Alejandra's Blog

I‘ve been telling agu about doing a family portrait and we just keep procrastinating, anyways, this was the closest picture I could find on my computer…interesting and unique I guess =)

I decided to create a donation box that i can use when I exhibit my work, so I’m not necessarily selling my prints, magnets and cards but instead people can put a donation in the box, I’m going to try it and see if it work. I coated the whole thing with a glaze so I hope it last a long time.

Celeste completed this cool cartoon at the end of her cartooning class at the Richmond Arts Center, she did a lot of very interesting stuff, worked with special clay, drew, colored, painted, developed a character, etc.

Leon decided to paint last night and created these two pieces, he says “arte” so he now asks for it, he is adorable and I love it when he is creative.

Today I picked up my 3rd set of finished pottery.  It’s interesting to see how they shrink in size.  Also the brownish looking bowl with lid, it’s supposed to be a butter dish, it’s original color was supposed to be orange and yellow, it looked good after it’s first firing, but then I added a clear coat of glaze so that I could use it in the kitchen and the colors got all ruined…now it looks brown and grayish as opposed to an orange pumpkin looking color with yellow.  I still have two more bowls that should be ready on Tuesday and a large coffee mug I made for Agu…we’ll see how those look.

My beautiful son turns 2 years old today.  I felt so blessed since the first day I found out I was expecting him.  After having Celeste only, for 6+ years I desired a baby boy so badly and I was so lucky to have Leonardo Iyari come into our lives.  He is a very smart, curios, strong, handsome and very energetic  boy, I do think he is a momma’s boy though…and I LOVE IT!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY LEON!

Two tea bowls, my favorite is the blue one, A skull, a mold for sugar skulls and a green leaf where to put my spoons and spatulas when cooking (stove).

ChicaChic: La Nueva Onda/The New Wave of Chicana Art

January 22-March 18, 2011
California Institute of Integral Studies
Main Building, 3rd Floor
And
CIIS Minna Street Center, Second 2nd Floor

Intergenerational Panel Discussion

Saturday, March 12, 6 pm
Namaste Hall, CIIS Main Building

**this was originally scheduled for the Minna Street CenterFeaturing: Angelica Muro, Patricia Rodriguez, Favianna Rodriguez, and Lorraine García Nakata in conversation with Viva Paredes

My first completed cups/bowls from my ceramics class.  It’s been very interesting, I’m learning a lot about clays, glazes and it looks easy but it’s a lot of work.  I was hoping that the first one (right to left) on the photo would be my best one, but the glazes got all messed up so it turned out kind’a funny, but I still like them.  Next week I’ll be getting two tea bowls, we’ll see what they look like.  I’m also waiting on some squared shaped plates and 2 skulls.  Very fun and interesting class….I also did a fish looking jeweler for Celeste.

Today we celebrated Celeste’s 9th birthday…it’s incredible how quickly time goes by.  9 years ago I gave birth to Celeste Quetzalli at 4:10 pm after having contractions for 4 long days.  She was 8 lbs 3 oz and was very healthy.  It was crazy the first 3 days, I didn’t sleep and didn’t want to be separated from her at all.  Now she is a very matured and responsible little girl that loves to draw, write, read use my ipod touch =) and it’s so into nature, planets and just loves to learn.  Feeling very thankful and blessed!

So I finally decided to go and buy the extra materials I needed to make these scrabble tile pendants, I saw the tutorial online and this person actually has an etsy shop and hers look so pretty http://www.makeandtakes.com/links/scrabble-tile-pendant-tutorial .  So I chose images, resized them, cut them (which took quite some time) and then glued them to each tile.  I applied a coat of clear acrylic gesso and then I added the diamond glaze.  It was difficult not to get bubbles but I tried my best, I guess it takes practice.  So my plan is to make pendants, earings and rings, and perhaps bracelets, but I still need to figure that one out.  I chose images of my own work, so Zapatista images for Agu, peace signs for Celeste and Frida’s for me.  I’m supposed to let them dry for 3 days and then attach the bail, where they will be hanging from the necklace or chain, so I’ll be doing that on….thursday night or perhaps friday.  I hope they turn out okay, I put them on a shelf in the garage so nothing or no one touches them.

I went to my ceramics class and it’s just amazing, it’s such a therapy, I’m still having a hard time centering the clay in the potter’s wheel, but my teacher (ceramic artist) Jennifer Brazelton is so kind and she is always helping me. The class has a great environment, everyone is so nice. Today they showed us what rahku firing is, and it was amazing to see the actual thing. I’ve done 4 cups so far that will be fired hopefully soon. I throwed 2 tea bowls today and did a small fish shaped jewelry box for Celeste, I hope it’s ready for her birthday. Anyways, I just wanted to share how amazing it can be to work with clay, I don’t know why I didn’t do it before when I had much more time. I’ll post some images later.

visit my teacher’s website, she is such a talented ceramic artist

http://www.jenniferbrazelton.com/index.html