Grateful: Two Bouquets and a Friendship

My friend gave me two bouquets: one for me and one for my Mom. They were a perfect gift: I got to draw them, looking for similarities and differences. I brought one to Mom, and it was a conversation topic for several days: discussing flowers within, colors of those flowers, if they need more water, if some of the flowers should go, and what we will do with the succulents later. Thank You!

That color swatching was my attempt at thinking about what materials and colors I should take with me to Toulouse :) The choices were changed many, many times :)

Nonagenarian Update: Summer 2026

We celebrated a big 97 just a few days ago. There are figs on her tree and roses just finished blooming. A pot that I made with bright pink petunias was part of our gift. Chocolates are still very popular. Recently she moved furniture in her room. 

I wish you all for your 97th birthday:

a) to know how you want your furniture to be organized; 

b) to have strength and perseverance to rearrange it for your liking. 

On My Table: Beginning of July 2026

June turned into July quickly this year, and I am just a few days away from flying to France! My palette needs to be washed and refilled, and the pencil case still is not closing - so some curation needs to happen (or a larger case would be found - I will let you know!) My plan is to share what colors and tools will go with me to Toulouse, and then what I ended up using or not using. 

Another Vase I made!

This is a present for a friend who is not online as much and is not reading this blog, so I am posting it before it is actually gifted to the recipient. I've been trying to nail the shape of a vase where the top half is larger than the bottom part, but I am still far from my goal. However, this one was a step forward, and I enjoyed making a new texture on the surface and experimenting with the way glazes pulled in the holes. (Spoiler - yellow did not pull as much as I hoped! Possibly because I dropped the whole vase in a bucket with glaze, which caused the layer to be too thick, and I sponged some of the extra glaze off - and, probably, overdid it).

Alstroemerias: Part 2

Here is a second batch of alstroemerias from my sketchbook (first one is here). By the end of the life of this bouquet, I tried to hang it upside down to dry flowers and preserve beautiful colors and shapes, but they fell off within a few breaths.