I’m so terribly pleased with my latest pottery piece. Pleased, and a bit shocked at how well it turned out. This is my first attempt at a serving platter, and is also my largest piece thus far. It constitutes 3 weekends of studio sessions, and is intended as a gift for my Aunt Janet, who is a collector of gorgeous pottery by artists so far my superior that I hesitate to call my work pottery at all. Still, I think my poor little offering won’t be so outclassed as to shame me - after all, I’m still pretty new at this stuff
Do please click on the photos to view larger versions, I think the detail in the glaze is worth it!
In other news, holy cow is Anaïs ever ridiculously preggers! Here she is at a local artisan show with some of her latest samples - she’s been moving away from the hardcore bike messenger market (though of course she still makes those amazing bags) and trying her hand at some kinder, gentler designs.
Fullscreen strongly recommended for this little bit of lovely:
The animation is gorgeous and the subject matter creepy - a delightful combination. I was a bit put off by the ending, as I felt that the new doll appearing by itself took something away from the opening sequence with Alma writing her name on the slate. I suppose it works this way as well, but I like the idea that the slate is connected - that the act of writing one’s name upon it dooms the writer. Instead, the ending seems to suggest that the slate is not relevant and that instead the child’s fate is sealed before she even enters the alley, which I find a bit dissatisfying. Still, all in all it’s a wonderful bit of animation.
Credits:
Written and Directed by: Rodrigo Blaas
Produced by: Cecile Hokes
Music: Mastretta
Art Director: Alfonso Blaas
Lighting Supervisor: Jonatan Catalán
Character Technical Supervisor: Jaime Maestro
Character Design: Bolhem Bouchiba, Carlos Grangel,
Sergio Pablos, Santi Agustí
Animation: Daniel Peixe, ManueBover, Remi Hueso
Sound Design: Tom Myers and David Hughes
Post Production Coordinator: David Heras
Joker’s Hill is a chunk of land north of the city on the Oak Ridges moraine. A moraine, of course, is the thing that happens to the land when it’s right at the tail end of a glacier for a few centuries or so. The ice flowing forward from underneath grinds down all the rocks and shovels stuff forward into a big heap, and the stuff on top pushes forward and recedes each year with the seasons, so basically you end up with great heaps of sandy, rocky soil. Now this moraine is kind of important, because it does all the water filtration for our lovely city. This is not my image, but it does a damned fine job of explaining things:
Complete with explanation. Sweet.
Right, so the moraine is kind of a big deal. It’s also under a lot of pressure from the suburbanites. Think of it - a lovely bit of woodland, an hour from the city, and right by some of the best farmland in Canada, so you know the farmer’s markets are fantastic. Who wouldn’t want to live there? Thankfully, a sizable plot of land was given to the University of Toronto a number of years ago, so it’s well protected. They use it for research and education, primarily.
Did I mention I’m taking a forestry class this year?
We had a little day trip out to Joker’s Hill to learn all about estimating basal area, measuring biodiversity, and other really essential life skills. Okay, it wasn’t exactly survival stuff, but it was interesting. I brought my camera in the hopes of seeing some interesting critters of the many-legged variety, but the day was chilly and wet, so everything but we stupid humans were tucked away snug in little leafy beds. Hence I present to you some pretty fungi.
Looking pretty damned good for 60, no? I sincerely hope I got whatever gene does this. But not the ribbon-wearing gene.
A couple of her sisters showed up as well, and her mom
That’s Nana on the left, Ariel with the funny face, Carol showing us her panties, and of course the birthday girl. Incidentally, Ariel’s youngest son Nathan, who is a talented young pup, is playing a gig here in Toronto tonight. I’ll post photos from that at a later date.
The party animals got heavily into some drinking games in the evening.
Wild girls.
The next morning we all went out to breakfast, where my mother gave us a wonderful display of her “impending doom” face, also known as “if you don’t sit down and shut up right this second you might not live long enough to regret it”. If you want to be immediately transported back to childhood, click on the photo to see a larger version.
I got chills. It was like being 12 again.
Of course I had to take some time to stroll around the house (one needs breathing room when surrounded by this many redheads) and found this guy glued to the swimming pool cover by his own dried-up juices o_O
Here’s a nice picture of the last of mom’s tomatoes, because I know that last shot grossed you out.
