“Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play it safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.” -Cecil Beaton

The husband and I discussed how ceramics weren’t turning out the way I wanted to due to a variety of scientific factors such as kiln temperature, different clay, combinations of the glaze and temperature, etc.

We have some other priorities on our list that are of higher importance right now so we made the difficult decision to cancel my studio membership.

I wish I could say it was that easy to do it. I’m not gonna lie I cried.

Clay is my favorite medium to work with. It involves forming the 3D object in real life scale. I’m thinking of how I’m going to paint it while I’m forming it. Twisting and manipulating shapes in 3D and painting them is so much fun!

However, I have a specific style that I’m going for with my ceramics. Similar to the ones I made in Italy where I originally fell in love with ceramics and promised myself I would make more in life not just in that class because it brought me so much happiness (and frustration at times!).

A low fired kiln seems to be the answer so the glazes don’t run as much or have weird results after being fired!

Without further ado, here’s the results of the final round for now!

I painted this one using stains, the pink was actually supposed to be red on the outside but I’m satisfied with the results regardless!

This bowl was also supposed to have pink flowers instead of a brownish gray. I painted this one using slips which is wet clay. There is a lot more chemistry in ceramics than I was led to believe. I tried mixing red and white slips because someone in the studio had told me it would make pink but after it came out later, a potter told me that when you mix iron (which is in red slip) with anything it’ll most likely come out brown, unless if it’s with blue slip (which has cobalt and is the purest color form and takes on molecules such as water) then it will come out similar to a steel blue. 

This was also painted using stains, I was expecting a lighter blue and brown not so stark but alas. 

This juicer was painted using glazes and stains.

Last but not least, this is one of my favorites that was painted using stain again. The shoes were supposed to be red too but pink will do!

Until ceramics again, I will be immersing myself in art- experimenting with drawing and painting while reading about artists to further my creativity and knowledge.

I don’t have a particular goal in mind, which bothers me.

With ceramics, I wanted bright fun painted patterns and with each week brought new attempts to to reach that goal.

Maybe that’s the beauty of it though, the unknown or maybe the goal will come as I’m creating.

“and I have exposed myself to art so that my work has something beyond the usual potter.” –Beatrice Wood

Happy Monday! These are all listed in the shop!

It was Saturday morning and I looked out the window and saw the junky car (if you could even call it that haha) sitting out in front of our apartment downtown.

I was feeling mischievous and joked with my husband that we should take a picture of it and send it to his mom telling her we sold his truck and got a new car.

Naturally, he agreed with me so I ran downstairs, snapped the picture, than ran back up.

He posted it to his facebook account and said it was Dave Ramsey approved (definitely not) hoping to get people mainly his family riled up seeing who noticed it.

This should have been the first sign that we didn’t buy it, my husband very rarely posts on facebook let alone about new things he buys!

About halfway through the day his brother had commented on it saying he had a feeling he would be regretting that decision on a hot summer day on the side of the road.

His family then proceeded to text him and his mom called us saying we had made a bad decision, it wasn’t Dave ramsey approved because it wasn’t reliable, she couldn’t believe I had let him buy it, etc. etc.

We had to tell her it was a joke because she was so furious!We then said didn’t you see it had a donut tire on the front!

Another sign that we didn’t buy it along with the whole side dented up and half of a front bumper!

It made us chuckle so much to think how gullible people are sometimes.

With that, here’s this weeks DISSES:

* drunk drivers putting their lives and others at risk

*not knowing shortcuts in Photoshop

*when it rains so much my green onions in my window don’t grow

and KISSES:

*spending weekends with my husband

*getting some new things listed in my shop! (still need to add a few more too!)

*mothers who give their lives for their children, Happy Mother’s Day to all of you moms!

“To have been loved so deeply even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some sort of protection forever.” -J.K. Rowling

I saw this on Facebook and couldn’t help but share it in lieu of last week’s tragic events.

“Dear Dzhokhar,

You don’t know me, but you tried to kill my family.

You couldn’t have known, but my brother ran bandit in the marathon and trained for months. My sister in law was an amazing and supportive wife as she always is and was ready to run the last 5 miles with him.. Your bomb was at the finish line that they were trying to cross.

My Mother, Father, and Sister, were waiting for them at the finish line. You didn’t know it, but my mother thinks that she saw you down there. My sister is only three years younger than you, and you set off a bomb in front of her.

You don’t know me, but you tried to kill some friends of mine.

One of my best and closest friends was working in the store in front of which you or your brother laid down a bomb. That bomb exploded, and gave her the worst day of her ilfe.

I was a high school teacher, your bomb wounded one of my most promising students with shrapnel.

Dear Dzhokhar, you tried to destroy a community that I left behind for Rome, but from which I draw so much of my strength and identity.

You killed a child who was a part of the community who made me the man I am today. Martin may have grown up to be a BC High boy… and his family is well loved in the community which surrounds that school.

You tried to drive a city which gave me courage in the face of cancer into complete and utter fear. But you tried to do this to a city which knew how to make a 10 year old me unafraid.

Dear Dzhokhar, you may have crossed the threshold of the building in which I lived to compete in an athletic event, but we have never met, and you tried to Kill my family, a friend, my students, and destroy my community.

Dear Dzhokhar, you failed. Did you ever think that you would make it out? The US captured Bin Laden, and Saddam.. there was no chance you would escape. This is not the measure of your success, though.

Dear Dzhokhar, you failed because Boston was not bowed or afraid. You set off a bomb, and the city gave blood for victims. You escaped initial capture and the city opened its doors to strangers. You were at large and making more bombs, and we gathered in prayer at Garvey park and the Cathedral. You went on a rampage, and people stayed home in an orderly fashion and opened their homes to the police during the search. Dear Dzhokhar, you failed, because light cast out the darkness, and the man who knew that his boat just didn’t look right wasn’t afraid to call it in.

Dear Dzhokhar, for all of this, I can’t hate you..

Today I thought about the fact that you are only 19… you are just a kid. You must have been so afraid today. You were a victim like so many are victims, you were bought something you shouldn’t have been brought into because you likely didn’t and couldn’t know any better.

I am glad that you are going to prison, and I hope that you will have many long years there in supermax in Colorado. I hope that no one I love will ever be threatened by you again, but I can’t hate you.

I can’t hate you because whatever you brought into Boston was enough hate for a good long while, I won’t and can’t hate anymore.

I can’t hate you because I remember being 19, I thought many things were a good idea which weren’t. I never would have went where you were, but I was certainly not an adult at 19.

I can’t hate you because, even though you did unspeakable things… somehow you are still my brother and your death can never be my gain.

I can’t hate you, and not just because I am a Catholic, and a Christian, and because in a couple of months I will be a priest, I am a human and I simply can’t hate you.

Dear Dzhokhar, I still have hope for you.

The rest of your life will be in prison. I have seen men change their lives there. I hope that you won’t be executed, because I know that we can hold you, safely, for the rest of your life.

I can’t say what your story might be there… but I know that I, as a Christian, and you, as a Muslim, believe God to be merciful… so I can’t help but have hope for you…

Dear Dzhokhar, you’re a kid. I can’t hate you, or fear you. I am glad you are in custody, I am glad you can’t hurt anyone else or yourself anymore, but I can’t hate you.. and I WON’T fear you.

Dear Dzhokhar, I will pray for you. Next year, when my friend and my brother cross that finish line on Boylston, your brother’s cause will have lost for good. I will pray that you will know, somehow, the same kind of love that my brother, sister-in-law, mother, father, sister, friends, and students all have given me.

Dear Dzhokhar, I will pray for you. When the first pitch is thrown on Patriot’s day at Fenway, I will pray that somehow you will know joy… the joy that makes us fully human and offers the possiblity of real repentance… the joy that Red Sox baseball fills me with every year.

Dear Dzhokhar, I will pray for you next year when the first shot is fired in the annual reenactment of the battle of Lexington in Concord, that you will come to know that PEACE and LOVE are the only ways in which world will ever be changed.

Dear Dzhokhar, I don’t and can’t hate you. I am glad you are in custody, but you are just a kid, and you lost. I will love and pray for you, because somehow your sin was turned for good, and my community and the people I love will only be stronger in the end.

Dear Dzhokhar, Godspeed.”

from Mike Rogers SJ

My heart goes out to those affected by the tragedy and for our country. My heart was swelling and breaking to see the heroes climbing over those barricades to help without any thought to themselves, amazing people. It goes to show you love is everywhere, it doesn’t matter who you know or don’t know, what matters is that we help others especially in times of need. Words cannot express my gratitude towards police officers, paramedics, and firemen. Thank you for protecting us.

“Even after all this time the Sun never says to the Earth,”You owe me.” Look what happens with a love like that. It lights the whole sky.”

“I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.” –Albert Einstein

I vividly remember 2 years (or was it 3, oh gosh I’m dating myself!) one of the girls in studio freaking out because someone had an iphone and she asked if she could play with it and was so fascinated by it. It was definitely a luxury item, something people wanted but couldn’t have. Fast forward a few years and it seems as if everyone has them.

A few months ago when I worked retail, a very pregnant mother of a 2 year old came in to return some things. Like any normal active 2 year old her child was squirming to move and get out of her arms and off the store countertop and wanting to run around and explore the world. The mother then gave her her iphone and let her play a game on it and exclaimed, “Thank God for iphones.” Her child was in a zombie like stage. She “behaved” and was calm with the iphone. So many children would come into the store and would have technology of their own or their parents and act similarly. It was refreshing whenever kids were physically running around and playing with each other. I couldn’t help but remember what I was like when I was a kid. It isn’t a rare thing nowadays to see kids throw fits in church until their parent (or grandparent) gives them their iphone to “calm” them down as a “last resort.” It makes me wonder how our generation and parents made it through- my goodness the internet wasn’t even invented until I was in elementary school!

Going out in public at any time almost anywhere, you can see people constantly on their phones, or ipads. Nothing saddens me more than seeing a couple, family, or friends out together for coffee, dinner, or hanging out and they are each on their phones or one is looking bored and lonely if the other is on their phone. Even some mothers who are ignoring their children to be on their phone. If children learn by example this is what we are teaching them.

“We are so concerned about communicating with everyone, we have lost how to communicate with each other.”

I don’t have an iphone. In fact, I don’t even have a phone. I use my husband’s during the day due to the fact that he has a work phone so I guess I kind of have one in case he needs me I had a prepaid cheap o phone back when we got married but deliberately chose not to charge it or add money on it for a few months. It seemed annoying to me for someone to be able to reach me whenever they wanted to, I felt trapped and held hostage by my phone and dreaded every time it rang or I received a text (minus those from my husband when I was working!) The only benefit of the husband’s smart phone is the fact that it has gps built in (if you remember this fiasco of a story (link) so until we save up for one of those, it’s useful for now.

Part of the reason I started this blog is because I have difficulty communicating with others or rather finding those with similar interests to my own. People are shocked to learn my husband and I don’t have a tv and very (if even) rarely watch it on the computer, the fact that I don’t have an iphone, and also the fact that I’m creative and design and make art. I’ve discovered I’m quiet around people and a terrible conversationalist unless if you want to talk topics like art, design, architecture, travel, my other love Italy, babies and children, faith, dreams and fears basically anything but tv, iphone, and ipad genre related.

source

This video of a baby using an ipad compared to a magazine shows similar effects of a baby growing among touch screens and print. Technology codes our minds and this deprivation of touch, sound, and self discovery lead to a lack of creativity and curiosity.

By interacting with each other in public (and private), we are teaching our kids to learn to get along with other by interaction, how to behave in public, how to work through problems, patience such as when mom is in the store, communication with strangers even if it is just small talk while standing in the grocery line among many others. We are also encouraging imagination and learning by not providing technology to “entertain” and allowing children to discover the world around them thus providing a sensory experience.  There is something so sweet, innocent, and playful about children singing a song or talking to themselves. They are learning and it is such a beautiful thing to witness. I would much rather see a child do this than have a zombie with some type of technology in hand. By doing this, we are teaching them not to just have a desire for material things and allowing them to discover themselves- what their interests, hobbies, dreams, and desires are, in other words, personality development.

“There are some things money cannot buy, like manners, morals, and intelligence.”

I’m not saying to get rid of your iphone, the internet or television. I believe we should use them sparingly and as a resource, not a primary source of interaction or entertainment, especially with our children. There is so many ideas out there on playing with your kids! Notice the world around you instead of your cell phone. Try it at least for a day, you might be surprised and find you like it and how refreshing it is to not have to worry about how you’re going to respond to a friends text or what you’re going to tweet, instagram, or put on Facebook. It’s such a beautiful creation and you’ll be surprised at how you can find beauty in every day things when you stop and look for them.

Think about the legacy you want to leave with your spouse, friends, and children. Do you want them to remember you as always on your phone or this or will you wish you had spent more time playing and making memories as years fly by so quickly anyways? What do you wish to do with your one-fifth of a life?

“Try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste food when you eat it, and when you sleep, really to sleep. try as much as possible to be wholly alive, with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like heck, and when you get angry, get good and angry. try to be alive. you will be dead soon enough.” -William Saroyan

Please feel free to comment as I would love to hear your thoughts on this!

“We ate well and cheaply and drank well and cheaply and slept well and were together and loved each other.” -Ernest Hemingway

It’s Friday and I couldn’t be more excited to spend the weekend with my husband!

Our plans for tonight include staying out of the cold and eating potato soup!

Nothing else big planned except for a little bit of shopping, some baking, painting, and some wine drinking!

image

Hope you have a great weekend and stay warm if there’s snow!

“Italy, spring, and the first love altogether should suffice to make the gloomiest person happy.” –Bertrand Russell

Italy and spring can make people happy, however I think the last love is the more important than the first.

With it being April, Easter having come and gone, and the long winter we had, I was PUMPED for spring.

I never thought I could be so excited for a season in my life!

But alas, I spoke too soon as I woke up to snow today and there will be more coming later in the week.

I love the bright colors of the buildings! I dream about having window boxes and shutters on my house one day! This one was found in Rome.

Plants are incorporated into the design as there is not fields of land as in Kansas This photo was taken on our way to the beach in Viareggio.

A festival was going on and you can see how the Italians just set plants up in the streets for sale. It seemed heavenly and looked lovely! The Baptistery is in the background thus this one was in Florence.

So I’ll be inside dreaming about Italy and the warm sunshine!

“The color of springtime is in the flowers, the color of winter is in the imagination.” –Terri Guillemets

Reblogged from I Want to See God:

Can we ever really tire of this beautiful scene? Below is young Dominic's father's account of this unforgettable moment, in his own words.

Paul Gondreau is a theology professor in Rome. He and his wife and their five children had come to St. Peter's Square for a glimpse of the Holy Father. The Swiss Guard allowed his handicapped son, Dominic, and one other family member, his mother, to move to the front of the barricade.

Read more… 942 more words

It seriously breaks my heart when I see beautiful architecture that is left to decay.

There has to be so many stories in them- if only walls could talk!

This is the Max Hoffman House in North Carolina which was restored by an old couple.

(source)

My favorite details:

-the third story- I’ve always dreamed of one, what great views it would have!

-contrasting different paint colors which allow the details to pop allowing you to see depth and have things catch your eye rather than just one overall color

-that porch that I would spend hours on people watching and sipping hot chocolate!

-the patterned rooftop

See more photos here.

“One of the hardest parts is starting.”

Here’s a brief look into the creative process of artist Sue Lawty who describes the creative process remarkably well.

I am long overdue for a ceramics post so here is a combination of how different techniques turned out!

I used stains for the flowers (a first!) and glazes for the green inside and pink outside floral bowl.

I used slips (a wet clay body) to paint this bowl blue and the white flowers. I did a aqua glaze inside the flowers (didn’t turn out so bright and is hard to see) and also a clear glaze over the whole bowl.

I used glazes and created this pattern with wax.

“I think perfection is ugly. Somewhere in the things human make, I want to see scars, failure, disorder, distortion.” -Yohji Yamamoto

As an artist, I know it’s hard not to be disappointed when something turns out different. I’m learning to love the things that aren’t perfect. After all, they all taught me something!

These will all be in the shop today!

Happy Thursday!