Just Another Jam Packed Weekend

I don't know what happened to the rest of spring and summer this year.  Time has flown by so fast and I have had very little time to document my projects.  Between wrapping up my classroom, community art projects with students, family events, and friends getting married, I think Ben and I have had three weekends where we were able to just relax since the beginning of March.  And by relax I mean sleep in an hour and a half extra and do lots of house and yard work.  The homeowner's to do list is never done.

This  past weekend was no different from the last six we've had.  I was thoroughly impressed with all of the things we were able to squeeze in from Friday to Sunday.  One of Ben's fraternal brothers got married at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, just out side Detroit.  Ben's grandparents and a few aunts and uncles live Downriver so we used this evening wedding to spend some time with the family.

We spent Friday night and Saturday morning with family.  Early Saturday afternoon we ran to pick up a new suit jacket for Ben (We currently have a case of the missing suit jacket going on).  The gentleman at Men's Wearhouse helped us find a jacket in the first five minutes we were there.  Great service.  The man did  panic a bit when we told him the wedding was in six hours, but he helped get us in and out.  And with a jacket that is much better than the one Ben had before.

Since we were spending the weekend just on the outskirts of Detroit, I had asked Ben if he wouldn't have minded if we  went to Campus Martius so I could see the Shephard Fairey mural on the old Compuware building. As we use to live in the Greater Detroit Area and Ben had previously worked for Compuware, we were pretty comfortable heading down there on a whim. However, we didn't realize how much construction is going on down there.  It was a complete maze.  Plus the Tiger's were playing at seven, so there was even more people and traffic.  We parked and walked in and around the old Compuware building.  Sadly the library was closed but we were able to see the commissioned mural.

After walking downtown for a bit, we headed to the Hard Rock Cafe for a few drinks with friends who were in town for the game.  It was a great, spontaneous, last minute meeting but worth the the laughter and joy we got to share.

From the Hard Rock we traveled to our hotel in Dearborn, showered, made sure we were pretty, and then headed to the Henry Ford Museum.  If you've never been to the Henry Ford Museum, it is definitely worth the trip.  This was our second time, first for a wedding here, but fun all the same.

The wedding was beautiful,short and sweet, allowing us a lot of time to wander through the museum, which was closed down, except for the wedding guests.  It was a bit eerie going through the exhibitions alone, with few if anyone else near you.  We definitely got to see things up close and take pictures we probably wouldn't have been able to take if there was a full museum.  Ben and I spent time looking at the trains, wandering through the car court where the cocktail hour was held.  Most of our time was spent in the plane exhibit and taking fun and random pictures.

Dinner was an amazing multi-course meal with great flavor.  One of the meats served was a petite filet mignon, each piece was cooked to a perfect medium rare and was extremely tender and juicy. The groom's sister made the cupcakes that were served for dessert.  There were several different flavors served.  Each cupcake however came with a cute chocolate car and a amazing sugar flowers. After dinner there was tons of dancing (the DJ was really good and played the saxophone and keytar throughout the night), drinking, and of course more trips through the museum. Ben and I made a little pit stop at the museum photo booth and took some quirky photos.  Truth be told, we need the practice and making the images amusing.

The night ended for us at about one in the morning.  We wished the newly weds well and then headed to the hotel where we both felt fast asleep.  In the morning, we showered and packed up, checking out before 11 and then headed to my parent's house.  My parents watch our dog Max fequently and we had to pick him up.  In addition to picking up Max, I had scheduled a raku firing in the backyard with my Step Dad. In about eight days I'll be at an art camp for almost two weeks and I'll be firing hundreds of student made pieces, so I wanted to review the process, practice, and get my examples done before camp.  You can read more about raku in this little blurb on Ceramic Arts Daily.

If you've never rakued before, it is a really fun process.  It has never been part of my firing process for my ceramic work but I love participating because of the quick process and the fire.  I mean honestly, who doesn't like playing with fire? After glazing and gathering all our supplies we spent about four hours firing total.  This was the first time I had fired the trash can kiln, which is a bit smaller than the one I fired a few years ago.  Because of it's size and the warnings about heavy weather, we tried to push the kiln a bit to much and had it in a more reduced atmosphere.  This caused all my glazes to look the same, especially the blue/green ones.  Besides the glazes, we only had two fatalities in the kiln and that's because of the shape and construction method.  Ben decided he wanted to help pull pieces and burp the trash can.  He really enjoyed helping as you can see from the picture.

Most of the pieces fired are going to be stacked to create a totem.  I'm hoping the campers love this project and will be able to create a totem that is about two feet tall with different textures and forms through darting and manipulating the clay while handbuilding.  I look forward to posting images of the student work soon.

Happy dabbling.