![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I've thought about doing the Life In Point Format post, but meh. Blah life, not enough points to make, lol, just rambles.
I'm somewhat annoyed by my ceramics teacher at the moment. We did a mid-semester critique on Friday, and while the class liked my stuff, the teacher said I was not going outside of my comfort zone and making anything unique. Description included the words generic and uninteresting.
Well gee, that's fine and all, except for three things:
1) I'm not done. I have to wait for them to dry to leatherhard before continuing.
2) This is my first time making pieces at this size. In order to have a comfort zone, one has to have experience with doing the same things over and over, and I do not have that experience, nor do I have the time in this condensed semester to gain it (I'm severely limited in time actually). Without knowing how the clay works at the taller scale, I do not know how to push it just before it breaks.
3) During the creation process, she's never said one word or comment on going beyond what I'm doing. She saw each one and commented positively on them initially. If I needed to do more to their form to be at least satisfactory, I feel she should have made some mention of it, rather than saying nothing until after it's too late for me to change much.
I'm not angry though. After the critique session, I started getting some ideas on how to manipulate the forms further to make them more "interesting", or at least attempt to. I'm just a little annoyed because she said that she rarely gives A's in her class to the projects, and I'm probably not going to get any A's because she's apparently hard to please. I just wish I had more time.
On top of it, I'm not going to be able to get anything useful out of this course now, in terms of end products. I wanted to make some food dishes that I could actually use, and instead I have to make these giant vases and serving bowls that I can't do anything with. I would like to sell them because I already have stuff from other courses taking up space in my room, but I'm not exactly in high demand at the moment. I could give them away too, but I've already given stuff away to family members and they don't really use them either, so that's kinda moot point.
All in all, I have to say that this is a rather lackluster course, and I'm a bit disappointed. I'll be glad when the semester is over, and I will not be taking ceramics courses at Carthage again. It's quite clear that the ceramics room are just for college kids needing a blow-off course to fulfill the fine arts requirement. I'm sticking with CLC from now own, because that studio (and the people) is awesome, and SO much more professional. Half of the "students" there are actual potters who make a living off of what they create, let alone others who pursue ceramics as a major hobby.
I miss being there. I don't know when I'll be back again, but I would love to go back within a couple of years.
~~~~~~~
Food-wise, I've found myself developing a morning routine (though I don't know if I'll be able to maintain it once the Spring semester starts and I have to wake up at 5am again). For the first time in...man, probably a decade, I've been able to eat a warm breakfast. I've gotten accustomed quicker than I expected with eating porridge, and I've had that daily now with either eggs or peanut butter toast. I've been putting bananas in my porridge too, which tastes good, and now I want to try strawberries too.
I'm quite happy with how well I'm doing on the food front. A year ago I was regularly eating McDonald's and other junk foods, and now I don't even go near most aisles in the store anymore, since it's mostly junk. I didn't even think I would be able to cook just a year ago too.
So even if I'm not doing much on the exercise front, I'm still doing something right. To be honest, my activity level isn't that low anyway, and I've found that I actually gained muscle mass and strength since attending Carthage. That coupled with all the moving around I do at work, my body's doing pretty good right now, despite the lack of sleep I usually get. No more chest pains.
I'm somewhat annoyed by my ceramics teacher at the moment. We did a mid-semester critique on Friday, and while the class liked my stuff, the teacher said I was not going outside of my comfort zone and making anything unique. Description included the words generic and uninteresting.
Well gee, that's fine and all, except for three things:
1) I'm not done. I have to wait for them to dry to leatherhard before continuing.
2) This is my first time making pieces at this size. In order to have a comfort zone, one has to have experience with doing the same things over and over, and I do not have that experience, nor do I have the time in this condensed semester to gain it (I'm severely limited in time actually). Without knowing how the clay works at the taller scale, I do not know how to push it just before it breaks.
3) During the creation process, she's never said one word or comment on going beyond what I'm doing. She saw each one and commented positively on them initially. If I needed to do more to their form to be at least satisfactory, I feel she should have made some mention of it, rather than saying nothing until after it's too late for me to change much.
I'm not angry though. After the critique session, I started getting some ideas on how to manipulate the forms further to make them more "interesting", or at least attempt to. I'm just a little annoyed because she said that she rarely gives A's in her class to the projects, and I'm probably not going to get any A's because she's apparently hard to please. I just wish I had more time.
On top of it, I'm not going to be able to get anything useful out of this course now, in terms of end products. I wanted to make some food dishes that I could actually use, and instead I have to make these giant vases and serving bowls that I can't do anything with. I would like to sell them because I already have stuff from other courses taking up space in my room, but I'm not exactly in high demand at the moment. I could give them away too, but I've already given stuff away to family members and they don't really use them either, so that's kinda moot point.
All in all, I have to say that this is a rather lackluster course, and I'm a bit disappointed. I'll be glad when the semester is over, and I will not be taking ceramics courses at Carthage again. It's quite clear that the ceramics room are just for college kids needing a blow-off course to fulfill the fine arts requirement. I'm sticking with CLC from now own, because that studio (and the people) is awesome, and SO much more professional. Half of the "students" there are actual potters who make a living off of what they create, let alone others who pursue ceramics as a major hobby.
I miss being there. I don't know when I'll be back again, but I would love to go back within a couple of years.
~~~~~~~
Food-wise, I've found myself developing a morning routine (though I don't know if I'll be able to maintain it once the Spring semester starts and I have to wake up at 5am again). For the first time in...man, probably a decade, I've been able to eat a warm breakfast. I've gotten accustomed quicker than I expected with eating porridge, and I've had that daily now with either eggs or peanut butter toast. I've been putting bananas in my porridge too, which tastes good, and now I want to try strawberries too.
I'm quite happy with how well I'm doing on the food front. A year ago I was regularly eating McDonald's and other junk foods, and now I don't even go near most aisles in the store anymore, since it's mostly junk. I didn't even think I would be able to cook just a year ago too.
So even if I'm not doing much on the exercise front, I'm still doing something right. To be honest, my activity level isn't that low anyway, and I've found that I actually gained muscle mass and strength since attending Carthage. That coupled with all the moving around I do at work, my body's doing pretty good right now, despite the lack of sleep I usually get. No more chest pains.
