A year on ...

Well, I thought 2020 sucked ass. 2021 started even worse.

My bestie and I spent some time on the South Island and saw 2021 in from one of our favourite spots on the West Coast. I was glad for the respite we had there. A few days after we returned home, my dad passed away. Because of COVID, I wasn’t able to get home (and neither were my sisters). It was awful and it sucked and it made me very angry with the world.

Then work had an incident that pulled me in and also put a stop to a bunch of work I had been looking forward to. What was supposed to be a relatively positive time was just taking a massive left turn and wow was I over it.

On the bright side, though, my employer has the ability to “purchase” additional annual leave. This meant instead of the 4 weeks that I am regularly entitled to, I can purchase up to an extra 4 weeks of leave for 2% of salary per week - essentially take up to 4 weeks of leave without pay but with the loss of income split over the year instead of at the time of the leave. This has been super helpful for my mental health!

It has also meant that I could continue my year of arts and crafts plans I wrote about a year ago.

For the first cab off the rank, I signed up for pottery classes through Wellington CEC. The classes were held at the Wellington Potters Association on Wednesday mornings in Feb-April over 8 weeks. I booked 1/2 days off on Wednesdays for the time and started my days at my local coffee shop before walking over to the Assoc for class. When class was done, I walked home, washed off the mud and worked in the afternoons. I can confirm that playing with mud on the regular is excellent for the mood.

I managed to produce a few things and I’d say that throwing pottery will stay on the list of crafts I’ll come back to some day.

May saw me at the Shoe School in Newtown to do the one day sneaker class. I loved it. Arrived in the morning not sure what to expect, and at the end of the day, I had a sweet pair of sneakers. Highly recommend. They also have a one day sandal class that looks like a lot of fun. Lou, who runs the school, has made the patterns and soles available if you want to make them at home as well.

In July and August I took Mondays off. I did things like yoga classes and lunched and read books and pretended I was a lady of leisure. Bestie and I also went to Taupo for a weekend to pet dogs. Yes, to pet dogs. I saw a place via a TikTok that had racing huskies and did a thing where you could meet the dogs. I was there in a heartbeat. We also soaked in the hot pools and listened to some women talk conspiracies before they left us in peace.

At the end of September, bestie and I headed to Greytown to Wundaire for a hand building pottery class. Also a fun time. Felicity was great and we had a fun afternoon learning techniques and making things. They were then fired after appropriate drying time and given a clear glaze before being sent to us a few weeks later.

I turned 50.

Then it was the end of October and bestie and I were on the road again - this time to Rotorua. There we went to Amokura Glass for a two day class with Heather Kremen. That was such. hot. work. Day one was about how to form hot glass into shapes and Day two was learning to blow forms. After two warm days, I came away with two paperweights, a wonky ornament and two drinking vessels.

Also at the end of October, I started another Shoe School class. This one is in the evenings over 8 weeks and it’s the same as the 5 day class. I’m making a pair of platform Mary Janes. They are silver and baby blue and they will be amazing. I’m half way through that and will update this with the results when I finish them.

And next weekend, I am heading to Nelson to do my last course for the year. This one is at the Centre for Fine Woodworking and is a class in Kumiko. This is the traditional Japanese technique of refined lattice work used for forming decorative panels. At the end of the two days, I’ll have a small panel of my own to put on the wall and admire.

That will wind up my crafts for 2021. It’s been good to step away from a computer and do creative things. I’m already starting to think about things I can do next year … more woodworking? Maybe axe making and forging? Sky’s the limit.

When you're the project ...

So, apparently I started this section of my website in 2016. I thought that year was a shitshow. Boy, was I naïve. Who knew that the year Brexit and Trump votes happened wouldn’t be some of the worst things I’d see in my time on planet earth.

This year (2020) started off pretty crazily. My dad was diagnosed with cancer before Christmas so I took a last minute trip back to Canada to be with my whanau for Christmas. So, my year started with a flight back from Canada. The 17.5 hour flight back from Chicago was a physical endurance challenge I’m not sure I’d ever want to try again. But it was cool to know I could almost get home on one flight.

Mid Jan saw me back in Auckland to see Lizzo in concert. Damn, that woman is AMAZING and worth every penny. She brought much joy to my heart.

February brought a trip to Taupo to celebrate a friend’s birthday and hang out with friends. Popped back up to Auckland to speak at Difinity about data ethics (a variant on the talks I gave in 2019 at Codemania, CHCon, and Kawaiicon).

March saw another trip up to Auckland to hang out with another badass woman recording artist - Tami Neilson. She’s one boss lady and we spent the afternoon learning how to do her signature Beehive hairdo. It also brought a giraffe encounter at the Wellington Zoo (highly recommend) . Another amazing highlight from what was shaping up to be an awesome year.

And then the world pumped the breaks. COVID changed everything. It’s been a real struggle to get excited about doing things again. So many things feel really hard. Yes, in NZ we are extremely lucky that our decision makers went hard, closed the borders, sent us home so that we could get things under control. Whether you agree with this or not, it’s not relevant to me so please don’t email me or comment with your reckons. I’m not interested in engaging.

The outcome is that the whole world is different and things aren’t going to get “better” any time soon.

Which brings me to the purpose of this little piece of work. I value learning. I think being a well rounded human (I mean from a capability perspective, not a physical one) requires you to explore the world around you. Whether that means reading about things you don’t know or trying new things is entirely up to you and what you can accomplish in the context of your life. For me, I’ve always explored things. I did a Zombie apocalypse prep class which taught me how to make a long bow from a PVC pipe and a heat gun. That was fun. I took a couple of classes in stage fighting with long swords. Also a good time. I should see if I can pick that up again, actually. Last year, I took a beginners jewelry making class too. Made myself a couple of rings and understand the process. I’ve done leadlighting, I know how to knit.

In 2020/21 I want to commit to exploring more of my creative side and focusing more on what makes me happy (and maybe leave my bedroom/office more). I did a harness making class at the Shoe School here in Wellington and definitely want to do more of their classes. And so, this post (and section of my site) is about making a visible commitment to changing some things and to create more outlets in my life.

So, what do I intend to pursue? Not entirely sure yet but here’s the list of things so far:

1. Learn to use my camera again. I bought a camera about 5 years ago, used it for a while on mostly auto and then put it aside. I want to learn how to use it by the time I go on Christmas holiday and use it to document my life better than just my iphone. To this end, I’m spending time with my good pal Jed Soane who is walking me through how to use it so that I can start to build my skills. We started this week!

2. Shoe School - sneaker class. I wear sneakers - they are part of my uniform. I’d love to make a pair of one of a kind sneaks for special occasions (note that to me a special occasion is every day I wake up so I should get some good use out of them).

3. Pottery classes - I want to do a beginner class and see if it’s something I’d enjoy on a regular basis. I’m already thinking about how I can make this work and think that next year I’ll take Monday or Wednesday morning classes using some extra leave from work to pursue it.

4. Glass blowing - At NZ Glassworks, you can take glass a glassblowing workshop. I’m so keen to give it a go.

Only a few things to start, but I’m sure as I start looking for more creative pursuits, I’ll be able to fill a lot of time and expand my creativity. I’ll post things about my progress here as I go along. Thanks for following along.