I'm working on project #1 still - a pinch pot - it had to be "footed" (have a an applied base), it had to be carved into... and it had to have attachments - (bits of clay added) - it's still in progress but we're having such a great time making our projects I had to share! :)  I think it's about ready to be put in the kiln and fired - no glazing on this one yet.

Have a great weekend!  Saturday will be all day ceramics class, and Sunday I plan on working on my 36" x 36" "midterm" painting for acrylics class! - not much time for knitting right now - :)

It's getting closer to being done... I added the wrapper to the taffy on the bottom and the cellophane wrapper to the butterscotch candy at the top left - I have a few tweaks I want to do to it before it's complete but I better hurry up; it's due next Tuesday!

We also got our assignment for our "midterm" painting - due October 21st and we do not work on it at all in class - it's a 36" x 36" canvas - more on that later.

Sorry for the bad photo; it was late at night and I just wanted to get a picture posted...

I was lucky enough to be perusing her blog when she proposed the idea of paying it forward - simply put, the idea was that she wanted to do something nice for some people without expecting anything in return - I was one of the first to respond, and sent off my address....

a good amount of time went by (as has with my similar attempt) until randomly out of the blue I got a package from our mailman - I couldn't figure out what I had purchased - and was actually starting to get frustrated with myself - thinking I need to stop buying online so much... then, I opened the package -

A beautiful card and this amazing pillow were inside - She made this pillow out of recycled neckties on her 1935 Singer Featherweight (221)  -just for me!!-  I love love love it - and can't thank her enough for the kind gift - it made my day and will be amazing in my guest room - one day -

See, I have this "plan" of having a guest room one day - with an old iron bed or old wood bed - with an armoire full top to bottom of old comfy quilts - my mitered square blanket will make it in there too... as will the Kaffe Fassett pillow I have yet to start... it'll have wood paneling or shingles or siding on the wall - folk art or vintage photos on the walls - and will feel like stepping back in time...

All of that is later in life - for now there is no guest room - but I have a pillow to add to the special collection that will one day make up that comfortable haven -

Check out her website - see what she's up to - you'll be amazed at her talents!!

Thank you again, V for the beautiful gift!

So here's my painting after the second class - I like the little slideshow feature that flickr has - it helps to see how the painting is progressing! 

Last night, I started to build up the wrapper for the sucker on the right, and people are looking at it and saying "It's a Tootsie Pop!" - which makes me smile - because it is! - I still have to make the actual candy red (or cherry) to match the red wrapper - I also have to clean up the wrapper a bit...

and the darn stick is all wonky - it needs to be cleaned up... and of course, I must still finish glazing and painting the butterscotch candy on the upper left... and do the wrapper for the candy on the bottom right which is supposed to be some sort of taffy in that opaque wax paper.  Lastly, I'll need to glaze and finish the wrapped tootsie pop on the bottom left corner - it shows the circle of white so far but I need to add words of some sort.  I was thinking instead of painting the actual logo of the candy that I might do something else - like a year, or some other logo... any suggestions?

We have one more in class session for this painting, then I think the following class is when we do our critiques - I feel pretty good about my progress... I think I'll have it done (as long as I don't mess it up doing the wrappers... and as long as I can figure out what I want the writing to say!)

I found an awesome vintage easel online (yeah, craigslist!) for a great price - it's over 7' tall and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! - I haven't figured out exactly where I'm going to put it (it's REALLY big) yet but I have a feeling it'll end up in the garage.  We are thinking that if we clean part of the garage out I'll have room for my yarn storage system and my painting and circular sock machine stuff - it'll take some doing though - we're due for another yard sale!  (if only we had the time to do it!)  This photo is from the listing... I can't wait to get the area set up so I can paint - it'll be awesome!

We went to Alamitos Bay Yarn Co. for their sale but didn't find anything - all the wool (the stuff I loved) was not on sale - so we headed to Yarn Lady (in Laguna Beach I think) and I bought yarn for the buffalo sweater.  I started it yesterday, hoping to get gauge after my muddling around - but ended up with a back that's only 17" across - not quite big enough... I think I'm going to have to double the yarn to get the right gauge (which I believe means doubling the quantity) -

I also used a little mohair yarn along with the normal yarn - all the way through... and I think it makes everything blend a bit too much - so for the next try I'll use the yellow mohair on the oatmeal yarn, an orange one with the pumpkin yarn and a chocolate one with the brown - we'll see how that works... (that also means that while doing the rows shown above at one point I'll have like 30 yarns hanging in the back - 2 for every color - 3 colors in a motif, 5x across the row - not that I'll be working with all fo them but holy cow... that's a lot!) - it's doable though and I love the sweater so I'll keep working on it!

I hope everyone had a great weekend! 

... and here's a little treat for those of you who might not know... may I introduce to you (or remind you of) the one...the only; Alberta Hunter!  there's a wonderful documentary out there about her life... she had an amazing story - it is also a musical ("My Castle's Rockin'") ... check her out!

Tuesday evening we were assigned a project in my acrylics class... building up realistic images using a series of glazes.  our subject:  candy!  we were sent to a pile of candy - each person grabbed a handful (or a jarful as was the case in some instances) and went to work.  We sketched and drew and came up with some sort of composition.

Once we had our sketches figured out, we started to draw it on the canvas (24 x 30) and roughed in some color.  This gives us the chance to see the composition and decide if anything doesn't "work" - I was pretty pleased right off the bat with mine - I figured that it's candy - I decided quickly not to make a big deal of it... just ignore the actual "sizes" of stuff - blow it up "huge" and try to create some interesting lines...

By the end of the class I was starting to build up some glazing on some of the areas in the painting.  The "green" hard candy on the right had turned blue... and the "tootsie pop" wrapper on the bottom right was starting to take shape.  I have a L-O-N-G way to go on this but it's a fun start to my adventures in acrylic painting... I was freaked out at how quickly the paint dries (in the past I had used watercolor which just gets "wet" again with water or oil which takes 452 years to dry) - there's something I can buy called a retardant that will help slow that drying time though. 

I plan to put images of schoolwork in progress on here so that I can remember the way they progressed.  I have a history class on Wednesdays (no reason really for blogging that I can think of) and on Thursday I have a ceramics class! - going back to school is so much fun - I am 3 "real" courses away from a degree - the history class is one of them - biology and a "special project" type course round out the three - once they're done I will transfer my credits and get my Bachelor of Science degree from Middle TN State University (where I did 99.999% of my schooling)  -  I plan on flying to TN to walk across the platform - but that's in the future.  Today... I have a painting of candy, Christopher Columbus and a "theme pot" to worry about... tomorrow is another day!

(I'm a bit worried about my knitting - with all this schoolwork and these new creative distractions it's going to slow down...)

I got a second place ribbon for my Dr. G's Memory Vest! - Yippee!! This was my first cabling attempt... I'm very proud!

My snowflake sweater got third place - I entered it into the handknitted sweater category... equally as proud - although the armless drag queen they have it displayed on is cracking me up!  (99% of the way things were displayed was impeccable... items grouped by color... theme... whatever - and I was having a difficult time wrapping my head around the work involved in setting the exhibit hall up - but that 1% turned out some funny things... and the "drag queen" installation was one of them) - it's OK though... just having it on display (and placing!) is wonderful!

I also got 3rd place in the Men's Knitting Competition - it was fun to participate and I already have some ideas of what I want to enter for next year!

This was the first time I had entered any of my knitting in any contests... so the fact that I placed in every category makes me happy!  I highly suggest that everyone participate in the fairs.... walking around and seeing all the amazing work - from quilting to needlepoint to knitting and crochet.... I was overwhelmed with ideas and inspiration!

(and of course, going to the fair means getting to pet the animals!! :)

I tried quilting once... Mom and I went out and selected fabric.  we cut and pieced it by machine.  She set me up with the quilt on the hoop and showed me what to do.  I did 2 hoops worth of quilting and decided it's not for me.  Quilting is "hard!"

While I doubt I'll be a quilter as my mom and other relatives, I am definately an admirer (and collector) of quilts.  Some of my quilts have a history - and some of my quilts were just purchased.  (they still have a history... I just don't know what it is!)

That's the sad part about our culture, in my opinion.  I think it's important to remember who people were... where we came from... so for that reason, I added a new tab to my website this weekend - labeled "Quilts" it shows some of my collection... and with any luck, the information I gain from those who visit and help to input may help me catalog my collection.  I will continue to add quilts as I aquire them. Please take a look and let me know if you know anything about any of these or if you have any suggestions as to how I can identify patterns or even date them.

I am amazed that the 3 day weekend is over... tomorrow; back to work... starting school tomorrow evening... and this coming weekend it's the L.A. County Fair!  :)