Week 11

So I did check the scratch window on the new paint this week. In case it was really small i just did a lava shotglass. I scratched it when it was tacky, and I could smear paint. I'm not sure about the window when it's dry. I like the super shiny definitely permanent finish i get with this paint, but i prefer the control i have with my permanamel paint. Wonder what would happen if i mixed the two...

The second project...perhaps doesn't really count because it's an in-progess work...but since it's the type of work you probably read this blog for, you're getting a sneak peek. It's a collar-style necklace which I don't have the ability to harden to the extent I would want to so it's a half collar and the back will be secured with chain or ribbon.



I had a necklace flashing through my head all week. When I sat down to draw it out, I drew something completely different than what was in my head...




And this is the layout in silver. It still needs soldered together (which is the hardest part of any piece really)




I also finally went to see the Hodge Podgery (consignment shop) this week to see if it was for me and maybe pick up a form for consignment. I was not impressed... The shop is about the size of a large bedroom on the outskirts of Harrisburg, and the works featured were the kind of hack jewelry I really hate (oh hi, i bought a bunch of charms at hobby lobby and hung them from a soda tab, aren't i awesome?!?!? I can string beads too! Look what I can do with a silk tie...) and a lot of homemade soaps. It just really wasn't what I expected.

Week 10

*As my posts are always at the end of the week, this post is for last week and there will be another for the coming week.

New paint. When I used the microbrushes on the bowls a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that I had bought some new paint. If you have a little boy or a hubby with a hobby, you may have seen these paints- they're designed for model cars and figurines and microbrushes are made especially for this paint. Today, I played with it. I chose something simple because I really wasn't sure what to expect from it.

It's a lot thinner than I expected- thinner than nail polish even, but it doesn't run which is good. It takes 2-3 coats to get good opacity and the swirls on this glass need another coat. I'm not sure how I feel about that since I use the microbrushes to get a thin fluid line, and having to go over it can mar that effect a great deal (at least until I get the hang of it). It has a really fast drying time, but I THINK it just might have a scratch window, and I'll be playing with that in the coming week just to see it can replace my permanamel paint for scratchglass. I'll also be washing it to see if it has a more predictable permanancy that my permanamel paint which I've had problems with random glass partials washing off. I may try baking some of my paint this week too (I've been reluctant to do that because of the possible cracking involved- putting all that time and effort into a glass just to have it crack- kind of like pottery lol), but I really can't have glasses peeling on me. In general, I've washed all the ones I've sold ahead of time, but some that I've given as gifts have not been so kind.

Also, being friends and family, you may remember that Honey(in an act of blatant misbehavior trying to steal chapstick to chomp as punishment for my not playing with her) broke one of my favorite votive lamps last year. I was furious, but kept the pieces in case I couldn't find a replacement. I couldn't find a replacement. I don't really know why I waited so long to put it back together, other than being really frustrated over it being broken, but this week I sat down with a pile of broken glass and a tube of glue, and put the puzzle back together:

If you look at the one on the left, you can see a large crack line in the middle. To be fair I wasn't 100% successful. The impact point was shattered beyond my capabilities, and I'm fairly certain I'm missing several teeny tiny pieces. In the picture below you can see a one inch x quarter inch hole- which i have facing the wall. All those spidery lines around it are broken pieces that i painstakingly pieced back together.

I'll never be able to put a candle in it again for fear of the glue igniting, but maybe i'll get some battery powered tealights...



My week:
I had a very busy week. When I have busy weeks, I get to the end of them, realize I haven't done a "real" project that week, and face the question of whether or not to skip a week. My posts usually go up around midnight between saturday and sunday. Somehow, I still feel guilty if I don't make something. I suppose I have all of YOU to thank for that. lol. I don't think I'd be good about it on my own...

My little nieces were up all week for their birthday. Actually, they're camping right now and I would love to be there but I have to work. I gave them presents on Monday, had dinner with them on Tuesday, and took them to Hershey Park on Wednesday. I worked Wednesday night, and by Thursday morning I was sick with both really bad allergies and a cold (this is what happens when you share icecream with toddlers). How do I know it is not one or the other? Because allergy medicine (claritin) treats the allergy symptoms (burning eyes, sneezing) and cold medicine(advil cold and sinus) treats the cold symptoms (stuffy nose, nasal inflammation, coughing). Neither treats both and I can't take them both at the same time, but I've opted for the cold medicine since I bothered to buy it from the pharmacy counter (i guess most meds with NSAIDs in them have to go from the pharmacy counter- bother).

Also this week, I made fudge which I was fantastically happy with (so was bob of course). I made it in the microwave with 2 sticks of butter, 2 cans of sweetened condensed milk, and 2 packs of chocolate chips (actually I did a pack of chocolate chips and a pack of peanut butter chips), zapped for 5 minutes, and poured it into an 8x8 pan. Delicious, with a texture somewhere between caramel and fudge. It reminds me very much of my favorite chocolate silk fudge from gertrude hawk and I will be remaking it with darker chocolate. I've decided microwave fudge is a fantastic thing.

I also cleaned my house on the off chance that my neices or any of my family would set foot in it. It was pretty messy so it's pretty lovely having the whole thing clean. Well...except the basement...my workspace is a lost cause. lol. AND Bob bought me flowers :)

It also stormed a lot this week and friday night, Honey and I hung out in the tub- i brought a book. Truth be told I love thunderstorms, but Honey really hates them and since she was clearly torn between hiding and being with mommy, I just gave her a place to hide with me.

Weeks 7 & 8

Full disclosure: I've been working overtime (feast or famine, eh?) and the time I did have, I spent enjoying the (finally!!!) warm weather. I have a tan, I went to a carnival, spent lots of time outside with the dog, replanted and weeded my gardens, and in general spent last week having a good time. No, I really didn't feel like making anything, so I didn't. I didn't really feel like making anything this week either, but I decided 2 weeks off is a no-no so here we go:

I bought some micro-brushes at Hobby Lobby yesterday so I tested them out on some bowls. I also bought some model car enamel that should be even more permanent than my glass paint, but I haven't tested it yet.

The biggest one is modeled after my wedding invitations.

Random fun: I took off one of my headbands while I was outside this week, and Honey ran across the yard and popped her head through the loop, so I took the extra one that I had and made her another new collar out of it. It's black with white polkadot circles. I didn't take this picture to showcase her collar, but since it was on the camera, I thought I'd share.

(I took the picture because she ran into the room and perched herself on Bob's shoulder while we were watching a movie on the floor. We're pretty sure she was afraid of something, probably random weather patterns, but we both thought this was ridiculously cute)

This isn't really an art project in any way, but I "painted" my nails this week. These are the peel-n-stick salon effects nail strips by Sally Hansen, and they are pretty awesome. This set is "Laced Up", their black lack pattern. I got lots of compliments on these at work.

*If you get curious and purchase these to try yourself, I have some tips from my own trial-and-error. The first thing you should know is that if your nails are a conservative length (an eighth of an inch to a quarter of an inch) you most likely can use each nail strip twice and get twice as many manicures out of the box (At $10/box, it's kind of expensive for nail polish, but cheap for a fancy manicure). I also primed my nails with a base coat and topped with a top coat. The top coat came after a day at work where i did mildly chip this manicure (they are chipped in the photo). This particular design hides chips really well, and people with a regular job probably won't have chipping as fast as I did, but it doesn't hurt to put a top coat on to protect it.

Year 2: Week 5

This week was a busy week full of double shifts and rain. It's also Easter Week and prelim to family birthdays so...
-I made a dress (gift. no pictures- I wouldn't want to spoil any surprises)
-Clear Coated previous glassware for gifting
-Filled Easter baskets for me and hubby (because it's still nice to have candy for any reason)
-And painted a shotglass to fulfill the rules requirements for the week.

I put the border around the flowers that I talked about wanting to do with the teacup. Obviously this is before cleanup. I have discovered that I can remove paint with rubbing alcohol though so they are ending up a lot cleaner than before. Shotglasses have this iffy line where if I paint them too low, the pattern is hard to see, and if I paint them too high, you're invading drinking rim territory (glass paint is still considered toxic- I have glasses where I've painted the rim, but I try to avoid it)

Year 2: Week 4

Early in the week I made another dress, with a matching headband and a matching collar for Honey:

Then tonight (Saturday night), I still needed a piece that fit my new rules. I didn't really have anything in mind so I just painted a glass black and went to town.  

 I kind of wish I had left an outline around it, but I always figure that out after I'm halfway through taking it all off...

Looks pretty awesome with orange juice. lol.

Like most of the glass I  do at the end of the week, it still needs its final rubbing alcohol clean up and clear coat. I stabbed myself with the knife I was using to take paint off though so no more of that tonight.

Year 2: Week 3

I got it into my head that I felt like doing bowls this week. I started with some really large ones- think popcorn bowl size. I'm also on a bit of an insects kick with plans for butterflies and dragonflies.

I did this one yesterday. Really, the floral pattern is just one that I think is fun, but you could call it a dandelion or a dahlia.



close up of one of the flowers


For the second one, I decided to give you progress shots since I don't think I've ever really done that before. This is what my painting process looks like for a bumblebee bowl:




This is called a pin tool, and it's actual purpose is in ceramics and sculpture, but i use it for scratching. The yellow bit on the right is some rubber that i molded to my hand to cushion the pin tool






This how all of my glasses start- big black silhouettes without detail





Definitely no detail





So this is how the bottom both bowls started out- a big blacked out circle. Here I'm scratching in honeycomb shapes.




And this is how it ends up. Not at all what you were expecting, right?




Top view of the bottom of the bowl

Both of these bowls still need some cleanup and clearcoating, but I did the bee one tonight and it took about 3 hours so my hand isn't too happy with me. They'll be fun for summer.




Spoiler: Mini versions of these may be going into my Pay It Forward packages.

Year 2: Week 2

This week is similar to last week with a glass and a dress.

Pilsner Glass Lava Series:

I really like this dress. It's a black and white paisley with a fitted waist and a very gathered skirt. I did alter the pattern some.



Yes, I chopped my head off because it was not a flattering photo. No, Bob cannot be compelled to tell me when I'm not facing the camera.


I still have 4-5 fabrics left so expect more dresses in the weeks to come! I also have a lot of blank glasses waiting to be painted so anticipate some fun little ones soon too!

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!

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

Week 40

This week was earrings. There's a few different ones: green glass to match the bracelet I did last week, silver spirals in a smaller gauge as a gift for someone, and a set made out of some swarovski bead I forgot I bought for my birthday.

Week 39

This week I'm working on glass jewelry (seaglass, broken glass that's been smoothed by sand and water). I've tried a few times in the past and haven't really been happy with it, but I like this go at it. Bob wants me to make a piece of seaglass jewelry for his mom because we both share a love of picking up seaglass- though all of mine is from the Caribbean and all of hers is from Lake Michigan. I'm not sure that this will be the gift piece, but it's a good mock-up/practice run for a gift piece.

On a side note, my clumsy streak has struck again. This piece took me two days to complete, because when I went looking for the length of chain (the chain part is purchased chain) to make this, I fell down my stairs. My mom was just over this week and commented on how my stairs really ought to have a railing too. I know I'm lucky- I didn't break anything- but I have a big bruise on my thigh and I wrenched my shoulder pretty badly (I'm gonna give it a week before I really worry though. It hurts/pinches, but I'm pretty sure that if I'd torn anything it would be excrutiating). I only skinned a fingertip and an elbow so I'm lucky for that as well. The Xarata Project lesson of the week? Always wear the socks with the grippy dots on the bottom.

Week 38

I have a cold. I would like to veg out on my couch until I am better- unfortunately, i still work. LAME. I just did commissioned orders this week. The different thing about all of these is that I used a pattern (a printed picture behind the glass) for all of them.

The first was just to personalize a set of glasses I already had painted. These were purchased on my etsy site by someone who picked up my card at the wine show- read as NOT my family or friends- which is kind of exciting. They chose Lucida Handwriting font (which was my pattern)-  it's not necessarily what i would have picked, but it's cute.

The second was those tribal shotglasses I was telling you about:

And the last wasn't really commissioned- it's a coffee glass I've been trying to paint for Bob for awhile. I've painted it several times actually and never been happy with it so i keep washing the paint off while i still can. I decided i liked the tribal design so i made it smaller and then painted a chain of the design around the top of the glass.

Week 37

It's Thanksgiving week, so lots of visiting to do and lots of work at the end of the week, but still some work in progress.

I painted the leatherback turtle family wine glasses my sister requested. They came out pretty cute. Not sure if I'm going to add any seascaping to them yet. I usually draw more traditional (green) sea turtles with the soccerball shells, but leatherbacks were kind of fun. I freehanded them while looking at photos. Some of the lines (for the vertical white spines on their shells) kind of bother me in their waviness, but in the photos, they're not perfectly straight and i feel like they would be less realistic if they were perfectly straight.

This first photo was actually taken before I opted to make an adjustment to the lone turtle's shell. I just really like the relationship placement i got in this photo.

And...painted wednesday, posted sunday:

Margarita glassed with orange flowers! (purchased gift- requested as such)