A conspiracy of sorts.

So, I took about a week and a half off from doing ceramics to focus on other things.  I made three books, one which I dislike, one which I like, and one which I love.  I plan to make more like the one I love, but I need to go shopping and have no money to do so.  I will photograph and post these up soon and make them available on my Etsy shop.  The problem with things I make that I dislike is that I neither want to keep them nor sell them, because I feel that some things are just unworthy.  I will readily give these away, but I know that I need to temper that desire, or just make things that I love all the time.  I also did a little crochet.  I made an elephant hat that I made up as I went.  I have always felt a little iffy about making and selling stuff from someone else's pattern, so I try as much as I can to make my own.  (Though I did read an article recently about how it really is ok to sell things made from someone else's pattern.  Which makes sense because although designed by someone else, I would be the one actually putting forth the effort to make the thing I am selling.)  I also made some coasters, and I'm still in process with this.  I need to get on top of finishing these because this Saturday I have been signed up to run a table at a "Spring Fling" event at the school where my sister teaches.  I need to have a smattering of things, business cards, and I need to figure out what I want to donate to the school for I believe an auction.  I know it needs to be something nice, but I also don't want to give away something that I worked super hard on and may be able to sell for a good amount, you know, and actually get some sort of reward for all the time and effort I put into this stuff every day.

I am getting off the topic of my brain though.  The reason this post is called "A Conspiracy of Sorts" is because I did get back on my wheel again today.  It felt so good to throw.  Best thing ever.  I had some goals today.  I wanted to throw a candle warmer, because I want to own a candle warmer, and I would rather make one than buy one - which is the case with just about everything that I CAN make, as long as I'm not feeling lazy.  The last time I sat down to try this I miserably failed.  Failed not only at making a warmer, but I did not successfully throw anything.  I think that's why I took a small vacation from it.  Today I did manage to throw the warmer base and a little dish to sit on top to hold the wax.  I was very pleased.  The warmer was made on my first try.  After this I set to work on trying to throw a teapot, but I want it to be a very large teapot.  If I was ok with a small teapot, I would have succeeded.  Basically I tried to accomplish this by throwing tall cylinders and then trying to round them out.  I failed.  Maybe I was too eager, not patient enough, I don't know.  But tall cylinder after tall cylinder eventually fell into a bowl.  and I decided I would rather have a bowl than completely scrap what I had made.  And so, the clay and wheel conspired against me and after that candle warmer the rest of everything I made were bowls.  It's not that I dislike bowls, in fact I should probably make them more.  I just wanted a teapot and I did not get a teapot.

a bit too much space?

I don't like the space between people.  I'm not talking about physical space, but an emotional and relational space.  I give information and ask questions seeking to know better and be known, to make friends and try to be a friend.  In some groups this is easy, in others not so.  I know that it is partially a TCK thing, this desire to go deep quickly, and that perhaps not everyone shares that same desire.  But that sort of sucks sometimes.  I don't mean like becoming intimate with someone, but just the basics of getting to know and becoming friends with them.

I am the queen of wanting to be closest with those who are farthest away, so I know I'm not always the best at, where I'm at, seeking people out and being a friend.  The queen of this you ask?  Yes.  I say this because I fell in like with someone a long time ago - we split ways, but I wasn't able to get him out of my head.  Then we see each other again, intentionally, and it started this closer friendship that has become more than that.  And somehow I don't mind that it's a long distance thing, because I'd rather have him in my life far away than not at all, and there is always the possibility of making distance disappear.

I am also the queen of wanting to be closest to those who are elsewhere because I want to be elsewhere.  I don't love Dallas.  It's something maybe I could grow to love, but I have no roots here.  Roots?  But you're an MK!  Yeah.  I have roots places.  The strongest ones were in the Philippines, though those have pretty much died by now.  The next strongest were in California, and those are still sometimes beckoning me to return.  In California I had extended family, my parent's home church, and my alma mater.  Here, I have my parents and my sister.  I love them, but I haven't yet grown to love the place.

I think if I am closest to those farthest away I can dream up trips to leave where I am and have the possibility of going places and knowing people there, regardless if the intention was to visit or not.

I tried to turn this blog into an arts and crafts thing, and I don't mind blogging about that from time to time, but that's not what my heart wants to write about.  My heart wants to write about interpersonal relationships and growing up across cultures and how I manage to cope with these.  So know that I will continue to post about the art stuff, but also throw in these personal brain processes as well.

Wedding craftings

So, the last couple weeks - rather, the last several months - I have been very distracted helping put together my sister's wedding.  I bound five books for her - four small journals and a guest book, put together some flower pens to go with her guest book, helped her fiance - now husband - make a cool ceramic pitcher as a bride's gift, and put together a bachelorette lingerie party which ended up being full of crafting projects.  It was a lot of fun.  I wasn't planning to craft so much for the bachelorette party, but I got really tired of spending money and had a lot of crafting stuff I could use already.

First up... homemade straws!  I got this idea from the website Look At What I Made.  I was able to use all things I already had at home, though I substituted beeswax for the paraffin, and I chose to make the cornstarch paste from the recipe listed on the page.  Check it out here!

These are the blank books I made for my sister - they are all hard cover and long stitch with a cut out in the spine.  This is my favorite way to make books because it is easy and elegant -- and I like the binding strings and pages both being displayed on the spine.

Here is the guest book... I printed the pages on the inside, then trimmed, folded, and bound them onto the cover I made.  This book is the same style as the blank journals.

Fun craft at the bachelorette party -- decorating undies with advice for the bride...

Another station at the party -- hearts to write date night ideas on, a mat to sign, and photo booth props to take silly pictures.  I got the photo props as a free download from Poptastic Bride.  I wish I had found these sooner!  It ended up being a last minute addition to the party, and it would have been fun to incorporate photo booth silliness into the reception if we had planned it early enough.

A "From Miss to Mrs" banner.  I was looking at ideas on Pinterest for the party and loved this one.

My delightful "Plant a Kiss on the Stud" poster and game - sort of like pin the tail on the donkey!  I got the idea for this from Party City - they had one of these pre-made, but I opted to draw my own instead.  It's a bit of a rough drawing done quickly, but it turned out ok and was fun to play.  We gave prizes out for the kiss closest to the lips and the one with the most "interesting" placement.  For the kisses to be planted on the stud, I found a kiss graphic on google images, printed out several, cut them out, and put tape on the back.  Blindfold each guest, spin them around, then direct them with their paper kiss to the poster to plant one on it.

Last but not least I give you food crafting!  I made blue velvet cupcakes and added food coloring to turn the blue more green - per the bride's wedding colors.  I piped vanilla frosting on half of them and key lime frosting on the other half.  Ahead of time I rolled out and colored fondant then cut it in various lingerie shapes and decorated those with white edible pearls.  The most successful, I thought, were the "I DO" and "I <3 U" panties.  They were fairly easy shapes to cut out, and the simplicity of the design was good.  If I were to do this again, I would probably find mini cookie cutters and use those to cut out the fondant decorations.  This would save a lot of time and make the shapes more consistent.

This beautiful chocolate cake was made with a chocolate cake mix - I was short on time, otherwise it would have been from scratch - but I added a cup of chocolate chips to the mix.  The frosting is a chocolate buttercream that I added whipped cream and a bit of coffee to to make it a mocha frosting.

Now that my sister's wedding is over, I look forward to having more time again to make more stuff and post more about it here.


Jennifer

If only clay would not shrink; but since it does, make a rainbow ruler!

I love spending hours at a time sitting at a pottery wheel, throwing pots, and every once in awhile I throw something impressively large and wonderful and I'm filled with glee.  Then it dries.  And it is smaller.  Then I put it through a bisque firing.  It is smaller.  Then I glaze it.  Perhaps it is pretty, but it is even smaller!  It's a little bit depressing to see how much a piece can shrink from something of wonder to something of "eh."

To attempt to counter this problem and plan better for the shrinkage, I made a stoneware ruler out of the same clay I make my pieces from.  When It was relatively wet I cut it down to about 12" and put marks at each inch.  I then fired it, glazed it, and fired it again.  I let it double as an underglaze color guide since I have 12 underglaze paints.

The beauty of this ruler is that you can measure a finished piece with it and figure out about how many inches it was when wet, then measure it with a proper ruler and figure out about how many inches it shrunk.  This way, I can find a piece I have made and have a better shot at duplicating it or perhaps making it a different size.  My finished ruler ended up about 11 inches, post firings, so 12 inches - for my clay and with my kiln (there are several variable involved) will shrink about an inch.

Jennifer