Ditty's Workshop

[azureditty]

I made this all the way back in June as a commission! It was a wedding gift for two now happily married wives, which is why I can finally post this.

They're fans of both Pokémon and Final Fantasy XIV-- which I am too!-- so after getting some details from my client, I was able to add all sorts of easter eggs for them to find, and it sounds like it was an extremely successful and touching gift for them.

[azureditty]

And now, as we are called to sleep, he beams. And I know─I know it is because of you. Thank you.

[azureditty]

[azureditty]

Now that the boys have finally released their PO Box video (which you can watch here), I can finally post these!

These were gifts for Garrett and Kyle from Grinding Gear. Their respective Warriors of Light, Tuna Nocrust (the Dark Knight Hyur) and Val Gaunt (the Astrologian Elezen), handsculpted from polymer clay and then painted with acrylic paint. I wouldn't be able to accurately math out how long it took in hours, especially because I kept taking all kinds of breaks when I hit a block and was stumped on how to proceed, but I can say I started at the very beginning of January 2024 and that I finished somewhere mid to end of May. It was a long and tough journey, and it's very far from professional work, but I'm very proud of how they turned out and I'm glad their new owners liked them as much as they did!

[azureditty]

Digging through some of my craft stuff made me find some earring posts waiting to be used, so I made myself a pair of tiny Starbirds!

[azureditty]

Finally posting these now that I was able to to gift it and the recipient isn't likely to accidentally stumble on this blog by a 0.millionth of a chance lol

It took me a little under two weeks, even with all the on and off poking and doing other stuff in between. My paint work is going to take a little more practice, but I'm really happy with how the dragon itself turned out!

[azureditty]

[azureditty]

Now that the EU Art Contest's votes are closed, I figure it's okay to post the 'full' photos, since some of the ones I submitted got cropped.

I know it was hardly the most important aspect of it, but I was really proud of all the glow-in-the-dark bits. The lantern carried during our escape from Ul'dah's tunnels, the broken shield, our frenemy's scythe, our soulmate's axe, our comrade's staff, our mother's crystal. So I was a little disappointed when they got kind of squashed out on the finalists' page. It is what it is, though.

The whole project was actually based on a screenshot collage I put together. I'd considered making that my submission at first, but looking at it, I was confident about the idea, but not the execution of it. So I picked an entirely different medium instead.

Results are bound to be posted soon and I'm anxious to see the results. There was a lot of really cool stuff, so I don't think I'll take the crown. But I still got to show off my Endwalker lamp to several thousands of players! I wanted to take a shot at putting my love for the game out there, and no matter what, I'm glad it paid off.

[azureditty]

Smol Ancient. Wind-up Ancient.

'Neath dark waters, he glows

[azureditty]

While visiting my parents yesterday, my sister decided to surprise everyone with a pumpkin carving activity. We all got to pick our pumpkin, and I was really taken by this one that was all green except for one patch of orange. I actually wasn't even sure what to do with it first because of the sheer potential!

Sadly doubt the pumpkin will last until Halloween next week, but I was still pretty happy with how the whole thing turned out, considering I really only had a knife and spoon to try and do this with! They all thought I was nuts.

[azureditty]

I think this is a great first post to inaugurate this blog!

Entry: C-18 Entry Title: Do Not Squander Them. The Legacies Left to You. By: AzureDitty

(It's a shame they cropped out some details on a couple of those pictures, especially the glow-in-the-dark elements, but I know they did their best to cram in what they could.)

Although I suspect I made it by default due to there not being enough submissions, I'm still really excited to see I made it among the finalists in the Handcrafts category, and thrilled to finally be able to show everyone what I worked on last month!

There is a lot of breathtaking art, crafts, and screenshots that were submitted this round, and I really struggled to pick out my favorites. You can check out the other EU contestants and their works [here]!

And, if you have an active subscription to Final Fantasy XIV going on right now, you can also vote for your favorites [here].