A New Year Means A Clean Start

Happy New  Year!  I can't believe it is 2015 already.  It's a clique to say but I can't help but feel it's true; time flies, especially is you're having fun!  Reflection is a big part of my artistic and educational pedagogy.  I spend much of my time reflecting in my daily tasks.  When a task takes a lot of repetition like cleaning and cutting vegetables, I feel my mind go to what I can best describe as a meditative state, much like when I throw pots.  It's in this state that I do my best think: about life, my career, my artwork, and the world around me. 

I'm still reflecting on 2014, a lot of good things happened in the beginning of the year but it didn't end as positively as I had imagined.  The holidays were strewn with several deaths and illnesses of close friends and family and the stress of being a part-time art teacher and artist started to weigh heavily on me.  Stress tends to make me cleaning and organizing, as if the physical ability to clean and organize chaos helps me clean and organize my emotions, thoughts, and demands.  The other nice part of cleaning and organizing is the accomplished feeling of starting fresh.  I don't think there is ever quite as good of a sleep as going to bed the first night of making the bed in clean linens. A new semester or school year is always fresh with the feeling of anything is possible.  

Keeping my house and my classroom clean and organized are a way I help keep my stress levels low.  I have been accused of being a "clean art teacher"; I'm not sure if that is good or bad but it seems to hold true when I reflect on my daily teachings.  One thing I let get out of hand is glue bottles.  

It seems a majority of the art teachers that I have run into lately are obsessed with glue sponges.  They have their plastic lidded containers with a sponge filled with glue inside.  This, I do say, is a really cool idea and I love it for certain projects, but I just can't seem to drop the use of glue bottles completely. I think learning how to use a glue bottle appropriately is an important skill even if it seems a bit passé. Through the few years of teaching experience I have had, I have developed a stream line way to clean and fill the glue bottles so it doesn't eat up a bunch of my time.  I even learned a new trick from one of my fellow second grade teachers while cleaning this semester's glue bottles.  

Glue Bottle Cleaning Procedure

1. Get a microwaveable safe bowl.   
2. Line up your glue bottles and remove all the caps.  Place each cap in the open position in the microwaveable safe bowl.  
3. Wipe down each uncapped glue bottle to remove buildup, especially near that top.
4. After all the caps are open and removed, fill the bowl with water.  
5. Microwave the bowl filled with glue caps from 3-5 minutes.  I sometimes repeat this process several times, giving the caps a good swirl with a brush handle to agitate the glue clumps.
6. Once the water in the bowl has cooled enough to handle, use a paper clip to remove any glue that did not dissolve in the hot water from the inside of the glue cap.
7. Run water from a faucet in the glue cap to ensure it is clear.
8. Fill all glue bottles going down the line.
9. Cap each glue bottle and store in your usual location.

This whole process takes me alone about an hour.  If I don't have time to do it by myself, which let's face it, many of us teacher's don't, I'll have students come and help me.  They love fishing glue clumps out the caps.  I always fill the glue bottles myself because I don't want students accidentally spilling a gallon of glue all over my floor.  Having students help gives me the ability to multi-task and get a lot accomplished.  

To some people this may seem like a headache and not worth the time, but I believe the care I and the students exhibit to the glue bottles will make them last longer.  Plus, I hate having students come me during projects with glue bottles that need emergency de-gluing.  I would much rather make this part of my winter and summer cleaning so that my lessons run smoothly. 

The one trick that my second grade teacher shared was using Vaseline.  By putting a dab of Vaseline inside the the tapered part of the glue cap the cap doesn't clog.  Apparently the lubrication keeps the glue from sticking to the interior walls of the glue cap.  While talking about this in the lounge, another teacher said that she had read that if you soak the entire glue cap in vegetable oil it prevents the caps from clogging as well. After cleaning the glue caps before winter break I tried the Vaseline trick.  We've only been back in session for a few days now but I hope it works and will soon be part of my glue bottle cleaning ritual. 

Happy dabbling.  

Fireplace Tiling Update: One Step Closer to Being Done

Before & After shot.

 It's a little late, I know but things get crazy as the year gets closer to a close.  Ben and I have been so pleased with the construction of the fireplace.  The transformation has made us enjoy spending time in the living room and given us loads of experience.  I don't think most people can say this about their significant other but I really love working on projects with him.  We communicate and work well together, making projects an enjoyable activity.  I'm also thankful that he knows how to put up with a creative type.  Ben is really good about respecting my need to create.  There are days when he would come home from work in the summer and the house would sparkle because of all the cleaning and organizing I did and then there were days when the sewing machine was out with fabric spread across the living room floor, pots drying on the kitchen counter, and paintings half done in his office.  Ben never complains and only says supportive things when it comes to my artwork.  His favorite phrase when coming home to find his artist in full creation mode is "Oh, my One Little Artist". In addition to dealing with the mess, he understands that time sometimes gets the best of me. I always seem to underestimate how long a project will really take.  But he makes accommodations and helps when he can to make it go faster.

I had originally estimated that fireplace would take us two weekends to complete and would cost approximately $500.  With borrowing tools we had to accommodate the time of the owner of the tools, since the owners' were my grandfather and stepfather,  it wasn't a huge inconvenience.  It took three weeks to finish the bookcases, fireplace frame, and the mantel which cost about $450 (including supplies and a few new tools).  Almost all of what I had budgeted for the entire project and we still had to tile the cement board!

   

Brooks & I contemplating our next move.

Picking out tile was a difficult task.  We searched high and low online and in stores.  The tile was one of the finishing touches that was going to affect the aesthetic qualities of the room and the type of decoration we would use in  there.  It was a lot of pressure.  I had this idea of subway tile in a dark matte gray and Ben wanted something more sophisticated and classical.  We ended finding some beautiful white marble with swirls of gray and ivory in the size and shape of the tiles I wanted.  It was the perfect compromise for us (especially since finding a dark, matte gray subway tile was becoming impossible).  Just not the perfect price.  But Ben wanted the fireplace done right the first time, even if that meant paying for more than we wanted.  After purchasing 20 square feet of tile, special mortar, grout, sealer, a tile cutter, and spacers, we spent $450; the exact amount of which we had spent to build the entire fireplace design.  It was a steep price, but looking at it now we're happy we spent the extra money.  The fireplace looks absolutely beautiful! We might have done too good of a job as Ben's parents who are moving into a condo in February are asking us to design their unfinished basement.  

The tiling was the second most stressful task in this project; the first being demolition as one couldn't go backwards.  I think it was stressful because  a) the tile was very expensive, b) I had never tiled before but I had built a massive anagama kiln, which is pretty much the same thing, right?, and c) everyone told us how miserable tiling was and how we should just hire a contractor.   We pushed through and did it ourselves.  The Saturday after Thanksgiving my mom and stepfather came to help.  We cooked a second Thanksgiving meal, the first holiday meal in our new house, for them as we spent Thanksgiving with Ben's family this year.  

We laid the tile out in in the shape of the fireplace, made necessary cuts, and double checked everything before mixing the mortar.  It felt like we worked for only a few minutes as we raced to ensure the mortar didn't dry out, but it really took us about two hours to complete the tiling.  The next day after the mortar dried, I used a disposable pipping bag and mixed up the grout.  The pipping bag made it really easy to put the grout in the gaps between tiles.  For three days, I let the grout dry and washed it down to remove any residue left.  By the end of the week I had sealed it to protect the tiles and laid the little bit of trim to finish off the hearth, making a clean delineation from where the tile and where the laminate floor started.  Looking back at the entire tiling experience, I rather enjoyed it. I think all the planning we did prior to the actual mortaring of the tile helped eliminate a lot of the issues people had warned us about...or perhaps we're just that good.

Christmas 2014

It has been so nice to have the fireplace done...well at least the major construction.  I do have a couple tiny spots on the trim to sand and paint, as well as adding the cabinet doors to the bottom of the bookcases, but the majority of it is done.  I haven't had this much pride in something I've completed in quite sometime, probably since my first successful soda firing in college.  Every time I look in the living room, I am pleasantly surprised and impressed.  It has made all the time and a money worth it to be comfortable in our home. The Christmas decorations made it feel even cozier and I can't wait to actually furnish the room.

Happy dabbling.