University!

I've started at uni! Its fantastic, but pretty damn manic. I have to fit 12 hours of lectures, 12 hours of practicals and 4 hours of supervisions into one week! And on top of that in each 1 hour supervision I'm normally set an essay which will take around 5 hours (if not more) to complete. And then theres practical write ups, revising lecture notes..... AAAAAARRRGGGHHHH IM GOING TO GO INSANE.

So the blog isnt going to be updated anywhere near as often as I'd like! I'm sorry about that!

Heres a bit of an update while I have a few spare minutes (shock horror), just sharing a few things about uni life.

 

 Punting! Its so much fun! If you ever come down by Cambridge, you definitely need to give it a go!

 

This shop offers free samples of fudge, so we had to start a new tradition: matriculation fudge. We also did matriculation McDonalds, which was pretty surreal in gowns.

Plenty of Harry Potter photo opportunities.

General matriculation madness.
(Oh, I probably should have explained sooner. Matriculation is like graduation, but before you start. Its an Oxbridge/Durham thing)

My new mug! Behold its awesomeness!

Using the whole range of opinions in my first Evolution and Behaviour essay.

 

My Dad bought me this! Its a graze box, and you get 4 different types of snacks. In mine I've got salsa mexicanos (little biscuits with salsa), natural vanilla seeds (mixed with sunflower seeds), festival fruits (pear, apple, plums and blackcurrants) and after dinner mint (sultanas, chocolate, almonds). How lovely is that?? They all look so nice, I dont know where to start.... www.graze.com is the website on the box, if you wanted to send your own as a gift.

Aaaand finally, an update on my Genesis Rhapsodos earrings, all of which are now reserved!

Because I wont be able to get any more of the beads, this means this item is now unavailable for the forseeable future. If you still would like one, please do get in contact with me and then if one of the other potential buyers cancels on me I can tell you!

Even if the morrow is barren of promises, nothing shall forestall my return...

Becky x

Off to university!

I go to uni tomorrow! I'm dead excited, but a little nervous too!

Commissions and sales are now closed. See my previous blog post for the details, but if theres something you want I'm more than happy to reserve it for you, provided its not already been sold in the shop.

Here are a few new pairs of earrings I've made:

 

These are made from miracle beads strung in a chain. I wanted to use ear hooks but I'd run out so had to use studs instead.

 

When wearing earrings, do you prefer studs or hooks? 

 

 Secondly, two lovely pieces of shell hung on wire with acrylic shell beads. My camera whitewashed this picture, sorry, the shell beads have a lovely streak of bluey green running across them which is a lot brighter than you can see here!

A few purchases for university:

Found this on ebay, its supposedly a limited edition Square Enix product. Whether it is or not I dont know (it does look authentic, but I dont know enough to judge), and I dont really care, because its awesome.

 

I couldnt find a decent bag to take to lectures anywhere, so I bought a cheap plain one and decorated it with lots of badges. Again, my camera kind of ruined this picture and you cant read the Game of Thrones badges (which are the best, especially the House Stark one). I bought those badges in Waterstones for £4.99, which was a bit expensive, and I got House Baratheon, Stark, Tully and Greyjoy. I'm very tempted to go back and get the other pack, which was Targaryen, Lannister, Arryn and a picture of the Iron Throne.
The other badges are mostly steampunk or random ones I bought at the Nemacon Artists Alley, and a few from David and Goliath (I love that shop).

 

Apparently my face when I saw this jumper in H+M was priceless! I just had to buy it...

Puppy love!!! Her name is Poppy and she's very mischievous but I love her to pieces. Here she is investigating the camera.

Have you all gone to university yet? What did you get up to in Freshers Week?

Even if the morrow is barren of promises, nothing shall forestall my return...

Becky x

Jewellery reshuffle

Hello all!

As I go off to university within the week I've placed a few of my items up for sale at a local shop.

If you're interested in any of them, let me know asap and I will ring the shop to ask them to put them aside for when I get back. This means there is the possibility they may have sold before you reserve them, and I wont be able to organise postage and packaging until December when I'm back at home.

 

This goes for all my other jewellery too - I wont be able to sort out payment or postage until I return home. You can still reserve anything you like by getting in contact with me (providing its not already been sold or reserved) and I'll get in touch when I'm home and things are up and running again! 

 Also, I recently learned that my local bead shop is closing down :( I went back to the shop today to stock up on the beads which I use a lot of, and there shouldnt be too much of a problem for most of my jewellery.

The only problem is my Genesis Rhapsodos earring, which uses a bead which I have only been able to find there. Until I find a replacement, these earrings are limited edition. I have three left, and two have already been reserved over deviantart, so if you want the last one get in contact asap!

 

 All commissions will be closing on Wednesday! Sales will still be available, to a certain extent. I can reserve an item for you, but I will not be able to organise shipping until December (because I'll be at the other side of the country to my jewellery). Due to the very high workload of my course I have decided not to take my pliers/wire/other jewellery making stuff down for the first term, but I may change my mind at Christmas depending on how things go.

However, I still have a few pairs of earrings to post about and a newish pendant to put up for sale. There is also a good bead shop in Cambridge so expect some new and wonderful things at Christmas!

Even if the morrow is barren of promises, nothing shall forestall my return...

Becky x

Baccano!

Where do I start? This has to be the best anime I have ever seen. No joke.

I found it by just randomly clicking through interesting youtube links. Because I watch a lot of FFVII crap, this was recommended: http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&v=uAy8u3IcWZU (seriously, who makes these videos? They're so awesome!!) For those of you who know nothing about either Baccano! or Final Fantasy VII, this is the actual opening: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Msg8ypnLqaw 

The first few episodes are very, very confusing, but once you've got the hang of it its brilliant. The story has a very non linear progression, meaning you see most of the ending in the first episode and most of the series is piecing together the events. There are three main storylines throughout the series (all connected), and one other which is more of a backstory. (I'll try not to spoil it for you...)

The backstory happens aboard the ship Advenna Avis some time in the 1700s, and focuses on a group of alchemists who summon a demon to help them gain immortality. The demon grants them an elixir, which grants them eternal life.
The three stories all cover the crazy events that happen 200 years later when two bottles of the elixir accidentally end up in the hands of New York gangsters and outlaws. There are gang turf wars, train robberies, assassins covered in blood pretending to be monsters, immortals... its completely and utterly insane! The stories are all mixed up and connected, and the way in which the plot plays out is fantastic. Watching the whole thing in one go really pays off.

The characters are all amazing, although a lot of them are psychopaths. This anime is rated 18 for a reason, dont watch it if you're not good with violence. People get dangled from moving trains, their heads blown off, shot to ribbons, beaten to a pulp... There are some scenes which are very gruesome, and some characters who are scarily sadistic. But theres also characters who are ultimately very good people, and their development through the plot is good to watch (Jacuzzi, from cry baby to hero). Theres even some seriously sweet love stories. And the fight scenes are brilliant.

The best character in the whole thing is Claire Stanfield/Vino, who is one of the aforementioned psychopaths (albeit with moral tendencies). He's the most badass character in anything I've ever seen, completely invincible and untouchable in a fight with a mad mad personality. He really comes into his own in the OVAs, which are well worth watching to get a sense of closure on the series.

If he grins like this, you're screwed.

Another two brilliant characters are Isaac and Miria, who take eccentricity to a new level. They're a pair of thieves who specialise in robbing people in the silliest ways known to man, and get away with it because people think they're not being serious.

Words cannot describe how insane these two really are.

The voice acting here is fantastic. Seriously, regardless of your feelings on English v Japanese dubs, you have to watch the English here. No one does American gangster voices like American actors. The best performance of the series has to be Jason Liebrecht (Train in Black Cat) 's sexy gangster voice as Luck Gandor. Everytime this character opens his mouth I fall in love.

And the soundtrack is so damn cool! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SI76wS6tlKs 

I really cannot recommend this highly enough!! Go watch it!!

Even if the morrow is barren of promises, nothing shall forestall my return...

Becky xx

Nemacon

The exams all finished a week ago... I did write a blog post to say I was alive, honest, but my laptop died on me and I gave up ;(

Anyway, I finally finished my cosplay for Nemacon, which was a fun weekend! A little disorganised, perhaps, and I dont feel it was as good as last year (but that may be just because last year had the excitement of being my first con), but I still enjoyed myself. Last year I didnt really talk to many people (I was Cissnei from Crisis Core, who isnt really a very recognisable character), but this year it was great to chat and make some new friends.

(Just putting this up here, because I spent ages making that shuriken and was very proud of it. Also, you see what I mean when I say that getting my hair to lie flat under the wig was a nightmare...)

On to this year's escapades! I went as Aqua from Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep. (sorry, theres a lot of pictures here)

The costume was made by me, with some help and advice from my gran who has had a lot more experience with sewing than I have. My grandad also helped with the shoes, recommending the right kind of paint to use that wouldnt crack as I walked. 

I actually really like the blurryness of this picture (I stole it off facebook, all credit to the photographer).

A nice Zack Fair cosplayer let me pose with the Buster Sword! (because I'm not obsessed with Crisis Core at all or anything... ¬¬)

Me and Charlotte (http://www.fyeahtea.com/) who looked awesome as Harley Quinn. That corset was incredible, cant believe she made it herself...

Aaaaaand finally, a pic of me posing with a lot of Sora cosplayers.

I got way more pictures than this, but I didnt want to upload them all. There were some incredible costumes (Predator, Loki and Thor, Samus, Ryuk and Rem to name a few), and I'm gutted I didnt get a picture of everybody.

Oh, I guess I should probably talk about the Wayfinder.

This is a sort of lucky charm that Aqua makes in BBS, and I decided that if I didnt have the time to make a Keyblade, I should at least have one prop...

I'm going to make a Terra and a Ventus one at some point too. Maybe to sell... I've already had some very nice comments on deviantart about this. I dont know if anyone's ever tried making them out of beads and wire before, its normally just polymer clay.

Oh and the very nice people over at http://www.daemon-saviour.com/ got some great pics as well. Make sure to check them out!

So, its the summer holidays now! I have a lot of plans, jewellery and otherwise, and I'll be sure to keep you all updated on what happens!

What have you guys all got planned for the summer hols?

Even if the morrow is barren of promises, nothing shall forestall my return...

Becky x

Sponsored walk... and some drawings

First up, we finished our walk!!

Here is a lovely pic of us all near the start:

So yeah.. 27 miles. It took us all day, 8am-7pm, and someone insisted we climb up the abbey steps at Whitby afterwards (bad idea...). My feet are still hurting three days later! It was great fun though, and I've raised over £150 so far for a fantastic cause.

http://www.justgiving.com/Rebecca-Bennion

Next, figured I should upload some of my sketches onto here! Mostly because I wouldnt dare put half of them on my dA...

First up, the homunculi from Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. I drew this ages ago, never got round to doing anything with it... I always prefered the Brotherhood adaptation of the manga - I liked the inclusion of Briggs and Xing, the plot made more sense, I liked the characters more... Plus Im reading the manga so I liked the anime adaptation which stayed faithful to it. What do you think? Do you prefer the original anime series or Brotherhood?

Next, some crappy Final Fantasy VII sketchies. Pretty much everything I draw is Final Fantasy VII fanart...

First is some chibis. This was my first attempt at drawing chibis, so be nice =P Personally I prefer the Sephiroth one... I was going to draw Angeal as well and complete the set, but he's not a character that really works well in chibi form.

Genesis again... There are so many things wrong with this picture I've lost count, but I cant help but love it. Theres so much pain and hate and anger and hurt and determination in those eyes... <3

Finally, a nice picture of Sephiroth. I love the way he looks here, so calm and serene... yet deadly. (bad picture quality is bad, it looks much better in person, honestly!)

What do you think? Who should I draw next?

And because I mentioned Genesis, I have to end with a LOVELESS quote ;)

Even if the morrow is barren of promises, nothing shall forestall my return...

Becky xx