Spock's Pickled Brain

So, if you've been following along, you may have seen the Dinotopian map tube DIY that was posted last week. If you haven't, well, it's a fun post. You should go read it. But onward! Anyways, after the rampant and totally unexpected success of the map tube, I decided to make something a little more creative to add to my Dinotopian cosplay. I liked the idea of having a useful, well-prepared belt (one might even call it a...utility belt? I may have read too much Batman). And since my character is something of a librarian, I wanted to have another way to carry/display the tools of their trade. What I ended making was kind of like a pocket protector that doesn't protect your pockets. but it does look way cooler, so I figured it was an acceptable trade. Materials: - A sheet of semi-stiff plastic or cardboard (I cut apart a plastic folder to make this) - Enough fabric to cover the front of your panel, with maybe an inch for seam allowance, plus a little left over for the belt...

Alright, to cap off our random trawl through Dinotopia and Terra Nova, I wanted to show how I made the awesome accessories from my Dinotopian librarian look. Up this week is the document tube! This is a great prop because it's useful and (as all the best props are) dead simple to make. The sewing takes some time and force (note: get a thimble. Or at least a pair of decent pliers), but the construction is super simple. So stand back and get ready to make... a TUBE. Honestly, you're not even making a tube, you're just decorating it. Materials: -A cardboard tube, ~12 inches long (the sturdier, the better. You can certainly do this with just a wrapping paper tube, but I used a heavier tube used for transporting art, and I would highly recommend it.) - Enough fabric to cover the tube, plus a little extra (you need at least a little overlap on all the edges. I think I ended up using a sheet of crocodile skin pleather about 14" x 12") -...

Okay, so if you're not familiar with Dinotopia, the short and long of the "Skybax" creatures is that they function sort of as domesticated pterodactyls. A special Dinotopian corps bonds with these skybax and serves as the island's air force, scouts, and high order messengers. So I wanted to make one. And I tried, twice, with varied results. Neither of these actually look much like the skybax, but I'm pretty happy with the plushy demon birds I ended up with. On the left, we see Gurney's majestic original skybax! And on the right, kind of a ugly duckling. But it's still my baby, and it's still way better than my original attempt. Hint, hint: the key here is to make the design as simple as possible, and to make all the fiddly bits out of something you're better at. Phase One: The Two-Dimensional Approach (aka The Roadkill ) So this was my first attempt. It's pretty crude, I'm not going to lie, but it is basically recognizable a...