so that's what it was

Last week I wondered what my next project was.
Now I know.
Lesson plans, complete with teacher samples (aka, a quick refresher for me!)
Chalk pastels and perspective drawings have taken up some of my time, but...
I actually had a weekend "off".  This is something new and amazing to me.
So, I worked more on those shelves, putting up trim.
I glued some panels together for a cabinet door.
I also helped make a feast for Saturday dinner, and baked two loaves of banana bread to enjoy for the week.
Let's face it, though, the bread won't last that long.
My first week of student teaching went really well, and I'm thrilled to have a wonderful co-op teacher!  I visited some elementary art classes which were really fun, and now I am even more excited about anything may be in my future as a teacher.
With that all, though, I don't want to forget to always make my own work.
Speaking of which, I hope I can make it in to the ceramic studio sometime soon!

A partially completed to do list.

Time has somehow sped up, and tomorrow is the day that I begin my student teaching.  

I had promised myself, and my husband, I would work on the set of built-in shelves in my time off.  

My fear of the table saw sitting in our basement is still alive and well. As a board goes through it, the saw shimmies and the fence slowly slides away from the blade, making a 3 1/4" board suddenly 3 1/2" at the other end.  Not the safest most precise piece of machinery I have ever encountered.  

The japanese handsaw and block plane, on the other hand, worked wonderfully.   

I donned my hoodie and took innumerable trips from house to garage with boards and tools in my hands on each trip.  

Measure twice, cut once.   

Sniffling in the cold weather, my fingertips began to go numb as I gripped the handle of the saw for cut after cut.  With the help of some creative clamping and a screwdriver, the shelves were mostly together by the end of the day.  (Yeah, it took me a while, but I am out of practice!)             Some more paint the next morning and my husband helped my put them in place at night.  Just some more trim to cut and install, and a few more coats of paint, and it'll be done!

On to my next project...  Whatever will it be?

But it's not really like riding a bike...

There are some skills that really require constant maintenance.
Not like riding a bike.
I am a maker- there are so many "making skills" that require use. Use it, or lose it.

I am a jeweler.  I love doing repairs.  It's been a while, though.
I still have confidence in doing repairs.  (But I feel a little more stress now than I did 5 years ago.)

But the table saw...
oh, the table saw.
It's been so long, and I am so out of practice, and it's a completely different set up than I was used to...  So the set of shelves that I was going to make are waiting, and waiting, and waiting.  I decided I would work on them before I started student teaching.  Better hurry up, that day is quickly approaching-- a week from tomorrow.  The little do's and don'ts and tricks of using the table saw have slid into a little crevice of my memory that I am having a hard time finding.  Not to mention the confidence I used to have about it.
So, if these shelves are going to be done (and I Really hope they are) the nice little japanese handsaw and block plane will have to be my tools.  But how and when do I get back into using big kid tools so my skills don't just fade away completely?

More projects. I love projects.  Better start soon!

inspiration or admiration?

I think that people in the art crowd have confused inspiration with admiration.

All too often, I hear the question "Who is your work inspired by?"

To this, I feel that I never have an adequate response.  I "um...", and "uh...", and try to name drop, because I never feel that I am Inspired by the who that is expected of me.


What I am inspired by is architecture, furniture, machines- minuscule to enormous, and so many other things that I see as beautiful.
Does that mean that I should I find out the name of every architect who designed buildings that I love to look at?  If that is the case, I should know the names of all of the people who constructed those buildings, or who put the trim around the windows, and the blacksmiths who hand-forged each piece of iron for the gates surrounding them.
Or maybe I should find out the name of the person who designed each Caterpillar truck, or airplane and train that I look at.  Except, my hunch is that they were all designed by teams of people, mostly engineers.
These are the things that I see that inspire me to Make.

Who I Admire?  Now that is a question I can start to answer. I like Scandinavian and German designers, especially when it comes to jewelry and glass.  For ceramics, I'm a sucker for things that look like Gwyn Hanssen Pigott's, or Karen Swyler's work.
I like the work done by MC Escher, and Charles Mackintosh, Art Deco, Art Nouveau and the Arts&Crafts movement. Though I keep realizing that picking one person to admire is a challenge, I suppose I like to lump them all into a group or category.

Just because I admire someone's work, does not mean that I want to make work like them.  (But maybe I do, and maybe I already have...)