November 21, 2016
Nov 8

Nov 8

So both my boys have had their birthdays – 4 and 8! Amazing. They were super stoked. I find it pretty fun but also melancholy.

Every new stage is (mostly) fascinating, but also it means the ending of other stages – neither says ‘bluebellies’ for blueberries anymore or blellow! For yellow. There’s no more random sitting because they’ve lost their balance, or insane babbling that they are convinced is real conversation. Though Edward did decide to but small ‘Nerds’ candies up his nose last week. And Arthur figured out how to use a solar panel to make the hand generator in his electric circuits set spin backwards…SO there’s still plenty of things to look forward too.

More pieces came out of the kiln, and I worked on a sculpture – an Atlantic puffin, the provincial bird for my native Newfoundland. The other pieces were really just fun to work on, the puffin was too, until last night when I needed to hollow out the centre so it would dry evenly and fire properly.  It was terrifying as I ‘gutted’ my puffin! I had to use a wire to cut off its chest – under the chin, along the wings and out horizontally over the feet. Then use a tool to dig around the inside, hoping not to puncture a side or leave any area too thick.

Truly sweat worthy stuff. 😀

And yes, I am blocking the US elections from my awareness. I will find out tomorrow if I have to sweat over that.

*dang*

It’s taken me longer to write then I had thought. It’s now the 9^th and Trump won. I’m speechless. I have friends and family who are American or who live in the States. I have no idea what this is going to mean for their marriages, their immigration statuses, their healthcare. I had to explain to Arthur that what he had heard, that Trump said he’d build a wall to separate the US and Canada, was true but the concept was absurd. The wall would, literally, be the length of the Great Wall of China. The idea of building it along a border that hasn’t seen a military skirmish in 200 years is asinine.

And now it is currently the 16^th!

I can’t believe I started this post over a week ago. We had Remembrance Day, did a big declutter project, got ready for guests, greeted said guests, have a sick little boy (a 4-year-old with a head cold is both unbearably cute and tragic), and did all the normal acts of life – work, school, meals…and laundry. The never ending piles of laundry.

We had snow. Which is past due but still unwelcome. I am not a winter person.

It’s five weeks to Christmas and I haven’t given it a single thought. Zero prep. Zero anticipation. I normally try to do something handmade each year. Don’t think I’m going to manage it at the moment. I haven’t even started pumping the boys for Christmas present ideas.

I started reading a couple books (the Tao of Watercolour and The Zen of Creative Painting by Jeanne Carbonetti) that I happened across at my teaching job. I’m not finding them engrossing, a couple ideas I want to try out with students, but a little esoteric for me overall. Part of the Zen of Painting involves Jungian analysis of mandalas. I struggle with the idea that a universal system of archetypes can be imposed on individual artistic choices, especially if choices are limited by say the palette available in a box of oil pastels. Why did I choose yellow? Well, because out of 12 pastels it worked best in that spot? If I had access to 100’s of colours would I have chosen yellow, or specifically that yellow? Who knows?

I found my copy of “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron to reread. I haven’t cracked it yet though.

In clay class I trimmed the wheel projects from last week. So funny. So crooked and wobbly!  I also got back some buttons I made! Just a little experiment to play with glazing. I tried painting the bowls and some buttons with slip, should be pretty cool. Supposedly they will come back royal blue and black. And after class I made more button-like-thingys! I have a love for all things wee and so I made tons of little bits – everything from tiny tiny 1 cm stars to 3 cm circles.  With rectangles and ovals as well.

Nov 17 – this is getting ridiculous! I need to get this posted.

Nov 21 – I lost my password and had to get it replaced (thanks!) and then it was the weekend. Saturday morning I taught. Such goofballs for students in those classes! Way more interested in chatting about the latest books or Pokémon than focusing on making art. That afternoon I painted with my boys. Also goofballs! Sunday…what did we do Sunday? It was just yesterday but I’m blanking. 

Saturday night I got to try out an experiment with polymer clay that I’ve been excited for. I made a plaster mold from an egg, I love the sheer decadence of Faberge eggs, and thought maybe I could play around with the form. It sucked. I used a translucent ‘flesh’ colour and it was gross. I’ll try again with another colour (iridescent royal blue?) but am thinking that maybe polymer clay won’t be a good base for this project. There’s a new ‘real’ clay (vs. polymer clay) that’s come out called “Polar Ice” (https://plainsmanclays.com/data/MPOLAR1.HTM), some of the ceramicists I know are playing with it. I might see if I can get some.    

Ideas and more ideas, always ideas.

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