The basket

I spent the first 2 days on weaving this damn basket.  You should be able to weave the entire thing with one continuous strip.  The first 5 tries I was really thinking about that.  Then, I thought hey it would be cool to have to colors switch; so my neighbor and I shared our main colors.  Trying this way I had a lot of "practice".  Class ended and I didn't have a basket :(
Day 2 came and I went in with a very positive attitude.  Today I will have a basket before class is over!  Lets just say after 3 hours of non stop weaving, melting, satinizing, pulling and heating again I finally had a basket that didn't look too bad.  Dark red/brown with a few strips of gold/brown. 
Day 3 we were shown how to blow fruit.  WOW, so much harder.  Can I please go back to pulling? 
Now, to get 5 fruits to fit in this basket that is maybe 6 inches wide at the top, the fruits should be fairly on the small side.  apparently I only wanted to blow fruit that is actual human size.  All my fruits were large!  I got 5 done though.  I knew just by looking at them that they were not going to fit in my basket.  I can't even tell you how many times I broke fruit, cut myself, burnt myself and cussed at the sugar in the process.  For sure  a huge learning curve was needed. 
Day 4 we were shown how to make ribbon sugar.  2 or more colors are needed, you have to get them to the same temp, length and consistency.  Its hard enough with one color now I have to somehow make multiple colors even?  Oh geez! 
Today I had to finish fruit and make a handle and a rim first before I could start on the bow.  I made the rim and ran out of class time. 
Day 5: Project DUE!  I went in knowing I had 2 hours to finish.  So first thing I made my bow; more important than the other stuff I did not finish.  I grabbed yellow and a dark red.  Bing bang boom I knocked that bow out first try heck yeah! Then I went to get my rim and it was broken.  I got that back under the heat to melt it back down and I was making a handle which was a nightmare!  I swear it broke about 5 times as did the rim during the 2 hours I had today.  While I was waiting I decided to try to blow some more fruit (smaller) so they would fit.  I made the best apple.  It looked amazing!  Time was getting closer so I had to start loading my basket.  Starting to be rushed to turn it in on time I put one extra fruit in the basket and when I went to attach the handle....well can you guess what happened?  yes that is right the handle, rim and the awesome apple broke.  No time to fix it, time was called and I had to transport my almost finished basket for grading.  
I have to admit I was really pissed off at myself because it wasn't until after time was called did I realize I had an extra fruit in my basket.  Had I not put the extremely large peach in in the basket, my stuff may not have broken.  

After waiting what felt like forever to be graded, it was finally my turn.  I walked my basket to the grading station and got some helpful pointers and positive feed back!  I was super excited to have gotten an 86 B.  Even with all the trouble I was still able to pull out a B!  This project was to prep us for our large 2 foot pure sugar sculpture that we are starting tomorrow!  I am for sure shooting for an A on that one.  I am also trying to stay in the mind set to try really hard to get it done the day before its due.  Ok maybe only have a few minor details to get it done on the last day, which we will have only 1 hour.  We will see how that goes!....