The Last Monday of Classes in the School Year

Thank God.

Jewelry Fabrication: hollow construction piece

This project was a total bitch. I'm decently happy with the out come of it... but looking back, I wish I had attempted something a little bit smaller. Because this piece was so much larger than anything I've attempted before (relatively speaking), I had the worst time soldering everything together... every time I needed to solder a joint, I had to run to my teacher for help so that she would hold a second torch on my piece so I could keep it at soldering temperature. Honestly, I'm not opposed to asking for help, but after a while, I started to feel really needy. Luckily my teacher was great, or else she might have started getting annoyed with me.

The object of the project was to make a hollow container (not necessarily a box, just anything with hollow space in it) with a historical person in mind: he or she could be basically anyone in history as long as the person was generally recognizable. I made my box for Galileo, but others chose poets and authors, religious leaders and fictional characters. So, the sky was the limit as far as that choice was concerned.

As for materials... the top, "dome of heaven" is made of brass and is riveted together then soldered to the lid. And the rest of the box is made of copper... and you can't tell from the picture, but there are star cutouts on the inside of the box... I Liver of Sulfered the inside so it would be black, then I filled the stars with blue and yellow polymer clay so the piece would have some color.

And I did incorporate some words into this piece using letter stamps... I made this piece as a wish box... so the words on the outside band of the globe read: When you wish/ The heavens tremble... and then there's a band of brass on the inside of the piece that reads: So wish hard/ and often.

And that's pretty much a snapshot of this undertaking. Enjoy.

Black Out

Well... I was without power for about 5 hours yesterday (for no apparent reason).

I had not idea when my lights were going to come back on, so I went to the grocery store and bought myself some of those Glade scented candles (vanilla). Nice, and they were surprisingly bright... but after a while, the scent was just incredibly overwhelming. Luckily, the night wasn't too hot, so my room wasn't hot either.

BUT, my lights went out around 6:30 and didn't some back on until 11PM, you know, just as I was drifting off to sleep ('cause what else was I supposed to do in the dark except got to bed). The electricity came back on with a pop, and I was startled by the electronic clicking sounds of my printer and refrigerator.

All in all, an interesting experience... I'm always amazed at how much quieter it is when the electricity is out. And although I really enjoyed having my evening lit by candles, I do not understand how our ancestors could have lived by candle light. Maybe if I had had a five-armed candelabra or a chandelier of candles, I might understand better... but I mean really, there's no way I'll ever know for sure.

This Weather is Beautiful

Yes, it's true... spring returned yesterday, thanks to Pennsylvania's schizophrenic weather patterns (and Lake Erie).

I don't know how long the sun will last... but I hope for a while. It's gorgeous and a welcome change.

This Weather is Disgusting

So, we enjoyed one week of spring in March... but apparently, winter just took a short vacation because it is most certainly back in force.

Snow, snow, rain, and more snow, ever since before Easter weekend. Yuck. Where's my sun and shorts-weather? So sad. I wish the rain, rain would just go away and not come back another day, if you know what I'm saying. Oh well, if wishes were horses... (we'd all take a ride.)

A Certain Slant of Light

Today... the sun finally came out again. So, I went for a walk. It was beautiful... still cold, but very gorgeous and resplendent.

Sculpture: clay modeling project

Just a little something that I made with my own hands :)

Step Two of this project is making a plaster mold of the clay piece and then use said mold to cast the piece in plaster. SO, in the end, I will end up with a plaster piece identical to my clay sculpture.

Happy Easter

Well... I'm 24 and my brother is 20... but we still fight over the eggs, still fight over the dyes, and still fight over whose eggs are prettier once they've been dyed :) Good times, I wouldn't change a thing.

PLUS, there's Cadbury Cream Eggs involved. What's not to love about a holiday that has disgustingly sweet candies that taste like a heart-attack. Nothing, that's what I say... love those Cadbury Cream Eggs :)

Movie Mini-Review: Blades of Glory

Flippin' sweet! I was laughing so hard that I started crying :)

Fireflies

Okay, so THIS, is my award winning poem :) which I read this evening.

I actually wrote this poem for and dedicated it to Andrew. The dedication doesn't appear in the book... because the design team left it off for some reason, and they had enough stuff on their plate, so I didn't press the matter. BUT, don't worry, Andrew, I made sure that everyone at the poetry reading knew that this poem was inspired by you. Do you remember, you probably don't because this was like 2-3 years ago when I still lived on Blairmont Dr... and I don't remember where we were going, but I was driving us somewhere, and we had that conversation about WHY fireflies lit up? Well, this is the poem that I wrote to answer that question.

Fireflies

for Andrew

Stillness feels different in the dark
like a fissure
swirling with oily flowers

I move my hand before my eyes
but the blossoms stay

still

I am the one who is moving now

There is a taste to this feeling
like mint
and earth and

I remember

My footsteps burn behind me
the outlaws of my traffic

I could say that the burning blinds
like a thin layer of dust

slowly appearing

hiding the tiger maple beneath sameness

Yet it is more simple to lie

I need to be in darkness
I need to close my eyes

But these are the moments
I can only have once

I Can't Stop Smiling

My poem has won a prize :) Of the three poems that were published in Chimera, one of them won a literary prize :) The magazine gives four awards annually: one for 2D art, one for 3D art, one for prose, and one for poetry... AND my poem won! I'm so excited.

All the literature was judged by poet Ruth Ellen Kocher. AND, tomorrow night (along with Chimera's launch party (live music, food, complimentary copies of Chimera's fourth book)) Ms. Kocher will be giving a reading. AND, after the reading, I will read my poem and receive the award... along with a $100 prize!

I'm so excited, I can't believe it. Not only am I now a published author, but I am an award-winning author! So excited. I can't stop smiling.