Back to School - two weeks to go in my first semester

I have mixed emotions about almost being finished my first semester. I have decided to take next semester off for travel and will return to school next fall. The creative part of my brain is definitely ready for a break, but I can't imagine what it will be like without a constant bombardment of new, weird tasks coming at me all the time.

Here is my first felt hat and matching scarf attempt. I wanted to experiment with different surface techniques and contrasting colours so it got a bit flamboyant, but I like it ... mostly.
I made a second hat to reassure myself that I had not gone over the edge quite yet - this one I will definitely wear

 My mountain cup and pouring pot set made it through the kiln unscathed! This coming week is "crit week" so I haven't had a chance to use it yet, but I am thinking it will be perfect to christen it with a very strong blueberry tea.

I am pleased with my dream catcher vest that I made for a recycled garment project for fibre class. The body of the vest is made from beautiful old pillow cases passed down from my grandparents and ties in conceptually with the dreamcatchers made from vintage doilies and crocheted pieces.

Our painting instructor had us take photos to and from school for a week. From these we were to produce  four landscapes that push the concept of traditional landscape. We had quite the discussion about what to do with the edges of unframed canvases and I decided to play with integrating the supporting canvas into the piece as well as trying different techniques including pallet knife painting, and contrasting translucent and opaque applications. These have a very interesting impact and I think I will try to integrate some of them into my work in the future.

In drawing we were challenged to create a piece that contrasted order and chaos and used two point perspective and different techniques to enhance the comparison. My concept was an ordered cottage garden being taken over by a primeval jungle. I wish I had a picture of what it looked like before I tried going wild on the jungle technique as prompted by my instructor. I tried spraying the water soluble ink with water and it literally blossomed in a way that I am not too happy with - too bad no edit undo option, but Hobbes seems to like it. 

Our in-class drawing project was to capture motion by using mylar to create overlaid images and one of the images had to be done blind (no looking at your drawing while doing it). It was interesting to move each image around relative to the others and see the impact on the total piece. I ended up overlaying them in quite a different configuration than I originally planned.

 We have been figure drawing in the last few classes with varying techniques and length of pose. Fun, fun, fun and less weird than you would think. Interestingly the models were from my generation.

And lastly, thought I would share one of the most important things that I have learned - keep watching for and building on happy accidents. In ceramics we have been experimenting with different slips and glazes on practice pieces. The bottom bowl is my first attempt at a bowl thrown on the wheel - everything was going great until it got too thin and started cracking. I mistakenly put it away rather than throwing it out and then decided to try cutting and manipulating it and finally to try some glaze colours that had been on the bottom of my list and ... behold my favorite piece so far this year - the picture does not really do it justice - it even caught the eye of my instructor as being something special.