Out of Round

I love the water towers around town and I have taken quite a few photos of them.  I had turned one of the images into a stamp so that I could make decals or photo litho transfers.  This image, however, was made using an EZ Screen.  This image was burned onto the screen and then I used a red Mudtool rib to squeegee some underglaze through.  I made the screen while I was in North Carolina and I have wanted to try it out again since I got back home.  I found a jar of underglaze that had conveniently dehydrated itself for me so that it was a good and gloppy thickness to print.  I've been needing a coaster so that is where I started.  This image came out great on the wet clay.

I tried it again on this leather hard piece and had a more difficult time. This is on the interior of a long, oval dish so there was a slight curvature and I was trying to figure out how to get the squeegee to get the whole thing at once.  I missed a few spots but I also think the print didn't work as well because of the dryer clay.

I've been trying to get out of the round mode of thinking that I get stuck in as a wheel throwing potter so I made this fun little cloud candy dish.  It looks flat in this picture but I actually draped the shape over a small oval plaster mold.  Super fun!

Shall we have a bit of sgraffito?  I free-handed my design with a pencil before I got started with the scritchy scratchin'.

I'm feeling like it is a bit too busy.  Next time I think I will have more contrast without quite so much pattern going on but I am enjoying it.  Uh, but I painted the back black also so I still have to do something with that side.  Hmmm...

Fibromyalgia and Internet Issues!

Yesterday I made these gorgeous tiles in a unique shape created with one of my snowflake cutouts.  The downside was using my body in a way I am not used to and then in doing to many at once because I was excited with them and having a great time.  Time just flew by (time really does fly when you are having fun!) and it was late when I looked up at the clock.  I could tell that my elbow was  hurting.  When I woke up this morning I was in real pain.  That all over ache like when  you get the flu.  That's fibromyalgia for you.  Most of the time I can ignore the fibro, especially by keeping busy and I mostly don't feel it.  Then there are days like yesterday when I do something that my body is not used to.  Then I overdo it on top of that and I am quickly reminded of my limitations.  Slow and steady should be my motto.  I had that tender all over feeling and I wouldn't even let my cat initiate her morning ritual of walking all over me.  She tried but it just hurt too much.

I haven't been taking photos too much lately.  I have been feeling kind of obsessed with ceramics.  In a good way, I think.  Here is a photo I took about a month ago of the handrail on the footbridge to campus.  I like the design and the graphic qualities.  I am at campus right now, using the computer.  I finally gave up on mine at home.  It does a lot of things great as long as I don't get on the internet.  I'm not sure what is wrong with our internet at home or if it is a combo of the internet and my old computer.  The last couple of days, hours have been wasted just waiting for pages to load.  This  morning I couldn't get anything no matter how I tried to connect.  I feeling like borrowing somebody's computer just to make sure whether or not it is my computer or the connection.

I'm actually in a relatively good mood, at least that's what I keep telling myself.  But I am tired and sore and in my fogginess I left my keys at home when I ran off to school at 8am.  I was all ready to get into the printmaking lab and work on something extra that was due today.  But without a key, I can't get into my locker to get my supplies.  It's only a ten minute walk home so I'll be heading out soon to go retrieve them.  I think I'll stop and buy a bike lock first in the school bookstore and then I can get back and forth even quicker.  Oh, and a bike helmet too.  But I got to go to the bikestore for that.  Thanks for listening to me ramble today.  Sometimes, you just gotta vent.  Have a great one!