JoshPrime Makes Stuff

Hey Reader, As promised, I said I would regale you with my amazing makeup skills. Amazing is an interesting word. It doesn't actually apply that something is great, just that it is something that you can be affected by. You will be affected by my makeup skills. However, they are most certainly not great. My first step was to cover my face in foundation, rendering me all one color. I want my face to be a blank canvas. Blank canvases don't typically have noses or blemishes. We can cover at least one of those things. I am pretty clueless, I just bought something called foundation that looked like a color I wanted, not really caring if it in any way matched my skin tone. As you can see, it isn't a perfect match. Then again, this isn't a perfect drag experience so I guess it fits. Contouring is when you re-add all the color variations on your skin that you just worked so hard to get rid of. Except this time, you try to make your shadows more extreme in some areas, ...

Hey Reader, Life has gotten pretty crazy busy and I would love to be doing more making. However, I am forced to stick to planning and plotting my next project. I have become obsessed with the Positive Couple and Chester on Youtube. While the specific tastes highlighted on these channels might not match mine - far from it - I can't help but be in awe of the craftsmanship. I really want to get into making furniture, but the prospect is very intimidating. Then, I was introduced to Facebook Marketplace. I definitely knew about it existing already, I got all the obnoxious targeted ads. However, I never looked at it closely because - obnoxious targeted ads. One of my friends was getting a new headboard off of it and that is when I realized the power of this amazing new toy. I found my first purchase that very day. Ignore the stacks on stacks of wall plaster and appreciate this amazing vanity! It was only a hundred dollars and I have big plans for it! First, I need to decide w...

Hey reader! I had two looks to put together for that murder mystery party. I was to portray America's sweetheart: Miss Magenta. My brief was that she would be wearing a full length gown with fur and jewels. I set out looking for an outfit that would be 50's inspired and fit the bill. I found Simplicty pattern 8731 . I cite this pattern as mild inspiration because I deviated pretty sharply from it. A few Halloweens ago, I made a dress that had a large poofy skirt using all the tulle that I could find. I decided despite it being purple and black, it would be perfect to give my dress shape. Plus no one would be able to see the color under my gown. Since I was Miss Magenta, everything would be dazzlingly pink - of course. First problem I encountered was that this pattern was the petite version. I don't know if they sold it in other sizes, but it was definitely going to be too small for my man sized body. Further, I found the skirt pattern in 8731 unnecessarily complicated...

Hey Reader, I don't have much to say this week, other than I have finally figured out my storage in my craft room. I found these amazing metal shelving units from HomeDepot . I had set up two of them in my garage and realized that they happened to be the same size as the closet in the sewing room. This kind of coincidence must be exploited, so I brought home another one and started assembling it inside. It is a little harder to get the shelves on when you are trying to put them up in a closet. See, the shelves are comprised of four long metal poles and size shelves. The shelves are held in place by plastic dividers that clip on the metal pole and then the shelves slide over them. The first shelf provides the stability to hold the whole thing upright. That had to go in while inside the closet. That seems like not a big deal, but it is. Then it gets harder as the shelves get higher and higher and there is less space to maneuver since we already established the shelves fit perfect...

Hey Reader! I was invited to a murder mystery dinner party. I eventually want to throw one of my own, but I can live with being in attendance for now. Because I can't stand to do anything halfway, I have decided to make my own costumes. First costume on the list is Mrs. White. I am sure she has many secrets, and probably a few flames coming from the side of her face. I have only made one dress using a pattern before and I think it came out pretty great. However, this is a much more challenging dress. Its Simplicity 8848  and it is super pretty and 1950's inspired. I decided to see if YouTube would be able to help me out and the answer is YES. TheLifeKawaii has a lengthy tutorial making this exact dress. Unfortunately, by the time I found it I realized that I had already made some mistakes. Since this dress is doing to be worn by a man at a costume party, I am a little less concerned about perfection. I do want it to be better than what I made already though. In case ...

Hey reader, It has been some time since we dealt with my sewing/crafting/making room . It has many names. I have spent a long time trying to figure out what work desk would make the most sense for me. I have found many different kinds of desks that I thought would be cool. The issue - if you can call it that - is that most of the options assume that the room has to serve a dual purpose. My space is a craft room and nothing else. I had considered trying to make my craft space also be a sitting area or have a daybed inside, but at the end of they day I already have a guest bedroom, a room with a twin (although it is a racecar) and a couch downstairs. I can't remember the last time I had more than one person sleeping here at the same time as me, so I decided to just make this room be what it is. "Square boxes? But why though?" - Ikea That meant I had space! I have decided that I want two work spaces. This is only going to be one of them, but eventually there will b...

Hey Reader The time has finally come to move the piano into it's home in my living room. It isn't quite done, there is still some fabricating to do, but that can all be done and applied to the piano later, and I am interested in parking my car in my garage again. Let's get in to what I did! This is where we last left the piano. The casters are in place, the piano is painted and it was time to move on to the next steps. Then a truck arrived with my childhood bedroom on it. My folks decided that I could store my own crap, and so I got 44 boxes of toys, clothes, textbooks, and other fun memories that distracted me from piano construction for a while. The next step was antiquing. I never really thought of antiquing as being challenging, but I was having a bit of a hard time. Essentially, you water down brown (or any color you want, I suppose) paint. Then you rub it into the furniture, and immediately wipe it off. In theory, it will stick to the deepest crevices and give...

Hey Reader, Not all projects can be successful. I remember this blog started with a failed attempt to make a pumpkin shaped puppet (that really I think I can do better this time, but thats a blog post for another day). Recently, I have been on a 90s kick. I can remember an employee I had once sharing feedback with me that it was hard to relate in conversations with me because I talked about the 80s so much. I told him he was a child and that I was, in fact, talking about the 90s. Suffice to say, this 90s obsession has been happening for a while now. I really wanted to make some Hi-C Ecto Cooler. If you are not as obsessed with "the eighties" as me: 1. What is wrong with you? and 2. Here is an explanation of Hi-C Ecto cooler . Ecto Cooler was a drink produced by Hi-C in a brand deal promoting the The Real Ghostbusters TV series from 1986. It was actually just a repurposing of their Citrus Cooler flavor, but this time dyed a funky green color like the character of Slimer fr...

Hey reader, It has been a long time since we talked about the drive in movie theater . I finished painting it and got the bed in place, installed the fencing, but that was about it. I finally got some more stuff to put in that room, and that means getting some shelving in the closet. I have been really hesitant to start working on the closets. Not only are the walls not perfectly smooth in there - gasp - but closet organization stuff is kind of absurdly expensive. However, I can't put it off forever. The closets throughout the house have the absolute bare minimum. This one has a shelf and a rod hook so I could hang clothes. I don't really have a need to hang clothes in there, and I have a lot of games and other silly stuff I want to throw in that closet. It is going to need to be like Hermione's growing purse because it is going to be FULL.  I spent easily a month looking at the Container Store, Pinterest, and a million other places for closet organization ideas. All ...

Hey Reader! When I was getting the piano to me, there was an incident in which one of the four casters snapped. I figured this was a good opportunity to update the casters, and replace them with rubber ones that wouldn't ruin my floor. I went out to my local home improvement store with the broken caster in hand and found myself faced with a lot of math questions. Casters are weight tested and you need to make sure that you have casters that can accommodate the weight of the thing you are attaching them to. The casters in sizes similar to the one I already had were rated to about 90 pounds. I was faced with some questions that seem silly now. Question 1: Is that 90 pounds per caster for a total of 360 pounds (90 times 4). I quickly answered that one with, yes - obviously. Question 2: How much does my piano weigh? Average piano weight is 400-500 pounds, and the harp is 150-200. Since my harp is gone, I could expect the piano to be about 200-350 pounds. To be safe, I decided to ...

Ok Reader, I know I said I would talk about the big hole in my piano. It all started because of this fret bar. I don't even know if that is the real name of it - not that it matters since I am ripping it out. It sticks out too far and would interfere with the shelving I am trying to build. I do think it is beautiful in it's own way and I wish I could figure a way to incorporate it, but maybe on my next piano conversion! There are a few youtube videos that show this being glued in place and coming off easily. I      did not have that experience. Turns out, that mine is screwed into the back of the piano and not all the screws are in a position to be removed without completely disassembling other parts of the piano that I am not trying to deal with. I got a tube of fresh bladed for my rotary tool and set out to get the thing out. I started with a Spackle trowel because it was wide, but eventually needed to use screwdrivers to get it loose. It was really in there! Di...

Hey Reader! I am not quite sure how to break up this piano project because I am feeling a little scattered. Anything is going to be more interesting than 11 months of wall smoothing so I guess I can do whatever I want. I want to paint the piano to match the bench, so the first step is to sand it. Honestly, the electric sander made this an incredibly easy job. I am using a paint primer combo and doing 2 coats of the dark color and 2 coats of the light color. With all that new paint, sanding feels like an extra step - but it will make the paint adhere much better. Getting into some of the carvings is a challenge and I sanded by hand in those areas. The electric sander definitely did a better job, but the smooth areas are also the areas that are going to be treated roughest so I guess it is better to have them done right. It took me a few days to get the dark color on right. The picture below isn't quite the best way to protray how this went down. The top, the decorative bit...

Hey Reader, It is finally time to turn my attention to the piano itself. One of my favorite parts of taking on new projects is getting to learn just enough about them to be dangerous. For example, I am learning a lot about pianos and how they are built. For example, there are 10,000 moving parts on a typical piano. These are complex machines and are largely build by hand! I could totally talk about it with someone who builds pianos and now sound completely clueless. Don't ask me to build one though, that is a lot! The first thing I had to learn about was the random block of wood that is filled with screws. A cursory googling revealed that this is called the pin block. The pin block has pins - fancy screws - in it that perfectly align with the metal harp. The strings are then attached to the wood at the top and bottom of the upright piano, across the harp and into these pins. There are 230 pins in the piano. Many of the blogs I read about piano conversions talked about how...

Hey Reader, I am so excited to get started on the piano bar. I found a few more pictures of finished products and I am itching to get customizing. The problem will be having the right tools. I don't have a great deal of tools yet. Building my garage work area is going to be a whole other project some time in the future, so for now I am stuck looking at pretty things online. There are worse things. When you last saw the piano bench painted a dark gray color. I promised a complicated painting technique and I am about to deliver on that promise. I went over the bench with a much lighter gray color. It is pretty hard to tell in these pictures how much lighter it is. This is especially silly given that I have been working on this project outside. Since most of my crafting takes place after a long day of crime fighting, I find myself on my front porch in the dark. The idea is that I paint it a light color, and then sand the surface to reveal bits of the darker color underneath. Thi...

Hey reader! It is time for me to get a new couch. Way back when I moved to California five years ago - wow that feels like not a long time ago -  I bought this off-white leather couch from a furniture store that shall remain nameless. I asked if it was bonded leather - because honestly, bonded leather is the worst. I was assured by their slick salesperson that it was absolutely NOT bonded leather. Well, that salesperson should look into selling sand at the beach because even knowing what I didn't want didn't keep me from getting fooled. If you look at the picture, you can see the leather is flaking off - a sure sign that you are dealing with bonded leather. Bonded leather couches are only really made to last about 2-3 years and I stretched it to 5. I had to put a blanket over the back for a while or everything would be covered in off-white flakes. To be fair, the couch was cheap and I put it through the ringer. It was time to get rid of it. I wasn't really comfortable...