Category Archives: Daily Prompt

Ceramic Painting

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Opaque 1

Opaque 2

Opaque 3

My daughter and I took ceramic painting class when she was ten years old. We both enjoyed this activity.

When choosing a green ware that is a ceramic piece just came out of the first firing from a mode with the clay color. It is still fragile and breakable. We need to clean the rough edges with bladed tools and water. The next step is to paint it with the paint for green ware. After painting, the green ware goes through the second firing. After the second firing, the piece becomes solid. The glaze will be applied and the piece goes through the third firing to have a shiny colored look.

Another way to do it is to purchase the bisque which is cleaned and solid through the second firing. All we have to do is to use a different paint specifically for bisque. We paint the colors, and do the glazing. Then the piece goes through one more firing in the kiln before its completion. The dry brush technique requires different kind of paint, doesn’t need glaze or the third firing.

My daughter and I carry on this hobby separately. I like to paint angels and fairies. When I paint the wings or certain areas in white, I have to be sure to use opaque white that is nontransparent, and covers any unexpected spots of other colors.

Opaque 4

Daily Prompt: Opaque

Discover Prompts, Day 16: Slow

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Ben Huberman at Discover, WordPress posts daily prompts throughout April. The prompt for today is Slow. 

He invited us to write about  an activity, chore, or habit we enjoy lingering on, or music, art, literature we turn to when we don’t need to rush.

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I worked for the same school district for twenty-five years before retirement. The freeway commuters increased year by year. Every driver was impatient, but there was no other option to many people to get to work. For me, I had an option of taking surface streets. It took fifty to sixty minutes each way. If the freeway were free, it would take about forty minutes. During the rush hours, it could take an hour and fifteen minutes, but it was still unpredictable. Eventually, I only took surface streets to work.

There was an internal clock that woke me at six o’clock before the alarm went off. There was no time to linger in bed. The morning routine was repeated methodically. Every five minutes of delay to get out of the door would cause extra ten minutes late to work. There was no time to have breakfast at home so I would eat after I got to the classroom or office when I worked in the school district office.

After retirement, the internal clock still woke me at six o’clock. It took a good year for me not to worry about getting on the road. It has been almost ten years now. I enjoy my slower pace of life with no apparent deadline and no rush in getting things done. If I cannot get it done today, there is always tomorrow. Sometimes, it is all right if I do not complete the job.

The best way for me to learn to slow is doing watercolor painting, drawing, and ceramic painting. Here are some samples.

butterfly watercolor

Holding Hands

drawing 3

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Discover Prompts, Day 16: Slow

 

 

Birthday Present

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I have written a post about My daughter Mercy. I love her dearly.

November 22 is my birthday. Some years, my birthday falls on Thanksgiving Day. This year, it was the day before Thanksgiving. My daughter Mercy, her husband Will, and baby Autumn came on Sunday, November 19 and stayed until the day after Thanksgiving.

On my birthday, we went to the mall to do window shopping. We then had some photos taken in front of the only Christmas tree. Santa was there for kids’ visit and photos. We were going to have photos taken with different decorations, but it seemed like the decorations were down to minimal. Perhaps I hadn’t been to the mall during Christmas for many years and didn’t realize the shrinkage.

We had dinner at a restaurant. Mercy gave me a booklet for my birthday present. It entitled “I Love You, Mom. And Here’s Why!” Each page has a prompt for her to share her thoughts with me. When we got home, I couldn’t wait but read through the twenty-one pages. My eyes were filled with tears from the first line of Mercy’s writing, and the smile mixed with tears for the remaining pages.

Here are two examples of the pages.

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I love you very much, Mercy!

Friday Night Treat

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I was away from home for three weeks helping my daughter to take care of my first granddaughter. While I was gone, my husband did several home improvement projects. I came back to a brighter and lighter color of the interior of the house. He also scrubbed the tiles and put shiny sealant on the front porch. There are still many projects that he will continue to do to make our home look nicer. He enjoys walking around the house and sees his nice touch everywhere.

As a mini celebration, we went to a restaurant for a special treat. He ordered his favorite dish of prime rib, the large cut. He had his regular drink of rum and diet coke. I’m not a drinker, so my he helped me order a glass of wine – Sangria. The wine that we once had when we were in Spain. Perhaps my husband ordered the wine for himself there because I didn’t have any recollection of it. The wine was very sweet at the restaurant, and it was served with ice and some citrus pieces. I had never had wine with ice in it. I took the ice pieces out and put them in another glass. The wine was so sweet that it tasted like fruit juice.

The restaurant was decorated in autumn theme with Raggedy Anne and Andy. There were pumpkins, autumn leaves, and roosters (I don’t know why roosters). I like the different shades of orange color of autumn. It was a pleasant night out for us.

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Daily Prompt: Orange

Photo of Planet Earth – September 22, 2017

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earth

Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/University of Arizona

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer) spacecraft memorialized last week’s brief swing by Earth with a nice photo of its home planet.

On Friday (Sept. 22), OSIRIS-REx zoomed 10,711 miles (17,237 kilometers) above Antarctica, near the southern tip of South America, at a breakneck speed of 19,000 mph (31,000 km/h) using Earth’s gravity. The probe took the newly released photo a few hours after that closest approach when it was about 106,000 miles (170,000 km) from Earth, NASA officials said.

“The dark vertical streaks at the top of the image are caused by short exposure times (less than three milliseconds).” NASA officials Explained.

Souurce: https://www.space.com

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Daily Prompt: Planet

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