Ceramics Outcome #1

Well, I finally have something to show you all from my ceramics class. Yes, they look like a small child in kindergarten made them, but they were my first efforts and I'd like to think I'm getting better. Last night I glazed my lantern that I made last week as well as finished off the bowls that I made on the wheel. Next week we will finish up whatever we have been working on and then glaze next week and the following. We will then be done with the hand building techniques. Have I mentioned how much I am loving playing with clay?!?

Red and Blue Small Platter
This platter was the very first thing I made and the first thing
I glazed and it looks like it. I think a 5 year old probably
does better work than I did...

Dark Blue with White Specs and Flower Impression Pinch Pot
I swear it looks a little bit better in person than in the photo. 

Melon Green with Darker Green Specs Pinch Pot
This one definitely looks better in person. 

What a Week

I have to say that I realize now how important it is to have a blog challenge because I am obviously really bad at keeping up with my blogging without a set goal. Therefore, I am on the hunt for a new challenge just to push myself to come out here and write for all my faithful followers.

Now on to 'real' post, this past week has been really weird....

1. Leo update.... We saw the vet last Friday and are on another 2 weeks of antibiotics. We will go back in for a followup once this round is complete and at that point will schedule some additional diagnostic testing, which will require for him to be put under anesthesia and hopefully actually figure out why this continues to happen. As the vet said, there should be NO reason why a dog of his age and who is taken such good care of should continue to have these infections....sigh. However, after he started taking the medication he bounced right back and has all the energy he normally has so we started going back to daycare. On Wednesday evening, when I picked him up, the dog that I thought was his sister was also being picked up so we got to look at them side by side up close. They do still look so very similar, however, in speaking with her "mom" it turns out that she is only 11 months old, so they would not be of the same litter....but I wonder if they have the same baby-daddy.
2. Monday when I went into the office and turned on my computer, it was D-E-A-D. It would try really hard to boot up but get stuck and just give up telling me that the operating system was missing. After dealing with the Service Desk and telling them the same thing over and over and over again, the technician finally said, "hmm, the onsite support will have to look at this, I'll open a ticket with them and they will call you." So, I started reading a book and following emails and what not on my Blackberry. Finally, around lunchtime, they call me and I take my machine down to the technology center, where the "magic" happens. I don't hear from them again until Wednesday when I went back down to the technology center to find out the status and after calling the Service Desk twice and getting nothing but 'challenges'. Anyway, finally, I got my laptop back around 1:00 in the afternoon and have spending the time since then resetting all my favorites and finding all my files, etc. 
3. Since, I didn't have a computer, I decided to just take Tuesday off. It was a 'fun' day of running errands. I also spent some time cleaning my house in preparation for a maid to come on Thursday. I had to do a final whirlwind tour on Wednesday evening so pick up the last minute things and to throw things in drawers and closets so that the maid could actually get to the surfaces and do the real cleaning. This has once again reinforced in me the importance of putting things away otherwise your house turns into a hoarders house and next thing you know I'm going to end up on Bravo. 
4. Ceramics class update.... Lastly, we had 2 sessions of ceramics class this week. Last week our class was cancelled as the instructor had Parent/Teacher night....I should have invited my parents.... Well, some of the students did go ahead and show up last Tuesday, or we could make up the class on Thursday of this week. I opted to make the class up on Thursday, and boy am I glad I did that. Tuesday, I spent the whole evening making a lantern. I have high hopes for it as it should be large enough to hold a pillar candle in it and I poked holes all around to let the light out. It was in the kiln last night when I showed up there, so it should be ready for glazing next week...along with a bunch of other stuff. Last night, I made a mug. I thought I was going to like making a mug....I didn't. I'll make more of the lanterns as they are square and you miter the corners to make things fit nicely, the mug was round and just felt lopsided, but that is okay, as it will work fine for me. After I finished the mug, I was trying to figure out what next I wanted to work on. The instructor was doing some work on the pottery wheel and offered to show me how to do that, since there were only two of us in the class, we both got excited and started learning how to throw clay. (Technically, I am not supposed to start learning how to do that for another 3 weeks.) Let me tell you....that was the most fun!! I suck at it and it is going to take some time to become comfortable at it, but I am sold. It is so amazing how just a little pressure and centrifugal force will do to a lump of clay. Here is a picture of the first bowl that I made. It is surprisingly almost perfect...although I did have a lot of assistance from the instructor in centering it and what not.... I'll just say, although I was totally covered in mud by the time I left, I LOVED every minute of it!!

Accomplish for Week of September 9

To bake: Cupcakes for the Office - Yeah, gonna try this again

To piece: Sedona Stars Quilt - This will need to be postponed until I get my machine fixed. 

To read: Finish The Minstrel Boy - Please, I'm getting tired of this book and its plot line. 

To finish: Put Binding on Black Tessellation quilt - This will also need to be postponed until I get my machine fixed. 

To do: TAKE MACHINE TO BE FIXED...

Oh, and I have another ceramics class, so I should be doing some painting this week...woo hoo...

Ceramics Class

Last night was my first Ceramics Class. I decided a while back that I wanted to learn how to make pottery and signed up at the community college's continuing education program to learn. The first 7 weeks is all about hand building techniques,

the next 7 will be focused on using the pottery wheel.

Admittedly, I was a little challenged in last night's class. I'm just not very patient or precise, however, I will learn to be or learn to accept my faults. Here is the syllabus for the coming weeks (my Mom will enjoy this):

9/4 - Slab Trays, Plates, and Dishes (I made a couple of small bowl things to put jewelry in and a large pasta bowl/plate/thingy)
9/11 - Glazing previous week's works. Large Sag and Drape Bowls
9/18 - Mugs and Containers/Pots
9/25 - Teapots, Bird Houses, and Sculpture (really looking forward to this one)
10/2 - Sculpture or Student's Choice
10/9 - Student's Choice
10/16 - Glaze only....gotta finish up all those projects that we have been working on

I really enjoyed the class yesterday and the teacher is so young. She teaches art at the High School where we meet (I'll need to get a picture of her classroom as my Mom will have room envy). There are 5 other students in the class. Two younger ladies who are pretty quiet and just work away on their projects. One lady who I've determined is just an oddball as she was matchy-matchy head to toe and then when picking out aprons she HAD to have the green one to continue the matching (we'll see if next week she wears green again) she also used the same doily in every single piece she made, no experimentation, no innovation, no deviation. There is one guy in the class, who I actually spent most of my time talking to (who knows, maybe this is my destiny).

The final lady in the class has taken classes from the instructor before and annoyed me right off the bat. I have no issue with people taking classes from the same instructor, but what annoys me is when they come in and then monopolize the instructor's time by talking about what they learned in the previous session or just visiting as if they are old friends. The other 5 people in the class are complete novices to working with clay and the one 'student' was just not being very considerate and the instructor was not being very instructive...Ah well, I'll just have to get past it.

So, it'll be a couple of weeks before I have anything to show, but looking forward to seeing what I can produce, even if it is crap, it'll be my crap!!