Week 15

This week's project was the re-launching of my etsy store. I've done some trading with my headbands and-since they are a relatively easy thing to make and sell- i decided to start delving into the store front world with them. I made roughly 100 headbands, then categorized and listed them on etsy. I also revamped my banner with a pic of the ceiling in my studio- i think it's pretty cute.

There's still about 4 hours left in the day/week and i might do something else, but this was my goal for the week and I'm glad that I made myself complete it.

http://xarata.etsy.com/

I decided I want to start sketching again. There was a point in my life where I really enjoyed doodling- both the process and the tiny picture that resulted, and I'm really not sure why I stopped...Anywho, here's tonight's doodle:

Week 14

Starting to get better- i really hated being sick. I bought a dapping die (for doming things) and domed some dimes today, but am not quite ready to do a project with it. I need to get back to my headbands, but it seemed wrong to handle them while i was hacking and coughing all over everything. I've been doing little art projects and other house projects this week. Two choker-length necklaces: The first i made from a wedding garland at the beginning of the week. Admittedly it didn't take much effort, but I think it's pretty.

The second I hand beaded tonight with heavy beading thread (the thinner threads always break) and silver beads.

This one is simple but pretty and is a basic base for any other beaded necklace, like this one I made in college:

What else have I been up to?

Cooking:

Today I made oatmeal craisin cookies, salsa, chili, my special pink sangria, and mint infused simple syrup (with mint from my garden!). I've also made breakfast (omelettes and bacon) twice this week, crescent rolls filled with basil (from my garden!) and creamcheese, asparagus and pierogies, and bob and i made dinner together at the beginning of the week- he grilled the steaks and i made green beans, and pierogies with mushrooms and bacon.

Gardening:

Earlier in the week we put lattice up over my rusty old railing and a small shallow garden in front of it. This week I bought flats of impatiens and planted them and fenced in my veggie garden (which is growing!!! I have 1 tomato and 3 tiny jalapenos)

Family Fun:

Bob took off work to hang out with me yesterday and we took Honey to our old dog park- with a nature trail with a pretty decent creek/river that she simply LOVES to swim in. It was nice. We cleaned the house together too which makes it much nicer to live in.

Week 13

I'm getting sicker everyday- obviously not enjoying it. I kept it simple this week: a hair piece and a pendant.

The hair piece is made out of feather, silk flowers, and silver thread. I quite like it.

The design for the pendant was inspired by coral:

...and of course would look like coral if bobby pinned into hair which i have currently decided is the best/easiest method of transition. However, when worn as a pendant, it looks like silver lightning, which is the title of the piece:

It also kind of reminds me of tree roots...

Etsy: naturally, I have an etsy store that I have let go dormant over time. My current project is to relaunch my etsy site with headbands (i've begun the process of making close to 100 this week. I cut one day, ironed another, still need to sew and photograph and list)

On my days off this week, Bob helped me with yardwork and we planted a garden where there was previously a weed patch at the front door, put white lattice up over the rusty metal railing that protects people from falling down the basement stairs, and weeded the concrete in front of it and added about 6 inches of dirt for a narrow shallow garden. I'm planning on filling it with impatiens. On the veggie front- I have 1 little tiny tomato a little bigger than a quarter and 3 teeny little peppers about an inch long. How very exciting! I'll have homegrown salsa in no time.

Housewise, we went on a massive cleaning spree and in order to free up cupboard space, i started hanging kitchen supplies (cookie sheets, cooling racks, etc) on the stairway walls of the basement (access door in the kitchen). Oddly enough, i find it makes the basement more inviting, which is something i desperately need to accomplish since my studio is down there. Mainly my dislike of the basement is that it's a preferred home of house centipedes which completely and utterly creep me out. I need a lot of incentive to WANT to spend time near those things...

Interrim Garden Post

I'm loving on my garden so i felt like adding pictures- i DID make it after all...

Firstly, my front door, surrounded in morning glories. I didn't put these here, but i love them, and i was quite put out to come home tonight and find that my landlord took it upon herself to rip out the vine going up the left hand side of the door in the picture(but the obnoxious vine growing under the house and into the basement that tries to choke out everything- THAT they leave growing. I'M the one who ripped it out from nearly strangling the roses but the morning glories, they need to go ::rolls eyes::). I was so close to having it framed in morning glory wonderousness...

This is my flower garden. Most of the flowers are currently done(entire bottom left is columbine) or not yet blooming. Bob bought me the little fairy... The landlord mentioned that the little fence wouldn't keep the bunnies out and i admitted that i put it there to keep their lawnmower and weedwacker out (i've had several plants mowed/wacked since we moved in a year ago) and could care less about the bunnies. It may sound harsh but as evident from the morning glory situation- i have reason to partition plants i don't want destroyed. I have another flower garden bordering the side of the house that faces the yard, but i just planted summer bulbs so all it has in it right now is a small forsythia bush, a bleeding heart, and a garden gnome- not much to look at.

This is my herb garden, mostly overflowing with mint. There's lemonbalm on the right, a variety of small herbs on the left (lavender, thyme, basil, parsley, chives) and some cilantro hidden on the other side of the mint. There is a small lilac bush in the right hand corner not pictured.

My little veggie garden. It's only existed for about a week and a half and it's shaped like a stretched out half-circle. On the left, behind the flower garden, you see the pumpkin vine borne of last year's halloween pumpkin. next to it in the dirt is a bit of the vine i dug up on the off chance landlord decided to whack my pumpkin vine (though i told both the landlord and her son who does the mowing that it is a pumpkin and i want it there, one can never be too careful). Then there's carrots, cucumber, turnips, zucchini, radishes, jalapenos, cayenne peppers, and a tomato plant. the whole front is lined with lettuce seeds which i hope will grow. I also have little pots of planting soil with some tiny cherry tomato plants and more lettuce seeds.

I'm still contemplating this week's "art project". I may be compelled to paint...feeling some watercolor...

edit: i did go out to the weeded pile and pull out a very long rope of morning glories with roots still attached at the end and put the roots in the ground and tuck the vine up the side of the door. If it dies, i'll rip it out, but at least i tried. It's from the side of the house that i don't care for. There are 2 gardens I don't touch on either side of the house- one is full of some green and white leafy thing that was clearly planted there and overtook interspersed with irises, daffodils, and queen anne's lace. I tried to add a plant there once and it didn't go well so i leave it alone. The other side of the house (where we park our cars) is a mess of weeds, evil vines, a cute ground-variety of phlox they plant here in Hershey (which she whacked with the rest of it in the spring) and more morning glories which i am happy to have (and she rips out). In this garden, all i touch is the rose bush and the rose of sharon bush to keep the evil vines from killing them because the garden is just not worth saving. By the door there are tigerlillies which again, i only touch to unstrangle. I planted hyacinths in this little front door garden near the tigerlillies(which they weedwhacked to the ground in the spring) and a mum on the other side of the porch step (which they weedwhacked to the ground in the spring). I think i just need to repossess all of the gardens touching the house and then she won't touch them anymore. This may be the best policy...

Week 12

This week I worked 28 hours on the weekend, enjoyed artsfest during memorial day, worked that night-hopped in the car and spend 4 days in the Smokey Mountains with the in-laws (entertaining to be sure). I worked this morning, so tonight's all i've got for week 12, and i felt like doing something a little different so...

behold: POLYMER CREATIONS!!!

It's been a long time since I've played with clay and even longer since I've played with polymer. In some ways, polymer is a little more fun to work with than stoneware clay because it's less brittle in its molding state- less fun because it isn't as carve-able. I eased into playtime with my very first fae door (approx. 2" x 3"):



Isn't it CUTE- see the tiny mushrooms? which naturally led to bigger mushrooms:


It doesn't really have a function, paperweight, garden decor- i prefer to think of it as an escape to the fairytale inside my head- kind of like a snowglobe (except you don't have to shake it for it to be cool). I did promptly break it when i took it out of the oven by trying to fix a slumped mushroom (which obviously cannot be done, i was just being stubborn) so the one on the right is the do-over.


So then i decided to make a hair piece, because -let's face it- i really enjoy hair decoration. So i stuck a hair pin in a clay piece and away we go:

I also took my first foray into treating clay like metal (ok that's not entirely true, i once made a stoneware teapot with a filigree handle, but it was purely decorative). I've never really liked polymer jewelry, i always think it looks cliche or art-fair, but since i was had the polymer and hairpins out and felt like playing, i chose some black (least tacky looking) and went to town on another hair piece. Then it occurred to me that polymer- being a low fire clay, can be used to set stones, so i added a stone for the fun of it. (i have no idea what the stone is. It's a dark colored rectangular cabochon.):


And since I was treating clay like metal, i decided it might be fun to try embossing- a technique i've done in wax (cast in silver) as well as stoneware with leaves. I feel like nothing makes a better leaf pattern than a leaf- i have yet to see this theory disproven. So i rolled out a few sheets of clay, thieved some leaves out of the yard and this was the result:


yes i did make an acorn and no the leaf i paired it with is not oak.



I've decided I'm going fabric shopping this week and launching my headbands on etsy for around $3.75 with package options (3 for $9 kinda thing). I need to expand my color base however (i have no real brights nor solids) so a trip to joann fabrics is in order.


Gardening: Happily, my garden survived without me, though i did have to weed it today. It SHOULD yield me pumpkins, cucumbers, zucchini, cayenne peppers, jalapenos, and tomatos, radishes, turnips, and carrots, and 5 kinds of lettuce. The herb garden is overflowing with mint and lemonbalm as well as basil, cilantro, parsley, thyme, chives, and a little bitty oregano plant i transferred from my aerogarden. Flower-wise, my summer lillies are shooting up and my columbine is done. My wysteria looks pretty sad but i have hope that it's a necessary side effect of rebuilding an entire root-system (i dug it up at my mom's house- i had similar problems with other dug up plants and they all recovered- this is just the worst)and that it will look beautiful come late summer and next spring.

Week 11

In my fit of creativity I missed an awesome dinner with my family so a bit bittersweet...but, as promised, i present to you: the copper feather pen concepted last week!!!



It's not perfect, i ran out of copper wire when i was wrapping the stem, but it's still fun.


A cool thing that has happened recently is that I've been swapping headbands with gals from a forum i frequent for other cool things i want (makeup, fun things from asian shops, puppy treats, etc), which is a step in the right direction. I also made one with elastic this week but i didn't take a picture. It stays on well, but it kind squeezes my head- i like the tied ones better.

No, i still haven't made a youtube video but i have written step-by-step instructions! (Again, a step in the right direction):
Step 1: Find center of headband and center ontop of head. (hair should be pulled back, excepting any bangs you want out, whether your hair is going to be up or down. It's just easier)
Step 2: Tie a half knot at the nape of the neck.
Step 3: Criss cross the ends, wrapping them around each other until you reach the ends
Step 4: Twist this tail until it grows taught- tight enough to start to kink.
Step 5: Go with the kink, twisting the tail into a loop.
Step 6: Reach through the center of the loop and pull the excess through the hole to tighten the loop, leaving the ends inside- like a hairbun.


On a side note in my personal life, I've been doing other things to better my life outside of my art challenge:

-Cooking for myself (i'm really bad about feeding myself because i don't enjoy cooking and i don't like washing dishes-often there aren't any clean dishes to cook with) I'm easing into it with easy things- soups and sweets. Today was a veggie soup with hamburger and homemade french-style fudge. Bob also seems to be on a "make Samantha healthy" kick- he stocked me up on vitamins, viactiv (because every woman needs calcium), gummyvites (because i'll only take a multivitamin if it tastes yummy), glucosamine(for my bad wrist and joints), and folic acid (from my MIL. Bob said it was because I hurt myself all the time and as a metabolism booster it helps you build new cells- i said it was "hint hint- where's my grandkid" Bob's mom said it was both. lol)


-Getting into shape. i am generally considered "slender", but truth be told I am not "fit". When I work, I'm walking and lifting for 6-12 hours at a time, but my body is used to that, so i've started jogging. Nothing fancy, 5-10 minute jogs whenever i feel like it (about 4-6 days a week at random times of day), but it makes me feel better about myself.

-Gardening. This is the first place we have been where we have a yard that i can do something with. It's also the first place we've ever stayed for more than a year. I have a veggie garden, an herb garden, a thriving flower garden, a flower bed waiting on summer bulbs, and an arbor. It's the first time I've had a real tan in probably 5 years. I still have more seeds to add to the veggie garden. Even Bob is kind of getting into it- he planted strawberries. I'd like to issue a personal thanks to last year's halloween pumpkin for birthing a pumpkin plant and therefore the veggie garden around it.

well, that's all folks! til next week ;)

Week 10

I was inspired this week by the columbine I have in my garden (the photo is not one of mine). I originally started by drawing one. Then i drew in a person behind it and annoyed myself by giving her too much muscle tone and decided i was done drawing. So I got thinking about this thin copper sheeting I bought in a roll maybe 2 years ago and have not done anything with. I decided to make the flower out of metal. I just cut the shapes out with scissors. I did end up curling the back petals too much and i think proportionately they could have been shorter/closer together, but the general idea behind columbine is there. When i finished the flower, gave it a center of metal beads and wired it to a hairpin, it was totally missing something which i decided was a big black feather. I don't have any big black feathers, so i made a big black feather out of the same copper sheeting to complete the look. It's not my favorite piece ever but i do love it as a hair piece- i think it's striking, goes well with brunette hair, and would accent a headband well.
I'm more intrigued by the feather- it's the first time i've ever attempted to make a feather in this manner (scissor cutting thin sheet metal). I think the feather turned out really well and will definitely be making more feathers. I foresee a pen...

On a side note, i maintain now more than ever that this blog is definitely crucial in completing my goal. I really did not want to make anything this week. I've been working a lot and only have off one day this week and i didn't have time to brainstorm. Last week i wanted to make headbands- and it just so happened that we went out to eat (we had giftcards to olive garden) right next to a joann fabrics store and i could go in and buy fabric and make my 20 headbands. Headbands are so simple though that they kind of feel like a copout- i made 20 of them and with the intention of selling them when i make a store, but they're more just a fun thing that i happen to wear and at around $.75 each, why not make some extra and see if other people need headbands that they can custom fit too? But this week...nothing. no ideas- no desire to play. I made myself go draw because of the blog. I was unhappy with the finished drawing and made a piece, because i wasn't posting the drawing to the blog and in turn, learned a new technique that I WANT to explore. I don't know if people actually read my blog (well besides my family), but it doesn't really seem to matter in the long run. The blog is here and I have to post to it. 42 weeks to go...