Week 24

Update on the pewter front: We're fighting. Will continue to fight with it. That is all...

So...naturally I went to a tried and true project that I love- hair accessories. I did a few more hair flowers, this time I started wrapping the bases so they look a little less like i just yanked them off of a wire stem (since that's exactly what i do) You've seen the yellow, but i made another and the picture was just so cute I couldn't help myself.

After flowers, I decided to fiddle with feathers. It could have gone more smoothly- i won't be selling this one as it's messier than i would like (though part of that had to with the fact that i thought a part of the accessories was actual grass/twig/plant material when it was really plastic which meant some accidental melting was involved.) I think it's pretty. I'll probably make another. I only had the one comb to play with though so i will have to buy more.

Since I was playing with glue, I decided to make some marble magnets- you've seen them, they're everywhere- i have several from different places. I was playing with glue and silk flowers so...naturally i backed mine in silk flower- it's a cream and green marbled leaf pattern that kiiiiiinda looks like a watermelon rind:

On a side note, I obviously didn't do this (seeing as i don't have the equipment, etc.), but I had a ring plated last week. My dad gave me (and my sisters) a lot of beautiful jewelry growing up, most specifically a diamond ring when each of us turned 13. I treasure all the jewelry I have from my father, but I don't wear it very often because it's ALL yellow gold (which i just don't happen to love with my skintone, i prefer white gold). I mentioned to my sisters i was thinking of having it reset and one them told me I could just get it dipped/plated to be white gold (which had never occurred to me seeing as i don't think a whole lot people plate over gold) I got it back on my anniversary and it is BEAUTIFUL! See?!?!?See?!?!?

Also note that I am clearly taking pictures with my kodak camera- so much better aren't they?

Also- just to throw it out there- it's wallflowers season again in our house (at the first sign of fall, my house smells like cinnamon, lol) and I realized last winter that i could refill my wallflowers. I only buy cinnamon stick fragrance oil, but if people would be interested in having me refill their wallflower bulbs at $1/pop(as opposed to the $5 minimum a new refill bulb costs with the added benefit of recycling/not tossing all that glass), I'd be happy to. Obviously, it'd be best if you save your caps if you decide you'd like to start refilling them. I kept almost a dozen from last year, and bought a few this year, but wallflowers need replaced so much quicker in the wintertime with the heat and everything.

Week 23: Part 2- Fun with Pewter

So...today was my first day with pewter. ::big sigh:: All told, it could have been worse and I feel like I learned a lot in my hours of melting and pouring and mold making. over and over and over again.

The molds: My past experience with casting has all been silver lost-wax-casting. I currently do not have any wax (ordered some) so I had to play around with other types of molds. Ideally, I'll like to cast nature pieces- specifically leaves, because I find that kind of detail hard to fake in carving. Naturally, all the molds I made today were of leaves. I had a few sculpey molds (imprinted with real leaves), severals molds where i made a base and border around a real leaf (in case you were curious, no they do not in fact burst into flames) and a couple of silicone molds. I do have a leaf in some plaster, but it needs drying time.

The pouring: From the get go I had issues with pouring. I was heating the metal for as long as it said to, but it was just pouring thick- way thicker than i wanted. The first sculpey mold i filled came out ok with decent detail, but was almost a quarter of an inch thick. At the end of the day, i can honestly say that basically the given time for heating was wrong because eventually i got the metal to pour just fine, if not always in the direction i wanted.

The results: I would say I spent a good 4-6 hours melting and pouring and mold making today. I give you 1 photo:

This is the only leaf I was happy enough with to photograph. It took many many tries to get a thin pour that covered the entire mold (leaves make shallow molds). I might have been happy with it if not for the fact that the mold was blemished- which i knew before i ever used it though i'm not sure how it got that way (if you're looking for the mark it's the little round spot mid left). In the whole day, i probably only managed about 5 leaves in general- one was too thick, several were surface damaged (from the water boiling out of the leaves when the metal touched them), many were incomplete (the metal didn't cover the whole pattern). I certainly would never sell this one though i might keep it (rather than remelt it) as a sort of first day token. I haven't melted down that first pour of a quarter inch leaf either. Can't wait to see how it goes with wax...

Week 23

Among other birthday fun, Bob took me to JoAnn Fabrics last week (it's probably a good thing that it's kind of far away, because i always spend way too much money there). I bought some really fun beads and some pretty clasps, but naturally i also bought flowers: Can you tell from the colors that I'm ready for Halloween? (It IS my favorite day of the year).

This is a silver bracelet for my niece, Lily. Her parents bought her a souveneir bracelet on vacation and it broke, so I took the seashell/stone out and made her a new bracelet. It's not perfect, but I hope she'll like it.

My foray into pewter casting began today, but i haven't really been happy with any of the results so far so no pictures. All I have been truly successful at with it so far is to melt down a 1lb ingot and pour it into much smaller blobs to make it easier to cast smaller things. I made a sculpey mold with a leaf imprint- worked just ok. Poured ontop of a leaf, the prints aren't very deep and it's hard to get the metal to spread out, it likes to pool. Will be making molds tonight and later this week for more fun experimentation. we shall see.

Week 22

I'm thinking about doing some consignment so I made some silver ditties this week. More of the silver lightning/tree root pendants (because i fell in love with the first one i made and well, it's mine. lol) and some ear cuffs.

True to nature, the pendants don't follow any pattern other than squiggly and directional. I don't want them to be identical (where's the fun in that?) They could maybe use some more tendrils- i may go back and amp them up a bit.

The earcuff's were originally going to be earrings (which is why they match), but then i decided that i'm not overly fond of earrings anyway and these would look way cooler going up the curve of the ear than hanging below. I haven't added the cuffs because i ordered some cool patterned half-round wire that i want to use for the cuff, but i think you can imagine them on an ear. I decided to make them cuffs before i actually made them, but also- you can see where i got a little impatient with the torch and *perhaps* melted one of the loops on the one on the right. It doesn't look bad- it just melts into a ball, and i may consider intentionally melting the others on that piece...I have to weigh the benefit against the possibility of accidentally turning the entire piece into a lump of molten metal...

I'm reeeeeally happy with this week's doodle. I did hit a point where i had to tell myself to put it down and stop adding stuff though, and this has been photo shopped to erase two little tendrils where i decided i had gone too far. I intend to color the flower periwinkle blue, but wanted a black and white version on my harddrive.

I also bought myself some birthday presents. The first thing I bought is everything I need to experiment with pewter casting. I've never worked with pewter before but it has a much lower melting temperature than silver and requires a lot less equipment. I bought the melting pot for casting and the kit that came with it including an ingot of lead-free pewter and silicone for mold making. I'm hoping to cast some pewter leaves, we'll see how it goes. I THINK i can also do wax casting in plaster (without a kiln) and i read that you can also cast in sand. It should be fun and hopefully allow me to make some of the things i really miss making.

The second present to myself was a purchase from riogrande for about 30 feet of sterling wire in different gauges, one with a pattern in it, and some beads and findings. I had a gift certificate from my catalogues (when you order a rio grande catalog, they charge you $10 for each one, but give you a gift certificate equal to the amount of catalogues you purchased. I subscribe to 2 so i had a $20 gift certificate) and Bob's mom sent me a $50 visa giftcard so it i got to buy $70 in silver fun. happy birthday to me. :)

Week 21

Last week I got on a feather kick. I told you I'd figured out how to make them even more feathery so naturally, I had to make a feather pen- see how there's no blank space in the middle:

Unfortunately the metal that i was trying to salvage last week really just does not seem to be salvageable so i started over. I added some glass beads and a hair pin and think the small one came out really cute. I broke the cheap pair of scissors i usually scissor cut with though so i tried tin-snips on this piece. The result is that the edges of the feathers don't curl.

My weekly doodle:

Outside the realm of The Xarata Project:

Bob's 24th birthday was yesterday. We went out with friends for sushi and all split a sushi boat which he loved and ate with my most favorite thing i bought for him- a pair of lightsaber chopsticks. I was so proud, because i knew he would like them but they weren't on his list, and he couldn't figure out what was in that present- shake and squeeze as he may. I also made him white coconut cake(his request) and huevos rancheros for breakfast(also requested). He spent most of the day playing videogames which kept him happy.

I ate a turnip out of my garden this week. They're still small, but i was excited.

It was kind of a lousy week. I had to replace my car's computer after a mishap with some jumper cables, and the landlord's son mowed over my pumpkin plant- again. With the rent this month, they received a short letter reminding them that the roof was supposed to be replaced a year ago- with accompanying photos of waterdamage in the house as well as a reminder that we had been told the original fencing was going to be remounted when we moved in 1 1/2 years ago, it hasn't been and any fencing that I put up keeps getting broken because they move and mistreat it. I also let them know that we had finally patched the numerous holes that were in the walls when we moved in that THEY were supposed to fix. They haven't said anything about plans to fix the roof or put up the fencing, but they did unceremoniously leave our hose on the porch (it was over with the other hoses and water hookup on the front house, because our outdoor water hookup isn't functioning and when i asked at the beginning of the summer they told me they don't know how to make it work). The landlord's son has always been rude, but if things continue this way, i will find another house. Between the leaking roof, flooding basement, and their complete ignorance of necessary repairs, i really don't think they can make me pay anything for breaking a lease either.

If anything I would leave this place in much better condition than it was when i came. I've done landscaping, put up lattice over the very rustly railing, enclosed the yard with wire fencing on one side and a gated arbor on the other, repainted the bathroom and replaced the very cheap aluminum fixtures with more aesthetically pleasing antique brass finished ones, patched and painted a lot of holes that we did not make, ripped out 2 rooms and a stairs worth of stinking and pet soiled carpet(with permission), mounted shelving in the basement and added privacy film to the lower windows in the living room so they don't have to be covered (there's no ceiling lights so light is precious). This week, I also tiled the backsplash of the stove and its awning:

Week 20

I've been pretty burned out the last couple of weeks so I'm trying to find my motivation.

Like presents...I thought my neice was going to be in town (she was actually on her way to Chicago so it was just a quick visit), but I've been meaning to make her a dress out of some smocked tinkerbell fabric my mother-in-law gave me a year ago, so I did that this week.

I also have realized that I've been hoarding a tube of clear liquid lipstick base I have from obsessive compulsive cosmetics because it's around $13 a tube and i don't want to have to re-purchase. Knowing the ingredients list is really short and simple, I finally decided to give it a go and make it myself. I bought castor oil, liquid vitamin e, hemp seed oil, and peppermint oil for about the same price as a tube of clear liptar, but in quantity to make a whole tub of it. To start out, I only made about 2 tablespoons (which is still 2 tubes of clear liptar and didn't even dent my ingredients supply). It's a sort of clear yellow color, slightly sticky, supermoisturizing, and holds color extremely well. I would say mine came out just as good as theirs.
Here it is with a coral powdered mineral blush thrown into it to make it a lipstick. For more opaque lipsticks, you just add some white mineral foundation base (zinc oxide/titanium dioxide) and it'll make your color pack even more of a punch.

I really love it- it's especially great for nude-ing out your lips with foundation. You can put any powdered mineral makeup into it that doesn't contain ultramarines or ferric ferrocyanide (those are mostly greens, blues, purples which most people aren't into putting on their lips anyway, and you can still find those colors without those ingredients if you really WANTED green lips). It's great for costuming too. It's basically conditioning oils and mineral colorants. I don't know if I want to come up with a standard recipe and put it on etsy or not. First off, I wouldn't want to be considered in some sort of infraction on OCC though all i'd really have to do is add another conditioning oil for the ingredients to be different and I could change the flavor, and they probably wouldn't care so long as i don't dupe their whole mixing system (they sell you primary brights like red, orange, yellow, black, white and then you mix a drop of this and a drop of that to get the color you want. But at $13/tube that's a really expensive lip system even if you do get an endless amount of colors from it. I personally, don't want to mix that much). There's also all kinds of rules about the conditions of the environment you make things in, and i'm sure my kitchen doesn't constitute as up to code being that i own a dog and she's allowed in the kitchen and all. However, if you currently read my blog and would like this clear liquid lipstick base, I will happily find a way to package it and sell you some through a custom listing on etsy.




This week's doodle was kind of me playing at a design for a tattoo (no, mom I am not planning on getting a tattoo anytime soon and am very aware of how you feel about them). It consists of my dog's pawprint(in theory, her actual pawprint), a symbol that I created for Bob in college, and the traditional filigree vines that I seem to love so much. Sorry the picture isn't great, but i didn't go over it black pen.

On a side note, i finally got a battery charger for my other camera (because i lost the adapter that charges it through the camera) and in theory, i should be taking some much clearer pictures of my jewelry than previously achieved through my other camera.

Oh! Also this week, I ordered some more custom-art products from vistaprint with one of my doodles on them. It was one of their big everything free sales, so i just paid shipping and $2.79 to upload my photo (which was also half off from the regular $4+). I got custom business cards, business magnets, postcards and notecards (which will be listed in the original art and stationary part of my etsy site)

Also...I sealed teabags this week with loose teas i have in the house which was way easy and very convenient. I did it mostly because I wanted to be able to take my favorite teas to work (which i did, made myself a little variety pack), but also because i cut my finger on a loose edge of the screen in my tea- diffuser pot this week and i was annoyed.


I did start on a magic wrap dress this week, but i made several stupid mistakes which are fixable but kind of sucked the fun out of it for me and i abandoned it for the time being.

On the veggie garden front...I have so far harvested: 2 zucchinis- there's a 3rd on the vine, 2 cucumbers with a 3rd on the vine, 3 very large radishes with more in the ground, lots of peppers, and 1 red tomato with lots of green ones on the vine. My pumpkin seems to be recovering and i finally have a lettuce plant big enough for a salad. We moved Bob's strawberry plant out of its topsy turvy (dumbest thing ever) and into a strawberry pot, and it FINALLY has strawberries.

The dog is angry with me because i replaced the end table and now she doesn't fit under it anymore. Her new living room cave is apparently behind my chair...

Edit: After posting, I decided to make a new copper feather pen for my etsy store. Completed right around midnight-ish.
I'm also working on some smaller feathers to go on hairpins, but the section of copper sheeting i used has some kind of glue/sticky backing. I tried pickling, soap, scotch brite pads, and brass wire brushing it. None of it worked so i lit it on fire. I *think* the pickle should take it off now. I'm leaving it in there overnight so we shall see. I made one into a feather while it was still sticky. I guess worst case scenario, they're not sticky anymore but they'll be heat patinaed. I also revised my method to get rid of the extra space in the middle of the feather. I was folding and then cutting (which is easier) but if i cut first i can go all the way to the channel and then fold the channel- it's more difficult, but prettier.

Week 19

At the beginning of the week, I replicated a couple of the orchid hairpins i made a few weeks ago and added them to etsy. The end of the week rolled around and I just haven't been able to design anything- i've tried, i just haven't been happy with anything. I sat twisting silver for a good hour before i gave up on it. I sketched...i sketched people, i sketched the dog, i sketched randomly- no go. So...this is all I have to show for my efforts, not very exciting, but at least an attempt to keep the mojo flowing:

I think I need a project- something time consuming/labor intensive that I have to work on over the course of a week, or several. In college, I had those projects (and the equipment to do them on), but I never do them anymore... Maybe I'm bored with the medium- i've been playing with silver and hair pieces for the last few weeks- i suppose i should switch to glass or fabric for a bit...



It's been one of those weeks...my car inspection ran me $580, the landlord's son mowed over my pumpkin plant, it's beyond boiling hot outside and in, and i'm only halfway through my 10-day work stretch. What I would really like is some sleep... but it's too hot to sleep... At least I saw Bob a lot this week since we've both been on nights. silver lining. :)