Week 7 - It's Finished!

 Well it looks like I missed two weeks of blogging about my progress on The Octopus. I kept telling myself that I was almost finished, and if I kept working instead of writing about it, I would be done sooner. Only I kept finding more work to be done. The good news is that I am finally finished with this piece! I put the backing on yesterday and photographed today. That last 10% of any project is always the hardest. I took some nice photos earlier today.
The entire background was filled in with the same shade and texture of blue to keep it uniform. After much agony and wanting to add more color to this piece, it just wasn't working. I scaled back to just let her shine. I love it.

Let Them Figure it Out - Week 4

On the porch where I do my clay work, I have a little table for my 2 year old to paint. When we stay home, painting is one of our outside activities (and I can sneak in a few minutes of mosaic time). Yesterday, my little lovely says, after about her fourth painting, "I want to paint mom". And she decorates my arm, and her face and arms with gobs of paint. I had to laugh and let her do it. Just watching her paint with no rules was quite liberating. She mixes the colors in ways I never would. Dirty brushes go into the paint jars. Clean water buckets get filled with clay and rocks. Its amazing. I just watch and learn. There are no boundaries here, it's quite nice. She knows no different. Why wouldn't you put a brush filled with black paint into a jar of orange paint? Well, I have my reasons, but I'm going to let her do it her way. And I think this is pretty great of me! I don't step in and tell her to do it my way. So many parents try to control the way their kids do things. I say, as long as it's safe, let them figure it out.

I love being a stay at home mom. It is the hardest and most rewarding job I've ever had. I never imagined how wonderful having a little child would be! I love the changes that have taken place in my life. My daughter makes me laugh all the time. She is my little light shining all day, with funny sayings and an adorable face. She thanks me with hugs and kisses, and dirty hands. I wouldn't trade back for anything.

Here is Week 4 of The Octopus. I feel like I  made a  lot of mistakes in this past week. For several days I have created and torn apart most of the background. I am having trouble with getting the color combination right at the top. I've been playing with blues and greens, creating patterns with the colors. I just can't seem to feel comfortable with it yet.