but not the other.

X is for Xena (warrior princess)

Z is for Zaphod Beeblebrox (Douglas Adams, Hitch Hiker's guide)

Extra H is for Horus (hieroglyph of eye of Horus)

Extra O is for Odysseus

Designs start to come to life - A and B both finished

I officially LOVE ribbon (way less hemming) and Interfacing - it's like tracing paper only you can sew with it (more on that later in pictures)

G[r]eek Alphabet - V to ?Z

V is for vampire...who likes to count

Original sketch

New sketch

So I had struggled with V the last time round and had overlooked my friend's suggestion from the last time of vampires - the Count from Sesame Street. I had ended up with "violin" - a reference to Sherlock Holmes' instrument of choice. This was a bit of a stretch really as yes, Holmes does play violin but it's not really iconic in the way that say, the sonic screwdriver is for the Doctor.
So I was kindly reminded of this idea again while faffing with the new sketch and so voila! New design with the Count. I confess at this point - entirely traced from the internets but hey! I'm going to be the one sewing it darn it!!

W is for Wonderwoman

Original sketch

New sketch attempt 1

New sketch attempt 2

When I'd originally sketched for the letter W I had not included the W in the sketch, except as it was part of the writing "Wizzard" on the hat, misspelled in the same fashion that Rincewind apparently does on his own hat in Pratchett's stories about him. When I came to combine the hat with the letter W on my new sketch I struggled to fit that hat in such a way that I could clearly write the word Wizzard on it. I had thought of White rabbit but somehow I still felt a bit uncertain about it. Should it go under W for white or R for rabbit? Combined with the fact I was starting to feel there was an imbalance of women to men on my letters, I decided to go to Wonder Woman, an idea I'd avoided early on because well, comics are not a big thing in her life, even if they have been in mine but...heck. WONDER WOMAN so who cares? And tadah! I looked for a reference image for the face and discovered her head band is kind of slightly different in different pictures. But this is the image I liked

  

So then I got to thinking about the gauntlets/bracelets which I'd always imagined as plain. This mostly seems to be the case, although some have stars and other patterns. So I'm keeping it simple.

X is for ....I don't know

No I am not kidding. I did an original sketch for X

 But it turns out X wings from Star Wars are kinda....only vaguely X ish. Specially when you want your X to be more symmetrical from multi directions.



I could overlay one on the other, but it would start to get messy, and I could make it small but it would become too fiddly... So where do I go next? I'm not sure...but I have already sketched some ideas for Y and Z so onwards!

Y is for Yggdrasil

...but then you knew that from my earlier posting.

Original sketch

So I was trying to keep things simply but Yggdrasil is the world tree - at its simplest an Ash tree. Not very complex but then I read the Wikipedia article and the Encyclopaedia Mythica article
and I'm like. Right so symbols related to the tree -

• It has three roots that lead to three sources of water:
  • the Well of Wisdom (Mímisbrunnr)
  • the Well of Fate (Urdarbrunnr)
  • the Hvergelmir (Roaring Kettle), the source of many rivers
• There is a dragon/snake eating its roots called Nidhogg
• There is a squirrel in its branches called Ratatosk
• Four deer representing the four winds
• an eagle

I started thinking and found this picture I like, which is a tattoo design.

So what's a girl to do? I can't fit all that in! But but but but....  squirrels! And deer!

Z is for ?Zeus

Original sketch 

I did an intial sketch for Z of Zeus - a beardy guy with Lightning. I'm still thinking though as it would push the balance in favour of men over women, and also apart from the lightning, not very thrilling. New sketch is not yet done. I will update you when I've done some more!

G[r]eek alphabet - S to U

S is for stars

Original sketch

New sketch

It turns out sonic screw drivers are hard to draw and have to be specific to the correct Doctor. I didn't really like the placement of the Star Trek symbol and anyway, although she likes Star Trek, she's not really a superfan.
So this time round having removed the stars from the letter C, I decided I wanted at least one starry night sky letter and went with putting stars here. It means I get to keep the Ursa Major (Callisto) yay! Also it's one of the most familiar constellations to many and you can use it to find the north star.

T is for Tardis and towels

Original sketch

New sketch

Not much change here - Tardis has grown and towel is now striped. I'm debating hunting for a scrap of actual towelling to use. What's the towel about? Douglas Adams Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy reference. You should ALWAYS know where your towel is. Also, don't panic.

U is for Unicorn

Original sketch

New sketch

Main difference is an improvement in the unicorn's horsey-ness, thanks to my Dad's drawing input. Phew. I can't draw horses. Or much of other things but my horses are not very horsey. I did consider Uhura but with my drawing skills she'd be a black woman in a red mini dress and as mentioned, not entirely relevant for a non-superfan.

G[r]eek Alphabet - P to R

P is for Persephone

Original sketch

New sketch

I always wanted to have a Persephone reference but as I mentioned in an earlier post, there's nothing distinctive about Persephone. I did have her disappearing off picture originally but I decided in the interest of simplicity it wasn't really much use just to have a skirt and foot in the picture.
The pomegranate has also moved as I liked the idea of matching the curve of the fruit and the curve of the letter P.

Q is for Queens

Original sketch

New sketch

No real changes to comment on here.

R is for R2D2

Original sketch

New sketch attempt 1

 

New sketch attempt 2

 

So as you can see a variety of revisions have happened. The first thing I should admit is my original sketches at first accidentally missed out the letter R. No idea how that happened but hey. When did draw it I was dithering and uncertain what to put in it. I had thought of the Red Queen, but Q is a tough letter, so Queens (red and white) ended up in Q. And so I meandered into (White) Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. Something I'm fond of but seemed a bit of stretch. Turning to the new sketch I'd forgotten my old sketch and had R2D2 suggested/reminded to me. Then I got onto the track of Ra the sun god. And then as we described for the letter H for Heracles, I got the wrong symbol. This is Horus' symbol.
So this fitted nicely with the fact I felt R2 was too small anyway and too fiddly to sew. And so we end up with design 2 - hurrah!

G[r]eek Alphabet - M to O

M is for Medusa and mistletoe

Original sketch

New sketch

I did originally think of having the Minotaur in there alongside Medusa, but I'm aiming for simpler designs where I can bring myself to do so.
A change you can see that is very recent and was not in my first attempt at a new sketch is that I decided we should see Medusa's face. I had originally hidden it because in the myth looking at Medusa turns you to stone, but I also decided that if all the men got to show their faces Medusa should also get to show hers. I've also pulled her out from behind the letter M. I may move her again in the final final drawing and move her to be more central.
The mistletoe is a new element idea to tie in with druids, I'm not convinced it will look like anything yet but it is a small element so it doesn't crowd things too much.

N is for Narcissus

Original sketch 

New sketch 

I didn't really have any other ideas here, but the flower has grown in size to clarify the design. This is for the myth of the boy who was in love with himself and was turned into a Narcissus (daffodil) flower.

O is for Odin

Original sketch

New sketch 

Odin and Odysseus were the original ideas I had to work with. I originally chose O, but then on sketching full size I dithered as we are not seeing Odysseus directly but his boat and also, there is a lot of Greek myth and it would be nice to mix it up with other mythologies a bit more. I then had to hunt for some help in drawing Odin, whose prime characteristics are the loss of the eye (so as to drink from a well of wisdom) and the beard. I looked around a bit and I decided I really didn't want an eyepatch, which I'm sure is plausible for that period of history but I didn't feel happy with it as an option. I took inspiration from this image and the eyebrow for the missing eye will just be more dominant and perhaps a bit lower down that side.

Looking at the Encyclopaedia Mythica entry about Odin I note that inconveniently ravens are not particularly his thing (I did think they were) but I might try to incorporate that spear "Gungnir".

Back up check on wikipedia  (wiki entry on Odin) says  he does associate with ravens. Inserting either is going to be fiddly space wise. I'll have a think.