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Wednesday 23 December 2015

gingerbread houses!

    i made gingerbread houses today with my nieces!  well, mine was made with little graham cracker cookies, but anyway..  it was pretty fun, if not at times disastrous..  poor little scarlett's house fell completely apart at one point, but the little girl is determined.  & mine was a bit of a mess.    i have no idea what my mom made the icing out of.. she did some sort of eggless thing cause scarlett is not supposed to eat eggs, but it was pretty icky in consistency and not a very good house glue.  ..but then we added more icing and things worked a bit better. 
    this is the one that gwen & my mom worked on... but gwen was really far more interested in playing than making little houses..


    & then scarlett's .. she made this SUPER AMAZING house!  with lots and lots of candy! 


    check out even the cute little details inside..


     & then my little bitty house in a puddle of soupy icing..


     i stole scarlett's idea for little lights around the house.. but i like my little trees.  no way i am gonna eat this icky thing though.  uck.  but it was fun enough!~

Saturday 12 December 2015

pottery class - winter 2015

     so!  i went to go pick up my pottery stuff today.. from my last pottery class.. most of it turned out pretty decent.. except for this one leaf plate, it was a plate i had made last year but hadn't had a chance to glaze, so i did it this time.. but ugh.  it turned out so so ugly.. i dont know why?  ...cause i had made another one last year that turned out so pretty!  and then i made one this year that also turned out pretty.. it's made with a holly hock leaf.. anyway..
    i only took pictures of a couple of things though..  ..every class i take i make myself a little little cup thingy.. i have a collection of them on my shelf cause i have taken, oh.. i dont know?  5? classes?  ..but this time i painted my cup with coloured slips and then finished it with black slip and then carved fireworks into it!~ ...however, i carved too deep, and all you can see is the white clay underneith.. oh well.


     i tried to think of different types of fireworks designs to carve.. eh.. i dont know?


    i made another little one, shorter, that i carved a little grass into.. you can sorta see the blue sometimes on this one..


     & then here is a leaf plate i made that turned out pretty good! ..it is made using a leaf from my russian comfrey plant..


    & then this.. oh this.. this was the most frustrating thing in the world.. ugh.  it actually turned out a lot better than i expected, so that's good.. but ugh.  ...it's a plate sorta..dish, i dont know what it is really?  but i made it with silver maple leaves.. and it took me so much time.. cause first it cracked or something & i was trying to fix it...repair it.. and then the tip of a leaf or two fell of.. so i was trying to patch that.. and then.. then.. ugh.  then after i had worked on it for all that time.. the whole damn thing brok in half!!!!  ..i was not going to give up though.. i patched it up and wrapped it up and waited for the next class.. in the end it looked kinda crappy but i though, i am gonna try and have this thing fired and see what happens, i was not really expecting it to work.. but it kinda did.  .. still.. but i thought, i will glaze it and see how it turns out.. and here it is:



    if it had not been so horrible to me i would have been able to do a bit more with it.. try and bring out some of the detail of the of the leaves like the other leaf plate above.. but as it was a lot of the top center was just mush.. so i just dipped it and let it be.  .. but if you look closely you can still see the details in some of the leaves a bit..


    i also made a nifty baking dish (roughly 8x8") and a mug for my sister that turned out not half bad.. i am not so fantastic at mugs.. i always end up making them super tiny for some reason?  ..and handles are hard ya know.  ..but i didnt take pictures of them..  
    so yeah.. those are some of my pottery things from this last class.

Tuesday 8 December 2015

ArtWalk YEG - Chez Pierre (#9)

     Ok.. forgive me, this photo is really dark, cause, well, it was dark out.  I was not really expecting to be doing this, but i was walking past here & remembered this was on here, so i though.. mine as well take this now!!!  Chez Pierre.. oh Chez Pierre.. ugh. 


    i say ugh.. because this painting kinda gives me the creeps... (this by the way, is #9 on ArtWalk YEG ) according to the site, this is a painting of "Pierre Cochard operated Edmonton's first nude dancing club for more than 40 years" ..still..creeeeepy... i much preferred the old painting.. but apparently my memory serves me incorrectly.  what i remember is a sort of ..line drawing type painting of a nude lady... not necessarily very.. oh.. family friendly per say, but not so pervy.. as mr.pierre here.  BUT! according the artwalk site and anything i have read on my quick but unfruitful search to find a photo of the old painting online says is that it was a painting of 2 nude girls... i only remember 1????  oh well.  my memory sucks anyway, so i am not gonna be too concerned about the matter.  (the painting is by Ian Mulder by the way, if i am reading the artwalk site properly... i dont imagine anyone could have painted this and i not found it kinda creepy)
     but much more lovely.. the neon signage at the front... (& i know, the photo is blurry.. but oh well)


     & here is a slightly better one of the dancing lady...


     & from the other side!

 


     ...i do like my neon signs.