Clay Kimono, low fire earthenware

Last Tuesday, I began teaching my very last after school clay class of the school year and perhaps forever though I’m wise enough to know not to say never – who knows what my future holds?  The kids are in grades 2-5 and I’m afraid I have made some clay addicts!   I think they’ve known something was up with me that might endanger their after school clay club and I finally came clean a few weeks ago explaining that my daughter was moving on to middle school next year and that I was also returning to school (a concept they can’t seem to understand – why would someone as old as me need to go to school, lol?)  And, besides they explained, “Aren’t you making enough money teaching us?”  They started doing the math – $100.00 per student for 8 weeks seems like a lot of money to a kid.  Little do they know how much a monthly mortgage costs now-a-days and besides, it’s not all about money….  I tried explaining that this class was truly a labor of love and that I wasn’t making much money, but yes I was paying myself a small hourly wage.

It’s pretty cute – they think I’m getting rich!  I tried explaining that it takes money to pay for supplies and then the electricity to fire the kilns – not to mention the extra hours I put in a week to make sure they have a project and get their work fired – all activities that are invisible to them.  I’ve never actually broken the costs down, but I’m pretty sure I’m not making much than minimum wage.  Now, before you start berating or crying for me, I do this willingly because I’ve consciously made the choice to be a semi-stay at home mom the past few years.  I substitute teach in Denver Public Schools (perfect hours for a Mom with a kid in school) and teach after school clay classses to contribute a little extra to the family’s coffer’s and to stay active.  I don’t regret dropping out of the work force for a little while – it felt like the right decision for me then and now.  As a Mom with an almost 11 1/2 year old, the time is right for me to do something else which is why I decided to finish my graduate degree in landscape architecture.  Trying to explain that to young clay addicts is tricky.  They can’t imagine wanting to do anything besides clay for the rest of their lives!

Side view kimono

In honor of my daughter attending Denver Center for International Studies next fall to study Japanese as her foreign language course in addition to regular academic classes, I decided to turn to Japan for inspiration for our first project.  A quick search for kimono projects turned up this website which looks pretty good for anyone wanting a lit bit of design inspiration or who teaches art to kids of all ages.  I didn’t exactly copy the projects but used the projects highlighted on the site as a jumping off point, knowing the skill level and attention span of my students.  I designed the clay kimono to hang on a wall by leaving a loop to insert a dowel through the sleeves.

Clay snowmen by k-2nd graders

In other news, my daughter’s school has a very active parent PTA program and I volunteered to teach a clay class to K-2nd graders on Friday afternoons for a program called “Out of the Box”.  Basically, the last hour of the school day on Friday is filled with classes  taught by parent/community volunteers and the kids get to choose which class they want to take.  It’s a chance for elementary school kids to experience an elective that’s not offered in school such as clay and other art mediums, science, robotics, book clubs, cooking, dance, martial arts etc.  It’s fun for the kids and it’s not a huge time commitment on my part – an hour a week + prep time. Last Friday, I had the kids make sculptures – anything they wanted.  I forget that younger kids don’t have the manual dexterity to make more complicated clay projects – but also know that there is a huge developmental difference between a kid in kindergarten and a 2nd grader.

As you can see from the photo above, good ideas spread like wild fire

Meanwhile, in a fit of frustration yesterday, I dumped Windows all together and installed a stand alone Linux OS – Ubuntu (if anyone happens upon my site who is interested, I have a Dell Latitude D810 with 256 mb ram and 50 gb hard drive and installed Intrepid Ibix 8.10 successfully).  Before installing, I backed up all my files and defragged, but have spent the last few hours trying to get my programs and hardware back in working condition.  So far so good – wireless √, printer √, Wacom Tablet √, camera √, iPod √ (sort of), scanner √, thumb drives/external hard drive √.  I’m trying to use all the free open source software available such as Gimp instead of Photoshop, Rythm Box instead of iTunes (this one is trickier – I can play my iPod on Rythm Box, but I can’t transfer files to my iPod from my library yet), Open Office instead of Microsoft Office, Inkscape instead of Illustrator, and a host of other FREE programs.  I guess there’s no better way to to learn new software when there is no other option than just jumping right in.

I was a little hesitant to dump Windows all together knowing that I will need to use proprietary software such as AutoCad in landscape arch school – but there are a ton of alternatives out there and many people who’ve already made the switch successfully.  Good thing I have time to play around this summer.  Many of the programs operate similarly as their proprietary counterparts too, so I know what to look for.

On Friday afternoon, I ventured into the Apple store and longingly caressed the MacBook Pros, but walked out more determined than ever to make my 4 year old lap top last a little longer after seeing the prices – $2000-2700 for machine I want, not counting software.  I did a disk check after installing Ubuntu – and was pleasantly surprised to see that I have 47 gb left on my hard drive after installation – WOW!  I also decided to go ahead and purchase another 256 mb of memory to speed up my computer a bit more – and for only $9.09 – what a bargain.

So, now my daughter’s computer and mine are totally 100% Linux powered OSs – my husband is holding out until I can figure out how to add music to iPod.  He’s a little perturbed by the prospect of losing that capability.  Like it or not, we have 3 iPods in the house and are going to figure out how to get them working with Ubuntu, despite the difficulty with Apple’s formatting.

Gotta get to the studio,

~Cynthia