Project Runway - etsy metals challenge

I'm a member of the Etsymetals team- it is a group of talented metalsmiths who have outstanding work in metal (mostly jewelry) on the popular Handmade (and vintage and suppies) Craft commerce site, "Etsy" (pronounced like "Betsy" without the B) 

 One of the aspects of the team is group challenges- a way of stirring the creative pot a little and relating to each other in a visual manner- Being highly creative people, most of us are big fans of Project Runway(PR)- (if you don't know what PR is, click the link...and welcome to earth.....lol)

Each week on PR the designers are given a challenge, and they work to create a piece that is runway ready- usually in very little time, with very little money. Etsy metals team members have taken it on as a challenge- and each week we are invited to create a piece that represents the subject matter/challenge on the "real" show. And the results are usually pretty interesting!

Well, this week I decided to give it a shot- My kid is back in school, I am full time in my studio, and to top it off, I had a big supply of this week's featured material- Burlap.

Well- I must say....as much as I love the smell of burlap, and the color....that texture was not working for me this time! I made a huge mess in my kitchen , working until midnight one night just trying to get the material to work for me...then scrapped the entire night's work, only to start over agin the next day....and scrap the work again....here's a pic of the mess I created while trying to dye my material with greens from my garden.....

The next day, I worked with it again- folding, wrapping, stitching...all to nogood end..My burlap was really funky- it was the screen that I put up on my studio porch last summer to help shade me from the AZ sun. I think that's where I went so wrong...the material was so stressed already that all I had to do was look at it and it would crackle and puff all over my clothes!(of course I didn't notice I was covered in burlap fibers until I went to pick Cosmo up at school.....)

 

this is (sadly) the most successful thing I did with the burlap...

I guess I'm not really cut out to work in fabric

(TGFM- thank God for Metal)

oh well- I would be kicked off the runway from this week's challenge...but luckily we don't have Heidi giving us the "you're out!" ...so as Tim would say- the next time I take on a PR etsymetals challenge I will "make it work"

 :D  ciao _ maureen

click here to see more successful results of the burlap week from my talented teammates from Etsymetal (it's a link to the Etsymetals blog)