Ramen! Resin clay!
I got to have my ramen today! Well yesterday - I'm on pretty late tonight ^_^ My fiance and I went to Arigataya in Northbridge (in Perth, Australia) and it was recommended by my sister to go there, and oh my goodness, ramen craving satisfied!! I had the miso ramen, and it was really good. I especially recommend it, it had wonderful noodles, a good miso base soup, the usual vegetables, a boiled egg, which was just the best boiled egg I've eaten for a while (surprising but true, the egg white was cooked all the way through, while the yolk was still creamy and soft), and roast pork topping!
I think I'm addicted to the roast pork topping, it was very tender and perfectly seasoned, and I have a feeling that most likely I will order this again, but with more of the pork! lol! We also had croquettes, and the potato was all soft and fluffy, like a good mash potato, with some corn and diced carrots mixed in, all wrapped in a crunchy bread crumb outside, that was just wonderful to bite in. I think I may try the takoyaki there next time though, since I love that side dish (second to croquettes). My fiance had chicken katsu yakisoba, and I sneaked a few bites and it was quite tasty too - he sneaked a few bites of mine, so it was fair in the end *grumps about him eating the last of the pork*
I'll be sure to take pictures next time, I completely forgot this time, and posts are just plain boring without them! Anyhow, in other news I tried out some resin clay, it came in a kit, so I'm not sure what brand the resin clay was, but it stunk. It just smelled of glue, and although it wasn't too strong, it was just unpleasant to smell it when working with it. And I'm not sure if this is what you can do with it, but I used water to soften the clay a bit, and the first bit of resin clay I was working on happened to be coloured brown ... and the water made it all flaky and I ended up with a lump of brown clay that had lighter bits of brown mixed into it, it was just, ugh.
Yerk, definitely not a good material to work with.
I tried it out with a few moulds, but it was hard to make things without cracks in it, it was just difficult to work with. I'm not sure if it was an old piece of clay or something, but I was very annoyed with it. So anyway, I tried again with another piece of clay, the white this time, and instead of working it until it was pliable, I ripped a chunk off and just smooshed it into the mould - that seem to work better, the surface of macaron or biscuit or whatever didn't crack as much, so it looked better.
I did this for the green and pink clay, and actually for the pink one, it was pretty soft and pliable and almost workable *shrugs* old and new batches of clay I guess? But I don't think I'll be using that clay anytime soon, although I may try cosmos and grace brands of resin clay, from research they appear to be quite good to work with. I may also try out hearty, a different brand of paper air dry clay, the fuwa one is good, but way too soft and malleable, so maybe the hearty may be better ^_^
I still love using polymer, since that is more readily available here, with the resin clay and air dry I may have to get online. I have seen some other brands of air dry clay in art shops and craft stores, but they seem to be the ones that dry to the fragile ceramic state, that the normal kiln-fired clay gets to - so not very good for charms. Maybe good for paperweights perhaps? I may have to look into it.
But, in other news, I applied for the Graduate Diploma in Education course, the applications close tomorrow at noon, so I handed mine in at the TISC office *fingers crossed* Given my bad experiences of sending applications by mail, and then it not actually arriving where it should, handing it in by hand was better, plus they checked my preferences there and then so at least I'm reassured that I filled it in correctly.
To explain, I finished my Honours year last year at UWA, majoring in Psychology, and that year was terrible, and one bad thing happened to another, and I didn't end up doing the Major in Psychology that I had hoped to do. So now, with thoughts of either teaching School Psychology at high schools, or being a school psychologist, I've applied into this course in hopes of getting in. Only UWA and ECU teaches the courses I need, so I really hope I get into UWA since I'm more familiar with the place, while ECU will take me out of my comfort zone. But having said that, I just want to get in.
There are a few more courses I'm looking into to apply to, so I'm asking alot of questions since I really want to do something that will enhance what I've already done, else I'll just feel that the last 4 years of my life was all for nothing. Well, I should get some sleep, got work tomorrow and it won't be good to be all zombie-like :D
^_^
I think I'm addicted to the roast pork topping, it was very tender and perfectly seasoned, and I have a feeling that most likely I will order this again, but with more of the pork! lol! We also had croquettes, and the potato was all soft and fluffy, like a good mash potato, with some corn and diced carrots mixed in, all wrapped in a crunchy bread crumb outside, that was just wonderful to bite in. I think I may try the takoyaki there next time though, since I love that side dish (second to croquettes). My fiance had chicken katsu yakisoba, and I sneaked a few bites and it was quite tasty too - he sneaked a few bites of mine, so it was fair in the end *grumps about him eating the last of the pork*
I'll be sure to take pictures next time, I completely forgot this time, and posts are just plain boring without them! Anyhow, in other news I tried out some resin clay, it came in a kit, so I'm not sure what brand the resin clay was, but it stunk. It just smelled of glue, and although it wasn't too strong, it was just unpleasant to smell it when working with it. And I'm not sure if this is what you can do with it, but I used water to soften the clay a bit, and the first bit of resin clay I was working on happened to be coloured brown ... and the water made it all flaky and I ended up with a lump of brown clay that had lighter bits of brown mixed into it, it was just, ugh.
Yerk, definitely not a good material to work with.
I tried it out with a few moulds, but it was hard to make things without cracks in it, it was just difficult to work with. I'm not sure if it was an old piece of clay or something, but I was very annoyed with it. So anyway, I tried again with another piece of clay, the white this time, and instead of working it until it was pliable, I ripped a chunk off and just smooshed it into the mould - that seem to work better, the surface of macaron or biscuit or whatever didn't crack as much, so it looked better.
I did this for the green and pink clay, and actually for the pink one, it was pretty soft and pliable and almost workable *shrugs* old and new batches of clay I guess? But I don't think I'll be using that clay anytime soon, although I may try cosmos and grace brands of resin clay, from research they appear to be quite good to work with. I may also try out hearty, a different brand of paper air dry clay, the fuwa one is good, but way too soft and malleable, so maybe the hearty may be better ^_^
I still love using polymer, since that is more readily available here, with the resin clay and air dry I may have to get online. I have seen some other brands of air dry clay in art shops and craft stores, but they seem to be the ones that dry to the fragile ceramic state, that the normal kiln-fired clay gets to - so not very good for charms. Maybe good for paperweights perhaps? I may have to look into it.
But, in other news, I applied for the Graduate Diploma in Education course, the applications close tomorrow at noon, so I handed mine in at the TISC office *fingers crossed* Given my bad experiences of sending applications by mail, and then it not actually arriving where it should, handing it in by hand was better, plus they checked my preferences there and then so at least I'm reassured that I filled it in correctly.
To explain, I finished my Honours year last year at UWA, majoring in Psychology, and that year was terrible, and one bad thing happened to another, and I didn't end up doing the Major in Psychology that I had hoped to do. So now, with thoughts of either teaching School Psychology at high schools, or being a school psychologist, I've applied into this course in hopes of getting in. Only UWA and ECU teaches the courses I need, so I really hope I get into UWA since I'm more familiar with the place, while ECU will take me out of my comfort zone. But having said that, I just want to get in.
There are a few more courses I'm looking into to apply to, so I'm asking alot of questions since I really want to do something that will enhance what I've already done, else I'll just feel that the last 4 years of my life was all for nothing. Well, I should get some sleep, got work tomorrow and it won't be good to be all zombie-like :D
^_^