Head to Toe

The Engineer lost another tooth. This is the fourth he has lost, but only the second that the tooth fairy will take from his pillow. He found a way to lose the other two.

Some time before six o'clock Sunday morning the Engineer came up to our room and shouted a happy "Guess What!" I was too groggy to raise my head. The Engineer had gotten sick Saturday evening and I was up checking his fever, breathing rate and listening for signs of an asthma attack periodically through the night. He had lost this tooth too, but I found it in his bed. Now it awaits the tooth fairy in a safe place.

The Artist spent some time with her sculpting book recently. The project she is working on next is making a shoe. It is an ambitious project, and this one has given her some problems. She has made a first draft, so to speak. When done, she made some observations on how it could be done better next time. We will save this one until another is made. She plans to try again with all one color and paint the finished product after is it baked. Working with one color will make for fewer joins and less smoothing of joins.

Artist at Work

This year for her art classes the Artist has a coloring book of classic paintings she is to use. I like that it has biographical information about the artist and the work depicted.

I do wish the book also had color plates of the works, however. As it is, the Artist is looking up the work in question on the internet and using the information there as a guide for how to color. Now, for example, she is working on a detail of The Battle of Constantine by Piero Della Francesca. This site, which shows this picture, has been most helpful to her:Still, it is very painstaking work to get all those horses legs colored the right colors in the black and white line drawing she has to work with they all jumble together. As much as she is enjoying the coloring book, I think she gets more joy from the sculpting book she works with on her second art day of the week. Art class is saved for the end of the school day to her her relax, enjoy and get rid of some stress. She worked on this goldfish project for a couple of hours. I continue to be amazed and the things she can shape. I fall so short in this area, I can't imagine making the things she makes.