A Captain’s Journey, and a crafty nerd’s dream

Let me tell you a story, folks. A story that starts back in 2014, when I first got introduced to Star Trek.

As most of you probably already know, Captain Kathryn Janeway is my favorite Star Trek captain. Janeway was actually my gateway into Star Trek – back in 2014, while being stuck in bed for a few days with nasty back spasms, I started watching Orange is the New Black while waiting for the muscle relaxants to finally kick in. I liked it a lot – and I especially enjoyed Red, the character Kate Mulgrew played. I got Rana to watch it with me, and she was really excited to see that Kate Mulgrew was in it. When she realized that I’d never seen Kate in Voyager, though, or that I’d never really seen much Star Trek at all, she pulled up some episodes of Star Trek: Voyager with Captain Janeway and Q (since I knew John DeLancie from My Little Pony), and I got hooked.

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Nerdy tidbits: June 2019

Well, we’re almost at the end of June, which means it’s time for another edition of Nerdy Tidbits! Read on to learn more about the fun nerdy tidbits of June 2019 that didn’t quite fit into their own posts!

A crafty and nerdy tidbit: Picking up cross stitching again

Oh, cross stitch. Back when I was younger, it was one of the first crafts I picked up, along with sewing and knitting. I really enjoyed making cross stitch projects, but was never very good at finishing them. (For example, I’ve got a Sherlock wallpaper cross-stitch project I’ve been working on for my friend Josie’s birthday for… four years now?) Eventually, I told myself that after I finished the two projects I had in progress, I was done with cross stitching for a while. Since I hardly ever finish cross-stitch projects, it seemed like the best idea.

Then I found this pattern, which I thought would be perfect to make for Ross.

A June 2019 nerdy tidbit: Picture of the cross stitch pattern "Evening in the Shire".

So, I bought it and supplies to make it, and I’ve made some pretty good progress on it! I’m almost to the point where I can start all that backstitching. For those of you who are interested to see how it’s coming along, I’ll be posting occasional updates to The Crafty Nerd’s Facebook page – so if you’re not already following it, you should! If you want to make the pattern for yourself, you can buy it here on Etsy.

An awesome tidbit: Captain Janeway monument in Bloomington!

A June 2019 nerdy tidbit: Photo of a Captain Janeway Christmas ornament next to an Indiana vanity license plate that says JANEWAY.

Here’s a Star Trek tidbit for you all! My fellow Star Trek fans might remember that Captain Janeway’s birthday was last month – May 20th, to be exact. In fact, according to the show, she was born right here in Bloomington! To celebrate the occasion, I posted the picture above on Facebook – and it was shared to a group of Bloomington Janeway fans! The Captain Janeway Bloomington Collective is in the process of getting a monument to Janeway built in town. How awesome is that? Fundraising is starting soon, and if you’re curious to learn more about the monument, check out the group’s Facebook page.

An old nerdy tidbit: Echo Chernik’s Auri sketch, and where it ended up

This is an older tidbit, but one that still makes me happy. When I was digging through my Gen Con archives recently, I was reminded of something that happened at last year’s Gen Con: Ross and I getting to look at Echo Chernik’s sketchbook. Specifically, we were excited about the Auri sketch for the Name of the Wind playing card Kickstarter.

A nerdy tidbit from last year: Auri sketch from Echo Chernik's sketchbook.

Here’s the Auri sketch, still in Echo’s sketchbook!

I figured that would be the end of things with that sketch, but I was wrong!

It turns out my good friend J went and visited Echo Chernik after I sent him a picture of the sketch, and he went and bought it. And it was actually in my house at one point. I may have flailed a bit when he brought the sketch over, because honestly, I never thought I’d see it again.

The same Auri sketch from earlier, being held by my friend J.

And here’s the sketch, inside my house! *flail*

Tiny tidbit: I love Bloomington Stitchery

And last, a final little tidbit about Bloomington Stitchery -I mentioned recently that I brought my Starfleet science officer uniform over to them to get it altered. Well, this morning I had the brilliant shower thought about adding pockets to the uniform. Then I realized I should have asked to add pockets to it while I was there. (Cue me facepalming.) Of course, I rambled about it on Facebook, and they said “hey, we might still be able to do that, just email us to remind us!”

I seriously love these folks, and I can’t wait to see how my Starfleet uniform turns out! If you’re in the Bloomington area and need alterations done, you should check them out.

Well, that’s the Nerdy Tidbits for June 2019! Stay tuned for next month’s collection of tiny nerdy stories, which will probably include a lot of Gen Con prep.

Fixing up a Comm Badge, the Crafty Nerd way

Earlier this week, I was wracking my brain, trying to find a good idea for a blog post.  Should I write about yarn?  Nah, too boring.  Should I show off the blanket I just finished?  Eh, also boring.  It wasn’t until yesterday evening, when I was working on patching up a piece of a costume I’d ordered, when the idea flopped into my lap, almost literally.

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I’d ordered a Star Trek: The Next Generation costume off Amazon (my costume crafting skills aren’t quite up to making Starfleet uniforms yet, sadly), and while the costume itself fit, and the rank pips were beautiful, the comm badge was… less than stellar.  Granted, the picture above is after I’d started sanding it, but there were large chunks of paint that had flaked off and stuck to the costume package, which left a lot of big black spots where you can see the plastic.  Being the crafty nerd that I am, I didn’t let the sorry state of the comm badge get me down.  Instead, I grabbed some of my mini painting tools and set to work!

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After sanding the loose paint off the badge, I took it outside and sprayed it with primer – the good stuff I use for my minis is possibly packed in a box somewhere, but I did manage to find some other primer in the garage, so I worked with what I could find.

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Post-primer, it already looked lots better than it had when I’d gotten it, haha.  I let it dry overnight, and then before my workshop this morning, I broke out the paints!

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The paints I have are old, and a little lumpy, but they worked for what I needed them for.  (I need to get a new set of paints one of these days…)  I worked with some Chainmail Silver and Glorious Gold paints from my mini painting stash, and managed to get the badge all painted before I got to work!  I primed it after I got home, and the results were pretty good.

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It’s not super glossy like the replica Starfleet communication badges you can get from places like ThinkGeek, but considering the whole costume cost $35, my paint job got the job done.  Ross has a comm badge lurking around somewhere, and if he can’t find it, I may splurge and get one of the fancy Voyager ones, even though it doesn’t match the TNG era uniform, since the main reason I got the costume is so I could dress up as my favorite captain…

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Okay, so it’s a dress uniform, but close enough, right?

Granted, it’ll be Janeway in a TNG era uniform, but in order to get a proper Voyager uniform made for me, I’ve gotta spend $80 to order it from FanPlusFriend, the place I used to get my frilly Japanese gothic lolita clothes from, and I wanted something quick for Halloween.  However, if I do end up going to Starbase Indy, I might splurge and get the more show accurate costume…  Once I get some pictures of me in my costume (I’ve got to get my hair cut and freshly dyed first!), I’ll happily share them here! 😀