Sentinels Craft Swap- Discussion

(Edit: The First Sentinels Craft Swap is now happening! Check it out!)

Okay, so over on this thread, I was inspired for the idea for this thread:

We've got a bunch of people here on the forums who like making stuff and we do all love Sentinels, right? Right! 

Also, who doesn't love getting stuff? No one, that's who!

So here is the proposal: We do a Sentinels craft swap. I'd even volunteer to do the organisationals. 

Crafty forumites get partnered up and make each other a Sentinels themed thing. Then they send that thing to their partner, and once they've got it, they put a picture of it on here and we all get to admire that thing (and be crazy jealous, because that always happens). 

Anything is a thing: scarf, pencilcase, doll, ornament, notebook, somthing useful for the game, jewlery, cookies (okay, that might be a mess), a funny hat, a fancy token box, a t-shirt, fridge magnets, artwork, woodwork, metalwork, yarnwork, fimowork, 'turning-one-thing-into-another-thing' work... 

What I want to know now is:

Who might want to join this swap?

(Also: Can we get official approval for this swap lest I get keelhauled for running some sort of IP piracy racket?)

I would be in for this. I have little to no technical skill, but am inventive enough to sometimes overcome this barrier, and I love getting stuff :P

I will trade my hand written book of poetry from high school for a crochet Expat, the original, not the less cool Dark Watch version.

The poetry horribly embarrassing and really, really bad.  So bad my wife couldn't even stop herself from laughing at me when she read it.  (she normally achieves this feat, which I can promise you takes a lot of effort)

I'm generally interested in this sort of thing, but I've got too many projects going to be able to participate right now; I'll have to finish a few of them first.

I always have far too many projects; (un)fortunately, my idea for this is sufficiently fun that I've pushed other stuff (like revision...) back a bit.

EDIT: Does anyone have scans of Unity's bots, by any chance?

Well, I wasn't going to suggest to do this swap now or tomorrow even. I am currently in the midst of organising/writing/making props for a huge game at convention and that will keep me way busy for the rest of the month. Heck, I don't even actually have time to write this post! ;)

But if we all agreed to have a swap in, say, June, sorted out swap partners at the beginning of June and then set out our things at the end of June, that would give us all sufficent time to make room in our busy schedules for it, I think.

Just an idea though, I am totally open for discussion on this. If people wanted to do it now, I'd still be up for organising, I just would have to drop out of the participation side of things.

Yeah, I was thinking more on the order of six months to a year from now. I'm pretty strapped for time and the thing that I want to do for this will involve a pretty big learning curve once I get started.

Half of my project can't be done until near the end of June, so I'm good with that, but the first half is in my head now and won't let me rest until I sort it out :P

I'd love to join in on the swap.

But shipping is a... nasty business, at least for me sending things, or people sending things to me, especially to/from America.

June is near impossible for me as well, but I could do July.

(June is exam month, and July is my mid-semester break)

Secret Santa Sentinels Swap!!!

I'm down!!

I'm up for this too.

Are we thinking of randomly assigning swap partners, or some kind of selection process? 

Well, we could each list up what we can do, craft wise, put down some info on what we'd like to have or who our favourite heroes/villains are and then try to do the pairings so they fit best.

Or we make a totally random draw of it, and then the partners figure out afterwards what they can feasibly make for each other. Which has some drawbacks, and some advantages.

Or, third option, everybody goes ahead and just makes one thing they wanna make (according to some pre-set dimensions) and then we do a circular sending thing. So you would not be getting something from the person you made something for.

What would people prefer?

I haven't painted figures in a while but I would gladly paint a figure from Tactics in exchange for a crochet Setback.  I do a good job of painting.  I won a contest when I was 13.  I don't think it was an age-based competition.  Hmm.   I'll have to send some pictures along.   A sort of resume... :D

I do like the idea of giving info about who our favourite heroes are, at least. Makes it easier to work out something to make

Co-incidentally, I was going to ask you if you'd like a crocheted Setback (or whoever else you wanted, but I figured Setback would be a good guess) as a little thank you for shipping…

Aw!  That's awesome!  But in return I will also paint a figure from Tactics.   Pick one and I'll do what I can.

Ooh craft swap would be good! I can umm… try to make a mess of various different things. Although my main skill is foodstuffs I’m sure I can find a way to make something shippable.

My Perler creations are on the Fan Art topic.  I've assembled a fine collection of Nemesis symbols (but don't ask me to do Sky-Scraper's...her unfinished design mocks me...accursed perlers merely having three types of grey...) and a few arts inspired by game sprites.  I imagine I could come up with something for someone else (I've been trying to figure out how to do some modifications to some DynoWarz:  The Destruction of Spondylus sprites for Unity and Mr. Chomps...).  The Nemesis symbols are easy, and I can modify anything people find lacking (should've gone with grey rather than that obnoxious clear green for the Argent Adept background...).

I'm in.  Whoever gets me will just have to look over my wares and see what they would like and how hard they want me to work!

This may be my inspiration for finally getting around to doing crafty things. Sadly, I have no idea what I'd do.

I have a slightly used spacecraft to swap... or is it not that kind of craft?

Sadly jokecraft goes criminally undervalued

Trains jokes run longer before you run out of steam.

So, to recap (before this thread goes off the tracks and derails into another train pun one), the following people are up for this swap, although they may not yet know what to make (which is totally okay!):

Julia,  BlueHairedMeerkat, jagarciao, Silverleaf, Under3, Reckless, Imprimi5

We also have grysqrl and Theta_Sigma, who are up for it but can't do it in June and Donner who can paint Tactics minis (but unless he's got REALLY good connections needs to wait for Tactics). Oh, and phantaskippy, if you write a book of bad Sentinels poetry, you can totally join this swap. 

So it looks like we have enough interested people to do this, which is really cool!

So, further suggestions:

Schedule: I am thinking of starting a proper swap thread for this first ever sentinels craft swap on the 25th of May. Everybody who is willing to go through with this can register on there and I’ll do a blank questionnaire thingy (Favourite hero/Villain/environment/card, what you can produce craft wise, what item you might want to have, any crafts you are allergic to and maybe what continent you are on). After a week we partner people up and get crafting. Everybody sends their stuff of when they are ready (but check in on the forum first, in case someone’s partner flakes- man, I do not want that to happen) or on the 30th of June at the latest. Does that sound like a plan (a good one, I mean?)

Late swappers: If there is anybody who really wants to join in on the swap but can't craft in June due to life getting in the way, I think we can accommodate those people as long we can find them a partner who is up for a later swap (say, over the month of July). Also, if this does not wind up to be a frustrating mess for everybody, we can totally do another swap later in the year (in case someone needs a Fanatic Christmas Tree topper or something equally odd shudder).

Size: Are we going to put some constraints on the dimensions or complexity that a crafted item can have? For instance, we could say  each item has to fit into a particular parcel size, or we could say that no item should take more of two days of active crafting time. I am flexible on that, I just know that this is often done in swaps so nobody feels like they got the short end of the stick.

Opinions? Suggestions? More puns?

Does writing count as a craft in this context? Because that's probably about the only thing I'll be any good at (though I don't really know what exactly I'd write), unless you want a really crappily-done Paintbrush picture or something ;). At least I wouldn't have to worry about shipping costs :D.

Sounds good to me!

Writing presumably counts, assuming people want Sentinels fiction (which they tend to, I think?)

I'm okay with allowing writing in the swap. I mean, it is indubitably a 'craft', it just tends not to be included in crafts swaps because these usually go for more haptic stuff. But if someone wants to swap for a Sentinels short story or some poetry or something, that is totally alright, I think. 

Also, let's make a rule here: Any crafted item is allowed in this swap as long as it is Sentinels themed, shippable (mail-shippable, not fandom-shippable!), non-hazardous and not likely to break the laws in either destination or origin country or the terms and conditions of the postal service.

So, you know, don't send working smoke bombs.

I think it might be a good idea to set a guideline for the lower limit as well - like at least X hours worth of work.

So nothing explosive, and probably no food items. Got it.

I mean you can do food, but it'll be caught up in customs forever, and I know that if you send anything caffeinated here, it won't get through, ever. I know people who had issues with ThinkGeek orders.

I think this thread is super cool!!!

I also think it is neat that I've met most of the people participating, even though you all live on 3 different continents :)

I wasn't necessarily thinking fiction - I mean, I could write a bunch of poems or riddles about various Sentinels characters and stuff as well. Or, well, anything, really…not fan-fiction, though - I don't like to write stuff which involves other people's characters doing stuff, any more than I'd want someone writing about one of my characters doing stuff, in case said character is described as doing/saying stuff they'd never normally do. But erm…like I said, I don't really think I could do anything else (other than crappy pictures) but I think it'd be nice to contribute something. I did have a sort of vague idea once for a Fantasy story (that being my thing) which is made almost entirely of Shout Outs to various Sentinels characters and stuff - like, character names and physical descriptions and stuff, and the reader(s) can then try and spot them all :D.

I was going to show some of my figure painting, but my figures are either packed away or still at my parents' house. :P  So...you'll just have to trust me that I do a pretty good job! :D

I’m in.

We have a Swap Thread now!

It might be helpful to put the link in the first post too.

Done! Good idea!

Based on the thread for signups, it's near impossible to take part in the first swap, at least.  Hopefully there will be more. 

Sorry about that! I did not delay the swap until July because A: I wouldn't be able to organise it and B: July is still quite a bit away, and I figured we'd forget all about the swap if we waited around that long. For all I know there might be other people who would prefer to do a late swap in July, it is just something that needs to be worked out on an individual basis between those who are interested. 

If this swap doesn't bomb, however, we can totally do more swaps. If it does fail, you may prefer not having been part of it! 

Thing is, even if it does bomb (which I'm expecting it won't) I'd really love to be part of it. But I can't do any work on anything until the 20th of June at the earliest, and I don't know if I can make something within a week of decent enough quality.

(Can I make something in a week? Absolutely. Will I be proud of it? Depends)

Well, how about you sign up for this swap, and stick a disclamer at the bottom of the questionaire stating that you can only craft and post in July? As I said, there's probably someone who is happy to swap at the end of July instead of June.

Heck, I'd be up for it, if I wasn't off travelling for most of July and August.

Sounds like a plan!

Hi there, crafty people!

So the sign ups are now totally over. And we got 7 people taking part from all over the place, which is pretty cool, I think!

The only slight hitch is that we have an odd number of participants, which usually would mean that one person has to swap with two partners, one person has to drop out or that three participants have to do a swapping circle. All of those ideas aren't that great, so I've recruited another swapper... my mother?! Seriously though, she plays Sentinels and she makes knitted and crochet dolls. In fact, pretty much the only thing she can't handle is the internet, so I am going to do the communications for her and there goes that problem.

Now for the suggested partnering:

Julia <----> BlueHairedMeerkat  

Silverleaf <---->Theta_Sigma (swap will be delayed slightly to July)

Reckless<---  >Under3

Ghost<--- ->Julia's mum

This is the fairly international version. We could keep the swap more local, but I'm not sure if some people might not actually prefer swapping with someone in more exotic places! Also, I know that Reckless and Silverleaf were going to do a private swap of sorts, but you can still do that, right?

Anyway, does this sound reasonable to everybody, or does anybody want to swap partners?

I don't know about the other pairings, but I am quite happy to swap with Silverleaf! Especially since that helps with the timing issues (Mine will be delayed, and Silver has more time if she needs it).

And I don't know if you knew this, but it's a lot cheaper for me to ship items to England than to America.

Sounds good!  Though I don't know what your mum would like...

Couldn't make the first swap but really looking forward to the next one.

Call me crazy, but I'm thinking of knitting a hat. A blue-green Tempest hat. With tentacles.

I would make you so many Perler creations for one of those.