Mom’s Heart: Nov 17th

Yet another feeding tube blockage.

It happened last night. Lee took her in to Urgent care at 7:30am. Spent lots of time there until they were able to unblock the crusties. Then she was off to Dr. Cook’s office. He didn’t have too much to say. Prescribed more diuretics and said her rapid heart rate wasn’t too concerning. Wasn’t phased by the extra fluid build-up in her lungs. Seems like each office has their own opinion regarding what they find. Some have been alarmed at her build-up, and the next day the next physician doesn’t see a problem. She isn’t feeling well, having a harder time breathing, which hasn’t always been the case. Annoying!!!

Tomorrow she will be carted off to Dr Duke and Friday Dr. Beschemi. Hopefully tonight she can gain strength from her liquid love…. since she doesn’t seem to be consuming much else.

Ceramics Workshop: Ginger Steele

On October 31, I was invited to attend a workshop given by ceramic artist Ginger Steele. She produces beautifully decorated hand-built pottery. Her business is Insomnia Pottery.

Here are some images from the workshop:

Ginger measuring out her rolled slab. She uses quilting squares for measuring.

Ginger 1

Next she bevels the top edge and sides. This will become a mug with a pulled handle.

Ginger 2

Next step is texture. She has a wide variety of texture wheels and her own texture rounds. She started at the bottom creating bands of patterns.

Ginger 3

Here she is using one of her texture rounds. Notice how she keeps a finger inside to administer even pressure.

Ginger 4

After applying texture she scores one edge of the interior and starts encouraging the clay to take on a cylindrical form.

Ginger 5

Here she is using a PVC pipe to keep the cylinder form. It also gives her a surface to press the overlapping joint onto.

ginger 6

One step skipped was cutting out a base using circular cookie cutters. You can see them in the lower left corner of the above photo. She finds one that matches the cup base, cuts it out, scores the edge, scores the bottom edge of the cup and gently presses them together. But not too much! Most of the smoothing occurs later after the two clay sections meld together. You can see her applying some smoothing to the edge in the photo below.

Ginger 7

Next step is just a touch of clean up after the forms set together. Once the mug is pretty firm she attached a  fat cylinder to the side of the mug, allowed the two surfaces to equilibrate a bit, then started pulling a handle in place. I had always wondered how her handles attached so smoothly to the mug. Mystery solved!

Ginger 8

A look at the studio space and workshop participants. Besides creating texture wheels and mugs, the participants created a teapot utilizing the same skills learned earlier in the day.

Ginger 9

Ginger 10

My  teapot was more of a watering can than anything. I didn’t cut & attach my spout at the right angle. Oh well! It’s a workshop, not a place to create master works.

Ginger 11

This was my neighbors teapot. She did a lovely job with stamping and decorating.

Ginger 12

Neighbor across the table working on his spout connection. Nicely done!

Ginger 13

It was a great experience. I’ve been out of the ceramics area for so long and had forgotten the fun. Nice to have someone show me the way again plus new ideas to muddle over. Thanks Ginger!!!

Reliquary Project: Inspiration

Back at the beginning of October, the write-up for exhibit bid book was due.  Hummm, I didn’t make that date.  Hester kindly reminded us slackers on Oct16 that they were due by the 19th.

So where did my inspiration come from? Let me pass along what I wrote:

Back in late July of this year, physicians told my mother she needed a mitral valve replacement in her heart. By early September, they found she needed a bypass as well. With just one week into her 79th year, she was under anesthesia.  Surgery went smoothly with the doctor replacing the valve and performing a double bypass. Unfortunately, she experienced multiple complications leading to a 10-day stay in ICU and the inability to swallow. Surrounded with uncertainty and the feeling of powerlessness, the reliquary took form in my head. It has been my constant therapy through the past many weeks.

I wanted to create a sacred space for heart rejuvenation. I utilized the dark rich strength of black walnut to provide a sanctuary structure. The windows impart cleansing air and positive energy to aid healing. Constructed out of a maze of wire looped together, the heart finds power from the mass and unity through the covering. The inner glow of healing emanates from the heart sanctuary for all to encounter.

May your heart be strong!

Gale

Mom’s Heart: Nov 12

Puree of  BBQ Pork anyone?

The rehab facility must not have received the word about Evelyn’s food preferences. She tries to be vegetarian as much as possible.  For lunch they sent over pureed BBQ pork, pureed carrots and something else non vegetarian. Kim told her to “eat her carrots” because that would probably be it for the vegetarian request. She still has her feeding tube in place but everyone is encouraging her to “JUST EAT”.

Lee is off at the coast, hopefully for one more night. I’ll be heading down tomorrow to fulfill a walking date w/ my mother. Strolling the corridors with chair in hand. Sounds calming.

Kim mentioned her edema is way down. Now she is experiencing horribly scaly flaking legs.

The other thing of note is a rapid heart rate (120/min). The nurse made multiple phone calls to the doctors and finally a EKG was ordered. Or was it an ECG? Probably should have paid attention to what my sister told me.

Waiting on results…

Mom’s Heart: Nov 11th.

Breaking news from Dr. Tran’s office! She doesn’t seem to have any problems in her throat!

This morning she went in for a “scoping” of her throat. Not certain how far down he went, but certainly far enough! Dr. Tran saw no evidence of any swelling, redness, irritation or negative problem. He was planning on giving her the “Swallow Test” on some machine. If she swallows fine, he will yank her feeding tube and force her to eat.  He now suspects its become a mental block and she needs tough love to get over this hurdle.

Friday there is another appointment scheduled with a gastroenterologist (or however one might spell it). Still uncertain who ordered it.

That’s all the news fit to write for today.

Mom’s Heart: Nov 4th

After all she went through yesterday, Evelyn’s energy levels were not diminished. She had a 1pm appointment w/ Dr Ameen. Lee said most of what they talked about he didn’t understand until it came to her lungs and extra fluid. Apparently her body has not been moving the extra fluid out of her lungs quickly enough. So the doctor thought it best to remove the excess in her left lung. They did the procedure there at the hospital and 600 cc’s were removed! He said after a day or so she should be getting better oxygen levels.

Lee will be heading coastal tomorrow for a much needed break.

 

Reliquary Project: The Heart

Tuesday was the sculpture covering day. What does that mean? That refers to utilizing hog gut to cover a wire structure. Hog/pig gut is amazing to work with. It can be stretched over a form to create a semi transparent covering when dried.  Color can be applied using inks or  watercolors. The intestines are packed in salt for home sausage making. It was purchased it online and a single pack could create yards of sausage! Kind of makes me ill thinking about it.

Anyway, I wash off the salt and soak the guts in fresh water (dumping and refilling a few times over six hours). Next you grab an end of the intestine, insert a finger and start cutting it open. The gut will not want to adhere to the wire structure.  With patience and additional sections of split gut, things will start moving along. It takes a fair amount of fiddling to get what you want. Overlapping of gut is desired because it will want to separate as it dries. Like any new material, it just takes time to learn how it works.

Here are the initial images from just after finishing the covering.

gut heart1

gut heart2

gut heart3

Here is the heart after 12+ hrs of drying. It will change more before it’s finished.

One effect that I find pleasing is the rusting of the annealed wire. Within 2-3 hrs rust starts to form where it comes in contact with the salty gut. If you don’t like this effect, one might try a different wire.

gut heart4

gut heart5

caged heart

There is a huge difference between the raw wood and stained finish. It turned out much MUCH darker than I had originally wanted. Should have gone with my first thoughts on what type of stain to purchase. It’s all a learning experience!

I have posted previous workshop images/process. Please check under the Art category for Buggy Wire Playday and Artfest 2009.

Mom’s Heart: November 3rd

Kind of a bummer today for Evelyn. Last night her feeding tube blocked up. She was scheduled to see Dr B today, but Dr  B has the flu (H1N1?). So Evelyn and Lee spent the 7hrs+ at the emergency center having the tube removed and a new one inserted. Ouch! Evelyn really thought she was under anesthesia when they inserted the initial tube. We were all happy that she didn’t remember the ICU folks inserting the tube 3 times (she had the tendency to pull it out!). Anyway, no fun was had by either of them.

 

 

Reliquary Project: Handle

Since the form has been simple, the handle should probably also fall into that category. I did play around with driftwood branches, rocks and carved walnut, but simple straight lines prevail.

More sanding and addition of a slight bevel to the base will most likely happen today. Plus gluing of handle parts. In the photos below, the handle is not actually assembled.

box front

box side

Exterior finish will be a Danish oil or similar treatment. Window coverings of leaves will be applied after exterior finished. Tuesday seems to be set for covering the wire sculpture with hog gut. My friend Wendy will be coming over to play with all the extra guts. LED fixings should come home tonight.  Will I make it to Ginger Steele’s workshop on Saturday? I hope so!