Two Graduations and a Ceramics Display

This first half of June has been all about graduations around our house. The first graduation was my youngest son's high school graduation.

We got the house all decorated in the school colors black and orange, with lots of flowers and balloons. I made a cute banner for the fireplace in the living room with black and white photos of my son and his girlfriend and cute chalkboard style 2015 clothespins I found in the Target dollar bins.

Gifts were wrapped and food was ready and waiting in the fridge for my son and his girlfriend's graduation luncheon. Many of the kids had decorated their grad caps, Joe went with school colors orange and black with drama and music decorations, I loved all the grad caps, they were very creative and fun. During graduation my son and his girlfriend performed for the last time with their high school concert choir, the performance was beautiful.

Graduation went very nicely and afterward we walked around the commons a bit, and said goodbye to teachers and friends. Here is Joe with his sister Sarah, and Dad Gary. :)

Here is Joe and his girlfriend Lorene proudly holding their diplomas. Afterward we all went home and had a nice little luncheon get together with some of our family and Lorene's family. Then the kids got ready for their senior all night party. It was a very fun weekend. The following Monday my son started his full time summer job and will start college in the fall to work on his communications degree.

Here is a picture of me with both of my graduates. My daughter was the next graduation of the month. She just finished up her two year associates degree.

Long time readers of my blog may remember that two years ago, shortly after my daughter Sarah graduated from high school, she was in a terrible car accident and suffered a traumatic brain injury. Fortunately she has made wonderful progress in healing from her injuries, and entered college right away. Anyone who has suffered from a brain injury or severe concussion, or has a family member who has gone through one, knows how a healing brain struggles with extreme fatigue and can be bothered by loud noises or memory issues. Sarah pushed through all of this and worked extra hard to do her school work. She graduated with honors and has maintained a high GPA. We are all very proud of how hard she has worked, and felt very blessed that she has healed so well from her injuries. Here she is below with Dad and brother.

Since Sarah's school colors were red and blue, we decorated the house in red and blue, with pretty red tulips, and bright blue balloons and red polka dotted streamers. We celebrated with a BBQ and had a fun time with friends and family.

During Sarah's last term of college, since she had finished the majority of her required classes, she decided to take a fun class and explore ceramics, which was something she had been interested in trying out. She really enjoyed her class, and brought home a beautiful collection of her first collection of ceramics projects. I was really eager to see her work as I had been hearing her describe them all term. So I decided that it would be fun to set up a little art gallery of her work in the dining room, so that during her graduation BBQ everyone could check out her art work.

Here is her work- the class started off with some basic pinch pots, and also practice throwing cylindrical pots on the pottery wheel. I love the colors of all the different glazes, and each pot is so different and pretty, I can imagine them all holding little plants or pens and pencils.

She had another assignment where she had to create a functional and non functional object- so she made a bird house and a bird figurine. I absolutely love them, the bird house is especially wonderful, Sarah plans to hang it outside and see if any of our backyard birds move in. Also in the picture below are some rocks she made from some of her extra clay, as well as a small pinch pot that was fired using an interesting process called raku that uses lower than normal firing temperatures, it was interesting to hear about the process.

Next her assignment was to make a piece based on one of the artists they studied. Sarah chose artist John Mason. He does some interesting very geometric pieces and Sarah has always been drawn to geometric art. I absolutely love how her piece turned out, the pictures hardly do it justice, the color is wonderful and the shape is so interesting!

This next vase was a project that took her the longest, it was a coil vase, and took an incredibly long time to make. Then just as the vase was nearly done and ready to be fired, a student moved it and accidentally took off part of the top. Her teacher helped her repair it with some paper clay, and after glazing and firing it turned out great. I love the shape, and the colors of glazes she chose are really pretty.

Another project was to make two lidded containers, they turned out so cute, but unfortunately there was glaze on the inner lid and when they were fired they stuck together, so they can't be opened. She hopes to remake them in the future. If at first you don't succeed, try, try, again. :) I love the two little birds as a handle, and the brown container looks perfect for holding coffee.

This was another vase project, this time made of slabs. She was inspired by the game Minecraft (Sarah, Joe and Gary all play Minecraft together) it is a Minecraft bookcase. I love the shape and colors, and think it would hold tulips nicely! :)

Currently it is on our dining room bookcase, and it looks wonderful with all the books.

I put her vase and artist sculpture on the top of one of our taller bookcases so they wouldn't get knocked over, they are hanging out with my fox cookie jar, and they look great in my dining room! I am so proud of her art work and think she has a real knack for it. Her teacher encouraged her to come back next year and take more ceramics classes, and Sarah has decided she will. This next year Sarah will be taking a bit of time off from academics and pursue other interests, so it will be nice for her to delve into art a bit more. She has definitely earned a break! I look forward to seeing her future art work, I absolutely love it!

Now that graduation season is over I am looking forward to spending a nice summer with my family, out in the garden and exploring nature. I am a very proud mom, and look forward to watching my children grow into their new roles as young adults!

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