Catching Up

My hands do very badly at the moment, so only a few words today.

Last Week

... I exercised (or maybe tortured) them by making more textured dishes, that are going to be wall hangings, if they turn out alright. They are very flat and fun to make.

One of these has more than 750 indentations and the other one around 500.

On this smaller one I counted 150.

At the weekend

... I went to Berlin to see the great Paul Klee exhibition at the Neue Nationalgalerie. My arms loathe train rides, but the rave of colour and spending a day on art was worth it.

At the Pottery

... I held another glazing session.



Yesterday

... I was sewing a very simple felt coaster to move my swollen fingers.

My mother wants to have some because the undersides of my ceramics sometimes are a bit scratchy, although I always make them very smooth. This happens when tiny crumbs of clay get attached to the surface in the kiln during firings.

Easter Bunny

This weekend I finished this bunny hanger. I'm glad about that because I wanted to have it done before Easter. I used vernal colours, so you see I'm slowly accepting that spring is coming, although there was no winter that deserves the name. (I feel so cheated.)


A few days before I stitched the pear you can see in the making in this picture. The yellow is so delicious! It gave me the idea to make a pear.


Speaking of delicious - my tomato plants are growing very nicely on my window sill. I probably have said it a thousand times already, but I love to see them grow.


Today I put pictures of all the felt creations I've done so far into my Flickr-Gallery. (I should do this more often.)

The Felt Leaf and Pottery

A while ago I wrote I'd like to sew a leaf and so I did. It came out really nice I think. I'm always very glad when the stiches look as neat and regular as they do here.

Last Tuesday I started to attend evening classes in a pottery. I couldn't sleep the night before, because I was terribly excited and afraid at the same time. I know it's going to be hard for my hands but I absolutely want to try it. The clay was softer than the stuff I used in hospital. I rolled logs of clay into canes and build a low dish of them. I hope to take pictures next time so I can show them here. I felt very happy afterwards. My right wrist feels like I had punched a wall but still I'm happy.

A Little Bird

Oh well, I'm in such a gloomy mood, although I got some more sewing done and find it really enjoyable. Even holding the needle gets easier (which is a very good thing) as long as I'm sticking to my plan of doing everything in small steps. Here's a little birdie I made. It's my own design.

I'd like to stich a leaf. This idea is inspired by Lupin's oak leaves, which I like so much but don't want to copy. I have a nice collection of dried leaves and chose this one to be my model. I can't recommend this shape though, it's a pain to cut out but I hope to present you the result quite soon.

Soothing Sewing

Here's a picture that combines sewing with polymer clay. I took it because I think the colours of the threads go so well with those of my bowl. Especially the orange looks so lush with the pink and purple and blue hues.
(It's the bowl I named 'Tapio'. You may have noticed I started to give my creations cheesy names because I thought it's much nicer than calling them 'big bowl' or 'tiny bowl'. Whenever I look at this one, it reminds me of Tapio Wirkkala for some reason. I have no idea why, but it seems my brain sees a connection. So this one's called 'Tapio' now.)

I'm doing a little more sewing in small and slow steps at the moment to test how much I can do at a time without straining my wrists too much and I really enjoy it. When I'm claying I concentrate so hard on what I'm doing that I feel exhausted somehow. Sewing is so mind-relaxing! It works very well to distract me from brooding over troubles and political stuff, which can be quite depressing.

I read "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Brontë in the past few days. I got the book more than a year ago but the motivation to read it just now is very sad and grim. The book's cover illustration shows a tombstone inscribed with the name Heathcliff, the character Heath Ledger was named after. I was really shocked when I learned he is dead. It feels so wrong and still it doesn't sink in really and I feel weird at the thought, that tens of thousands of people die much more gruesome deaths each day, yet I am so touched by the tragic of this one, although I only ever saw one of his films. But I saw "Brokeback Mountain" a lot of times and it means as much to me as a film can do.

Sewing

I'm in such a mood for crafting, but my hands are moaning all the time and say to me: "Don't you dare to force us to work with clay!" So at least at the moment I do how they wish. I was thinking about what to do, that will keep them quiet but give me some creative joy. A few days ago when I was walking around I saw a stack of felt in the shop window of a local craft shop. It made me think of the gorgeous things Lupin makes with felt, that I had seen on Flickr and I said to me, I should try something like that! So I went in and bought some sheets of felt and was very eager to give it a try. Let's see if I can do a little sewing! To stick a needle through a light fabric like felt shouldn't put too much pressure on my wrists. It took some time to draw a pattern that wasn't all wonky and again my inspiration was one of Lupin's beautiful designs, her lovely cherry blossom pin. This is Lupin's pretty Sakura:

She makes so adorable creations with felt! I especially like her oak leaf and her funny moustache disguises, you can buy in her Etsy Shop. She also writes a nice blog called Bugs and Fishes about her daily crafting.

This is what I stiched. I'm extremely pleased with the regularity of my stiches, because the hardest part was to hold the needle. My fingers are so easily exhausted and my tendons keep complaining. But it looks really neat, doesn't it? And it was fun to make!
If you, dear reader, have a nice idea, what kind of crafts put little or no pressure to moody wrists, don't hesitate to tell me!