Progress & Power Struggles

11:30 am to 5:00 pm. A very productive day. It is almost 8pm and I am feeling good but exhausted. I ran out of worked clay last week so broke open a new block I had purchased a while back. Horrible stuff. Hard, inflexible and constantly breaking mid-strip. For really good plastelina you have to work it for years...adding body oils and small imperfections. The more you work it, the more supple and elastic it becomes. It glides under your fingers and warms up quickly to the touch. I have known sculptors to have 100+ year old plastelina in their possession. Well-worked clay is so prized that it is passed on to future generations.

But today I ran out of my supply. So I struggled for hours kneading and molding and trying to form supple sausages that I could apply in strips without breaking. But...just like everything else, all clay has a beginning and what I worked today is no longer "new". Wow. That was deep. What am I rambling about?...I must be really tired. : ) Looking at my progress photo - I am pleased.

I did some gardening tonight. I should clarify that "Mia" and I did some gardening. I would pull up and nice clump of weeds and give em a shake and then Mia would proceed to snatch and completely kill them. Shaking and tossing them in the air, she would cover herself in dirt..then proceed to run around the yard with them. When they had completely given up the ghost, she would race back to me and dance back and forth in the flowerbed, barking and yipping at my trowel. I almost lost the new shoots on my hosta to her quick little paws.

I have discovered an amazing thing. You can have a nice flowerbed with a puppy. Just buy an abundant supply of tomato cages and put them over all plants with tender new shoots. Then when she tears through the flowerbeds at bullet speed, she avoids the cages and my plants are safe. : ) I must run to Fred Myers tomorrow for more cages...

Mia and I also experienced our first little power struggle tonight. I have been trying to teach her that "Mommy" goes through the door first, then Mia. But.....I have been pretty lazy with actually enforcing this. Tonight, after eating her share of my weeds she proceed to race around the yard barking at imaginary intruders, so I decided to put the noisy and grubby little girl inside while I finished cleaning up my tools. When I tried to exit the house without her she panicked and attacked my leg with her teeth and paws. She was not going to be left inside! This was the first time she has used her teeth to express herself against me..not ok. I immediately gave her a firm no and grabbed her face firmly in my hands and gave her the stare down until she looked away. Right away her attitude changed and she actually sat as asked while I exited. Animals are so interesting and complex. Dogs especially, as they are so pack orientated. You just have to make sure you are always the pack leader.

I should probably give her a bath before bed......Now, there is once place that she totally has me wrapped around her little paw. I have not been able to enforce sleeping in the kennel and not in our bed. I can't resist that sad little whine and her big eyes. And when I give in..she is such an adorable little cuddler.: /