Band saw and Laid

Hey guys,

Guess what, it's a long weekend! I won't have class on Monday, which is good. What makes it even better, the homework load is not as crazy as I thought. But I know I will regret for saying this in the latter.

This term, I'm taking the last required class for integrated studies, and that is Materials of Art and Design. Honestly, I'm not really fond in building and making things. Cutting, sawing, and carving are just not my thing, which explains why I never had any pottery class. However, the first two projects seemed to be a fun thing to do! The first project involves carving a name out of a 0.5 inch MDF wood using the band saw. Frankly though, I hate the earsplitting sound of the blade cutting through the material. That machine doesn't seem so friendly.

But I'm pretty fond of how it turns out!

Everyone else in my class was doing their signature. But it's a different case for me because my signature is way illegible to read. So I decided to scribble my name legibly on a piece of paper, scan it in, trace it with Illustrator, print it out, and mount it on a piece of MDF before starting to cut it through.

It took me 3 hours to do it and sand it. Tedious huh?

The second project was way even more fun. This time, forget bandsaw when you have a much friendlier tool work with. Using laid (a spinning machine on which you tuck in a cylindrical object and have it carved out and shaped). The good thing about this machine, there are no sharp things involved (unlike the bandsaw). The project though, was to make a spindle with lines that portrayed our personality.

My spindle might be a little boring to look at since I only used one type of blade, but at least it fit my theme. My spindle is supposed to interpret my adaptable trait. When I thought of something that easily adapts anywhere, I quickly thought of water. So the line work on my spindle was expected to capture the flow or movement of water. But I'm not sure if it looks watery enough. The piece hasn't been submitted yet and it's due in two weeks, but that's not mean I've got all the homework done for Materials class. Since Monday's off (I have that class on Monday), the professor assigned us another homework which also due in two weeks. The thing is, I have a week left to do so and I'm not sure if the wood shop will be crowded this week.

My most favorite part of the spindle

I still need to sand it a little more.

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You guys remembered that during the spring break, I saw Julie and Julia and became inspired to blog and to cook right? Guess what, I ordered the novel, written by Julie Powell herself (portrayed by Amy Adams in the movie). The book arrived yesterday!

From what I've read so far, the book format reminds me of Eat Pray Love. Apparently Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of Eat Pray Love, contributed to the making of Julie and Julia. That makes sense. Anyway...time to read!

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Last week, Han along with Melissa, Marcia, Darren, Kenneth, and I went to see Iron Man 3 in Americana at Glendale. We started off having a fancy Japanese lunch at Katsuya before seeing the movie. Iron Man 3 was awesome though, with excessive use of special effects once again, balanced with witty jokes slipped into some scenes throughout the movie. Again, Robert Downey Jr definitely stole the show!

Right after the movie, Han and I dropped by at a Korean supermarket to do a bit of grocery shopping before we headed home. Once we were back home, I found out from my friend's Facebook status update that he was attending an artist panel and book signing of The Art of Iron Man 3. I know Han is totally into art books, especially superhero movies art books. So when I told her about that, she was excited to go. We had only an hour to be there and it would only take 17 minutes to get to the location of the book signing from our apartment.

Han got her copy of the art book and had the artists signed (even sketched some of her favorite Marvel superheroes) on it. Lucky gurl...

I know I feel like I've been wasting my Saturday doing nothing. My friends are probably doing their homework right now and I know that even though it's long weekend, I should start doing so too.

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Well, onto another, even more personal topic. Don't worry, it's nothing serious. My older cousin from my mom's side just got married yesterday so congratulations to him and his new wife! I'm a little sad and you guys know the reason, don't you? Yeah, the party takes place in Indonesia while I'm all the way here in US. My cousin who lives in New York flew back to Indonesia to attend the wedding and my other cousin from Singapore does so too. My other cousin's Singaporean girlfriend also came to the wedding. Basically, the wedding would be a giant reunion for my family members, especially for those who live overseas. Apparently, I had to be excluded in this event, but I'm glad I'm not the only one. I have another cousin (yes, I have many cousins) living in Australia who was unable to come as well. She had the same situation as I did, as we both studied in the rigorous art field that makes it impossible to skip some studio classes over a wedding trip.

Skipping an academic class = acceptable

Skipping a studio class = you're dead

Good thing she made up her mind not to fly back to Indonesia. I don't mean to say that I'm happy she didn't attend. I mean if she did fly back, I wouldn't think twice to book a ticket back to Indonesia even though I would only be there for a few days hahaha. Let's be hypothetical. Why would I do that? Because she has the same situation with me and she lives overseas. So if she goes back to Indonesia for the wedding, then so can I xD

Screw studio class --> something I'll regret in the latter

Just now my mom told me that the after party was amazing. The young guests stepped on to the dance floor and party like crazy. Super jealous now.