Year 2: Week 1

And so The Xarata Project continues...with RULES!!! lol. It should come as no surprise that having given myself rules, I feel like making something outside those rules. However, I made the rules and I'm going to play by them so first- Glass!

This is my very first pilsner glass. Scratchglass Tree Series: Pilsner. I chose the tree bark design set because the very cool thing about this design is that if you fill the glass with a dark beer, naturally the whole glass looks black. As you drink it, the lines appear in the glass which is really pretty fun to look at. This particular design has never really photographed particularly well, but here you are:



This picture looks funny because the light from the room and the flash shined through the glass and created reflections of the opposite sides of the glass, but you get the idea.

  So...if I didn't feel like working with glass or metal, what did I feel like making? DRESSES!!! I've been looking for springtime dresses and you know what, they just aren't out there right now- you can find the same 3 bohemian style dresses in every store between 2 racks and that's it. You can get swimsuits and formalwear, but springtime dresses are apparently out. So I decided to make them. Yesterday I went to JoAnn Fabrics (and was pleasantly surprised to find it was the first day of their 3-day sale) and bought lots of fabric and a few patterns at $1.99 each. This is the first:

I was going for whimsy in this picture. lol. Note the matching headband.

Doesn't it look like it's straight out of the 50s? Yellow has never really been my color, but it's been so cold and I'm ready for Spring darn it!

1 Week Interrim

I took 1 week off between year 1 and year 2 to enjoy the new spring weather. It was a week full of long walks, dog parks, and lemonade- and St. Patrick's Day too!!! My house is full of flowers inside and out, and I am so ready for the warm weather to stay. I'm in a much better mood than I have been lately (my body was vitamin d deprived) and ready to come up with new projects!


In case you were wondering...The Spring Open House Application Form for Hunter's Valley Winery came this week, and it's the first weekend in June. The Xarata Project will NOT be participating in the Spring Show. Tourist Season here begins in late May/early June and that's a $1000 weekend for me. Considering I didn't sell much at the last show, I won't be taking off work for it. I might still participate in the Fall which is a slow time for work, but not in June.

Get geared up for new projects! Next week you can expect to see glass!

Week 52- 1 WHOLE YEAR!!!

That's right, I did it- 1 entire year of weekly projects!!! woot woot! So without further ado, these are the final projects for Year 1 of The Xarata Project:

I went to Hobby Lobby this week. It's kind of like my candy store, and I bought some of my favorite things: flowers and fabric!

New Hair Flowers!!!

 

I take pride in choosing silk flowers that look like real flowers; it the difference between my hair flowers and the ones you can get at claire's. I like that people ask me if they're real.

Look at these silk dogwood flowers- so pretty!!!

Little red lillies with perfect yellow stamen

A pink orchid like my other orchids

And some wonderfully adorable daisy hairpins!!! so cute!


New Headbands!!!

I haven't made a new headband in awhile, so it was fun buying headband fabric again.
 The green peacock isn't usually my taste, but I saw it and just knew I needed it for some of the gals that buy my headbands.



Try Try Again...

Remember that glass from last week? This week, I took all the things I learned the first go round, and made one better!

I soldered the wires to the ring instead of just twisting them on so this time they didn't break and they didn't slide around. I also added a silver colored glass bead at every junction...cuz it's pretty...lol. At the bottom, I twisted and turned the ends so they were finished instead of sharp and pointy.


And there you have the end of Year 1 of The Xarata Project.

See the link at the top of the page for what to expect in Year 2!!!

Week 51

While Bob conceded that last week's controller was "cool", he wasn't really feeling the gold, so I made one more his style this week. It's just paint (and I still like the gold and leather one better), but it is more his style, and it's a complete controller makeover (skins only disguise the very top midsection).

I like the upside down picture, because I think it looks like an owl or some other little critter. The texture on this one isn't as smooth as I would like, but hopefully Bob enjoys it anyway. I don't see myself custom painting controllers for money any time soon, but they were a fun little project. The first thing Bob said though was "it's really cool...but can I have gold buttons?" men...

Again, this is what the controller looked like before:

Next I decided to try macrame on a glass. I chose a glass with a better shape for the project to make it easier, and used a bracelet for a starter ring. Unfortunately i twisted the base string too tight and half of them snapped and i didn't retie them nearly so pretty the second time. It's rough, but it was a good experiment that gave me lots of ideas. I would love to put some kind of little charm at every joint, and maybe use twice as many wires for a tighter pattern. I also think a twisted dual-wire strand good have a cool texture. Lots of ideas but for now this was my first try:

I also did a crafty little charm project just for fun. I was trying to make sort of coins/charms out of clay and paint them gold. The sculpey I used was neon orange which in theory shouldn't have mattered since I was painting them, but in practice-with the texture and all-was maybe not the best choice. They were still fun. I like the upper right one the best, I want to thread it on some pretty cord for a bookmark.

Next week is week 52 of the Xarata Project...a whole year!!! Hopefully I'll come up with something really cool for you ;p