The Very, Very Long Weekend...and Wednesday

The newest sculpture (wearing a sling made of white toweling to support her newly constructed arm in a certain position):

Aside from the forearms and hands, one of the last things to go on is the head. I usually construct the head last, put on the face, and then decide on how the head is going to sit. This time I called Dave over to give me his opinion of several different positions. This is the one that made him laugh repeatedly, so that's the one I went with. His laughter is often the deciding factor in my calavera sculptures. I want them to be strange but funny to other people, too.

In this picture, she is finished except for a trio of flowers I added at the temple of the skull. I had originally planned an elaborate hairstyle to go with the elaborate dress, but in the end, I like the shock of the mostly bare skull at the top of this voluptuous figure in a wild dress, so I left it.

I've painted in the center panel white, so the detail of it won't be apparent until after it's fired and it gets a wash of dark underglaze. But here you can get a general sense of the size and overall shape:

This is a view of the back:

A little more detail of the skirt:
 
A little closer, still:

The bottom part is built on a vase that Dave threw. The flounces of the skirt are added as coils and the folds carved in. The flowers and skulls go on last, of course.

Once the arm sets up, I'll get a better photograph of the top, which lifts off completely. Why, I have no idea, except that I built it that way.

After the arm sets up a bit, I'll take off the sling and start painting. I haven't decided on a color scheme yet, but I think the dress might go into the blue-green territory with pink and/or reddish flowers. I want it to be a bit gaudy. I'll consult my Godey's Lady's Book to look at some color schemes maybe.

The Long Weekend: Sunday

On Sunday, I don't remember what we did. I think it was a lot of lazing around and doing nothing. It was a beautiful day, though. The weather has been lovely.  In the evening, we had a pilates class. I ended up doing something stupid and inflaming my tendonitis though. I should have come home and put ice on it, but I always forget about the ice thing. I have it taped up now. So that's been a downer.


The Long Weekend: Monday

Dave had Monday off for President's Day, so we slept in and then had lunch at Garcia's with my mother and older brother. I had menudo and chicharrones, my favorite meal from there.

After that, we went to the studio and worked for awhile. Dave took apart and oiled his clarinet and I worked on the sculpture above.

We took Crunch for a walk and after went to dinner with Judi and Paul, to a pizza place where they serve gelato. We all split an order of garlic bread with marinara sauce. Then Dave and I each had a salad and we split an okay-ish pizza (a"Greek pizza" with spinach puree, feta, kalamata olives, and mozarella on a wheat crust). Dave didn't have dessert, but I had vanilla and chocolate cake gelato. The vanilla was worth eating, but the chocolate cake was not very good at all, so I left it.

We came home after and vegged for hours. I watched a few episodes of MASH, which is new to Netflix.

The Long Weekend: Tuesday

Dave took an extra day off, but ended up staying in bed most of the day because he felt crappy, sore throat and so on. I hope he's not getting sick, but if he does, I hope he doesn't pass it on to me!

We made a quick run to the grocery store in the early evening and came home to make BLTs (with fake bacon) and salads for dinner. I also picked up a huge apple fritter for myself for dessert, since I've been craving sugar.

...and Wednesday

Dave went back to work today, despite not feeling well. I slept in, having packed his lunch the night before. It was a beautiful day though, so I spent some time outside, sitting out on the patio having coffee and then watering the plants that are sprouting in the pots outdoors.

I decided to make red chile enchiladas for dinner, so I ran to the store for some corn tortillas and cheese. I bought a new kind of corn tortilla, but it was too thin and basically turned to mush in the enchiladas. Oh well. It still tasted good. We topped our enchies with an egg and had beans and sour cream on the side. I also sauteed some Swiss chard to serve on the side, so we could have a vegetable.

After dinner, I packed up Dave's lunch for tomorrow and sat down to watch some more old episodes of MASH. It's amazing how well that show has held up. I find myself laughing out loud at some things, even though I know the plots of each episode like the back of my hand, as it was one of my favorite shows when I was in middle school.