Never Finished…

Hey. I know. I had a 3-day weekend. I should feel rested, like I got some extra time to deal with shit, like the world is wonderful. Huh. I feel tired. Might have been the snoring or the cat scrabbling at my back (he knows I’ll wake up and do something about it) or the dog barking at whatever the fuck he barks at. Not sure. I know the vaccines on Friday kicked my butt, so maybe that’s still lingering. I also know that I need to start a new big quilt because these little ones seem to stretch on forever and don’t give me the same hit or joy that a big project does. You’d think they would…multiple finishes in a day? Except it seems like you never finish and there’s just another step and you have to do it 10 times. Not a fan of production work. Which is fine. I don’t do much of it. Every few years, I get a bug (ha!) up my butt and do it again and remember why I don’t like it.

ANYWAY. Bug production is still happening. Saturday, at my quilt guild meeting, I sewed all the antennae and legs.

Then Saturday night, I decided to finish the edges of the two little quilts to go in the clay pieces…

I still need a drill bit so I can figure out how to attach them.

Not sure how I feel about them. But that’s OK. It’s all experimentation. I finished one of the bug edges Saturday night as well…

And two more last night…

I’m not sure I have the right thread color for the other two. Most of the thread I have is utilitarian sewing thread, in not many colors, or rayon thread, which doesn’t work as well for this. I don’t really want to go buy thread, so I’ve been using what I’ve got. I won a stash of little spools of lots of colors that I’ve been trying to use up. We’ll see tonight. But I still need to paint the canvases and then attach them to those. Delivery is Saturday and they only want four, but I want all of them done. I also want to start something new.

I went to ceramics on Saturday and totally forgot to take any photos. I put two things on the glaze firing shelf, checked the drying on the other two (they’re probably ready to bisque fire, but I’m overly paranoid), and carved some on one. I need new clay. I need a new big project. I need to finish the ones I have! While trying to fall asleep last night, I worked out the winged woman fabric parts in my head. Maybe that’s next. But also a new big quilt.

The parrots are here. They were quietly resting on Sunday morning…didn’t even know they were there at first.

Usually it’s very obvious they’re here. Also very backlit. Hard to photograph. Hard to see.

There are times when it’s useful to have all the things already in the house. I don’t have all the things though…yet.

OK. I’m not sure I have the stamina for school yet, but the fun thing about school is that it never matters if you are ready for it or not…it’s gonna happen. Teaching Newton’s second law and independent and dependent variables…which I have to talk myself through every time. Teaching those all week. Although we came up with one independent activity for them, which is blissful. Need more of those. It’s impossible to be ON all the time. Staff meetings after school…love those. Then back to ceramics. And cooking dinner. Don’t love that. Reading my book. And more bugs. Ugh bugs. Need to be done with bugs.

Find Some Zen…

Hey yo. It’s Friday. Before grades are due. So I’m going to roll into grading for 6 hours straight I think, because I can’t get caught up. Ah well. Hopefully I will get better at it throughout the year, because hey, it’s only been like 21 years of it. 22? Something like that. I spent an hour last night writing a series of paragraphs explaining the piece I made for the We Got the Power exhibit that will be in Miami October through December. I had just picked it up from the photographer’s and the due date is Monday…so I made myself do it. I started it once before but then the computer deleted the halfway-done Google form (just like it does to my students), so I had to start over. Ugh.

Here’s the piece that has no name…

It does have a name, actually. It was from the movie Chiraq and I wrote it on a post-it note that I think the ex’s dog ate. Or she ate most of it and it ended up in the recycling and I forgot that that was the only place I had written it down. So I will have to watch the movie again? Or something.

This piece is not huge at 12×24″.

But it does have almost 400 pieces. I drew an Earth Mother trying to protect the women and children from the violence of war (and men). The exhibit is in response to the play Lysistrata, remade in the movie Chiraq (sort of), where a child is killed and women object to the violence of war (gang war in the movie). Their response is to withhold sexual favors from the men until they agree to stop fighting (shooting). And it works! The original play was written by a man, as much as we know.

That man is holding a video game controller. I included Hamas, Israel, Palestine, Russia, the Ukraine, and the US as participants in current wars.

Me? I’m all about how to protect the children…make the world safe for them.

And shooting things up and fighting over territory is never going to do that. It’s a tough one, though. Ukraine gets our hearts because of the way Russia just came in and started to take, but the Gaza violence is so much more complicated. There’s no easy solutions even if we just think of the kids because people have all these ideas of what their kids need (a homeland?). Land rights. Sigh. Peaceful living together. Double sigh. So yeah.

This piece has sold…for when it comes back from the show. So that’s cool.

The two little quilts I’m working on, someone asked, because I called them ‘baby quilts’, are they FOR babies? Um no. They’re just really tiny. I finished the Wonder Under trimming and took two days to iron them to fabric…this is the smaller one.

This one took two nights…

Only because I did the other one first. And I’m running out of time each night.

But I finished last night. Damn that bird is gonna be bright. I need to figure out how to drill through the glaze that dripped into the holes I was going to use to hang these in the clay pieces…diamond bit, for sure. There’s always a risk the clay will break, which would suck. But hoping to cut things out tonight after grading for a million hours. Ugh.

I woke up in the middle of the night to the dog barking, but not in bed with me. I was really confused because there was a furry body next to me, but it was Luna, not Simba. He was brought back by the Man. But he was barky all night, so I kind of feel like a semi rammed through me.

This was after Back-to-School Night on Wednesday…

A Bowie/Nova sandwich. Sweet babies.

I found this nest in the yard the other night…fell out of the tree…

It’s always fascinating to see what they make the nests out of. There’s definitely some human materials in there. I need to go back to throwing thread snips out into the yard for them.

Followed this big truck to work yesterday…

Funny.

OK. I’m teaching balanced/unbalanced forces today. I’m hoping to grade homework from last week at the same time. I have slides to grade…got through one class last night and finally got into a rhythm. So hopefully will finish those tonight? Or tomorrow…let’s be realistic. I’m going to ceramics after school and it’s my turn to cook dinner. Plus it’s Friday and I’m already exhausted. Does not bode well for lots of grading tonight. My team is going through some drama at work…hopefully that will chill out and everyone will find some zen over the weekend. I am hoping to get these two little quilts cut out and ironed together this weekend, maybe even stitched down? That would be nice. And buy a drill bit. Sometime. Not sure when. Oh yeah, pack up a quilt for Quilt Visions and deliver it…that opening is coming up. I’ll be there. Come see it (mid-October). Otherwise, we’re sliding into October, one of my favorite weather months (but schoolwise, usually a long month…but we have two 3-day weekends this year…maybe that will help). It’s certainly been delightfully cloudy and cool all week. That won’t continue much longer, but I’m appreciating it while it does. OK. Gotta go to school for real now…

Never Enough Sleep for It…

It’s pajama day today. On a Monday. That might be a first…usually it’s later in the week. It kinda makes me feel like I’m not going to work…is that a pro or a con? It’s good to go to work in pajamas because it doesn’t feel like work? Oh, it will feel like it when I get there. I think I mostly prepped on Friday; I just didn’t put the inertia stuff on their desks yet. No biggie. Anyway. I’m in pajamas. I’m going to the ceramics studio later; debating whether to bring real pants. Or just go in pajamas. They probably won’t care. Tomorrow is wear your favorite band shirt. What a coincidence? I just went and saw one of my favorite bands, Radio Thieves (the Man plays keyboards and sings) on Saturday night downtown. The Music Box did a street fair thing.

Nice location…too many people with captain’s hats (Yachtley Crew was the main band)…

Radio Thieves was awesome…

Although I still don’t understand the cowboy wear because they played no country.

Whatever. They always wear weird shit. Except pajamas. Never seen them in pajamas.

Ceramics-wise, I went Friday night. Two of my things were out of the bisque fire. One was the top of this so I could finally put them together…

Turned out pretty cool.

Don’t think I’m going to glaze fire? Not sure. It will get super dark if I do and it doesn’t need to be foodsafe, so why deal with that? I do think I will epoxy them together though. They fit but there’s a wobble.

Then the base for the other piece came out…

Looked good. I put an iron wash over it and then glazed the two oil spills with a glaze I picked up on sale called um I think it’s called oil spill! So it should be perfect.

We’ll see how it goes. I put a clear satin on the fishies (not the bones) and the windows of the car. Then the winged woman gets epoxied on that and the fabric added.

Speaking of added fabric, I finally had enough mental space to draw two fabric things for clay things I made back in February/March. I had papers measured to size to help me draw…like since July? I drew in pencil first…

And then in ink…this one will hang in a woman-shaped frame I slab built when I was in the handbuilding class…

And this one was a coil-built thing that I put two holes in for hanging a little quilt…

The holes might have filled in with glaze. I might need to drill them. Not sure how to do that. Will ask at the studio today. I also worked on my mug but totally forgot to take any pictures. Of course. Maybe today.

I graded a lot this weekend. I’m really trying to make time for the art, finish fixing up the house from the summer whirlwind (I pulled off most of the blue tape from the moldings and installed two switchplates, one old, one new because the other one was disgusting.). I need to hang the art up and get everything in the living room put away. I also need to do some textured paint in one area. I have the stuff…just haven’t had the time. AND I watered things. I haven’t had enough time for that either and plants are suffering. UGH. This week is a clusterfuck. So I don’t expect getting control of it this week.

Teachers need a 4th day to deal with school. Because there isn’t enough time at school to deal with it. Here’s Bowie helping me grade.

I finished the homework from the week before, all the warmups, and two classes of the Unit 1 packets. I have three more of those, last week’s homework, and an academic assignment. Fun times.

Speaking of school, we borrowed tennis balls from PE and they (1) smelled exactly like you’d think they’d smell and (2) came packaged like a scrotum, tied up like this with two balls in each bag.

I can’t decide if PE was just messing with us or there’s some reason to pack them this way.

Finishing with this…

I’m not a fan of war. I’m not a fan of supporting war, although the Ukraine/Russia thing seems a worthy cause. World War II was a worthy cause. Just wish there were no more kids dying anywhere from anything, but that’s too much to hope for in a country where guns are more important than schools.

Anyway. Monday musings. I’ll be making those two little quilts and finishing two big ones that are not art quilts but need doing. Hopefully I’ll also start that next big quilt in the next week or so. We’ll see how that goes. I’m giving myself grace (I hate that phrase) this week…back-to-school night, physical therapy on the neck, late pilates because of that back-to-school night. Lots going on. Never enough sleep for it.