It's only Monday and I'm tired...

chess pieces with first coat of under glaze on bases

OK, it's Monday... about 4:30 pm and I'm tired.  We had to have our 32 chess pieces ready by this morning's class. Most of us did. Some didn't. But I was impressed with some of the other students' results.  Now this is just the sculptured clay forms, nothing fired, nothing glazed, etc.  And we don't have the chess boards made yet. So even though this was a first deadline (and  critique), it's by no means the last. Since my pieces were finished, I started painting the bases with under glaze today. I'm doing the bases in two shades of green and the actual pieces will be shaded with blackbird stain... eventually.

Since I got home from the studio around 2, I've eaten lunch, watched "Good Neighbors' (which we recorded since it comes on at 11 pm here and I can't make it past 9 most nights) and "The Good Wife" which I also missed. Now I'm catching up on my blogs and making potato salad to go with baked ham and beans tonight.

I did see "Dalton Abbey" and have to say that I can't believe that Matthew is dead.  He is dead, isn't he? They wouldn't make it look like he's dead, but not be...    It just won't be the same without him in the show. But of course I'll continue to watch. I'm not a big TV fan, but this is definitely one of my favorites.

Time is up for blogging today. I didn't post one of my old stories, but here is a poem I wrote while on retreat a few years back.  It's called : In the Company of Women.

pottery and iPhones...

One of our 'previous' cats - Teela.  She was a tiny little thing,
barely 5 lbs. but she was feisty and ran the house for years.

I've spent the better part of this week working on our pottery project as well as talking to 'Apple' people concerning our new iPhone. Both Monday and Wednesday mornings were spent in the studio getting our ideas and clay together for our chess sets. And both Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons were spent talking in person at the Apple store and then  on the phone with an Apple rep. I can't believe it's Thursday already.  This week has flown by.

The reason for the consults was due to the fact that we upgraded recently from an iPhone 3 to a 4 because the upgrade was 'basically' free and the new phone is supposedly a little faster, has a few more bells and whistles, etc... but basically we did it because we could.  Well, nothings ever simple.  It took more than a few 'helping hands' to get all my apps, photos, etc. transferred from one phone to the other. There were reasons... security ones that had to be addressed due to some problems I had had about a year ago with someone fraudulently using my credit card. But I will say that all the Apple employees who helped us were terrific... friendly, knowledgeable, and very efficient.  It just took time.

As for the pottery, we're slowing getting there.  I have my first 6 animal figures done... to represent the King, Queen, Knight, Bishop, Rook, and Pawn. Now I will start making a small mold so that I can do the 16 pawns the same. I've had to 'revise' my original idea so as to keep making these small animals in the method I wanted to use... may be called 'gestural'?  I'm not an art major so I'm guessing here, but it's when you do the basic figure without detail... more or less letting the form or movement dictate what it is. So instead of a cat theme, it's turned into an animal theme; dog, cat, bunny, rat, snake, and bird.  Most of the figures are done in 1 cubic inch of clay... or less. The rat is a bit big... so I may have to scale him down some. But it's not easy sculpting in such tiny amounts. They can't be bigger than 1.5 to 2 inches or the chess board will have to be too big...

Anyhoo... for the most part, the week has passed. And passed quickly.

There's something else... and it has nothing to do with anything, but it comes to mind this afternoon.  For the last few days I've kind of been draggin', feeling a bit down (which is not like me) and haven't really known why. Guess I could be coming down with something, guess it could be a symptom of 'old age', etc.  But whatever caused this melancholy to come and sit on my shoulder apparently departed this afternoon as this    evening  I feel good...  

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!