Hibernation

I'm not sure I set foot out of the house this weekend. We were all a bit under the weather and needed a weekend in. It was a lovely quiet rainy weekend spent sleeping, recuperating, watching movies and making stuff. Some of us spent the entire weekend in our PJ's. I must have watched close to the whole of season 2 of The West Wing, or should I say, listened to, while I was sewing. I must be getting pretty good on the in's and out's of American politics, with the number of times I have watched this series. I never get tired of it. How about this.... West Wing quotes!

I've have had the book "The Artful Bird" by Abby Glassenberg for a couple of years and even got so far as cutting out the wren pattern and buying the materials (wire, cutters and floral tape), before setting it aside. I think that my fabric was fraying a bit and I was put off by the tiny pattern pieces. I got it out again this weekend and decided to have another crack at it. Funny, I must have been easily put off back then, because it was super easy to remedy and I really enjoyed putting this little bird together. I'm pleased with how it turned out and have plans to make another, maybe the owl next time. I have loads of fabric scraps, which would be perfect for this project, along with some cool printed fabric from a bag of basmati rice. I love this book, there are so many lovely birds to make, with such a lot of character. There are loads of beautiful birds on the Flickr pool and on Pinterest. Looking forward to starting the next one.

Ceramics 101

Gosh it's been so long since I posted on this poor neglected blog, I wasn't sure I would remember how to do it! Behind the scenes, there's been lots of making. Always.

I've been attending a ceramics class at a new ceramics studio that has opened on the north shore in Auckland. It's housed in a former Anglican church, complete with church pews, hymnals (if that's what they're called) and a church bell. I've been wanting to take a ceramics class for a long time, and it seems to have filled some inner need to just create something intuitively, without thinking too hard about it. My teacher gave me some good advice recently. She said that if you don't know what to make, just get on the pottery wheel and make a mug. And from that, things just flow. And it's so true. There's something about just getting out of one's head and just allowing yourself to enjoy the materials.

So far it's been mostly bowls and platters, both thrown on the wheel and built by hand. I did have one project that didn't quite work out, which was a large water jug which cracked right down the side before I fired it. I'm still not sure what I did wrong, maybe it was a bit ambitious for a first project but it's still on my list. I'm determined to try again.