Hungry?
Bacon cheese burger with lettuce, pickles and onion, Ryan 5th grade
As part of my clay class, I offer a snack since the class starts right after the last school bell rings at 3:00pm. Despite feeding the kids and based on the projects shown today, I’m inclined to think that the kids are starving…. One of my students always makes food out of clay – and he’s prolific! Ryan doesn’t come from an impoverished background either, I am only left to wonder why he is obsessed with making food out of clay. Last year it was sushi – and no matter how much I beg him, he won’t make me any this year. Now he’s onto fast food – burgers, hot dogs and pizza. I never try to dissuade him, because secretly I like it – sort of ceramic Claes Oldenberg renditions – albeit life sized and not super sized.
Full sized Pizza was given to the art teacher
This was actually a collaborative effort on the part of my students, so when it came time to decide who got to take it home, they voted to give it to the art teacher – no not me (boohoo), but the full time art teacher at their school. (Between you and me, I was a smidge jealous….)
Personal Pan Pizza – Kaya 4th grade
Ryan made anyone who wanted one, a personal sized pizza – though each student glazed their’s independently.
Hot Dog, Laura 4th grade
Before the pizzas, however, came the hot dogs – hot dogs of all sizes including a foot long – Coney style one. (notice the relish, mustard and onions)
Lollipop, Brittany 4th grade
Dessert anyone? As a side note, my daughter taught me a little spelling trick because I always mix desert and dessert up. But, after she shared her trick, I have never forgotten how to spell either word. “You always want seconds of dessert.” Get it? the ss in dessert – seconds…. It works for me.
I wish I had taken photos of the sushi last year – it rocked. I’ll keep trying and may get some clay sushi out of my students before the end of the school year.
Meanwhile, I had a lengthy conversation with Anne Webb, a potter who lives in Alabama – by way of Canada, last week. It’s sort of weird, but cool to speak with someone whom you’ve never met in person before. We only know each other from online activities. Check out her site – her work & her that of her husband is fantastic! Anyway, she mentioned that I sounded, “hungry”. After thinking about it for a bit, I guess I am.
In a turn of events, I’ve decided to return to school. I’ve re-applied for admission to the Masters of Landscape Architecture program at the University of Colorado for fall semester – a program from which I took a leave of absence a few years ago to be a better mom. Now that my daughter is heading to middle school and is more confident & poised, it’s time for me to move on. Applications are due February 15th – and I squeaked mine into the office today in the knick of time. I’m not sure if the chair will let me back in or not, but if he does, I suspect that it will mean that I’ll be making a few changes ’round here. Stay tuned…. I don’t think it’s the end of pottery for me, but who knows?
Happy Valentine’s Day in advance and have a good weekend,
~Cynthia
Colorado Art Studio Has Its Own Scannable Bar Code
Colorado Art Studio bar code courtesy of http://qrcode.kaywa.com/
Last week, the ever so talented Jafabrit, posted a few links about bar codes that caught my eye. I’m not even going to mention [oh wait I just did] that I was *oh so* jealous that she had her own scannable bar code posted on her website. I wanted one and set out to discover how to make it happen. We’re all familiar with bar codes – they’re everywhere anything is sold. I discovered, however, that information now uses bar code technology too.
It’s a weird intersection of life and technology and is mainly used for cell phone users to grab information with their camera phones and is pretty popular outside the USA. In Japan, bar codes are even being added to tomb stones for family and friends to maintain an electronic scrapbook of the deceased.
Maybe, instead of using a quaint little lotus and my initials for my signature chop, I should capture my bar code and add that instead – wait, I could make a ceramic decal of my bar code!! That would be way easier….
I went to http://qrcode.kaywa.com/ to grab my bar code. One has the option of inputing text or a url – and seconds later, a unique bar code is displayed. So, how are ya supposed to be able to scan and use a bar code? There are apps available to download to your cell phone – even Google has a reader – zxing.
So, if you’re already using bar code technology, will ya scan mine and tell me if my bar code really says Colorado Art Studio and not silly gullible twit instead. It seems to me that this is sort of like real world book marking.
~Cynthia
Caulking Tool Useful for Hand-Building with Clay
Caulk tool
I found this caulking tool at Home Depot a few weeks ago and as I was building a covered stoneware clay box the other day, I remembered to test it out. The box was constructed using stiff slabs of clay – and by stiff, I mean leather hard and not pliable. I use paper clay slip to join the mitered edges, and then force clay coils into the joints for added strength and to cut down on cracking. The rubber tip on the end of the caulk tool worked really well and it was much faster and left a really clean area. You just never know when a tool designed for something else will work when making items out of clay. The tool was less than $5, and I’m not quite sure how I can use the other tool – the caulk remover?
Here’s the step by step:
Testing a different top
After I finished making the box, I decided to try making a domed type of top for the box mainly, because I didn’t have enough sides to complete the box and I needed to close it up. I rolled out some fresh clay and then place it on top of the box and gently forced the center down slightly. I let it set up for about an hour and then trimmed it to size, scored it, added paper clay slip and closed the box.
Rounded pillow top
Here is it closed up after which I covered it with plastic and am letting it rest and dry some more. Today, I plan on cleaning up the edges and will add feet and cut off a lid. The box will finish drying until it’s time to be bisque fired.
Speaking of bisque firing, I must run now and load the kiln and fire the work from my kid’s class so that it will be ready for Tuesday’s class. I work on a really short time schedule – the kids make the work on Tuesday, and I fire it on Sundays (normally). It tells me that I could dry and fire my work significantly faster than I was taught to do.
Enjoy the rest of Sunday,
~Cynthia
Signature Chop Part 2 & Kid’s Chops
Third attempt yields a keeper
After my third attempt at making a satisfactory signature chop, I’m pretty happy with the image, print, and size. It’s a keeper. Though, I am going to make a reverse impression as well – one that will leave an imprinted and not a raised mark. Just in case you missed it, here’s part 1 of this post.
As you can see, it’s much closer to my original design than my 1st and 2nd attempts (see below):
Original Lotus Chop with Initials drawn on my Wacom Tablet
My 2nd-attempt
My 1st-chop
The problem with the first 2 chops is that I wasn’t able to comfortably squeeze my initials into the design area. Working small scale is harder than I thought. I don’t know how those people who paint full scale images on a single grain of rice do it!!
Take a look at the chops the kids in my after school clay class made:
Meanwhile, I’ve been a bit out of sorts the past couple of months – not psychologically or anything, just well, I’m not sure I can pin point it. Sort of like I have all this energy, but no outlet. My solution? I started running again last Monday. I pretty much sprinted the whole way around the park Monday morning with the dogs while listening to The Flobots (my new favorite local Denver band). The dogs were happy to run and I felt a whole lot better! Needless to say, while I haven’t been inactive during my last 6 month hiatus from running – I now know that walking and running use different muscles. No sprinting on Tuesday morning because soreness had set in. By Wednesday, I was like an old lady hobbling around the house moaning every time I had to stand up from a sitting position. Today is Friday – and miracle of miracles, the soreness is gone.
Motivating myself to run isn’t always easy, but I feel so darn good after I do it – plus it’s like meditation to me. My mind feels clearer afterwards and hopefully, it’ll do my body some good too. A couple of years ago, I ran a 1/2 marathon – I’m not sure I want to do that again, but the thought briefly flittered through my mind yesterday. Running any distance over 6 miles, however, is such a big commitment.
Have a great weekend,
~Cynthia
