I am pooped after an afternoon of art supply shopping. I only had to go to two places but it was somehow quite exhausting. 

Items purchased: Wooden sculpting tool, small and large ceramic loops, fettling knife, putty knife, wax modeling tools, sketchbook, uhu stick, ph neutral glue, bone folder, flipbooks, art supply case, mounting board, tiny jar, self-healing cutting surface, med. vine charcoal

Misc. items to be bought: Saran wrap, disposable chopsticks, shishkabob skewers, and a spray bottle (all for Figurative Clay)

Hopefully that’ll be it for the semester, besides a few random things for specific assignments.

I’ve had a great and productive day!

I went into the ceramics studio around 9:30 to practice on the wheel. There are no classes there on Wednesday mornings, and generally it’s nice and quiet. Today I was the only one in the studio for four hours, which was great. I definitely work best when it’s just me and the clay and whatever music I’m tuned into (on nice mornings, Fleet Foxes; on rainy mornings, Joanna Newsom; early afternoons, Moby or Girl Talk). What was particularly good about this work session was that just as I was getting really frustrated and discouraged (I couldn’t raise the clay all the way without it getting off-center at some point, and eventually getting all wonky), I thought to myself, man, I really wish my professor was here. I’m sure that if he just took a look and gave me one piece of instruction, it could save the doomed fate of this poor clay. And crazily enough, guess who soon popped into the studio to pick up some tools? My professor! I asked him if he had a minute to help me out. He taught me a very important lesson in wheelworking, which is that the floor is the most important part of any clay piece. He said he spends more time on perfecting the floor than any other step in creating a piece, because if the floor is really solid with strong, sturdy angles, then the clay can and will do whatever you want it to do. So he helped me to correct the floor, and also taught me a great trick for re-centering the clay when it’s slightly raised and opened but not tall yet, which also makes the lip of the piece stronger. Sure enough, after he left and I raised that piece up, it was almost magical the way the clay climbed up. It was effortless, and even and centered and perfect! Just like when he makes anything with clay EVER. So that was great. I still didn’t end up with many pieces, but those pointers helped a ton. Also, my professor came in about two other times later on, and he was super pleased to see that I was working and really dedicated, especially after it had been a few hours. It’s nice to know that even though I’m not making perfect pieces, the effort is appreciated. And I know it’s really important to him that we come in and work outside of class. Yay for getting on the teacher’s good side :P

SO. Then I had art history, which was quite boring today since all we did was talk about Gothic architecture, which is so distinctive and recognizable in its features that it just gets boring to talk about after around a half an hour. 

After walking back to the apartment in the pouring rain, I made some mac and cheese, and then bundled up to go back out again. I’ve been meaning to go out and buy sculpture materials for tomorrow’s Form Study class for a while, and Sarah had been meaning to go shopping at Urban Outfitters, so we combined our two trips. At Urban, I ended up buying an adorable cardigan that was originally $60 for only $17! And for sculpture materials, I ended up with some great random things: bubblewrap, cord organizer tubing, a pack of disposable swiffer duster things, foam sealant, electrical tape, speaker wire, pantyhose, and shower curtain liner (we went to Economy Hardware and Walgreens). I definitely won’t use all of these materials for this particular project, but they’ll be great to have around for future ones as well. It was definitely worth the rainy trek (Sarah’s and my umbrellas flipped inside out like three times; it was seriously blustery!). 

So now, I have done good pottery practice, bought form study materials, gotten a fantastic deal on a cardigan, and had a good walk, and it’s only 7:30! I could even get away with not doing any more work tonight, especially since I did so much drawing last night. I’ll probably do some more anyways, but it’s nice to know that there’s no rush; I can relax now.

On Saturday, Sarah and I went on one of our big Roommate Dates. Our main goal was to find a bookshelf, and possibly some decorative items for our living room and kitchen. First we walked down to Brookline Ave, between Beacon St. and Boylston St., to check out West Elm. West Elm is stylistically like a cross between Anthropologie and Crate and Barrel, but more reasonably priced than both of those places. We both immediately loved everything in the store, but we ended up browsing more for ideas than for actual items to purchase, since we realized we hadn’t really thought through any plans for our apartment yet. We decided to go back sometime later for decorative items once we’ve found or officially can’t find a good sofa cover and once we’ve figured out our desired color scheme. Then we bopped across the street to Dick Blick to check out the decorative papers, but we couldn’t really agree on any, so we moved on, walking back to the MassArt/Northeastern area.

From there, we took a route I had not taken before to get to Newbury Street. This route made a lot more sense than the one I took before, because we went past Copley and the Christian Science Center and lots of useful stores on Mass Ave., as opposed to my previous route which just wound through dull college housing blocks. 

Before getting to Mass Ave., Sarah showed me this great little hipster coffee shop that’s tucked away near Northeastern and this sushi place we sometimes order from. We fueled up with some good iced coffee, then checked out a cute florist shop, and then went to Economy Hardware to look for a bookshelf and browse. Browsing at that place was fun because they have a little bit of everything in terms of home goods and things. And lo and behold, we found a very reasonably priced bookshelf which was the right size and shape and color that we were looking for! We didn’t buy it then and there because we had to figure out how to get the mega heavy box back to our apartment (shipping cost an arm and both legs), but kept it in mind for later.

Eventually we got to Newbury Street and went to Urban Outfitters to check out what they had for home goods and decorative things. I forgot that the selection at that Urban is particularly wee, so we didn’t have much luck there. BUT, there were these cute bags, and I realized that I don’t have any bags of that particular type and would really love one, and that with Sarah’s Urban Outfitters employee discount it’d be VERY reasonably priced, so I bought one! Sarah bought one too because she also loved them; she got a black one and I got a grey one. We felt really silly buying the same bag, but whatever! 

Then, I decided I was fading and needed lunch, so went to this bookstore/cafe down the street which was very cute and hip. After a fair amount of waiting and browsing the aisles, we finally got to eat, and I had a good burger and sweet potato fries. 

After lunch, we went to Newbury Comics and got three posters to hang up. I was hoping for more painting-centric decorative types, but it turns out we have pretty different taste about those sorts of things so we got more poster-y posters. But I think they’ll still do the trick to cheer the place up.

Feeling successful and pretty done with shopping in general, we headed back to the apartment, stopping briefly at Utrecht along the way since I had to buy some matte board for a project. Over the course of the walk back, we both became extremely worn out. We’d been out and about walking briskly and shopping for a total of five hours, so I think some weariness was reasonable. Our feet were sore and our voices hoarse by the end. The rest of my evening was mainly spent sleepily watching television and taking a very long relaxing shower.

On Sunday, Sarah’s mom came over, took Sarah to pick up and bring back our new bookshelf, and then brought Sarah home for most of the day. I stayed in and divided my day into 50% homework and 50% bookshelf construction. The bookshelf part was a little bit stressful because a few of the vital nuts and bolts were really badly made and falling apart in ways that made them almost completely unusable. But in the end I made it work, and felt very successful when it was all done. The shelf has added a surprising amount of coziness and cohesion to the living room! I’m so glad we got it.

On Monday night (last night), Sarah and I couldn’t decide what to eat since neither of us had much to cook with and neither of us wanted to order food in. We decided to go to the market and figure out something to cook together. We realized that it’d cost the same amount per person to order food in as it would to cook up a little fillet mignon and roasted asparagus—isn’t that insane? I never would’ve thought it to be true, but it was! So we decided to have a fancy meal! It was, after all, technically our one-month roommate anniversary. Sarah has cooked fillet mignon before, so she showed me how and we had a good time cooking and eating together. 

Unfortunately, now I think I’m getting sick. Sarah’s been sick since the beginning of the weekend, and I was doing fine until today. I think it was last night that did it: there was a thunderstorm at around 3:00 AM which woke me up, and I didn’t fall back asleep for a while, and I think that that lack of sleep may have pushed my body over the edge a bit. I’ve been feeling tired and headachey and slightly off all day. Hopefully I can nip this thing in the bud before it turns into anything real though.