who loo

it all started with a dalek.  

some years ago i crocheted a dalek and then decided it needed to be a toilet paper holder....  i got the pattern from this lovely site PDF here 

here you can see the inside where i reinforced it with plastic canvas and felt.

we used it for a while, but it seemed so out of place in our otherwise normal and fairly organic bathroom.  it was done in greens and browns, with a matchstick window shade and twiggy baskets and a leafy print shower curtain complete with leaf hooks.  the poor dalek looked so incongruous there.  when it came time to renovate the room i knew what my inspiration piece would be for the new decor. 

we did a lot of work in this room before the decorating as there were lots of repairs to do.  we put in a new subfloor, new linoleum, new shower surround, new sink, new cabinets,new mirror, new toilet roll holder, new towel holders..... about the only things we kept to the original were the tub, the toilet and the window.  you see, due to some old water damage, we had to take down the tile.  all of the tile.  the room was tiled on all four walls up about 4 feet in a sickly pinkish beige that i never, ever could stomach.  these tiles also included built in towel racks and TP roll holder.

because the walls were so damaged from removing the tile we opted for wainscoting instead of paint. and yes there were many references to this monty python sketch   when we put it up.

here you can see the cool tub detail.  our house was built in 1947 and the tub is original.  i liked these lines a lot and tried to echo them in the fixtures we found.  also, note the blood red chenille rugs.  when thinking about remodeling my husband and i were playing bio shock 2, a game with a vintage sci fi look.  i used a color scheme that felt this way to me, it also goes with the older house as well as the whoniverse.

 

i picked this light fixture because it reminded me of a vintage rocket ship.






 and for the last bit of boring non-whoniverse related stuff, the sink.  just a little pedestal we found with some similar lines.  of course i needed the classic retro porcelain taps.



 

and now onto the fun stuff!
this is the cutting of her grandfather that Jabe Ceth Ceth Jafe from the forest of cheem gifts to the doctor and rose in the dr. who episode  the end of the world.  pictured in the lower left hand corner of this still.  i made this from a twig i cut and re glued together, some faux leaves, and a peat pot that i sealed with mod podge to protect it from moisture. 

i couldn't find a whoniverse themed shower curtain.... and while searching i fell in love with this little beauty from thinkgeek.com.

i realized then that in order to be consistent i needed to pull from the scariest parts of the whoniverse, especially including pieces from dr. who's darker, deadlier, more grown up cousin, torchwood.

which brings me to this.

the  bottle from the torchwood episode from out of the rain. i still really need to track down an old film canister to place behind this to complete the effect.  i couldn't find the proper shaped container and am not quite happy with the finished product so i may actually redo this at some point.   this was a glass vinegar bottle i painted.  the raised detail is polymer clay painted the same as the bottle. in real life this actually looks much more metallic.  i used a metallic paint after all.  also at some point i need to get my hands on an old metal film canister to place behind it.

 a gas mask from the doctor who episodes the empty child and the doctor dances.  no i didn't make this.  it's something we've had in our costume bin for years.  my husband picked it up at a military surplus store when he was still in high school.  in digging it out of storage for use here i realized, not for the first time, that we probably aren't your average couple.  it's not many times when you can hear yourself calling, in a cheerful voice, "hon, have you seen the gas mask?"

 the weeping angel, originally from the doctor who episode blink that i posted about here. 

and here's how i've 'trapped' her with mirrors....







in that last photo you can see the TARDIS quilt covering the window.  here it is during the day.  the windows only have one layer of fabric and no batting so the sun comes through  just like the lights in the 'real' TARDIS. 

some detail shots here.  i used cording to outline the recesses in the wood and bias tape for the separation line between the doors.  also, to add more dimensionality, i omitted the batting in the recessed rectangles, although it's hard to see here.

quilting details added to mimic wood grain.

the lettering is just some iron ons i found at the craft store.

and this is all i have so far.  i have a couple more project ideas in the wings, like jack's wrist strap and possibly something really creepy... my husband half-jokingly suggested a face of bo toilet seat cover.  there's something so wrong and so right about that idea i just might have to do it.  if and when that happens you bet i'll post about it!

as always, thank you so much for looking!  hope you have a great day,

-sarah

 

Don't Blink!

 

*****UPDATE 3/27/2014: after much soul searching, repeated requests, and another glimpse into copyright law I'VE DECIDED TO MAKE THESE TO ORDER!  while i still highly recommend that you make them yourself using my tutorial, this is a way to support the work, and for the crafting (and time) challenged to have their own weeping angel inspired piece!

the link to my etsy listing is HERE!


greetings readers,
i admit it. i'm a geek. and a proud one at that. i'm also a longtime doctor who fan. i grew up watching the 4th doctor (tom baker) and was never very satisfied with the ones that came after, until the series was revamped in 2005. i've successfully indoctrinated my husband into the whoniverse (we are also huge torchwood fans) and decided to decorate our bathroom with the scariest themes of the whoniverse. the bathroom is a work in progress, but i'll get to posting more about it later, i promise. it occurred to me that one of the most obvious monsters for me to make in particular was a weeping angel barbie. for those not in the know, weeping angels are creatures that appear to be statues of angels with their hands over their eyes (hence the name), but whenever someone (or something) is not looking at them they can move-fast. even blinking can allow them to get you. so here's the "why," now i'll show you the "how."

i cut a wing shape out of craft foam and added details with hot glue.



i discovered that even jointed armed barbies' arms are not in a proper position to cover their eyes so i had to cut and reattach the arms at the elbow. more hot glue.... a high temp gun makes all the difference here. her arms aren't going anywhere.







i also took the time to glue all of her joints so they are solid and attach her to a base- yes, with wooden skewers.


i realize that i'm missing a picture here, but i attached the wings next using high temp hot glue again.

a simple gauze dress was added. the gauze allows for the proper folding and drape (once paint and glue are added) to be indicative of the romanesque statues the weeping angels disguise themselves as. also in the picture below you can see peeking out from behind one of her wings my rendition of the bottle of tears from the torchwood episode "from out of the rain"


then came the problem of her hair. despite barbie's fashion sense, styling her hair any more than ponytail or down is next to impossible. in order to create the carved waves seen in statuary i needed to rely on my trusty glue gun again.



i next used craft glue to settle her dress more, and prepare the piece for priming.



and somehow i didn't get a pic of the piece primed, but just imagine the entire piece white ;)  the primer i used is a regular brush on house paint primer (like Kills) you could use a spray one i suppose, but i liked how i could really saturate the dress and make it a solid piece this way.

instead of trying to fake the stone texture myself i decided to use a textured spraypaint. i am quite pleased with the results!  i used a "sand" texture instead of the "stone" texture as the flake was much more to scale for the size of the doll.






and here she is in her proper place. i am quite pleased with how well she fits with the small shelf i had lying around. ....and do not worry for me who fans, i am placing a mirror directly opposite her so she will be trapped ;)



thanks for looking!
-sarah