Pottery Class: Round Two

My sweet neighbor and fellow blogger, Foster, reminded my last night that it had been a while since my last blog post. I haven't been painting much, but my mom and I did finish another pottery class. This time we only worked on the wheel. These are some of my pots from our second class:

We are already a few weeks in to our third pottery class. We still really have no idea what we are doing, but we sure are having fun doing it! My goals for this time around are to make bigger and taller pots...we'll see how that goes!

What I'm Working On

This is another painting that I've been sitting on for far too long. I started this painting last year but I've been putting off finishing it because I messed up from the beginning. I used the wrong side of the paper which has caused me nothing but trouble. Nothing works like its supposed to when you paint on the wrong side of the paper. Anyway, I decided to persevere and see what I can make of it.

It's still a work in progress but here's a peek:

New Obsession: Paper

My mom took me to a new paper store at the mall the other day and it's all I've been able to think about since. I've been trying to come up with things I can do with the paper-- besides buy it just to look at -- and my favorite idea so far is to use it to wrap mats in picture frames (which happen to be another one of my obsessions).

My mom was kind enough to give me some money for Valentine's day and I was just going to use it for normal monthly expenses (like a good girl), but when I told my mom that, she said I had to use it for something fun. When she said that, I had a pretty good idea of where I was going.

I knew I would just think about the all the pretty papers until I had some of my own. So, today I set out to find some cheap frames and pick out some pretty paper.

(ooohhh soooo pretty)

(This paper is a gold chevron. The gold didn't turn out well in the picture, but it shimmers)

(yes, that is a picture of my rad dad from 1980 in the frame on the left)

I think these would look better with black and white photos, but I didn't have any of those lying around...

Watercolor Postcards

For Christmas, my best friend, Kelsey, gave me a watercolor postcard kit. She thought it was silly but I think it was the perfect gift idea. She said that she thinks I need to paint more. And when your best friend tells you to paint more, by golly, you paint!

The kit comes with everything you need-- paint, tray, brush, instructions/ideas, and post cards:

My first postcard had to be for Kelsey, of course! I don't think she has a particular fondness for birds, but I didn't have any better ideas.

It felt pretty strange to just drop a painting in a mailbox. Hopefully it gets there in one piece...

Squares for a Not-So-Square Friend

I've been sitting on this painting for long enough. I've decided that it's just time to be done.

A friend of mine asked me to paint something with squares. We had discussed a color palette that I strayed from. I didn't know that he had his heart set on those specific colors. When I showed him this painting, he said he liked it but didn't like all the colors. So, I'll be doing this again...in the RIGHT colors.

I worked on this a while ago and I've been telling myself that I just want to put one or two more layers on it, but that just wasn't happening.

I'm not sure what I'll do with this one. I'm thinking it may be fun to cut out my favorite parts and fram them in a series of three or four...

Pottery Class

Though I haven't been painting much lately, my life hasn't been completely void of creativity. My mom and I took a pottery class through a local community education program. It was about ten weeks long and ended this past week. It was really fun and frustrating at the same time. Here are a few of my pieces...the ones I am not too ashamed to share:

This is a pinch pot-- the first thing I made

I did this one with coils-- by far the most frustrating project

I really love this mug and it was super easy to make.

This red square bowl is my favorite. I stamped a design into the sides, but it didn't show up very well after it was glazed.

This is the piece I am most proud of. It is the only thing I made on the wheel that actually turned out. 

My favorite part of the class had to be learning the wheel. It was really hard and frustrating-- centering the clay on the wheel is nearly impossible-- but once you get it, it is so much fun. I can't lie, I had to have my mom center my clay for me a few times. My mom is actually really good at it, and she made some amazing things. We are planning on taking another class after Christmas. We will get to do a lot more on the wheel in our next class and we are super excited. The trick is going to be figuring out what to do will all the stuff we make...

Remember Me?

I've noticed that I go through phases. I'll either be really into painting or really into reading or really into something else and whatever I was doing kind of falls to the wayside. I hadn't been feeling creative or inspired, but I think I'm transitioning back into painting mode.

A while back, my friend asked me to paint something for him. He said he wanted it to be geometric and asked specifically for rectangles. So, I did a few trial runs in my art journal to test my idea:

This was my first try. I wanted to try layering colors using masking tape to block off rectangles. During this trial run, I learned that if I do one big wash over the paper, the paint tends to bleed under the tape. I still like to look and colors though.

Take 2:

The second time around, I made more of an effort to paint each individual square. There was a lot less paint bleeding under the tape when I didn't do one big wash over the paper. So, this is the method I decided to go with when painting something for my friend. I've already started working on it and I'm really liking how it's coming out...more to come soon!

A Letter for Tom

It has been way too long since I last wrote to my brother, Thomas, who is in Brazil. So today, I finally sat down and wrote to him-- just a short little note. I wish that I would have made the card bigger so I could have said more...

I didn't have a plan when I started. I just went crazy with the masking fluid and colors. I quite like the result. I hope Tom does, too.

I love quotes. I feel that for everything that I want to say, someone has already said it much more eloquently than I ever could. So, as usual, I wrote one of my favorite quotes that I thought Tom might find applicable to his life in Brazil:

"Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying 'I will try again tomorrow.'"

-Mary Anne Radmacher

Art Journal

Fun with colors and layers.

Pink Poppy Pendants

My mom and I created an Etsy shop to sell the pendants we have been making. The name of our shop is Pink Poppy Pendants (we both like poppies and alliteration). You can get to the shop by clicking HERE, or through the link on the left. So please, check it out! Here are some pictures from our Etsy shop:

These two pendants were in a previous post, but they didn't have their matching beaded charms yet.