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-Deemontai- A world of black and white

Not all usuls are girly, yah?

An usul sat hunched over his desk, legs crossed, tapping at the keys of an old typewriter. Jet black bangs hung in his eyes and a pair of dark glasses sat like a couple of coins on his nose. He wore a pair of faded blue jeans and a sleeveless fishnet top, and a chunky black collar fit snug around his neck. A pale purple jacket with long baggy sleeves hung on the chair behind him, and a pair of new sneakers sat unused in the corner.

The usul sat back to reread his work. He went over the words again and again, a bored cast settling on his features. Unsatisfied, he sighed and leaned forward over the typewriter once more, fingers expertly gliding over the ancient keys as he added more to his prose. The only sounds in the room for a long time were the constant tapping of the keys and the bell signaling the end of each line.

I had that dream again. The one where I was flying. The wind whipped my hair around... or maybe it wasn't windy at all. Perhaps it was me who was moving, and not the air. Flying so fast toward something unknown, and not caring about it. Maybe there wasn't a destination at all. Maybe I was flying for the sake of flying. As many times as I've had this dream, I still don't know...

The usul stood and wiped his hands on his jeans. He wandered into the bathroom and washed them, two, three, four times. The soap bottle was nearly empty. He made his way back to his desk and put the lid on the typewriter, not bothering to pull the paper out, and set it on the floor. He opened the top drawer and pulled out another sheet of paper and a pencil that looked as if the entire eraser end had been chewed off. On the paper was drawn a series of gears and mechanical parts, and a pair of wings. He began to sketch. Two, three, four, five more pairs of wings appeared on the paper. He turned it over when he ran out of room and began to sketch faster. A machine appeared through the lines. It had gears and mechanical parts and wings...

-Flying Machine-

Pedals turn the gears and the gears flap the wings. I will fly through the sky. These are the blueprints that will help me live my dream. The wind will whip my hair around, but there will be no wind. I will be me moving, not the air. I will fly fast toward the unknown and not care about my destination. I will fly for the sake of flying. These are my blueprints.

The usul stood and disappeared into the bathroom to wash his hands again. The soap bottle was empty. He pulled on the pale purple jacket draped over his deskchair and ignored the unused shoes, stepping outside into the harsh sunlight barefoot. He adjusted his little sunglasses and began walking toward the park, eyes turned toward the sky. He traced the clouds in his head, noting what kind they were and what neopet they appeared to be. He was so lost in thought, he almost didn't notice where he was going. He hesitantly lowered his gaze from the sky to look at the fountain that had been built right in the center of the park.

Jets of water shot out of the base to land on the very top, only to flow back down again and repeat the process while colored lights illuminated the water and made it seem almost alive. The fountain had a calming feeling, and one could watch it for hours before they realized how much time had passed. The usul made his way toward a nearby bench and watched, letting the time pass by.

He was awakened some time later.

...and that's all I have for now. ^^; To be continued I suppose.

Step 1: The Yarn Thingy

It's better to have the chunkiest yarn you can find, complimented by a bit of decorative (frilly, curly, bumpy, generally neat looking) yarn. The chunkier the yarn is, the less you'll have to use and it won't weigh your head down as much. More volume, less weight! Above is the yarn base I use in my steampunk falls... it's really big and chunky. Yay!

I'm fresh out of the chunkiest stuff for this tutorial, but I have this less-chunky-but-still-chunky-enough variety, and a closeup shot of the fancy stuff that's in my completed fall.

I'm not making a whole new yarn fall for this tutorial... I really don't have enough yarn and I'll never have a use for a second one. So~ we're going to pretend that these five short strands are many many long ones. Cut a whole bunch of strands of yarn, twice as long as you want your fall to be and lay them out together.

Put them through a simple hair tie, like so. Hair ties without the little metal bit work best, and if you can find those thick ones, that's even better. A metal connector piece will eat at your yarn.

Weft it through, and pull it through its own loop to secure it to the hair tie.

Pull it tight, and voila, yarn fall! The more yarn you have, the harder it is to pull all the yarn through, but I BELIEVE IN YOU.

Step 2: Steampunk it!

My current hairfall has two colors of foam tubing, a few different lengths of corrugated tubing, sheets of craft foam cut into strips, strands of rexlace, and a couple of long zippy ties. For this tutorial all I had were cut strips of foam and the two types of tubing.

The center is a closed ring. I have the foam strips held on by thick aluminum jump rings, but they're never seen and they were a pain the rear to do! Tying the foam on with string or yarn is much easier.

A closeup of the foam strips. They come in a sheet the same size as standard printer paper, and you can get the foam at any craft store (or Wal*Mart if you're cheap like me!). I cut the sheet into strips about an inch in width, painted stripes on them with acrylic paint, and punched holes in them. I also cut the bottom end to a point.

Foam tubing! You can find it in the insulation aisle of any large chain hardware store like Home Depot or Lowe's. I wrapped it with electrical tape because stripes are awesome.

Plastic corrugated tubing. It's split down its entire length since you're supposed to use it to keep all your electrical wires together in a neat and tidy fashion. Wearing them on your head is much cooler! I dry-brushed silver acrylic paint all over it for depth. It comes in only black, and you can pick it up while you're shopping for your other tubing... this one's in the electrical aisle.

The un-painted foam strips. Once you get your sheet cut, you can cut a third off every other strip to get three different lengths. Five is a good number for foam sets like these.

Use black electrical tape to make a loop at the top of all your foam tubes. If you use TONS of tape, you'll get big fat ends like my original falls (you passed that picture already!). This way is quicker for the tutorial. Build up on your tape and your falls will stick up better! I just don't feel like doing it right now.

It's a little trickier with the corrugated tubing, but you're smart. You can figure it out.

Use yarn/string/shoelace/whatever to lace all your tubes together. Foam, plastic, foam, plastic, yadda yadda.

Tie them together, tight enough where they're not floppy, but loose enough where you can tie more crap between them.

Lace your foam together in sets of three, with the longest piece on the bottom.

Tie it to the string/whatever that's holding your tubes together, in between the tubes. At this point it's going to look kinda crappy and lopsided. Aww.

Once you get foam strips tied between all your tubes, you'll have something that resembles a hairfall a little better! You can cut the strings off or leave them there as extra stuff hanging off your head... doesn't matter.

Stick the hair tie of your yarn hair thingy through the center of your foamy thingy. Congratulations! It looks kinda like something that some abnormal person would wear on their head!

I usually pull my hair up into a high ponytail (always make it as high as you can without it being on the front of your head!), pull it through the center of the foam hairfall, then tie the yarn hairfall beneath it so my hair is hidden a little better, but it doesn't matter. You can figure out how to tie this monster to your head; I'm sure of it.

Once you have one made, you'll be addicted to collecting yarn and making them in a rainbow of colors. Hairfalls for every holiday!