November 26 - December 10:

I had a lovely time at home for Thanksgiving with my family. We had dinner all together and then went to the Grand Rapids Civic Theater to see CATS the musical. It was a great show! I spent Friday with my mom, doing some Christmas shopping. It also snowed a bunch while I was at home, I was worried that it might interfere with my flight back to school.

I got back into Providence late Saturday night and tried to get some sleep before my busy week of finals. I unfortunately got a bit sick in my travels so I worked as much as I could before calling it an early night to try and rest up.

I wrote my final Election 2024 paper on the 1st District of Alaska. It took some time, but I felt very relieved when I got that turned in.

There were lots of late nights in the studio with my friends, getting all the loose ends tied up for our final critique. I formed an assembly line for all the elements of my pearl necklace. I had so many small pieces that I would do each step on every individual part and then repeat for the next step. It was a new method of working for me, but I really enjoyed it and I think I’ll do more pieces like that one.

I also did my last round of casting for the semester for my Rhino class. Our final was to make an adaptive jewel. I designed a series of sewing needles for the Adaptive Woman. I made a needle with a big eye for those struggling to thread the needle, a serrated needle, one for a zig-zag stitch, a double-headed needle, curved, etc.

For my casting final I worked on my beads for my lang strand I’ve been working on. Our assignment was to make 3 beads for the final. I set out to try and curate the experience of beading necklaces with my grandmother as a little girl, and now as an adult without her. I remember sitting at her dining room table for hours beading long strands of beads. For this project I hand sculpted, cast, drilled, and polished around 400 beads to string using the traditional knotting method for pearl necklaces. I had lots of trouble with the drilling because bronze is such a dense material and breaks almost every drill bit I used. It was a lot more labor-intensive than I originally planned, but I’m happy with how it turned out.

Friday was the big critique day! It was a bit of a hard day, as it was 11 years since my dad passed and one of my finals was about being a little girl at his funeral. This critique was with all the professors in the jewelry department as well as some guest critics and my peers. It ended up going well and we had some great conversations about expectations in the department and some outdated ways of critique in regard to gender. I was grateful that they were all willing to hear the concerns that I had and give me good feedback on the pieces I made this semester.

After critiques were all done, I headed back up to my apartment to pack before getting ready for my friend Ruby’s animal-themed birthday party. She had it at a little restaurant downtown that I had never been to before. It was so much fun being able to spend time with my friends and celebrate her birthday and finals being over. We ended the night by going dancing together. It was a great way to end the semester!

I flew back to Michigan Saturday morning and all the boys picked me up from the airport. Since I’ve been home, I’ve just been spending time with my family. We all went to the Grand Rapids Symphony’s Christmas concert to listen to my grandpa sing in the chorus. It was my first time seeing the show and not being a part of it. It was a great show.

Today I went out to lunch and to see the jewelry exhibit on display at the Muskegon Art Museum with my grandpa. It was a great exhibit with so many beautiful pieces! Afterward, I picked Calvin up from school with William and now we are drawing and reading at my favorite cafe in town. I’m looking forward to being home for a bit and just living life a bit slower than I have been the past couple of weeks.