Donated Yarn

Beth and I are knitting items to donate. We are making preemie hats, chemo hats, and military helmet liners. Julie, the owner of Julie's Ranch House on 350 South, purchased and donated 6 skeins of Baby Bee Sweet Delight Wrap Babybell yarn to the cause. I think I can get at least 10 preemie hats from each skein. WAY TO GO JULIE! THANK YOU! I sat in Julie's Ranch House two afternoons this week, knitting away.

Ceramics - 28th February

I worked on throwing cylinders on the wheel. I spent over three hours working on that, and mom took pictures of the process. I think I almost have the throwing process down. I now just have to work on making sure the clay is not off center and work on bringing the sides up taller. Right now the cylinders I have made are only 4-5.5 inches high and the cylinders have to be at least 6 inches tall.

Sometimes it is so frustrating making the cylinders. But at least Siggy sees that I am practicing and trying to get them made. I know mom says I am too critical about what they look like; but you know me, I am a perfectionist. I think I am close to 30 hours of practice. I have lost count of how many cylinders I have had to throw away because I ruined them while on the wheel, they were crooked, or the lip was over center.

You will be able to see the process of making the cylinders from the pictures mom took. You can see how much fun I am having getting dirty J The front of that black smock I am wearing is covered in dry clay. It is like being a kid again and playing in the mud puddle.

I do plan on taking vacation during spring break, and working in the ceramics studio in the morning. I am hoping to work in the metals studio in the afternoon. I want to try and make up some more pendants for the jewelry sale in April. Mom and I also ordered wire jewelry making books. I would like to learn how to make some of the bracelets and necklaces that are in the books. Mom wants to try the chain mail. The hope is one day to have our items completely handmade.

Ceramics Weekend - Feb 20-22

On Friday the 20^th of February I worked on my lidded cylinder. I had to finish painting the pictures, on the cylinder with slip. I had to put three coats of slip on the cylinder; once I finished, I had to put the cylinder in the back work area to be fired in the kiln. It took me three hours to paint the slip on the cylinder. Once I put one coat of slip on, I had to wait for it to dry before I could put the next layer on. My cylinder has been in the back since that night, and it still has not been fired. Mom was knitting a preemie hat. She also used the Dremmel with a burr cup to finish off the ends of ¾” lengths of sterling silver wire she has cut to make links.

On Saturday the 21^st of February, I worked on glazing my cups and textured cylinders. We have to put the glazes on, and then the cups and cylinders are fired. It took me over two hours to glaze three cups and two textured cylinders. I first had to get the bucket of glaze out and stir the glaze with a drill and use a stick to help mix up the glazes. I first had to put the glaze inside the cup and pour it out and then I had to put another color on the outside of the cup or cylinder. I had to wait for the glaze to dry, and then wipe off a ¼ inch of the glaze from the bottom so that when it is fired it won’t stick to the bottom of the kiln. I am still waiting for the cups and cylinders to be fired. Mom was still working with the burr cup on the lengths of wire, and knitting a hat.

On Sunday the 22^nd of February I worked on putting my lidded box cylinder together. I had only planned on putting the box together. Well, I ended up constructing the whole box. That took me over three hours to work on. Unfortunately, I didn’t take pictures of the construction process. I do have pictures of the box cylinder before I fired it. After constructing the box, I had two and a half extra slabs left over. I kept those slabs in case my box fell apart when fired, and I had to make a new box. I wanted the slabs ready so I didn’t have to wait for the drying out of the clay to make a new box. But since the cylinder was fired on the 2^nd of March, and the box didn’t collapse, I can finally get rid of those slabs. Yeah!!!! Mom was still knitting.

Ceramics Class-First Cylinder-2/18/09

Today was a good day in class. I actually threw one cylinder on the wheel. It has taken me about 10 hours to throw one good cylinder. I now just have nine more I need to turn in.

The cylinder that was good enough to keep was one of six that I threw during class. The other five just weren’t good enough because there was not a 90 degree angle in the bottom or I messed up the top of the cylinder and could not save it. I didn’t think Siggy would let me keep the cylinder because she wants us to cut the cylinder down the middle to see if there is a 90 degree angle.

Siggy even came over and said good job when I was done with the cylinder. At least she is seeing me trying and practicing at throwing. I thought this would be easy, but I think this is the hardest class I have taken, even drawing was easier than this. Who would have thought I would say that. But I think I am receiving more satisfaction from this class then I ever did in the drawing class.

You would not believe how many things you have to think of as you are trying to throw a cylinder. I told Siggy that I missed my metals and that this was hard.

You have to remember to keep your elbows dug into your side; have to remember which hand you have to use when inside the cylinder; you have to think about pulling up the sides of the cylinder, but while you are pulling up you have to push in toward the center of the wheel or the sides will be lopsided. You are exhausted when you are done.

I will have to take a picture of the cylinder and post it with this blog. I am just happy that I finally got one cylinder made after all the failures. As mom says it takes practice to get you to the point of making one cylinder.

Ceramics Studio - 15 February

I had a few things I needed to get done on the 15^th in the ceramics studio. Mom and I headed over to the studio around 7:30am. I wanted to get to the studio before anyone else because I don’t like working when students are there. I also wasn’t sure if the studio was going to be open, because Siggy said it would not be open on the weekends. So, if the ceramics studio was closed mom and I were going to work in the metals studio. Luckily, the ceramics studio was open.

The first thing I did was to get out my lidded cylinder and finished painting on the last layer of slip. I have no idea why I had to paint on slip, because I was out sick the day Siggy went over that section. I am just doing what Siggy told us to do.

While the cylinder was drying, I worked on throwing five clay slabs. We are using these slabs to make a rectangular, open, box. We are supposed to get that demo on the 18^th in class. I got the five slabs made, though they aren’t to the size needed, but it is close enough. The clay is just too heavy for my wrists and hands to be comfortable working with.

The cylinder still was not dry so I had to use one of the heat guns to dry the sides of the cylinder. Once that was done, I could draw on the sides. The images I am using are from Birds and Bloom. I am using the images of a bird, daisies, a Calla Lilly and a butterfly;each images is in a “frame”. I was trying to think how I would draw a “frame”, when I said to myself, “use tape to make the outline of box.” Sometimes I just surprise myself.

So, I got the frames put onto the sides, I then started to draw the images. I did have to have mom’s help a couple of times to get the image to look alright. Overall I am pretty happy with how the images turned out. Since it was getting close to us having to leave. All I did was to take a carving tool and carved out the outline of the images.

On Monday in class I finished carving out the images. I am really happy with how the cylinder turned out, which I am sure surprises mom, because I am never happy with how anything I make looks.

Metals Studio - February 7th

Mom and I went to the VPA on the 7^th of February to work on miscellaneous things. I was going to work on enameling the geckos that mom sawed, filed and sanded for me.

Mom worked on cutting out circles to make more V-J-J necklaces and bracelets. She cut out quite a few small, medium, and large circles; she then started working on filing and sanding them down. After she got done, or should I say when her hands wore out, she had green hands. Mom threatened me if they stayed green for her interview she would hurt me!

I heated up the kilns; of course, one kiln was already hot because the students forgot to turn it off. I am afraid to consider how long that kiln was on, because there are no classes on Friday.

I was going to try a new way to enamel the geckos. After I enamel one side, I have to flip the piece over to enamel the other side. I have to try and place the piece on the trivets so that the enamel won’t melt to the trivet or melt and form a divot in the piece, which you then have to file down with a special tool. The file puts scratches in the enamel, which you then have to try and get out. It is just one big vicious cycle. So what I decided to do was put paint kiln wash on the tray and place the geckos on the tray. Let’s just say that it didn’t go as planned, and I now have to fix the mistakes to six geckos. UGH!!!

While I was enameling, I was also helping my friend Shannon with soldering. Shannon can solder, but she does not like the torches, so I offered to solder for her. I am usually pretty good at soldering, but that day I couldn’t get any of the solder to melt. I was trying to solder a large copper tube to a flat piece of solder. The first time I soldered the tube, it didn’t melt. The second time I had Shannon get another torch and had her move the torch up and down while I focused on the area around where we wanted to solder and the solder. The solder still would not melt, so I got out the big torch because I was not fooling around anymore. The solder finally melted!

The other object Shannon needed soldered was a smaller tube sitting on a curved piece of copper. I had to use a “third-hand” to hold the tube while I was soldering. Again I couldn’t get the solder to melt, so I tried to use “Easy” solder instead. It still would not melt. So Shannon tried to help me again with adding another torch. Finally I got out the big torch because I wasn’t fooling around anymore with this either. And yes, the solder did finally melt.

Bring on the big torch!!!!

Metals Studio - 1/31/09

Mom and I went to the metals studio on Saturday. When we got to the studio, the door was propped open, music blaring, lights on, the gas was left on, the pickle was left on, and no one was around. That totally honked me off. I cannot believe students just left the door open so that anyone could walk in and steal stuff. Plus leaving the gas on, how irresponsible is that. Oh yeah, I am talking about students…

Well, mom and I cleaned up and turned on the kilns to heat up so we could enamel some things. Shannon, a friend of mine, was suppose to be coming over later on in the morning because I told her I would solder some things for her. Shannon does not like the torch, so I help her out by soldering things for her. I hate soldering, but this gives me a chance to practice. Plus I still need to show mom how to solder, so I am killing two birds with one stone.

On this day I worked on enameling and mom worked on cutting, sanding and filing pieces. I got a pair of earrings enameled. It was a pair of hands I cut out from my time at Penland. I was going to use the hands to make a goblet, but I figured a different way to make the goblet and had the hands left over. So mom and I decided to make earrings out of the hands. I used a crackle white and misc. purple enamel on the hands.

I also got mom’s bowl enameled. Overall I think the bowl turned out pretty good although two of the holes in the petals filled with enamel again, but mom said don’t worry about it she had an idea on how to get around that issue.

I also finished enameling a Celtic pendant. I used cobalt blue enamel for the color. I also finished enameling a "family" pendant and I used the crackle white with black sprinkled on top of it.

Mom also finished cutting out, sanding and filing a bunch of geckos that I am going to enamel and then make into a necklace with some of our flameworking glass beads. Mom already knows what beads she wants me to use, but she has to find me an example so I can make up a bunch of them to go into the necklace. Those geckos I will get enameled next Saturday.

I also worked on fixing a goblet I made in 2007. I had sealed the copper with sealant, but it did not work out as planned. So I started to sand it off, but it wasn’t working very well, so I thought I would use the big torch. That worked really well, and helped my hands so I didn’t have to sand for hours. I tried a technique, to turn the goblet red, by heating up a bowl of water on a hot plate and then when the water was boiling I would heat up the goblet with the torch and once it was heated up, drop the goblet into the water. This is supposed to turn the copper a nice red. It worked on parts of the goblet, but of course I am not happy with it.

Mom and I are going to look for Linseed Oil and rub it on the goblet and see what happens with that. Mom has another idea if that doesn’t work. I really want to enter this goblet in the Undergraduate Exhibit next week. This will probably be my last undergrad exhibit and I want to enter the goblet, my headdress and a drawing I did of a horse.