Glazes and Gifts

Okay so nothing exciting went on today. It was a tired day. I checked out this non-SLR one more time. The Nikon Coolpix P80 with 18X zoom and 10.1 megapixels. See I have a definite budget because this was supposed to have been a Christmas present, Yes I am serious. My Dad bought me another DVR but it didn't have a tuner so he was going to get me one with a tuner. And then months went by. I'd remind him, and he'd be oh RIGHT, okay this weekend I will look online...this happened for months. So finally 2 months ago he asked me if I still waned the DVR, because I could pick another electronic if I wanted. And told me the price range and I thought that maybe something else would be more fun. And though I have a nice compact Sony digital camera I can bring anywhere, the thought of an SLR so I could be creative appealed. Of course then I found out the prices. Whoa. So I found this refurbished Nikon and it says it is as good as a SLR but you don't have to purchase other lenses which sounds sweet! So my father is ordering it...okay supposedly....tommorrow. So I shall be waiting to learn how to use this:

It's still like a professional camera, because I can choose manual and change apertures, etc. So I am kind of excited to see what I can learn to do with this camera! It will be nice to get my Christmas present...just over 6 months late...yeah Dad joked that maybe I can't use it until NEXT Christmas...funny....yeah not so much. LOL!

I went and picked up the food from the Polish place. When I ordered on the phone she knew it was me again and this time I have no idea HOW. Because she goes, "you want 4 pierogie for Mom"?, which we usually do, so that is how I figured she knew who I was last time. This time SHE brought it up first and I was like "oh...no not this time" so I have no idea how she knew it was me!!? Freaky but neat, that they know us now. So we ate around the table for once, I know holy crap! But it was nice. Afterwards we watched NCIS's and I was kicking my own butt again doing the Walk and Kick, man I felt like it was the first time, I am in pain!!

Anyway, I have the photos of our fun at The Auracle painting pottery! I can't wait for Saturday, they are supposed to be ready for pick up!! The guy had a full kiln because of the holiday weekend being off, so we didn't have to wait a week! I am excited to see how they all turn out! Sandy pretty quickly picked the things she wanted to paint. An adorable penguin and one candle stick to hold a single flower, hey it was her birthday, she can be as odd as she wants! LOL! Katie saw the platter that she had liked a year ago, even though we were at a different store. She knew it was pricey but said she'd pay for it on her own. And she bought special glaze for it too! I was going back and forth over and over. All the things I really wanted to do were so expensive. I mean a big round plate should NOT cost $34!!

I know about pottery and clay. I have had classes, not just in high school, but I took a Pottery class with Sandy in college a few years ago. Clay is not very expensive. And people who are good at throwing pots and bowls, etc (it is the term, not actually throwing pottery at the floor people) can make some of this stuff in minutes! And even if it takes them longer, like to create Sandy's penguin, that is A MOLD! You can't have that many of the penguins and they look ALL the same and it not be a mold. So the prices are ridiculous. It's sad because I would so be there more often if the pieces weren't so bloodt costly. And you also have to pay the studio fee, which is for using their place and glazes and any help you get. Grrr. If you are going to shell out $34 to paint a big tukey platter they should include the glazes and such in that cost. It just makes me mad. If the piece was hand made, pain-staking effort put into it, and many hours just to create that one piece, I would get the price, but this is mass produced stuff. See this little lady, I forget what she is called, I looked it up and researched it and I created her. She can have anwhere from one child to dozens. This took me hours and hours of class time and then to get the glaze which we had to purchase to cover her ina way that made her look authentic, was so hard! Well, I think she is pretty cool anyway and very authentic looking! LOL!

Anyway, I ended up choosing the bowl Sandy liked. She said it could be good for popcorn and chips, etc. So we chose our glaze colors and the guy working brought them to us. He asked me, if I wanted to make it solid or if I wanted to use a sponge and give it a texture, he showed me an example and I fell in love with it, I so hope it turns out right! So I started sponging. If you click on the picture, you can see the texture, just for all of you who don't know glazes, they can look the total opposite of what they look like once they go through the kiln process. You can paint something this obnoxios brown-orange but once it goes through it's chemical process, it may be a deep magenta. And no, it is not a guessing game, which is why you are shown what the colors look like after they go through the kiln. So my speckled color is a depper blue or it better be!LOL! Sandy made wuick work of her "flower pot" but chose to work very carefully on the penguin, she already adored!

Katie first chose to paint the back of her platter a dark dark purple (yes it isn't dark yet I know). And one coat of the purple on the top in case her special glaze could be seen through in spots.

I knew I wanted to do a large fluer-de-lis in the center of my bowl, and four small ones around the thick lip of the bowl which I painted a solid color. My hands, used to be so steady, it came in real handy in my art classes. But being on all these meds and for so long, I shake a lot, so it was really frustrating and was not turning out perfect and I AM a perfectionist.

Sandy was meticulous with her dear penguin too.

Katie began slathering on her specialty glaze. Yes it looks really ugly right now. Gray with big pieces of grit. But it is suppsoed to melt into these gold designs, swirls and circles and such. I saw a picture of the glaze so I am really excited to see how this turns out.

This is Sandy's Penguin pre-kiln. It better make her happy when we pick it up! She loves him!

This is my bowl before we left. You can sort of see one of the little fluer's in the bottom of the picture. I am really hopeful that it turns out beautifully!!

And this grey monstrosity of Kat's is GOING to turn out beautiful, I just have a feeling. The plate is so cool and this glaze is special so I think Katie really will love it!