New Year, new ideas

The last 3+ months of 2021 were spent in high gear production mode, for the holiday season. I do love the mindless efficiency of production mode, but so much for so long gets exhausting and boring. Now that it's the new year, I can adjust my priorities for more creative work - research and development!

After the christmas sales rush was over, I drove with Marcel up to the Motherland (Cincinnati) for some R&R. I had a chance to go to one of my favorite grocery stores in the world - Jungle Jim's, in Fairfield Ohio. It is a wonderland. A variety of cheesy animatronic animals play in bands around the store, there's an amazing international cheese section, insane local and imported beer and wine selection, a humidor full of cigars, gross tanks of live fish and lobsters, a fascinating variety of meat and seafood, a huge fresh international vegetable section, and at least an aisle for every major ethnic food type in the world. Seriously. And so much more, I can't even go into it, those are just my favorite parts. So I went to Jungle Jim's on one of my last days, smoked a joint in the car, and let the inspiration of international food begin my year.

Here are some ideas that I'd like to work on in February and March:

Baby bok choy Chinese soup spoons. I really really enjoy eating off of these. I also really love the exaggerated vein texture of bok choy.

A stash jar with a tight seal and two different nooks, so you can keep your indica and sativa stored safely and separately.

A bong! Probably pineapple.

I'd like to try casting baked goods, I think a croissant because that texture and shape is just so unique. I am turning ideas around for how to make it impervious to the wet plaster for about 20 min. Really stale? Spray fixative? It'll be fun to experiment.

Poptart tiles and coasters and maybe more.

Poptarts are so nostalgic to me! And so irresistibly delicious. I think they'll be fun to decorate in so many different techniques and colors.