Quote of the Week

"In the end, though, maybe we must all give up trying to pay back the people in this world who sustain our lives. In the end, maybe it's wiser to surrender before the miraculous scope of human generosity and to just keep saying thank you, forever and sincerely, for as long as we have voices."
~ Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia)

Thankful

This week as an exploration I told my students to write down 15-20 things they're thankful for. Answers were all along the same line (friends, family, food) with a few more interesting ones.
Here's what I'm thankful for:
- My ring clamp. Seriously, I use it for everything.
- All the wonderful people who help me make it through the week. Other grads, the secretaries, even campus Environmental Health and Safety, I really could not survive with out all the help I receive from the people around me.
- The crickets that already come boxed.
- Peanut Butter frosting.
-TLC
- Gin. The good gin.
- Ibuprofen
- Wait Wait Don't Tell Me
- Prismacolor Markers
- The little junk/antique shops on Dickenson
- Vintage post cards
- The Complete Encyclopedia of Illustration
- Cheap beer
- MX dye
- The Post Office
- The Outer Banks
- My space heater. I really think I would die with out it.

And I'm thankful for you dear readers. Precious few as you are, I really appreciate the support. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Quote of the Week

"Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful."

— Siddhārtha Gautama

Catch Up

Whew! This semester is flying by! Sorry posting has been so spotty lately, but I think this is the busiest semester I've ever had. Here's some things I've been up to, but haven't blogged about:

Gloria Steinem Lecture- Feminist and creator of Ms. magazine, Gloria Steinem came and gave a lecture here. It was free for students so I decided to go just for the heck of it. I'm so glad that I did! She is such a wonderful speaker, very witty. It was really great, I should have blogged about it more in detail right after I went to share it with all of you. Maybe I will over the break.

The ECU iron pour- My Design I students did scratch blocks for the iron pour. They were super excited and their projects turned out pretty well! The pour itself was amazing as always and even made the front page or the school news paper!

Jenny Schmid- Printmaking had a visiting artist this past weekend (hence the total lack of blogging!). She was super cool and makes kick ass work! The Print Guild printed an edition with her and everyone got to help in some capacity. I think this was such a great opportunity for the undergrads here. They did 61 prints, four runs. Here's a finished print, waiting to be torn down into a bleed print.


Jenny also did this sweet design for the Print Guild and several people silk screened these onto t-shirts.

So that's a few of the exciting things going on in my world. Thanks for reading!

Observation

There are these smooshed acorns all over campus and their insides are bright orange like carrots.

New Book!

So, only about two or three times in my life have I said to my self "I want/need a book like . . ." and then actually discovered the very book I need some weeks/months later! A while back, I was thinking to myself that I what I really needed was a bunch of quick, easy to sew projects, using only one yard of fabric. And low and behold, I found One Yard Wonders! I had to wait about 6 weeks for it to be released, and then about another week to get my copy from Amazon. But I finally got my paws on it and I love it! Some of the projects are not so thrilling, and a bunch are for kids (not so useful to me right now) but there's quite a few projects I intend on making. It has everything from bags to tops to organizers and even a dress. I highly recommend it to any sewing enthusiast. Storey Publishing is having a Yard-of-the-Month Sweepstakes where you can win a yard of fabric a month for a whole year!

Quote of the Week

" He who possess art and science has religion; he who does not posses them needs religion."
~Goethe

Bench Shot

Here's a current shot of what's on my bench. I think it's kind of funny, because it show's several metalsmith "no no's", glue, beads and string. I'm at this really weird spot. Can I really call myself a metalsmith, if I use little to no metal? Do I call myself a jeweler? Does it really matter what I call myself? Would my time be better spent making work than worrying about labels?
Also, I switched out the pearls on "Black Sands" for black lava beads. They totally make the piece, and I'm so happy I was able to find exactly what I wanted. Thanks Etsy! (I find I buy more supplies than hand made goods off Etsy. Is this a bad thing?)