I can't move forward
The other day, my wife told me, "Do something about this."
She said she didn't like the hotel room we were staying in for the event.
We had a bad experience in a non-smoking room we stayed in before.
On the first day, my wife found a long hair in the bathroom,
and although she apparently got rid of it,
she said it was back in the same spot the next day.
She said it gave her the creeps,
so we had them change us to a smoking room that was available.
This time, when I booked a non-smoking room again,
she said, "Non-smoking rooms are creepy."
So, I had no choice but to search again, but I couldn't book three nights.
No matter how many times I tried, I couldn't get past the second night.
I thought it was strange, so I called them,
and they said, "The third night is fully booked, so the system won't let you proceed."
I wish they had just written that somewhere.
While feeling all frustrated like that, I took some pottery out of the kiln,
and there was a vase with crackle glaze
that I had some high hopes for.
I have a few types of crackle glaze,
but depending on the temperature and thickness, the cracks sometimes appear and sometimes don't.
When they do appear, I use ink to emphasize the cracks.
Up until now, I've simplified it from India ink to a brush pen,
but recently, I wasn't satisfied with that, so I started trying out pigments and dyes,
and I even tried using basic dyes for leather, but...
They're good, but they're too strong and hard to use.
So this time, I thought I'd go back to using a brush pen again.
But I wanted to avoid it just being solid black,
so I had a sudden idea and tried using a light-ink brush pen.
However, it's a thin pen for mini zodiac kites, so it's stiff and hard to use.
Plus, it takes time, and I can't even tell if the ink has gone in.
So I tried applying dark ink unevenly, which was interesting in its own way.
Then I layered the dark ink over the light ink, but it didn't get any darker.
Why is that?
Once that happened, I started wondering if I could get the perfect shade,
and my curiosity started bubbling up again.
I tried mixing the dark and light ink with the tip of the brush, but...
It didn't go as planned, so I ended up buying a light-ink type.
However, the biggest problem is that I don't have a vase for the experiment.
I can't use the brush pen until I do the next main firing.
Even though I found a brush pen with unique Japanese colors.
Both the hotel reservation and the brush pen experiment
are stuck because I "can't move forward."
It's just one night, just a brush pen, and yet...
Nothing is going the way I thought it would.