Growth in my painting skill?

I am currently working at an ESL camp that has a ceramics class.  Well, going from clay to drying to painting to firing in the kiln would take a few weeks, so the class is simply painting or applying a glaze to a prepared coffee mug.

Before we get to my two cups, I want to look at the glaze.  I knew that glazes changed colour in the kiln and that they were based on metals but it was interesting to see that for myself.  Here, a student has smeared glaze over the entire surface of his mug.  I should have taken an after shot because the brown became blue and the finished appearance is great.

Below are some samples of the glazes.  The one with stars is labelled 'Cobalt" and we can see the percentages used.

 I thought about what a mug for my son should look like and prepared a draft on the white board before the class started.

Here is the mug before firing.

 And below are two mugs.  One I made in the first week (Ocean Dreams) and one from the second week (Savanna Dreams).  Although the artwork or craftsmanship in both cases in not noteworthy, the improvement I think is.

back to work

I have a lot to do this month and some of it will require creative thinking.

In just over a week, the little guy and I will return to Korea and I have to figure out a way to pack and carry all the things we want to take with us.

I haven't finished the story I wrote for InNoWriMo.  Yes, I did write more than 50,000 words but the story isn't done - in fact it is stuck at beginning of the exciting climax!  I am not sure how exciting that news is, but the climax itself is so exciting as to deserve that exclamation mark.  I've got to finish the story, then start revisions.

In Korea, at my job as a professor of ESL for Dongseo University, I am taking over as manager of the English Cafe events and need to plan what is to be done there.  The typical program has included a daily games hour and a daily showing of the Simpsons.  I like both but also want to add and change the program.  I would love to somehow add a sports competition between the English, Chinese and Japanese cafes.

And, to fill in some time now, I am working on a spoon.  The wood is just something I rescued from the fire kindling pile and cracks unpleasantly under my knife but the shape is working out.

The pencil you see was sharpened by the little guy with a Gerber Dime, a Christmas present I gave him.  Reports on the quality of the blade are not great but it is the right size for him and fine for him to practice with.  It took him around forty minutes to sharpen that pencil and he is learning what angle to use and how to draw the knife back during the cut.  He wants to do more but I am reluctant; I know he will cut his fingers a few times and want to delay that a little longer - no blood in this post, but I cut my hand twice in the beginning stages of carving his cheetah.

My son's writing project went well until we traveled to Alaska for Christmas.  I am hoping he will return to it and will push him a little to do so.  As for now, we have returned from Alaska and he has one more week with his Penetanguishene friends before leaving them - I won't distract him now.

I have writing projects in mind and want to carve at least three Christmas gifts this year - turkey will be extra.

D-5 need to complete the cheetah carving soon!

I also need to take better pictures!

The nose and muzzle are my current challenges.  I have redrawn the nose so many times that I am not entirely sure which pencil marks I should be following.

NaNoWriMo, hot donkeys and Lego-ized Blues Brothers

A friend was displaying this quote on Facebook and I took the trouble to find out more:

"She had an unnecessarily loud voice, a bit of a bray, like some enchanted, hot donkey."

It is apparently from Gone Girl and this website used it in describing how to write emotions and feelings.
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In the mall Chase Scene from the Blues Brothers. This link include the chase scene, a side-by-side comparison of the original and the Lego version and a 12 minute 'Making of-" video that looks like it will be useful for my son and I in our more-minor attempts at stop motion.
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My son has written a story:

*Cheetahs vs Leopards

It was a hot day in kenya. A cheetah named Albert spotted a impala.  He called Jacob, his assistant. Then the leopard named Carson spotted the impala. Now He called his assistant. Then they both chased the impala. They were just too noisy for the impala. King Albert blamed king Carson. King Carson blamed king Albert.

They got so tired of arguing that they fought for that delicious impala. Bryson, Carson's assistant clawed Phil the cheetah. Phil was really hurt. He had to stop the job. Everybody was sad. Carson called Tyson. Albert called Colin. They told Tyson and Colin, “Come help.”Colin arrived in a FLASH. Then colin did a 360 kick . He kicked Madelaine the leopard right in the stomach. Madelaine and Phil both needed to go to the hospital.

Albert just grabbed Bryson and threw Bryson in to Carson. Now Bryson threw Bob the cheetah in to Jacob but, Jacob escaped the throw. Bob landed on the ground really fast. It was a night a very quiet night.They were all sleeping except Albert. He was walking around his house trying to think about something. Next morning He told Carson we could share the impala. Carson thought that was a good idea. And they shared the impala.

See the next adventure that Albert does!

the end!

After I finished my InNoWriMo sory, my son wanted to attempt something smaller but still significant.  He chose the huge goal of three thousand words in a month. He made a hundred and five yesterday and finished his first story an hour ago.  He is still set on making 3000 words and is now at 220 in two days but has decided to make a book of several distinct adventures rather than one long story.  The lead character originally had his own name but I have changed it to 'Albert'.

He would love comments and has asked me to post his story so he can get responses.  A wonderfully naive boy, he believes his father is popular online.

TWIC: lego, groomed dogs, and lots of books

The change in Lego expressions to somewhat grimmer visages has not harmed your children.  An excerpt:

... New Zealand researchers demonstrated that LEGO faces have become much more diverse in the past 35 years, but the finding that got the most attention is that LEGO is making more angry-looking minifigures than ever before, to a point where the proportion of angry faces rivals that of happy ones. But, contrary to what you might have read, the study did not look into the effect that these facial expressions are having on children and their emotional development. In fact, the study did not involve children at all. ...
“Around 20 percent of reporters read the study beforehand,” estimates Bartneck. “The bad ones just copied what everybody else was writing.” This is unfortunate, because the findings of this study are interesting in their own right.

Happyplace.com has images of "bizarre-crazy" dog grooming.  One example.

Writing advice 1 (journalism):

2.) When interviewing for a job, tell the editor how you love to report.
How your passion is gathering information. Do not mention how you want to be a writer, use the word "prose," or that deep down you have a sinking suspicion you are the next Norman Mailer.

Writing advice 2 (sexy lamp test):

"The Sexy Lamp Test. If you can remove a female character, replace her w/ a sexy lamp & your story still works, you’re a hack." - @kellysue [Ed Yong]

Writing advice 3: self-publishers, let us know who you are.

I stumbled across the title Mad City Eats: Food Adventures in Madison, Wisconsin, by Adam Vincent Powell. ...I'm always vaguely curious who these local authors are (if they are truly "local") and what they're out there doing.But when I brought this book home, I was disappointed. I have no idea who this Adam Vincent Powell* is, and the book includes no introduction, preface, or really any kind of clue to enlighten me. The book literally just launches into its subject matter,

Writing advice 4: hard to excerpt from this one.  Two points in brief. a) be careful when your views change as you write a book so that the conclusion matches your introduction and b) be sure that people can recognize your voice from those of imagined critics.

Amazon has licences to allow fan-fiction to be sold on Kindle. Win (fan writers) - Win (Amazon) - Win (original writers).  Time for some Jedi knights to land in the Well of Souls (I'm reading some old Chalker now).

Hirschman felt that creative leaps were seldom intended but forced.  People just thought the project would be easier, then had to finish the damn thing.

 Hence, the only way in which we can bring our creative resources fully into play is by misjudging the nature of the task, by presenting it to ourselves as more routine, simple, undemanding of genuine creativity than it will turn out to be.

My son and I will soon be building an awesome robot!

Designed to be enjoyed by children with an adult on hand, Welcome to Your Awesome Robot provides perfect material for a fun family activity day or a kids workshop. Viviane Schwarz has illustrated hilarious comics throughout the book to explain the blueprint instruction pages, so this is just as much a story as it is a workbook.

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Link below added mere minutes after first posting!

Dim the lights to be creative.

“Darkness increases freedom from constraints, which in turn promotes creativity,” report Anna Steidle of the University of Stuttgart and Lioba Werth of the University of Hohenheim. A dimly lit environment, they explain in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, “elicits a feeling of freedom, self-determination, and reduced inhibition,” all of which encourage innovative thinking.
Steidle and Werth describe six experiments which provide evidence for their thesis. The key one featured 114 German undergraduates, who were seated in groups of two or three in a small room designed to simulate an office.

My son showing the way

At a little park in Penetang, my son found a small stream and some wood to use as a shovel.  He dug a little pond that was filled by the stream.

First, he thought that frogs could use it for their eggs.  Then he decided that since it was deeper than the stream, people could wash their hands in it.

I admit I had just been filling time, waiting to get home and do stuff.  The little Guy, on the other hand, was working to make Penetang a little better.