INTRODUCING LIL' MOLLY

Amalia Rose has arrived to my ex-student and art assistant Alyssa

and her husband Lucien,

and named after Alyssa's great grandmother who was called Molly.

She was 9 lbs and 1 ounce,

 and poor Alyssa had a very difficult time pushing her out,

 2 and a half hours.

Her little lungs were struggling a bit after all that pushing 

so Molly spent her first night in the ICU but then was doing fine. 

This is who the little knit sweater went to that I posted about recently.

When she grows into it I know mom will send me a picture to post.

She is such a little doll and Alyssa always has her dressed so adorably.

You can see below how much she filled out after only one month below.

And here is the little Princess on Valentines day.

I'm so happy for you both Alyssa and Lucien, 

and can't wait for Molly to meet Easton.

Much love to you both and your families.

 xoxoxo

ANOTHER BABY ON THE WAY

Back when I was teaching,

 I featured my Art Assistant Alyssa Olea often. 

First as my Ceramics student, 

then T.A.,

and she actually came back after she graduated High School

and assisted me a few days a week as her second job 

while putting herself thru college.  

I featured her wedding to her High School sweetheart Lucien Morales 

here

but what I haven't shared yet is that they are pregnant.

The baby is due soon in December and for her shower I gifted her a baby sweater

 I had knit several years in this post.

Back when I posted about it I thought it was destined for my step daughter Julie,

but she seems to only produce boys and she and hubby have decided NO more.

And since my daughter Dani had a boy I thought it was time to let it fly away.

The original post of it is much brighter and nicer if you are interested. 

So anyways, 

 I'm super excited to see this on her little girl.

Probably won't be till later in 2024 as it is for a 3 month old or so.

I'll keep you updated when I receive that pix. 

Besides the yummy Noro yarn I used from Japan, 

my favorite part of the sweater were the antique buttons

 from my husbands mothe 's button box.

Her family called her Cappy. 

I never got to meet Cappy but her son tells me she sewed all her own clothes 

and was quite the fashion plate and as well as a character.

I love that !

CONGRADULATIONS ALYSSA OLEA MORALES...

your new journey begins today!!

I'm so incredibly proud of you

 and all the hard work you put into getting here.

Let me introduce to you the brand new,

 full time Ceramics teacher at Chino Hills High School,

home of the Huskies!

Mrs. Morales

Alyssa fell in love with clay 

when she took her first Ceramics I class with me in 2011 as a junior

at Whitney.

Yes Huskies,

this is your teacher in High School creating her nude coil torso in Ceramics II

her senior year.

If you enter her name in the search engine upper left as Alyssa Olea,

 you can see many of her clay pieces she created in her 2 years at Whitney,

as well as all the AMAZING art displays she hung for me as my T.A, 

also in her senior year.

Then for several years after from the Fall of 2012 

to when I retired in the Summer of 2019,

 she worked for me as my Art Assistant 

two days a week while attending college 

and working a second job for her dad's company. 

                                                     

This is Alyssa and I at her Senior High School Graduation in 2012.

And during that time as my Art Assistant,

 she married the love of her life

and High School sweetheart,

Lucian Morales.

Here we are together at her beautiful wedding.

Alyssa completed her B.A., her Teaching Credential 

as well as her Student Teaching

during Covid which made it extra challenging.

She taught Art this summer at a private high school 

while she applied for teaching jobs for this Fall around the So. Cal. area.

She was hired a couple of weeks ago,

her super chill yet inquisitive Principal giving me a call to find out all about her.

Of course I gave Alyssa a glowing recommendation

and he  hired her the very next day.

Woo Hoo!!!

So this past Thursday I drove out to see her in her new classroom

and offer any help in setting things up.

I was not prepared for the exceptional Ceramics room they have built there.

It's even nicer than my college clay classrooms

with everything she will ever possibly need.

Let me show you...

Two views of how spacious the room is,

the natural lighting,

 plus stairs leading up to the other two art rooms.

How cool is that??

Oh,

and you can see her office space too by the flag.

Four electric potter's wheels

and at least 20 or more kick wheels spread not just here but around the room

with hose bib, drains and hoses to clean the clay dust off the floors.

And of course she has built in clay dust fans and filters for the air ducts.

Also a big old slab roller and coil extruder.

And get this,

at least 10 deep sinks that I counted, all with clay traps.

I only ever had 2 sinks for 36 kids per class.

It was pretty tricky at clean up time.

This is an incredibly large clay recycling room complete with a pug mill 

and several wedging tables and additional storage.

And the next room below is a drying room

and another room not shown is a huge damp room.

And best of all an outdoor kiln area that is secure and fenced in.

She's even got a large Gas Kiln that can fire to Cone 10

along with two electric kilns and a Raku Kiln.

Dang!

What a lucky ducky she is!!!!!

Alyssa I'm so thrilled for you!

In all my days I've never been in a nicer or more complete Ceramics facility.

And I'd be delighted to be your Assistant anytime you need me.

Free of charge!!

LOL

Good Luck today.

Know I will be thinking of you all day long.

Love you to the Moon and Back!!

A LINA KIM UPDATE (see previous post)

                                         

                               Lina's Nude Torso from her senior year 2018- 2019 in Ceramics II

               

                Lina shot me an email today to say how much she enjoyed her post from 2 days ago.  

                                                  And here is her most recent yearly update. 

                                                     She has declared a Major in Sociology 

                                 concentrating on Law, Crime and Justice along a pre-law track. 

                                                                        Now get this, 

                                she is Minoring in Banking and Finance, Art History and English.

                                                                     Is Lina nuts?

                                                           Nope she is just that capable.

              Plus she will be headed over to the Cleveland Art Institute for more Ceramics classes!!!!!!

                Liz Ackert, she loved your comment but her mother says, "No, her pieces are not for sale".

                                          Sorry...if it was up to her she would gladly sell you a piece.

      What was striking to me is I haven't seen her in two years since she was a senior in my class,

                          and this is the first time I'm displaying her Nude Torso she made for me.

                 Then she sent me those pictures last year from her first semester at Chase Western

                    along with a newsy email of her life updates that still sounded so very youthful.

                                 But a year later, today, her email sounded so much more grown up.

                                                                I wonder if I'd recognize her?

                                                                      They grow up so fast.

                                   I look forward to next year's update Lina, and I wish you the very best.

                                                         You are going to be a busy girl, ha ha

                                                              Love you to the moon and back!

                                                        Now let's see more of that Nude Torso

                                                                                       

Lina's torso was so very tall that we could barely put the lid down, 

and I had 2 very large kilns. 

Also we were deathly scared it would tip over during the firing

 due to the shrinkage that occurs at 1800 degrees,

bisque firing temperature.

We were both on our tip toes as one of us held it in place 

while the other put those heavy posts all the way around it.

We were also scared of cracking;

that often occurs when you build a piece this large over several weeks 

due to the uneven shrinkage of the plastic clay as it dries out.

But we got lucky,

I believe there was just one tiny hairline crack.

But I could be wrong,

it's been 2 years after all.

Ha!

Here it is back into the kiln for it's glaze firing.

You can plainly see that Lina has layered and dripped 3 different glazes over the body,

then brushed on Cobalt Carbonate Oxide over the spikes so they would turn blue.

And it did.

Woo Hoo!

Sadly here you can see that the glaze and Cobalt mixture melted down thru the middle of torso 

and adhered her piece to the bottom of the kiln.

Yes, it was permanently stuck!

This happens frequently to all the students because glazing is a very tricky process.

If it's a tad too thick it will drool because we take the kiln up to 2500 degrees for this firing.

Glaze has a Silica base and it becomes completely molten at that temperature,

and when it's placed on a vertical surface

gravity takes over.

Look out! 

Lina had to masterfully chip away first to get it unstuck from the kiln shelf,

then even more skillfully chip the excess off the base of the torso.

In the process some of the base was also chipped away 

but miraculously it still stood without falling over,

 sort of.

The pix was taken leaning it against a wall,

just in case!

And some close-ups.

We were so thrilled it came out as well as it did.

Well,

 maybe it bothered Lina way more then me because she is a perfectionist.

I am too most of the time,

but this was such an incredible piece to begin with that the drool was only a minor detail for me.

I believe Lina glued the base down to a wood block when she brought it home for more stability.

I want to take this opportunity to once again thank my Art Assistant,

Alyssa Olea Morales,

for the wonderful pictures she shot for me.

Speaking of Alyssa,

I just wrote a letter of rec. for her application into Cal. State Fullerton's Teacher's Credential program.

Only one more year till she is officially a full blown Art Teacher.

Way to go Alyssa!!!

ALUMNI ARTIST ALYSSA OLEA

As I mentioned the other day,

many of my ex-students have been reaching out to check on my status in these crazy times,

and also to show me what they've been creating.

Today I want to feature 2012 Alumni Alyssa Olea.

I've spoken about her many times on the blog here,

as a ceramics students and T.A. in 2011  and 2012,

and then after graduation as my paid Technical Assistant 2012-2019

(loading kilns, mixing glazes, photographing art work, entering grades, etc.).

When Alyssa first started college she was focusing more on a Communications Major,

but after working with me and the students in the classroom decided she wanted to be an Art Teacher.

YES!!!!

In fact,

she was one of the youngsters I was grooming to take over for me when I retired,

but we all know how that didn't work out.

Anyways,

she changed courses and began working on her Art Degree,

and now is in her last year of college.

Sadly all her classes have gone on line, 

yet she is thriving because she loves what she is doing.

These are pictures of a few of her pieces from her Booking Making class.

Each is a different kind of book,

some sculptural and some traditional,

all lovely.

It even looks like she was required to create surface design on the materials she used.

I see some marbleizing, watercolor, and paper cutouts.

Some materials thin some thicker.

What I told Alyssa was that I was really impressed with her outstanding design & color sense 

as well as her impeccable craftsmanship.

These gorgeous books required massive amounts of time, energy and patience,

and I'm as proud of her as I can be.

This last one below is my favorite because it's so unusual and so very complex.

Her choice of a monochromatic color scheme in these beautiful aquas 

as well as subject matter also pulls me in.

Bravo Alyssa!!!!

CONGRATULATIONS TO MR. & MRS. LUCIEN & ALYSSA MORALES

2012 Alumnis Alyssa Olea & Lucien Morales,

who have been best friends and dating exclusively since their junior year in High School,

tied the knot Saturday the 22th of September,

at the most lovely venue at Twin Oaks in San Marcos, Ca.,

an old school house with estate properties around it.

Over a hundred family and friends watched them become husband & wife

in a perfect garden setting amongst the oaks.

Back in the day (2010-2012) Alyssa was an outstanding Ceramics student of mine

as well as extremely competent Teacher's Aide.

After she graduated, 

I asked her to come work for me 6 hours a week to help with all aspects of running the Art classes.

She also works part time for her Father & Grandfathers business,

as well as attending college full time majoring in Art Education.

Meanwhile,

Alyssa & Lucien were able to maintain their long distance relationship 

while Lucien attended MIT for the past 4 years.

Lucien now has a great job with an Aero Space/Engineering firm

while I'm grooming Alyssa to take over my Art Classes.

I've got my fingers crossed.

The Most Gorgeous Dress & Train from Kleinfeld's in Manhattan, N.Y.

The I Do's & Kiss

The Maid of Honor,

best friend Alex Tudor

The Girls

The Guys

The Flower Girls & Ring Bearer,

too cute right?

The First Dance & Dip

The Scrumptious Food &  Drink 

The Student and her Art Teacher,

now Assistant & Mentor.

It was my and my husband's pleasure to celebrate this memorable day with Alyssa and Lucien.

We wish you Health, Happiness, Love, and Many, Many Children.

hee hee

xoxoxoxo 

BLINDFOLDED

2012 Alumni and best friends Alyssa Olea and Alex Tudor 

are taking a ceramics throwing class at Cypress College (my alma mater),

and are in the process of learning to throw on the potter's wheel.

One of the techniques the instructor uses is to have them blindfold each other 

to practice all the steps and to reinforce them in the brain.

Alyssa was my clay student back in the day and went thru 2 years of ceramics with me.

And since her graduation she has been assisting me in my classroom

loading kilns, mixing glazes, hanging art walls, entering my grades into the computer and helping to prep all the classes I teach everyday.

I don't know how I ever did it all without her..

She is hoping to one day take over for me when I retire and is currently in art school.

Both she and Alex were anxious about being blindfolded but ended up really enjoying the process,

and recommended I try it with my clay students.

I have a group of five 2nd year students that are also just learning to throw,

so I think I will offer extra credit if they give it a try and actually get a pot.  

Alyssa is in deep right brain here feeling her way thru all the steps.

I'm thinking of trying this myself.

I'm really curious about it.

Most of their pots they threw that night.

Happy girls,

and very cool pot Alex!

HAPPY NEW YEAR from my Art Students and I at Whitney High School

Student Art Display in the Front Office.

About once a month or so we change up the student art display in the front office.  

To put up a display of this magnitude takes at least 2-3 hours, and I'm very fortunate to have Alumni Alyssa Olea dealing with this and so much more.  She is my right hand woman, and works for me 8 hours each week.  I don't know what I'd do without her.  I do know that my program wouldn't be as wonderful or organized without her.

You are a blessing in my life Alyssa, thank you so much for your dedication and hard work.

I love you, and so do the students!  They know you make this program work as much as I do.