u/Idkmyname2079048

I took a fantastic class from the master scientific glassblower at my university a few weeks ago, and I'm now allowed to pay for time in the glass lab. My first goal is to get pretty good at making strawberries! I'm also trying to think of ideas for what to try next, so please feel free to offer suggestions! Some things I have in mind are pickles, ears of corn, and peaches. Using clear glass alone seems to go better for me, but it's so fun adding color!

The pictures are my progression (last to first) over an hour and a half session, my first work period with no instruction. I'm still having a hard time with temperature control. My piece is often either melting off my punty too quickly or too cold to add details. Getting the bubbles for the seeds in there is also still hit or miss, but I'm happy to see improvement! I'm having so much fun. I wish I had more money because I'd be in there for hours every day if I could afford it!

My pony has bad sweet itch all summer, and I finally had to do something more than just bug spray. Thia summer I'm giving her ceterizine to hopefully keep the itching down, and I just got this "eczema/sweet itch rug" to try to keep the gnats off her body. I got this one instead of a fly sheet because the neck has no velcro, and there's only one piece of velcro on the whole thing. She is terrified of velcro no matter what I try to do.

I've never used a fly sheet or anything like this on a horse before. Should I be taking it off every night? Every couple of days? I definitely intend to take it off when it's rainy or super hot out, but I'm not sure what the standard is for just regular maintenence.

Here's to hoping that she doesn't itch on something and rip it to pieces.🤞I see a lot of mending in my future either way.

(The pony is part of the trio.)

Everything except the soda bottle rinse cup is underglazed with a clear top coat. 🙂

I made this box to practice making this specific type of lid as well as try my hand at mishima. I didn't really nail either technique, but I love the end result anyway. 😍

I made this box to practice making this specific type of lid as well as try my hand at mishima. I didn't really nail either technique, but I love the end result anyway. 😍

Made by Leah Howard (me).

I'm not sure if anyone remebers it from before, but I finally took nice photos of this project from a few months ago! 😀

Made by Leah Howard (me) with pinch pots and coils. It's not really practical, but that wasn't the main goal. 😄

I made this for a class assignment. I will never make one again because it was a pain in the butt and way bigger than I'd normally make something. It was also especially tricky to glaze. I'm happy with the result, though. 😊

Part of my final project for a handbuilding class came out of the kiln, but not in tact. 😭 Honestly, I'm not surprised about the slab because it was very thin and previously cracked and mended before the bisque firing. The pencil is just adding insult to injury. I'm patching them both with epoxy and will touch up the joins with paint and see how good I can get it. My other piece that I posted a few days ago is currently in the kiln and hopefully getting the broken piece fused back on with the glaze. My fingers are crossed that nothing else goes wrong. 🤞

After a couple of pretty bad studies, I had two 3-hour classes to paint my self-portrait. Things started out well (third photo), and then I started overworking things like usual and the teacher told me to go home. I had to leave my painting looking like a total jump scare (second photo), and I had lost all of my self confidence.

I went to the second work period not wanting to paint but feeling determined to pull it together for the final review, and I feel like I did it. I know there are a lot of things that aren't quite right, and I'll probably do some touching up later, but I'm so happy with how far I was able to get it with just two layers and 5 or 6 hours of work. Considering the fact that this class really didn't teach anything about technique (and nothing about painting people), I'm proud of myself.

I want to say thanks to everyone for all the encouragement on my last post (https://www.reddit.com/r/oilpainting/s/PtVfMrmAFQ). I am going to keep working on getting the hang of this medium, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what I can do with a subject I'm more passionate about. 😊

(More than usual, I mean.) I saw these in person the other day, and all the designs have AI slop images on the packaging. No surprise, they were on mega sale despite being new. The one review on this one says that the pattern it's AI, too, and doesn't even turn out looking like the pictured item.

This might be a bit unconventional here, but I'm looking for clippers for my fiber goat. Her hair is similar to a doodle, but very fine. I have been using electric shears, but I've found that those are just too dangerous for her hair type and size. It's too easy to cut her by mistake.

I was talking to someone I know who also has these goats, and they use good quality dog clippers and have a much easier time with shearing that way. I've been looking at the Andis AGC2 2-speed and the Wahl KM2+. Both seem like decent clippers and are similarly priced. How do I decide between the two? Does anybody gave experience with both clippers, or maybe experience with customer service from either company? I'm trying to order one tonight so I can finish her up this weekend, but I'm not sure which one to bite the bullet on.

I went back to school last year, and as we approach the end of this semester, everything seems to be going wrong for me. My portrait for my painting class is going just terribly, I'm really struggling to finish a design project on time, and I just broke a piece of my ceramics final. At least I'm pretty happy with how my portrait for drawing turned out. It's not meant to be very realistic, and while that's not my normal style, it really let me focus on my color choices and what I wanted the painting to actually say. I think I will try to use oil pastels a bit more often. 🙂

These just came out of the kiln, and I'm devastated because the kiln gods were not kind. I spent a couple of hours painting the bowl. 🫠

What causes these huge pits? I used a white majolica glaze, painted with underglaze on top of that, and then I added a clear coat. It's like the majolica exploded. Was the clear coat a mistake? My teacher seemed to be unsure id it mattered whether or not I added it, so I did a thin clear coat to make sure they would be shiny.

Are these worth refiring in any way, or should I just keep them as trinket trays? I have no control over firing or what glazes are available to me. These would have been so cute if they came out right. The biggest bummer is that it's the end of the semester so I can't remake anything. 😭

My final project for a ceramics class just came out of bisque firing, and I was in a hurry and being dumb and picked it up by the weakest part. I've been given two options:

1. Glaze and fire as-is and epoxy after.

2. Prop in place (it fits decently) and hope the clear glaze I'm using on top will hold it together.

I'm kind of leaning towards propping it in place. In worried that if I do a clear coat and fire it first, it might not fit together, especially if the glaze runs into the broken spot at all.

I'd love to hear thoughts from others. I have put a lot into this project and want it to come out as good as possible, but it's not possible to remake anything at this point.

I've went back to school in my 30s last year, for art. I finally had my first oil painting class, and I think I hate it. How can I not hate it? If my paintings don't end up totally flat looking, they end up so wet and full of brush strokes. The teacher has been encouraging this style for me, but I'm not sure if I like it. It's fun, but I feel like all my work is ugly when I look back at it. I come from a watercolor background, and I have a totally different style with that, and I really like what I paint in watercolor. I intended to choose to concentrate in painting classes, and I'm feeling so discouraged and forgetting why I like to paint.

I feel like part of my problem is wanting to get a painting to a certain degree of completeness in one session, and oils get really wet quickly. I definitely don't feel as confident with color mixing in oils yet. Maybe I'm just struggling with the fact that I need to actually practice a new medium? I feel like I can never get enough contrast in my oil paintings without kind of messing up the color balance.

Even as I'm posting this, I'm liking my streaky style, but I'm also hating it. (BTW, I know I have a lot of work to do on my portrait skills, but I thought this small study showed both the style and struggles in talking about well.) Did anyone else here hate oils at first? Or did you have a steep learning curve?

Valentine is my mustang from Wyoming. She's supposedly about 9, but the vet thinks she's more like 7. I've had her for about 4 years, and evey year age gets more white hairs. Of course I don't care what color she is, I'm just curious. Is she just chestnut, with some fun spots, or is it possible agree has something extra in there? She only has one white half stocking, but her blaze kind of feathers out. Most of her white ticking is on her hindquarters. The last two pictures are a comparison of her hindquarters and her shoulder. I've always had bays before her, and I think it's very interesting to see her coat change gradually each year.