I’ve been working on many projects the past few weeks. Using polymer clay, I made a dragon’s head (which will be used in another project) and a Pierrot inspired circus doll. In yarn, I crocheted several washcloths, two and a half hats, and a shrug (which I’ll probably never wear.) In fabric, I’ve started the boys’ Halloween costumes. For my home, I’ve built three wood frames to display a textile triptych which will replace my ugly experimental painting that is currently hanging above my fireplace. (I need to get a new blade for my miter saw before I can finish it.)

One more thing I’m working on right now is a type of creative outlet I’ve never really tried. It’s creative writing. I feel a little sheepish admitting that I’m writing for some reason. I feel like I need to say more about this, but I need some time to reflect first.

On an unrelated note, Rob has accepted a job that allows us to stay in Michigan. Huzzah!

The spoon is finished. Mostly. I realized on the second day that the quality of the wood wasn’t very good. I would never want to use the spoon on food, so I finished the project without doing a final sanding and oiling. This is the finished project.

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Today, I decided to make a spoon. I have zero experience carving wood, and I don’t really know what tools I should use, but I figured I could wing it. I started by choosing an old log from our pile of fire wood. I think it’s oak. I dug through our tool chest and found some tools that looked like they’d be useful. Once I chose a log that looked like it could be a spoon and found a tool that looked like it could make a spoon, I began chiseling it into what I felt would be a more manageable shape.

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A few weeks ago, my professor gave us her lecture on pitchers. I had asked Rob before the lecture if he had any interest in having a pitcher. He told me he didn’t, so I didn’t pay much attention to the lecture. Last week (weeks after the pitcher assignment), he suggested that his mom would probably really like a pitcher. I made my first attempt yesterday, and learned that I don’t really enjoy the pitcher form. Today, I felt that I could do much better than my first attempt, so I built two more pitchers at home. Unfortunately, I neglected to bring my tools home from the studio last night, so these pitchers still need a lot of refining. I feel they were much more successful than my attempt in the studio last night, but I’ll need to look at them again with fresh eyes to see if any more changes are necessary.

To date, I have:
2 deep bowls (both glazed)
2 flat oval bowls (1 glazed, 1 waiting to be glazed)
2 wavy bowls (1 waiting to be glazed, 1 waiting to be re-glazed)
1 spoon jar (waiting to be glazed)
3 baking dishes (2 waiting for bisque, 1 waiting for me to stop procrastinating and make handles)
4 teapots (2 bisqued, 2 waiting to be bisqued)
3 pitchers (in progress)
bunch o’ crappy mugs (in various stages of crappiness)

Rob and I have taken the boys to see all three Three openings this year. Spiderman was a midnight show, while both Shrek and Pirates were 10 pm shows. Ah, the benefits of homeschooling. In case you care, Spiderman was as cheesy as we anticipated, Shrek was disappointing, and Pirates was better than expected.

The boys have been enjoying their first season of baseball despite the teams being heavily unbalanced within their league. The unbalance is one of the things I find frustrating about our first baseball experience. There are also a lot of strange rules which aren’t followed consistently. I’m looking forward to them moving up to the next league next year (assuming we’re still living here).

There’s still no word on when or where we are relocating. Nothing more to say about that.

My current clay project is a teapot. I’m actually working on two teapots simultaneously, but one of them is mediocre, and one of them is very good. It’s so good, in fact, that it has pretty much guaranteed my place in the graduate program. Of course, I still need to go through the official application process, but I’ll have a lot more confidence when I apply in the following months.

In Home & Garden news, I’ve completed my bird garden and the birds seem to enjoy it almost as much as I do. Our sub was built in a field, so it feels like a field. There is very little shade around my house. The garden hasn’t provided shade for people, but it makes our yard feel a little less like we’re in a field, and a little more like we’re surrounded by nature.

Because I didn’t have a direction during my first night of class, I made a bowl. One single bowl. In four hours, it was the only productive thing I did. When I confessed to my professor on my second night of class that I still didn’t know what I was going to do, she told me she had seen my bowl, and it was good. And that maybe I should work on being a potter for now.

So the pressure to come up with sculptural ideas is off. Whew. She encouraged me to work on my bowls and dishes, and to experiment with any ideas I get during the course of making bowls. With the pressure gone, I actually found something sculptural I want to try. Go figure. I’ll probably use my class time to work on my pottery, and work on the sculptural thing on my off days. For now.

I started my ceramics class last night. My professor and I spoke about the direction I would take this semester and now I’m freaking out. When I first started out in ceramics, I was drawn to sculptural pieces more than utilitarian pieces. Towards the end, however, I took more interest in things I could use, though I still very much enjoyed the sculptural work.

My prof feels that I should work in sculpture. She said a lot of positive things about my sculptural abilities. She also explained that making functional pottery would be difficult for me because I’m not a thrower. At some point, I joked that I only had the Spring semester to figure out what I want to say as an artist. She responded seriously that I only had one day. She expects me to have a direction by tonight’s class.

I always knew I needed direction. I assumed I would stumble upon it eventually. How does an artist find her voice? I have about eight more hours to figure it out.

Today, I applied for graduate admission to take self-improvement courses at my old school. Self-improvement courses will give me time to build a portfolio and get my hands dirty again before officially applying to the graduate program. Some of the requirements for graduation really scare me, but since I know nothing about other graduate programs, I don’t know how it compares.

Students are required to complete the program in two years. The good news there is I can’t rack up more than two more years worth of student loans while I flounder around the way I did with my undergraduate degree. After the first year, there is a mid-program review in which the student will either be allowed to continue in the program, or be asked to withdraw. Um, gulp.

At the end of the second year, there is a thesis exhibition and an oral defense. I’m thinking a thesis exhibition would be the proudest moment in my life, and the oral defense one of the most stressful. I’m having difficulty visualizing an exhibition, so that makes me wonder if it could really happen.

I’m getting way ahead of myself though. First, I need to get through the application process and register right away. Then, I need to focus on getting my portfolio together. And then we’ll see.

I should start naming my multiple personalities so people know which one is speaking.

Farmer and Mommy were talking about chickens and babies when Scholar interrupted and brought up the notion of going back to school in pursuit of a Master’s degree. Meanwhile, Kerrie stood by silently listening for the loudest voice. Since Farmer and Mommy had been having their discussion for a while, their voices were tiring. Scholar, however, had not spoken in a very long time, and so her voice was strong and easily heard above the others.

As usual, Kerrie (who apparently has no voice of her own) felt herself being persuaded by the loudest voice. The voice of Reason tried to make Kerrie realize that the uncertainty of Rob’s job and the possibility of a move should outweigh not only the voice of Scholar, but also those of Farmer and Mommy. But Mania, disguised as Reason, sided with Scholar and their combined voices drowned out everyone else.

Kerrie felt overwhelmed and decided to wait for an outside voice to come to her rescue.

…to be continued.