jenn schiffer's live laugh blog

weekly retro #91: fall rocks

last night on the way to lisa's to hand out candy, i stepped on a huge crack in a broken curb and it jammed my leg up. if i haven't been lifting weights and walking regularly, i feel like that misstep would have really fucked me up. fortunately after a few miles walking on the treadmill, my hip seems less mad at me. anyway, you asked! welcome to the retro...

halloween is such a fun holiday. the weather was so nice, the kids were so funny and picked such cool costumes, and the community really showed up and out in the streets to trick or treat and take in the awesome halloween scenery. i wish the city looked like this year-round.

a photo of a messy pottery wheel after i threw a small cup and cut it in half so i can see how thick the walls were

this week was my last hand-building class - my last class, even. every day i go into the studio to practice throwing and wait for my hand-built pieces to dry. i blogged this week about my penultimate class and i cannot wait to share what i made during this last one!

a photo of a few candles of different sizes curing on a rack on a surface near my desk

a friend came over to learn how to make candles. they chose a hinoki cypress fragrance to work with - a man of taste. i also worked on some testing of a new wax i'm considering trying for a holiday season release. the pour went really well and right now i'm doing a burn test - checking every hour for possible sink holes or tunneling, weighing how much has burned in that time, and making sure the wax is a good vehicle for my fragrances. so far so good, they're burning right now as i type this!

a photo of a couple of skeleton figures and my ceramic jack-o-lantern posing on and around a stack of computer science and web developer texts on my dining room table

with october being over, it means i've completed my duties as a participant in weird web october. it's hard to believe i've made, by hand - no ai - 31 web apps in 31 days. i plan to make a video this week looking at each app, and i'd like to do a livestream looking at other participants' submissions. this was a really fulfilling, creative practice, and i recommend you try it out next year.

a photo of me with light black cat makeup and little buns for ears and andy who is holding our black cat pumagreg. he is so wiggly, it's hard to see him in the shot but we're gorgeous and having fun

when i wasn't getting humbled by a broken concrete piece of shit curb in the dark, i was giving candy out dressed as a black cat. this is the second year in a row i've worn this "costume" and it's so lazy lol. in 2027 i'm going to get into sewing, so i KNOW i'll not only have a cool costume next halloween, but it will have been handmade by yours truly - you heard it here first.

things i enjoyed this week

  • i read murder on sex island by the very funny jo firestone. it combines campy mystery with reality television, it was fun to read. i'm 1/5th of the now way into the new follow-up, sex on murder island.
  • timea tihanyi is a ceramicist who uses 3d printing to make ceramics inspired by hungarian embroidery. i bought a pin from her studio, it's such a nice intersection of art and technology.
  • patti harrison pointing a gun at jamie
  • this video of artist sam keller came up and i was like, wait, i met this guy. several years ago i was walking around tribeca and saw bedazzled garbage in a gallery window so i went inside and he was there, along with a cheeto ball. his family came by and i got to do one of my favorite things: take family photos of strangers. cool art, nice people, fun youtube recommendation.

october really flew by, and now it's time for it to get dark before 5 fucking pm :/ i'm savoring this nice weather, making nice things for people to buy as holiday presents, and making it to my destinations not drenched in sweat. the fall rocks.

xoxo jenn

this was published November 1, 2026 under living art tech weekly-retro ceramics jersey-city candle-making halloween weird-web-october pumagreg andy