CJ Gladback
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cjgladback.bsky.social
CJ Gladback
@cjgladback.bsky.social
240 followers 480 following 170 posts
she/her

Digital 3D and fiber artist who loves explanation and context, figuring out what I'll sustainably post on a short form site again. Find me on tumblr, twitch, and other places: https://linktr.ee/cjgladback
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cjgladback.bsky.social
I double-knit this patch this spring--partly to celebrate gaining tiny needles and partly to work through frustration with people showing inconsistent morals.

Love your neighbor as yourself. Human rights are for all humans. And we obliterate our values if we narrowly define neighbors or humans.
A square of knit fabric, mint green with bright orange lettering of a curly cursive "Yes," followed by small caps "even them."
July 6, 2025 at 8:43 PM
cjgladback.bsky.social
Not as pretty a weight as my tulle sachet made into a dice bag, but improves the process of coiling the finished braid and stays shorter than the bag's ribbon handles so besides being just one thing it also doesn't have to be adjusted as often. So my espinner bobbin is getting some use!
A white foam disk kumihimo loom with many bobbins hanging from it. Each of sixteen strands originates from a flat clear flexible bobbin hanging from the perimeter of the disk and the finished braid is hanging through the middle, starting to fill a larger purple plastic bobbin, held up with a green binder clip pinning the most recently completed braid to one of the loops wrapped around the bobbin. The same cluster of bobbins hanging under the kumihimo disk from a different angle that better shows the mini green binder clip has a smiling face cut out of its side and better shows where it's pinching the cable to itself where it wraps around the larger bobbin.
June 30, 2025 at 1:41 PM
cjgladback.bsky.social
Remember, art & math & science are completely separate categories. If you dedicate yourself to making pretty stuff you'll never have to work with measurements and calculations again.
Scrivener screenshot of plans and calculations resulting in a small chart of lengths to cut for each of five colors of cord. If we say 18ft and venetian red is the four-cord one and the wraps at the ends... per side 18 x 2 = 36ft = 432in; 432in + 4in = 436in; 436in + 2.5in = 438.5 = 36'6.5" OR 436in + 12in = 448in = 37'4" A simple chart shows Venetian Red is 4 strands from 1 x 74 feet 8 inches and 1 x 73 feet 1 inch. Each of the next four colors, Red, Wine, Blue, and Yellow, is 3 strands from 1 x 73 feet 1 inch and 1 x 36 feet 6.5 inches.
June 21, 2025 at 6:38 PM
cjgladback.bsky.social
Finished my eyelet bands (minus boning still probably needed), tested the lacing length (aiming for 18 ft finished braid to pull over with eleven eyelets per side), and made a bracelet of my planned pattern. I'm gonna swap two of the reds to inch toward a warmer tone but I like it so far! ✨🌦💞
A round woven kumihimo cord on a backdrop of red knitted fabric panels that were seamed together with single crochet. The cord is curved with one end a small macrame loop inserted into the larger starting loop to make it a bracelet. The body of the braid is yellow triangles pointing the opposite direction of blue triangles on a ground of variegated reds.
June 21, 2025 at 5:35 PM
cjgladback.bsky.social
Trying one last time in case cropping in a little makes the photo acceptable to the bluesky servers: what with training days having actual breaks, I'm getting pretty close to a try-on state for this garment. We're in the middle of the second eyelet band.
Red knit fabric, with crocheted seams and a silver crochet hook working in the far edge.
June 19, 2025 at 12:10 AM
cjgladback.bsky.social
I received my kumihimo supplies and have made my swatch for measurements! (For my 16-strand weave with C-lon beading cord, I'll round up to double my final length and remember I need at least four extra inches to comfortably weave to the bitter end.) First attempt, so also got a little too singed.
A short piece of kumihimo (tubular woven) braid from a single vibrant blue color, a simple macrame loop at one end and a knot at the other, photographed on a wooden table. The manrope knot tied to finish the kumihimo braid; it is four-sided, interwoven, and round. Four strands were held together for each of the four strands involved in the knot. The manrope knot seen from the side; several bubbles of melted dark blue plastic spot the side where more than just the strand ends melted when sealing the knot with a lighter.
May 31, 2025 at 9:16 PM
cjgladback.bsky.social
The little old lady I'm dogsitting for has no concept of Ls, but if she did she'd be sure you're perfect, provided you aren't currently walking past her window.
Photo of a small, long-haired, grizzled dog asleep on a pillow on a soft couch in a spot of afternoon sun.
May 15, 2025 at 3:46 AM
cjgladback.bsky.social
This remains my stream project! We're up to 5 nearly completed materials, with just grunge masks to add and the organization of plant trim sheets to go before we're in the nitty gritty of Unreal lighting and shaders to bring it to life.
First WIP blog post here: cjgladback.com/tagged/what%...
March 25, 2025 at 8:18 PM
cjgladback.bsky.social
We've got the sculpting portion of our wood trim sheet done! (Still to composite all the bakes together, this is just a screenshot in-scene where the edges are a smidge distorted from sculpting.) Looking forward to painting, assembly of & with boards, and defining precise scope & style for the rest.
A normal map, bright periwinkle with pink and green defining how the surface should angle away from the camera. It shows weathered, strong wood grain, a large patch at the top followed by two wide strips, one narrow one, and four blocks of end grain along the bottom edge.
January 27, 2025 at 5:41 PM
cjgladback.bsky.social
The current step versus the goal: trying to get some momentum again after a month of not feeling great, by recreating a small corner of this concept by Christopher Kondylis cara.app/post/fcd6265...
Currently live with the ongoing work: www.twitch.tv/cjgladback/
A greybox blockout in Blender of a building with an exit onto a rectangular platform with incomplete handrails and steps down. Part of a lined and watercolor-like painted concept piece from Christopher Kondylis of a dock in shallow water, broken down, exiting a building with steps down to the grassy ground.
January 27, 2025 at 2:30 PM
cjgladback.bsky.social
Happened to see this while still dressed from my first house exit in a while! (No hoodie or cardigan cause I had to dig out my Serious Weather Coat instead of just wear every layer, so this is what fit under that without being completely stifling.)
Extremely rough color sketch of a figure with blobby digital ink colors and scribbly labels. "Comfort zone: high-waisted stretchy jeans, tech college machine shop shirt, flannel" An arrow points to the lumpy top of the braided hair, "mussed from first time wearing a winter coat in at least a year." Another arrow points to the jeans' knees, "spilled coffee on these last time I tried to be clothed." A final arrow points out the tied shoes, "left the house."
January 22, 2025 at 3:51 AM
cjgladback.bsky.social
Prototype 5 and its descendents (only minor changes to the internal structure and finishing steps, including a pointier point for proper plant impressions).

AlkekengiBookmarkFinalfinalthisone(3).crochet

I've made my charts, just get to lay them out prettier, diagram assembly, and write it all out!
Two ends of a crocheted bookmark based on a paper lantern plant--one is a dimensional, 5-sided orange construction, wider at the top with ridges at the joining of each side that taper down to a point at the bottom. The other end of a green crochet chain hangs a lacy green leaf, visually about the same size as the orange bauble but only one curved piece. Four nearly identical orange and green crocheted paper lantern plant bookmarks, hanging in late afternoon light held at different points on their strings so the baubles of each left to right descend while their leaves ascend.
January 19, 2025 at 9:05 PM
cjgladback.bsky.social
One day I will probably make this scone recipe as written--got closer with no tea leaves incorporated in the dough this time, but this is my second take with no freezer space and a mostly improvised, mostly fruit filling and they're still delightful. buttermilkbysam.com/babka-scones/
A pan of disarrayed golden brown edged, apple filled, triangular cut, rolled scones on parchment paper. A quarter of the pan is conspicuously empty, nine scones remaining.
January 17, 2025 at 4:17 AM
cjgladback.bsky.social
If you see this, post some cat art 😺🐾

(My piece celebrating the Year of the Water Tiger back, in 2022.)
A 3D rendered image of a stylized tiger, seen from above as it lays on its back with its paws relaxed in the air. It is laying on a surface covered by various kinds of paper airplanes, folded different ways and in a variety of bright reds, oranges, and pinks. The tiger’s eyes are closed, its tail curved into the air closer to the camera between its rear feet, and it is loosely holding a bright blue stuffed toy tiger to its chest. The tiny toy tiger has buttons for eyes and the traditional three-cross-beamed Chinese character 王 on its forehead in felt.
January 15, 2025 at 3:34 AM
cjgladback.bsky.social
The cool thing about working in a wide variety of media and subject matter is you can always be creating and also always be out of practice! But I am liking how this #hatchetfield fan art is shaping up after a several month break, morning session, nap, and fix of everything suddenly visibly wrong.
January 10, 2025 at 12:39 AM
cjgladback.bsky.social
I don't edit well for humor or brevity when dealing with a headache, like I've had for a few days. And I have some fun things to say about it! But maybe not enough to justify streaming tomorrow. But maybe yes. We'll see how morning me feels about it, since it's been getting worse later in the day.
A messy digital cartoon of a person crushed under a large rock on hard ground. The rock is labeled: Heard good things about "recovery" and "health" and sporadically feel like death The hard place is labeled: Actually have something to say on stream because complaints are something, right? In small print: more to the point, what if I take time off and only feel worse the next day? The person's feet are the only thing emerging from under the boulder, but they are face-down wear green pants and blue socks with orange heels and toes. The signature is cjgladback, same as the poster's username.
January 9, 2025 at 3:00 AM
cjgladback.bsky.social
Mmm. Gonna shower while they cool a bit so I can remove the two end pieces that are too tall to be lidded.
A 9x13 pan full of a dozen apple cinnamon rolls, fresh from the oven with glistening buttery dark brown filling.
December 31, 2024 at 5:47 AM
cjgladback.bsky.social
I'm definitely not getting to bed at a good time tonight, but breakfast will be delicious. (Cinnamon rolls + 1 green apple in the filling, maybe as good as apple fritters? We'll see.)
December 31, 2024 at 5:25 AM
cjgladback.bsky.social
Continuing to not beat the "the spider emotes are really about your fiber crafts, not your bouncy cat" allegations, even from myself. (Getting the symmetrical parts of the bookmark charts laid out in Blender before probably doing more regular vectors for the final details.)
A black graphic on a white background, resembling a five-sided simple spiderweb especially on the outside where it is concentric rounded pentagons with spokes at each corner. Toward the center it becomes a network of plus signs or lowercase T shapes, some joined at the bottom to form V shapes. This is actually a crochet chart in progress.
December 29, 2024 at 9:44 PM
cjgladback.bsky.social
Unhelpful thoughts: more options! I appreciate 1 & 3's even distribution of color qualities (vibrancy, light, and dark) but prefer 2's grouping--but really like the middle-glow of the pattern's example images, so played around with not-quite-gradients and almost got the same thing twice.
An edit of Whimsical Stitchery's first photo of a colorful yarn progression, with rectangular snippets of each yarn ball arranged in two rows across the top. The cream yarn is backing each row, with small pieces of it spacing the other colors. The top row is maroon, purple, rose, taupe, yellow, sage, pale blue, black, and emerald. It's labeled with "med" for medium on each end, with "warm" above the maroon and "cool" above the emerald, "dark" labeling the purple and black just in from each and "symmetrical" over the central gradient with a pop of brighter yellow in the middle. The lower row is yellow, purple, maroon, rose, taupe, sage, pale blue, black, and emerald. The yellow and emerald are each marked "vibrant" with the central gradient marked "smooth." At the bottom of the image is a rough drawing of a sword, its blade simply shaded in grey. There's a bright shine streak across the middle of the blade, with a short gradient down to the darkest tones on either side of it before the remainder of the blade is medium tones away from the shine.
December 29, 2024 at 5:21 PM
cjgladback.bsky.social
I think I've got my paper lantern plant bookmark shape! Will make a couple more to double check gauge and yardage before I get the pattern finalized and ask for feedback from test crocheters. (No. 2 was an immediate gift for the friend whose house I crocheted it at, basically No. 3 slightly wider.)
December 20, 2024 at 5:24 PM
cjgladback.bsky.social
The bauble parts have now all been attached into a weird little carrion flower, Certified Less Clattery and Fun.
A photo of a crocheted orange structure on top of a ball of green crochet thread. The orange piece is a central pentagon attached along each edge to the centers of five leaf shapes, giving it a double layered ring of five petals.
December 17, 2024 at 11:26 PM
cjgladback.bsky.social
For some completely unknowable reason (heavy, fond sarcasm) my desk lap cat thought I'd made her a bunch of little clattery toys when she saw these medallions and their markers stacked up this morning. Good reason to crochet them together *soon* before they all disappear.
Photo of the packed space on a desk in front of a laptop, with two balls of crochet thread, orange and green, a pair of scissors, and two fidget toys as well as several small, orange crocheted pieces. One of the pieces is a pentagon while the rest are five lacy arrowhead shapes, each with two open plastic lock-shaped stitch markers, one slid through each side.
December 17, 2024 at 5:47 PM
cjgladback.bsky.social
As my madness deepens, so too does my cant toward making a scene with the classic hash marks tallying days since imprisonment except it's a crochet diagram. But the latest Alkekengi bookmark prototype is looking promising pre-seaming at least! Three more medallions to go then all the assemblage.
A multicolor scribbled diagram on a white background; the pattern is circles and various T shapes radiating from the center, starting with a red round, then orange, olive, green, and the outside of sky blue. The symbols are nonstandard and hand drawn but indicate crochet chains and single, half double, double, and treble crochet stitches in the round. A second scribbled crochet diagram on a white background, this one starting green in the center, then teal, blue, and purple. The lines are chunkier than the earlier diagram and there are fewer stitches overall but it's still messy and has no legend for the crochet chains, slip stitches, and single, half double, double, and treble crochet stitches.
December 16, 2024 at 2:44 AM
cjgladback.bsky.social
Here's how the actual booklet was laid out (a cut-and-fold I've heard called the single page, six page, and eight page zine at different times, but I think of it as my mom's recycled notebooks); and the rush job illustrating *is* visible in at least one chopstick not obscured by some popcorn.
A one-sheet, eight-page zine layout of How to Use Chopsticks; once folded, the back would have chopstick points and the text "by CJ Gladback," the front would have How to Use Chopsticks over two lines, and the inner cover would have the graphic of a splash and "without too much mess." Three pages with illustrations of chopsticks, hands, and food and instructions would be followed by a sparse spread of the final advice "but most of all, do what feels comfortable and eat well!" underlined by one more pair of orange chopsticks across the center line, with a tiny illustration of "(and maybe knit a scarf)" in the bottom right corner.
December 11, 2024 at 3:23 PM