Are You Finished?

Work

Since this is a new way of working for me--multiple firings-wise, I mean--I am having a hard time telling when something is finished.

Take this mask for example:

 

This is the third firing for them, I think. Maybe? I guess I don't actually know how many firings this has been through. But is it finished?

And this one:

 You can't see from this photo, but the multicolored halo around the skull is very matte. Should I put a clear glaze on it to shine it up and send it through again? Or is it finished now? Or should I hit it with a clear polyacrylic sealant?

And this sculpture, a pregnant Eve and the serpent:

Is she finished? Or does the snake need more color and to be shinier? Should I attempt that with acrylic paints or do I put more underglaze and glaze on and send her through another firing?

I don't do uncertainty very well and this level of uncertainty is new to this style of working. In my old way of working, there was a definite end, beyond which there was no doubt. It went: Build, bisque fire, glaze, fire. Done. Now it's build, underglaze, fire, underglaze/glaze, fire, underglaze/glaze, fire...done? Underglaze/glaze, fire....done? And on and on.

This mask, for example, has been in every firing I've done since last July (including a firing at Santa Fe Clay, where I took the workshop that introduced me to this technique):

It's not done yet. I don't think.

Not Work

I got to bed really late last night. Kind of. In fact, I was tired enough after dinner that I got into bed early and fell asleep right away. Then about an hour later, Dave woke me up when he was practicing his clarinet. I was so infuriated at being woken up that I yelled at him. I try to be understanding about his practice time even when it overlaps my bedtime and I am usually fine with it, but last night I was exhausted and really angry at being woken up because I know it takes me hours to get back to sleep (which it did). I finally took some benadryl a little before 4 a.m. and fell asleep only to be woken up about two hours later by Dave's alarm which grows increasingly louder the longer he lets it go off. I don't think he did any of it on purpose and I'm not usually bothered by his playing at night even when I'm going to sleep (noise doesn't usually bother me, I just put my headphones on and fall asleep to something on Netflix while he practices), but last night was not a good night.

I went back to sleep though and woke up a few hours later with a headache. It's just been that kind of day.

I got up and drank a big glass of water and ate a banana. After awhile I got up and had a proper breakfast: eggs, beans, red chile, and a tortilla. I drank a big cup of regular coffee (not my usual decaf or half-caf) with real milk in it. (We never have real milk in the house--in fact, our refrigerator right now contains three types of milk, only one of them cow--but on our last trip to the co-op, I decided I needed some so I bought a half-gallon.) After that, I had a shower and did some reading.

In the late afternoon, knowing we were going to have a pilates lesson before dinner, I had a snack (more beans, sour cream, cheese, and unsalted tortilla chips).

Judi couldn't make it to pilates, so it was just me and Dave. Our teacher was in a chatty mood, so we got to listen to her talk a lot about her life. It's pretty interesting. She grew up in Argentina, came to the US as an exchange student in college, met the man she would later marry. After she returned to Argentina, he followed her there and stayed for three years until after they were married and had their first child. Then they returned to the US where she got her Ph.D in exercise physiology and they had three more children. Now she has her own studio and it sounds to me like her husband is a stay-at-home dad who homeschools their children part time.

I like it when she talks a lot because then the workouts are a little less rigorous and I can keep up a little better.

We came home from pilates via the co-op where I was intending to just pick up some vegetable sushi for my dinner, but instead we walked out with a huge bag of things including my vegetable sushi, a big dulce de leche donut for me and a bar of dark chocolate for Dave. We also picked up a loaf of low sodium bread, more cheese, Quorn, cat food, beans, corn tortillas, some prepared felafel, spaghetti, and a stick of butter. We should not shop after pilates and before we have dinner!

We came home and I had dinner. I followed up the sushi with a donut, which was maybe not the best idea as now I feel a bit queasy. Dave wasn't hungry so he went straight into his clarinet practice so he can get done before I go to bed tonight. Very thoughful.

Etc.

I've been on a bit of an online buying binge recently. Last week, I had a little Sephora spree. Yesterday I ordered a couple of gifts through one of our favorite food sites, Zingerman's. Today I bought three books from Amazon, one a kind of biographical novel by Mae West (one of my favorite classic Hollywood stars) and another large reference book of animal anatomy for artists. I had a dickens of a time trying to find images to work from when I was making my fox lady. The closest thing I could find online were websites with images for taxidermists and I thought that was kind of gross, so I didn't want to use them. (The energy and intention that goes into a piece matters, believe it or not.) I also picked up a package of fuzzy socks to wear to my pilates class.

We have a strange deal with socks in our house. I don't usually wear them if I can get away with not, so when I do have to wear them, I usually just use Dave's. Since I find sorting and pairing socks to be the most tedious and useless post-laundry task ever, over the years we've fallen into buying multiple pairs of the plainest socks possible. (Though Dave has, over the past couple of years, taken to collecting less plain socks.) Anyway, since we have to wear socks to pilates class, I wanted to have cute socks. I bought a couple of pairs here and there, but I found some nice ones on Amazon, so I ordered some. I especially like the fuzzy, brightly colored and pattered socks. They're like my reward for getting my ass to pilates class.

Oh crap, that reminds me. Tomorrow night we're having a pricey dinner out with some friends and I have to scare up something decent to wear. I'm not good at that. If I could, I would live in jeans and t-shirts. But maybe it's good to have to clean up from time to time.

Here's a funny story about that:

A few years ago, Dave and I were invited to one of his co-worker's weddings. I usually wear black when I have to dress up, but I didn't want to wear black to a wedding so I decided to find a colorful dress. I looked online and found an eggplant purple dress with spring green bands of color at the neck, elbows, and waist. I bought the dress and a pair of purple satin heels that perfectly matched the purple of the dress. I got a silver pashmina and borrowed some of Kelly's antique costume jewelry to wear.

Look at those sparklers!

We went to the ceremony, which was outside at sunset, and then went off to find the reception. As we were walking in the door, one of the servers asked me, "Are you with the wedding party?" I was a bit confused, so I shook my head and said no, then I walked into the reception and saw why she had asked me that. The entire hall was decked out in spring green and purple, the colors the bride had picked for her wedding theme! The decorations, the flowers, the candy being handed out as wedding favors, the cake were all decorated in spring green and purple.

Green and purple decorated wedding cake. Lovely!

Congratulations to the happy couple!