August 2011

It's been about 5 weeks since my last post, and life has been crazy (I took a trip to Michigan, celebrated my quarter-century, and started working ~70 hour weeks with 2 jobs and the final weeks of tourist season), but just because I haven't been posting doesn't mean I haven't been making things when I get a chance.

The last week of July I made a summer dress. You haven't seen it before, but it's actually the same one(copy) I made as a gift in April for my sister. The fabric was just too cute and I had just enough fabric for 2 if I made mine a little on the short side. lol.

This week I made 2 more boleros. At my retail job, I can wear pretty much anything I want so long as it's on the nicer side and and my back and shoulders are covered, so these are lace boleros that I can throw over my summer dresses (most of which don't cover my back or shoulders). The really great thing about them being lace is that i didn't have to line them or topstitch them, so they only take about 15-20 minutes to make, even with utilizing the scalloped edge (which means adding a seam to the curved edge to make the scallop trim follow it). Have I told you how much I LOVE my serger? oh I have? well, I really do love my serger...

Also, I didn't make this, but it's too cute not to share. We sell this where I work and I forgot to buy it and I was trully a little obsessed with it for weeks, so Bob bought it for my birthday. It's a rubber ducky tea infuser!!! See the lil ducky in my cup?!?!? TOO CUTE!!!

And remember how my tattoo is allowed to show at my retail job but not at my restaurant job? Look what a little makeup can do:

That's primer, cream concealer, and foundation my friends. Now you see  it, now you don't. It lasts about 3-4 hours before needing a touch up. Longer if I REALLY put the time into covering it up. Pretty much all of those coverups are waterproof and I have to really scrub to get them off at the end of the day.



I picked up a lot of beach glass(i have a BLUE piece!!! happy dance!) and crinoids (never heard of them before? me neither. they're broken up pieces of a fossilized creature and they pretty much look like fossilized cheerios. They're also called indian beads and are primarily found in the midwest. I didn't ask Bob to show me what they were until more than halfway through our trip, but I picked up about 30-40 of them) so I will undoubtedly be turning them into something soon. Bob wants me to turn the really big pieces of beach glass (we have the bottom of a mason jar and part of a wine bottle) into some kind of a windchime so we'll see. My daddy also gave me his old kiln for my birthday, so at some point I'm going to tackle my PMC (precious metal clay. Molds like clay, cooks to 99.9% metal jewelry) and bottle slumping (heating up old bottles just enough for them to collapse into a plaster mold- making wine bottle cheeseboards and other cool stuff). My posts aren't going to be as frequent, but when they're further apart, they'll have more cool stuff in them.

Branching Out: Applying for a job in retail

We all know how I feel about being a waitress: It pays well, it's what I know, and I am damn good at my job...BUT... (that's a very big BUT right there)

I'm not happy doing it. I have mastered the art of what I like to call "The Cheerleader". To a guest, I am cheery, energetic, conversational, and above all very VERY efficient. I'm a perfectionist and I don't like to fail which pretty much makes me a model employee. In general, I work in turn and burn restaurants and I flip tables like no one's business with consistently higher sales and fewer errors than anyone else. I learn fast and save my stress for later, but saying that this is what I wanted for myself is just a hop, skip, and jump away from saying every little girl dreams of being a hooker. This is not "Pretty Woman", my friends. This is life...like the cereal...

There are a few things I truly love in life: my husband, my dog, nature, and art. I chose to pursue art through fashion and jewelry. In 4 years, I learned a lot- a lot about what I wanted out of life and what made me happiest, as well as picking up several new skillsets on the way. Then I graduated, there were bills to pay, and I forgot all about it. I got married, moved 2 more times after college, and...I started this blog. It became my little niche in the world, a mark in cyberspace if not on the world.

The daily grind kept on grinding, and when it became too much I applied for other jobs in the same field and was offered them. I turned them down partially out of fear of change and partially because I knew "same shit, different place" wasn't going to cut it in the end. As I find myself doing every 6 months or so, I found myself perusing the classifieds again this week, and just for fun, I opened the retail section- because you know, i delight in fashion, jewelry, makeup, and secretly all things girly. One of my favorite stores, Francesca's Collections (a boutique with a unique and fun vintage feel) has a listing for their new location, and...with no retail experience under my belt, I threw caution to the wind and sent in an application.

I opened with a cover letter (something I never do):

"My name is Samantha Elliott, and I have no retail experience. What I do have is a bachelor's degree in fashion design with a minor in art and jewelry and 10 years in the fast paced food and beverage industry where interaction with guests, keeping customers happy, and doing high-volume cash sales on your feet is must- that's 10 years of direct sales experience including upselling and suggestive selling, multitasking, problem-solving, and overall guest satisfaction with cashier experience. In college, I also spent a year in a movie theatre box office doing thousands of dollars in cash sales in hours as well as suggestive selling in a concession stand. I've held several jobs where creating visual displays was a part of my job duties, most notably the weekly lobby displays I was required to create and change as an RA, and the many wedding displays I've done in banquets, in addition to the fashion shows and art displays that were a part of my coursework in college.
I am not currently using my degree professionally, but I do keep a blog where I require myself to make new pieces and use my talents, because art and fashion are where my passions truly lie. As a waitress, I take pride in accessorizing with style and looking as best I can in a uniform. As an individual, I'm especially fond of unique and timeless pieces and a frequent visitor at Francesca's in Park City, Lancaster. Check out my blog: http://xarataproject.blogspot.com/p/xarata-project.html and my website http://xarata.etsy.com, and take a chance on something unique and different that just "works". It's how all the best finds are made."

A little corny, but to the point and different enough to grab some attention. It worked- they emailed me back prompting me for a more user-friendly format for my resume. I sent it to them 2 days ago, and not hearing back have despaired. When I saw that they relisted the job ad, I decided "what the hell? Persistence never hurt anybody". I completely revamped my resume, having sent in separate Fashion and F&B resumes the first time, I took the time to craft a retail resume (you know, with things like "cashier" under past employment in lieu of "Movie Ticketing" and "Waitress" -both which have cashier in the skills line), pasting it in the email, uploading it to skydrive, and making sure it was in .doc format. I also attached the previous cover letter so it doesn't immediately scream re-ap, but shows I took the time to troubleshoot, refine and give it a better go should they read it again.





The Little Details:
The job listing is part time, so I would still have to waitress to pay the bills and going on restriction means destroying the little seniority I've earned for myself. On the upside, I'm on Bob's benefits so changing jobs doesn't affect my insurance or anything. Retail is one of those industries where people seem to climb pretty quickly, and if there came a day where I could leave waitressing, I would be very happy about that. Retail isn't as hard on your hands as serving is, the clothes are nicer, the discounts are better, and when you get bored, there's always stuff to organize (which is so much better than scraping gum out from under tables). Mostly, it would just be a really big change, but probaby a positive one. We drove by the new location and...it actually isn't there yet. There is an empty storefront in the shopping centre though which is probably going to become the new location. In some ways, this could be really good, because it probably means that they're not opening until late summer/early fall which is exactly the time when all of my shifts at the Lodge magically disappear and I start scraping for money and scrounging for hours, while fighting the idea of going on unemployment. It might be scary, but it could be perfect...

Oh, by the way, Bob is up for a promotion at work so cross your crossables! It's actually the same promotion that he didn't get last time that he was supposed to be a shoe-in for and everyone was so shocked and disappointed when he didn't get it. He's spent the last 6 months listening to management complain about the mistakes they made in that last round of promotions and only rarely does he mention that hey, I applied for it, I didn't get it, and I'd rather not hear about the ineptitude of those were apparently my betters. So again he's supposed to be a shoe-in, and it would be a really big raise which would allow us a little more freedom, but neither of us is trying to get our hopes up too terribly high...just crossing our crossables...


So that's just me sharing to anyone in particular what's going on in my life, my little hopes and fears, where I might be headed next. any words of wisdom?

Silver Earpiece and Updates

Did you miss me?!?!?

The bottom of this post has a rundown of the last few weeks, but that really isn't why you read this blog so onward ho! My mom asked me for some stuff for a trip, so today I made an ear piece. I haven't made a whole lot of these in the past and I'm not really sure why, but this one is fun enough:

The loop that comes out the bottom is part of the design, but it's also longer because I know for a fact that my mom's ears are bigger than mine.

And hey, remember that piece that I designed and cut out but never put together? yeah...I put that together today!

And it's an inch and a half short on each side. lol. Obviously there are a couple of tendrils in there that need moved into proper alignment with the piece, but it really does need more on the outer edges and I'm not confident enough to tweak the design tonight. Part of why it is as short as it is was that I was having trouble thinking of more to make it longer. It will fit exactly as I meant it to though which is lovely. For now, I've flattened it back out so I can add to it.

I did miss silver-work. There's something very satifying about watching silver melt and flow the way you want it to, and then fishing the tarnished piece out of the pickle pot all shiny and new looking.

Also a new development. Because weeks like the past few are inevitable, and because I DO go on vacation occassionally, I've decided to stop numbering my posts. If I realize that I'm REALLY slacking, I'll consider revisiting the numbered posts, but as long as I'm putting stuff out pretty regularly, I'm not going to guilt myself about sleeping in or baking cookies or going to a movie instead of making something. This project isn't about guilt, it's about creative freedom. In general, I put out better work when I'm not forcing it, and that's how it should be.




Where have I been?

No secret that I took a couple of weeks off from projects. I was working overtime, 6 days a week usually around 12 hours a day. We served breakfast in my restaurant for 2 weeks, and I had a week of coming in from 7-11:30am, going home and napping til 2pm, taking a shower, going to physical therapy from 4pm-5pm and running upstairs for work from 5pm-1am. Then I'd get back up at 6am the next day and do it all over again. I got one day off a week, about 8 days apart. The last thing I feel like doing on my day off is telling myself I HAVE to do such and such. I did some shopping, some eating, and a lot of sleeping. I also spent lots of time at the park with Honey, and we finally gave her a chance off-leash on the nature trails. She's behaved wonderfully and I'm so proud of her. It was relaxing, I had fun, and I don't regret one second of it.

 I've also been spending a lot of time working on my hands, since a lot of the physical therapy I'm doing can benefit my hands overall and is kind of fun. My favorite therapies are Baoding melody balls (little cloisonne spheres with chimes, they come in an asian box), silly putty, and tendon glides (which i affectionately refer to as sign language). I've also been drinking joint juice (which i prefer over pill-form glucosamine supplements- it's basically kool-aid). I'm also on prednisone to speed up healing. Can't say as I really think it makes a difference, but I can turn doorknobs and wash dishes without being in immense pain so something must be working. (If you're curious, the rundown of my hands is as follows: Carpal Tunnel in both hands, damaged cartilage in my right hand, tendonitis in my left hand, and an overstretched ligament in my left hand that is likely permanent from the way I carry trays- the ligament being stretched just means that it doesn't support my joint the way it ought to, making it easier for me to hurt myself if I don't support it in some other way, so I've been given a brace/support to wear on that hand at work, specifically because I carry trays.)

Also, I'm going to be tattooing my damaged hand for my birthday. In general, I know how most of you feel about tattoos one way or the other, and my general reply is this: I've wanted a tattoo for a really long time, I didn't just wake up one day and decide I wanted to go get one. I've known what I wanted (Honey's pawprint) and where I wanted it(on my hand, the final location will be the most damaged part of my hand- the area between my wrist and thumb/index finger) for over a year. I made a stamp and tested the image for several weeks. Between my secret love of makeup, fairy ear prosthetics, and because the hand is damaged and I'll be wearing a support (be it a brace or kinesio tape) at work for medical reasons for the rest of my life, I'm not concerned about the location of this tattoo interfering with my job/future jobs. So what I want you to know is I really thought about it, I made this decision for myself and no one else, and I'm a grown-ass woman turning 25 and quite frankly, my dear, I just don't give a damn ;)

Week 13

This week I made another bolero. I made it a size smaller, because I felt the other one was a little big.

 Both this one and the last one are reversible, but I picked more exciting lining this time :)

I also did a little teeny project I've been meaning to do for awhile now, and that's to take my souveneir shirts, cut the nostalgic logo out of them and sew them all together like a quilt. I only did my volunteer/special event shirts in this one, but it's a lot easier than holding onto a bunch of shirts i'm never going to wear again. I cut up what was left of the t-shirts into large rectangles (size of small towels) and plan on donating them to an animal shelter since they're always looking for fabric bedding for their crates and kennels (towels, sheets, tshirts, etc) 

Week 12-Fabric is Back In

I've decided to allow fabric into the mix, and this week I made a leather-look bolero.

So...I hurt myself again...

So...yeah...I hurt myself again (surprise surprise- i see those eyes rolling!). I was working, and I heard(and felt) a crack in my hand- my left hand (my UNdamaged hand). My thought process was pretty much "oh shit- that can't be good" and I kept working, aware of the pain- a pain very very similar to when I damaged cartilage in my right hand.

The good news:
In theory, I just pulled or overstretched a tendon in my hand, so no cartilage damage and no physical therapy with a fluidometer (we hope). I definitely didn't hurt it as badly as my right hand so recovery time shouild be much shorter.

The bad news:
I have to wear an immobilizer (stupid little hand brace thing that "immobilizes" my thumb and wrist to keep my from using that tendon), which I also had to wear when I hurt my other hand so I wasn't really surprised, but it's not particularly comfortable and it really limits movement which can be frustrating. I'm also kind of bad about following the rules with wearing this (last time, the doctor threatened to put me in a cast if I kept taking it off to use my hand) which can delay healing...I'll try to be good.


What this means:
What it means is a week or two away from wire work and I have made a decision. I have decided to bend the rules. It's hot out and I like making myself little dresses and fun sewn fabric things and telling myself that they don't count as being creative for the week makes me resent my other projects and forces me into working with a media that maybe i'm just not feeling that week-which means i put out half-hearted mediocre things and that's not good. I majored in both metal and fashion, so why hold myself to only one or the other? So from now on fabric is back on the table. And yes, I did make something this week which I'll get around to posting in the next day or two.

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.