The Happy Place!

I am starting an online watercolor class this weekend! It's another course on the Teachables platform, with The Happy Ever Crafter. I really enjoyed the modern calligraphy course so when I learned about this one decided to sign up. I had a few watercolors missing from my collection so I went online and ordered them along with a few other items I needed. Shipping has been absolutely crazy lately. This order originated in Kernersville, NC, then went to USPS in Greensboro, NC, where it sat for 5 days! Finally, it arrived in Seagrove seven days later. I was getting worried that I wasn't going to get my paint in time for the start of the class.

Last week I experimented with creating watercolor backgrounds using plastic wrap.

It was a fun process with some interesting results.

I doodled over this background with a combination of colored pencil and water color pencils. Not sure about the end result. It has grown on my over time, but there are elements I am not happy with.

Part of the problem is that I am not crazy about my watercolor pencils. They are from Arteza, not the best quality. My regular colored pencils are Prismacolor professional series. I love them and have had them for 20+ years. What I do need is a blending pencil. Once I get one I will try this technique again using only the Prismacolor pencils.

I am off the spend the rest of the day glazing piggy banks and salt pigs. We have a kiln that needs to be fired!

We have spent the week glazing and will fire the gas kiln over the weekend. We are so behind in our schedule! Jeff had a sink that blew up in the bisque firing and it needed to be re-made before we could glaze fire. Luckily the sink mishap didn't break any other pots in the kiln. The sinks can be problematic to bisque. We typically preheat one day, turn the kiln off over night, then fire extremely slow the next...often not finishing until 2 or 3 am the day after that. Even then, they sometimes crack. Aside from the sink problem, the crazy weather last week also set us back.

I have started on the second segment of my modern calligraphy class. This session we are learning to put together minuscules (lower case letters) using the basic strokes learned last month. We learn and practice a new letter each day. When we get to the end of the alphabet we will start on the majuscule letters (uppercase). The following segments will focus on putting words together and stylizing words. If I am not mistaken, the whole course will take until June to complete!

Wishing everyone a happy Valentines Day. Make it special, even if it's just for YOU!