I've been keeping my polymer clay stash on the floor next to my computer and fiddling around with it whenever I get an idea or need a break from whatever computer-stuff I happen to be working on (which is relatively often). There's been no theme to what I've produced thusfar, outside of the shared media. I've made skulls -even more than you saw previously, though none are remarkable enough to photograph. I've made rainbows, which I believe to be destined for brooch-dom:

Rainbows

I've made cuttlefish, these for necklace-dom. I named them after PZ Myers, who I greatly admire as a scientist, blogger and (from what little I know of him a la internet) person. Having clay cephalopods named after you is a dubious honor at best, but hey, it makes me smile.


I call them P and Z


After deciding the rainbows just didn't cover all the bases, I've made little purple-magenta-blue triangles, also destined for brooch-dom (and maybe a necklace... maybe).


Represent!


And then, faced with a wealth of pink pearl clay and a distaste for pink, I began to make me. Now I've never been much of a doll girl- I've rarely owned them, rarely played with them as a child, and certainly never made my own. I've never been much of a self-portrait type either, outside of my art journal (wherein it's never just me but instead me with symbols and words and the ilk- me as an accent to communicate another idea, not me as the focus, not me as just me).

Well, I thought, I'm always up for trying something new. Thus decided, I took up my clay and I began to sculpt.


...it's a leg. Yeah.

I started with the kind of basic, stylized form I've seen from other polymer clay artists with a penchant for doll-making, then looked at my little clay stick figure and said "That's not me." For one thing, I've got curves.


Strange reflections


And so I added breasts and hips and thighs. I pinched in wrists and ankles and contemplated how hyperaware I was of my own flesh at that moment, while trying to rebuild it in malleable pink clay. I contemplated how I couldn't fool myself about what I was proud of (strong calves- fill those in) and what I was uncomfortable with (I'll come back to my thighs later), and contemplated why it is I'm uncomfortable with my own anatomy. I did a lot of contemplating.

I don't know what I'll do with it when I'm done, but that's okay. This one, I'm definently in it for the process.

My boss in lab (oh yeah, I have a lab position now; more on that later) is one of those people whose minds seem to run at a rate and capacity an order of magnitude greater than the rest of humanity. This can make following him hypothetically difficult, though I think I've managed well thusfar (as long as he doesn't unknowingly switch languages or start quoting Shakespeare). I lag like dialup on Youtube, but even if I'm buffering about as fast as glass flows I get where I'm going eventually. One day, however, we were discussing my work and my ever-irksome schedule and I totally and completely lost my connection.

Error. Empty dial tone, blank screen. Bzzzzzt. Noticing my confusion, my boss paused.

"I've lost you train of thought, is all." I explained.

"I don't have a train of thought." he replied (and to get the full effect, you'll have to imagine this in an Irish accent). "I have thousands of trains, all running at once, and I'm just trying to keep them from crashing." His image lit up like a lightbulb in my mind, because I'm like that too. It shows in my work and school, in my writing and conversation, in my reading and learning and yes, in my crafting. Now I can put it into words, or even better, into images.

So what trains do I have running which are at all relevant to this blog? I'm still working on the cross-stitch and embroidery, but my progress has not been notable enough to deserve photography. The mittens, however, I can't resist snapping shots of:

Thrums delight me.

My progress has slowed considerably with the end of Spring Break, but I'm determined not to let the project slip off into inactivity. Mittens, particularly thrummed ones, are just too cool a train to let rust in some forgotten junkyard somewhere.

Remember this comb, which I claimed I was keeping for myself? I changed my mind. I want this one more:


Green

I haven't worn the other one yet, so I have no qualms against selling it (probably titled something like "Blackberry Vines"- thanks grrlpup). I'm not real good at doing my hair- for one, it's quite fine, and for another I've never been much of a girly-girl in that way and thus never really learned the art- making a lasting bun remains an arcane and alien idea to me. I'm proud when I can put it up in pigtails which aren't lopsided, much less figure out how to work in decorations like this. I'm always up to learning new things, though, even girly-girl ones... so I'll try new things and I'll keep a comb or two.

Finally, I've been playing with my ancient Sculpey stash.


Skulls

The eventual hope is to use up said Sculpey stash, but that may just take a while. There's a lot of it, and most of my grand ideas require a pasta machine.

One last thought: I'm notoriously bad at finishing things- I can prevent most major collisions in my train-conducting duties, but I'll be damned if I have time to get them all where they're going. This is something I'm working on.

What have I been up to?

-Studying Ecology
-Knitting on zee Lottie Gloves
-Studying Anatomy
-Reaquainting myself with oil painting
-Studying Genetics
-Playing dress-up
-Studying more Anatomy
-Playing the photo game. Previous themes: blue, feet, and circles. This week's theme: pumpkins. Join in!
-Studying Anatomy in a creative fashion:


<3

Gross Human Anatomy, complete with cadaver lab, is my favorite class right now and certainly ranks near the top of my college highlights list. It is, however, a class which requires a huge time commitment: to succeed on its beastly exams I spend hours each day in lab, in lecture, and in the library memorizing the finer details of flesh, both on paper and, well, in the flesh. One of my most effective study methods is to repeatedly draw and label the structures from memory; thus the pages of my sketchbook have taken a rather morbid turn this semester. Once I'm practiced enough at doodling anatomical details from recall, I sit down with my old polymer clay stash and repeat the process in 3-D. Rather than focusing on the diagrams, when sculpting various organs and muscles and bones I try to remember what it felt like to hold a heart in my hand in lab, or to run my begloved fingers over the sulci and gyri of the brain.

I also end up making some pretty cool trinkets.

If the cadavers have taught me anything, it's that tactile learning is quite effective (and, well, what goes where in the human body, and that my brain tends to produce very inventive dreams when I spend every day in open lab). I'm fully capable of naming every structure on this little sculpture and then some. I did quite well on the Thorax/Abdomen/Pelvis exam, and certainly did not miss a single question concerning the heart.


Fingers for Scale

I'm not sure what I'll do with it and similar creations (currently working on: BRAINS!!!) post-exam. I may turn them into jewelry, as I can turn most anything into jewelry. I may just resign them to my bookshelves to confuse people and gather dust. Suggestions?