The making of a hobbyhorse

Last Christmas I made a hobbyhorse for my niece, but I did not take pictures in the process. Now I was hired to make another on. This time I made some photos which I want to show you here. This is more an inspirational post than a tutorial.

Lets start! For the head we need seven pieces.

• 2 side pieces
• 2 felt ear pieces
• 2 fabric ear pieces
• 1 fabric strip 10 cm wide and as long as the circumference as the side pieces.

Sew a felt ear pieces to a fabric ear piece.

Turn the ear inside-out.

Fold ear in half and sew on the bottom.

Repeat for the other ear.

For the head pin the side pieces to the fabric strip. Don’t forget to already put the ears in place.

Turn the head inside out.

For the harness prepare two strips of fabric 7.5cm wide and 140cm long.

Fold the fabric strips lengthwise 2 times (like in the banjolele strap tutorial) and sew them shut. Cut one 100cm piece and add hooks on the ends.

Gather more material. I use 2 buttons for eyes and two buttons for nostrils. Two large keyrings will become part of the harness. A dollar store walking stick becomes the “body” of the horse. Not shown are two bells which are attached to the harness.

After inserting the handle of the walking stick I filled the head with stuffing.

I folded the long neck of the head inwards and used thick embroidery thread to seal the neck by wrapping it tightly around (sorry, no picture here…).

For the harness I cut 3 strips of the strap and attached them to the keyrings. I did this step by step ensuring a tight fit on the horse head.

For the hair I cut wool threads of approx. 40cm length. I folded the threads and pulled the loop through the fabric on the neck. The ends of the thread are then pulled through the loop.

Finally the horse looks like this.You can cut the hair or add additional features.

That’s all!

My entry to the sketchbook project 2013 now online!

I am happy to announce that my entry to the Sketchbook Project 2013 is now available at the Digital Library of the Art House.

Click here to go to the Digital Library.

How to Make a Banjo Uke Strap

Tired of having to sit down to play your banjolele? Make yourself a strap!

Here is how:

Step1: Make a plan.

Step 2: Gather your material. I used:

• 2 fabric pieces 7cmx20cm
• 1 fabric piece 7cmx97cm
• 1 shoelace (about 70cm)
• 2 plastic buckles for 2cm wide straps
• 1 plastic strap slide

Step 3: Fold and iron the fabric pieces 2 times so you end up with 1.75cm wide straps.

Step 4: Now sew along the edges with a few millimeter allowance on all straps,

Step 5: Take on short strap and sew one part of one buckle to it by making a loop.

Step 6: on the other end sew a loop.

 

Step 7: Cut about 32 cm of the shoelace.

Step 8: Make a knot so you have a 7cm loop.

Step 9: Stuff the ends into the loop of the short strap and sew over,

Step 10: Repeat Steps 6-9 for the other short strap.

Step 11: Sew the slider to the long strap.

Step 12: Push the loose end of the strap through the slider after looping through one buckle part,

Step 13: On the other end sew on the last buckle part, You have now a finished strap

To fixate your strap to the banjolele, disconnect the buckles and slide the shoelace loop through one of the metal J-hooks on the head.

Pull the other end of the short strap through,

Do this also with the second short strap and connect the long strap the short ones. You did it.

Sneak Peek - The Sketchbook Project 2013 (4)

Did you spot the TARDIS?

Joining the 3D printing revolution

Since the first hobby 3D printers came out, I took an interest in these fantastic machines. A 3D printer is a machine that can take a digital 3D design and print it out to a real world object. In the case of the economic printers this is done by pushing a plastic string through a heated nozzle (typically about 0.5 mm in diameter). By laying out the hot plastic layer by layer, a 3D object is made, Go to Thingiverse to see some objects designed and made by hobbyists all over the world with these neat machines.

This year I decided to have a 3D printer at home as a hobby project. Because such a project can be quite overwhelming for a beginner, I went to a workshop organized by Reprap BCN in Barcelona to build a machine with other 3D printing enthusiasts,  Here are some pictures from the event.

Starting with the base structure of the BCN3D:

A lot of screws later the motors are already mounted:

After 25 hours of assembling,the finished machine made its first test run:

The calibration cube turned out pretty well…

Sneak Peek - The Sketchbook Project 2013 (3)

These are the next pages of my entry.

Sneak Peek - The Sketchbook Project 2013 (2)

Going on with the peeks into my Sketchbook Project 2013 entry, today I show you the title page.

The whole Sketchbook is filled with watercolor drawings.

As a bonus here you have the first double page. To have some kind of guideline for my sketchbook I decided to have a sentence on the left page and an accompanying illustration on the right page. I hope that the randomness of the different pages will get me a few chuckles.