Shambhala Pottery

A day at the hospital

2012-01-19T16:28:00.000-05:00

I did get some early studio time yesterday to throw more tests tiles, mark others and batch and dip a couple of flashing slip revisions. I expected a full studio day, but Jim reminded me that we had 3 family birthdays this week, so it wound up being only a half day in the studio and the other half card and grocery shopping and dinner out.

This morning Jim had to go to the hospital for an MRI for the severe back pain he's been experiencing for over a month. He told me to stay home since he was feeling a bit better after 3 days of flu symptoms, so I got busy with charting these flashing slip tests, before planning on a day in the studio. Our phone was out and the repair man showed up and he was still working on the problem when my friend Laura was at the door. Jim had called her from the hospital and asked her to come get me. The MRI wasn't working. They tried twice, but his back kept going into severe spasms, so they had to put him on muscle relaxing medication for a while before they could try again, and they said he wouldn't be safe to drive afterwards.

When I got there they had him on oxygen and iv's. After sitting with him about an hour, it was clear that he would be there at least another hour, so I drove home, stopped to pick up a few groceries, got the cat in, walked the dog, put the groceries away and drove the half hour back to the hospital.

I arrived at the radiology deparment just as they were wheeling Jim back out. He was awake and they were able to complete the MRI. Halleluijah! I had stopped to get him a sandwich just in case he wanted to eat. Miraculously his appetite was back and he ate the whole sandwich. After about a half an hour they determined he was stable enough and they wheeled him out, helped him in the car, and we headed home.

He's napping now and looking forward to some wine and cheese and cookies later (his menu choice for the evening). A Netflix movie arrived "A Day in the Park with George" - a wonderful musical that we haven't seen for years, so we'll watch that while we munch.

It will be an early night, since we have to be back at the hospital in morning to go over the results of the MRI. Pots and studio work will just have to wait. There are much more important things to tend to right at the moment.

Back to blogging

2012-01-18T10:07:00.000-05:00

Studio time has been almost nil while I try to get rid of the latest bout of this viral bug. So, other than throwing and trimming test tiles and doing a huge amount of studio paper work, (mainly getting all my glaze and slips notes updated and getting a gathering the next batch of recipes to try for this cone 6 soda project,) the only thing that's occupied my time has been cooking and cleaning up a lot of old email.

Our friend Shane gifted us with 2 lbs of shrimp the other day, so I pretty much spent the day prepping and cooking shrimp and grits and pot de creme for dessert. Yesterday was Mexican night - a chicken, tomato, serrano chile, onion stir fry with re-fried beans.

I'm heading to the studio now with my pile of recipes in hand, and will be weighing out and mixing Cone 6 flashing slips and liner glazes all day. The forecast is for another couple of high 60's days Sunday and Monday, so I'm going to try to fire these cone 6 soda tests one of those days if I get all these new tiles completed.

I have some soups in the freezer, so tonights' dinner will be soup and salad or soup and tuna sandwiches - Jim's choice.

Cone 6 soda project continues

2012-01-14T19:32:00.000-05:00

Managed to fire some of the cone 6 soda test tiles in one of my tiny electric kilns yesterday, hoping that taking some of them up to a full cone 6 -7 might mature those flashing slips a bit more and it just didn't work. I had cone 6 touching and cone 7 at 2 o'clock and those flashing slips are all, still dry.

So it's back to square one. I decided to not fire the gas kiln as is, unloaded it, and picked out the new, unfired tiles and threw some new test tiles - more to do tomorrow. Right now I need to head back out and cut those tiles off the bats and tomorrow, finish them as well as throw some more.

From what I've seen of photos of cone 6 soda pots, the flashing slips look drier than what I'm used to at cone 10 and higher. When the flashing slip is more of a background base for a lot of glaze and colored slip over, I guess it seems to work well; but my hope is to find a way to get these slips a bit more mature at that temperature. It may be a futile attempt, but I'll keep at it a bit longer

From the various flashing slips I tried, Bauer, Blair Red and Randy's show the most promised Of maturing at these lower temperatures with a bit of tweaking.

In the meantime, I have more glazes to batch and new tiles to dip. Fortunately, most of the flashing slip revisions are batched; but it will still take me a week or two to get it all done. Stay tuned.

Snow and icy conditions

2012-01-13T09:02:00.000-05:00

It's looks like it may be another woman/man plans and God laughs day!

Went to the studio at 7am to get cones for the little electric test kiln, and when I went into the kiln room/aka garage, it was like an ice box. Seems that Jim didn't quite close the door yesterday and it flew open overnight. It was around 20 degrees outside and in!

With the light snow cover over an icy driveway, and snow continuing, Jim doesn't want to take the car out of there today, so I'm hoping it will have warmed up enough in another half hour or so I can get some of those tiles out out of the test gas kiln and into the electric kiln.

The kiln is up against one of my large industrial shelving units and the car is too close to the kiln to allow me to fully open the lid. This may be an exercise in futility today. Oh well, there are always plenty of things for me to do both in the house and the studio.

After our buckwheat pancake breakfast I'll head out to the kiln room and see if I move the kiln out enough to open the lid and access those tiles. If not, I'll weigh out a few cone 6 soda liner glazes that which I'll have room for once I remove some of the flashing slip re-fires in the gas kiln.

Pizza night

2012-01-12T19:02:00.000-05:00

Today was a "stay in" day wrapping up a lot of my "to do" list, like getting on line and ordering vitamins, email mail, snail mail, paper work and then getting an early dinner of pizza made.

Yesterday was a day for osteo treatments and food shopping, so full studio days will have to wait until this latest re-run of the flu bug wanes a bit more.Our doctor said this viral bug is a bad one and many people are winding up with viral pneumonia when it comes around for the fourth time, so I'm not pushing myself until I feel that this current bout is well under control. But saying that, I will be out early tomorrow morning to load and re-fire some soda test tiles which didn't reach temperature in the last firing. Since they had plenty of soda mix in the firing, the plan is to just load some of them in my tiny electric test kiln.

Since I tested each flashing slip on 3-4 different clay bodies, I'll probably just
pick two of each for the electric re-fires and have the rest in the gas kiln firing some time next week.

A couple of other Cone 6 potters (who read my block, generously sent me some Cone 6 soda recipes. So I'm hoping to get some time over the weekend to weigh out a few. Thank you Mark and Rebekkah!

Good day to make glazes

2012-01-07T10:11:00.000-05:00

Where the day went. Yesterday was a piddly day in the studio, doing lots of little things - wet the towels that keep the clay in the pug mill workable, loaded a few more test tiles in the small gas kiln, moved the kiln and tanks so Jim could get the car in the garage, put away a lot of things, moved all those cone 6 test containers off my wedging table and got them in numerical order, and a tiny bit of the never ending paperwork among other things. I quit early to make a big dinner and after dinner did a bit more paper work before calling it a day.

Today's plan is to weigh out a couple of color versions of one of my revised cone 6 glazes which I revamped to be more of a gloss. I also need to make a couple of small batches of my cone 10 liner glazes so I can finish these cone 10 soda pots. I'm optimistic about the possibility of switching to cone 6 soda in the future, so I'm not going to make any big batches of any of those cone liner 10 glazes any more.

It's easy pot stickers for dinner, so I'll get a full studio day for a change.

Firing postponed

2012-01-06T10:23:00.000-05:00

It took longer to get the little kiln loaded, mainly because I decided to batch a couple of new tests earlier. The firing was planned for today, but I'm putting it off till Tuesday, the next warm day, because there's a bit more room in the kiln for more tests and Mark Knott will be sending me his cone 6 recipes and I'd like to hold off the firing to include them.

I need to find a way to set up this little gas kiln indoors so I'm not at the mercy of the weather with the firings.

Time to get to work. Studio time today is going to be tidying and paperwork. I'll quit early to start the dinner I had planned yesterday. Because I didn't finish loading the kiln till it was our usual dinner time, Jim suggested that I close up the studio and relax and he went into town and brought home two prime rib dinners. Love that man!

Almost a spring day on the way

2012-01-05T08:35:00.000-05:00

Two days of relative, post holiday rest, and continuing an herbal liver cleanse, have perked me up almost enough to want to hit the studio today. A bit of the sniffles is no excuse - I know, I know, so after breakfast I will March out the mudroom door and walk to my lovely studio and sort the tiles to be re-fired and load that small Olympic, gas, test kiln. Since Jim has doctors orders not to do any remotely, heavy lifting, I'll have to load the empty propane tanks and he can get them filled in town and I'll unload them.

When you have a titanium hip, you're warned to not lift more than 25 lbs, so my trick is to lean and put the weight on the not so good hip. Aging and dealing with a very well used body, force you into some interesting life changes!

We're in for two days of sun and a forecast high of 60 both days, so if I can't fire that small kiln tomorrow, I doubt if I'll get another chance for such warmish, sunny weather this time of year.

Yesterday was a day to do more email catch up, play some computer word games, watch TV, computer filing and some glaze chemistry - sometimes juggling all around the same time.

Dinner was easy last night - spaghetti with bolognese sauce which I had frozen. Tonight's dinner is broiled chicken breasts coated with kosher salt and slathered with a mixture of creamed butter, soy sauce, garlic, mustard, cayenne and lemon. Sides are rice and baked butternut squash with a filling of butter, brown sugar, orange juice concentrate and a touch of cinnamon and nutmeg all mixed together (the only way I could get my family to eat squash years go and it still remains one of Jim's favorites.)

178 cone 6 test tiles

2012-01-03T16:37:00.001-05:00

Winter has arrived in force. Late morning, it was still only 14 degrees F, and it only rose to 17F, which is what it is now. So I decided to just sit tight and try to catch up with all the email that backed up the past few days when I had house guests. Our lovely house guests (Jim's sister, husband and daughter)left yesterday and I had the afternoon to relax and just vegg out with some reading,computer word games and movies.

With the snow, wind and cold temperatures this morning, I knew the water in the studio was probably going to be frozen because I forget to leave it on an overnight drip, so I opted to continue to go through some of the 300 plus emails and get some things filed and some read and deleted.

After a hot chocolate lunch I headed for the studio, watered the plants and transplanted a very small Kaffir lime tree which I'm growing mainly for the leaves, which I'll use in Thai recipes. I also made a list of the glazes and slips I batched for the cone 6 firing last week; and now I have to make a cleaner list and match it against the tiles. There are a couple of missing and unmarked tiles; and there's a really great looking oribe which is unmarked and that's the main one I want to track down. Fortunately I made a chart when I was dipping the glazes, and noted which glazes were on which clay bodies, so finding the skipped ones should be easy - just a bit time consuming - a good after dinner project.

After all the holiday eating and merry making, I started a one week liver cleanse yesterday - no wine and lots of liver cleanse herbs. Tonight I'm just making a simple bratwurst on crunchy hard rolls with sauteed green peppers and onions. This is the meal I had planned for yesterday, but instead we opted for just some easy and comforting chicken soup.

Happy New Year

2012-01-01T15:49:00.000-05:00

Our company has arrived and settled in and they're all taking naps; and since dinner is made (did the gumbo yesterday and started the cornbread for dinner and tomorrows breakfast bread before dawn today), I actually have a few minutes to relax.

We had a great 5 course dinner at the Knife and Fork last night. And Jim's opening another bottle of wine when we got home made for a very, "making merry" New Years eve. Tomorrow I go on a liver cleanse to undo all this holiday eating and drinking!

I'm eager to get back to the studio. The weather isn't going to be good enough to re-fire some of those cone 6 soda tests outdoors, in my little gas test kiln till this coming Friday; and I'm not sure I'll even want to do it then if it's too cold. More cone 6 test tiles need to be thrown and the studio needs some tidying before I get on with batching some liner glazes for these cone 10 soda pots.

Happy New Year

2011-12-31T21:55:00.004-05:00

Well,another year, filled with productivity, challenges, and world changing events has passed. Jim and I continued our current solitary celebration, early, with a lovely 5 course dinner at our favorite local restaurant "The Knife and Fork", followed by a relaxed evening in bed, with a great bottle of Frank Family Winstone Cabernet single vintage, red wine, while listening to a the wonderful PBS concert of Leonard Bernstein's score of West Side Story, with those amazing counter melodies - what a score in it's time and it still stirs the soul! And now, they've switched to Rhapsody in Blue by Gershwin. What would life be without music that takes you to such heights!

While Jim takes our little furry, Jack Russel terrier, Bodhi, on his last walk of the evening, I'm taking a bit of time for this blog.

Today was a busy kitchen day, spending lots of time chopping and cooking, but a delicious, spicy, shrimp and chicken gumbo is cooked and ready for tomorrows house guests. In the morning I'll be baking corn bread and a breakfast nutty fruity, sourdough bread which I had hoped to make today; but that job had to be put off because i forgot that it needed sourdough and my sourdough needed feeding. The sourdough's been fed and the bread will get made in the morning. Then it will be time to tidy up the papers which seems to shroud my sitting area of the living room, which has become my other office. When am I going to slow down and just enjoy retirement! Busynesss is a lifelong thing for me and even at 72 is one that is hard to release. So rather than fight it, I just stay productive and let it take me where it takes me. If this body fails me totally, I guess that will be the time to just contemplate my navel.

House guests arrive tomorrow, for just a day, so it will be a lovely start of the New Year with family, belly warming, spicy seafood and chicken gumbo for dinner along with home made fudge and some other, lovely, store bought candies, and Jim, our in house sommelier, sharing one of his lovely white wines for the gumbo.

Hope everyone is enjoying a wonderful New Year's Eve celebration with loved ones, and/or dear friends, with good food and quality liquor if that's your choice! And I hope you all have the most productive, healthy, joyous and prosperous New Year, filled with joy, challenging and rewarding experiences and live well lived!

Mish mash sort of day

2011-12-30T21:21:00.000-05:00

The only remotely studio related things I did today were copy and print out the four pages of the charted notes on the cone 6 soda firing and driving them over to John's studio. I also compiled all the information I've been gathering on earthenware clay bodies, slips and glazes and will print those out tomorrow. Exploring earthenware is one of my 2012 projects.

The rest of the day was spent grocery shopping for company dinner Sunday (shrimp and chicken gumbo), having lunch out, then back home to put away groceries, tend to house plants,email, make dinner, then after dinner, make a batch of fudge.

It was then time to give Bonnie kitty some mom play time. She loves this crazy laser light. Fortunately, she chases it with such vigor that she tires herself out in about 5 minutes. Time for the adults and a Netflix Midsomer mystery before meditation and sleep. It's been a busy, smorgasbord kind of good day; but a good one.

Chicken soup and test tiles

2011-12-29T20:08:00.000-05:00

I'm bleary eyed, and waiting for these back spasms to ease after getting over 7 dozen test tiles lined up in numerical order on my slab roller and making followup notes; but the job is done! In the morning I'll photo copy these 4 pages of notes for John, my testing partner in this venture and drop them off at his studio.

Next step will be for me to re-fire some of these tiles, and make new tiles for another firing; but that will have to wait after this weekends company leaves, and the weather is mild and dry enough for two consecutive days, to wheel my little gas test kiln outdoors to fire. The weather forecast for next week is pretty gruesome (cold, wet, snowy), so it looks like I'll be focusing on getting the cone 10 pots finished before I can re-fire these cone 6 tests.

Meantime, there's the house to tidy, and food shopping and cooking to do before house guests arrive early Sunday, as well as a studio to tidy if I can squeeze in some time after I get back from shopping and other chores tomorrow. I'd like to start the New Year with the studio a bit more organized; but it looks like I may not have the time to complete that goal, with all the other things I have to do between now and the New Year.

Tonight was a good night for chicken soup and fortunately I have leftovers for tomorrow. If we get home early enough and I'm not too wiped, I may just get an hour before dinner to do some of the studio tidying. That would be nice!

Cone 6 soda test tile results

2011-12-27T14:56:00.000-05:00

The cone 6 soda test tile firing looks very promising. I will need to re-fire tiles because we only reached cone 6 just starting to soften. Cone 7 looked like it was at 3 o'clock; but it turned out that it was just in the process of toppling over. Guess I didn't seat it well enough in it's little house. With only one cone pack visible I asked John to just shut it down, rather than risk over-firing, which was a good call, since I was more interested in getting a true picture of the flashing slip at cone 6, not cone 7.

These tiles look more promising than the tiles from the Energy Exchange's wood/soda firing. They're brighter, and with the new soda mix, it looks like they will flux more at a full cone 6. They also showed more flashing potential in this firing with this new soda mix. As I suspected, the wood in the Energy Exchange firing made the tiles drier. The yellow slip was a great example to show the difference. It was buttery on all 3 tiles but dry at higher temperature in the Energy Exchange firing.

The draw rings were very good and some of the glazes are good at cone 5. One oribe is a beautiful, rich, dark green and the turquoise oribe also looks promising. A matt white was under fired at cone 5 as was Reeves green, and another oribe.

I'll make new tiles for the shinos and a few others and start body reduction a bit earlier next time and do it a bit heavier,reduction next time. Two of the of the shinos were mature at cone 5 and look good as potential liners. They just need more and earlier reduction to shine. The one temmoku in the firing was brown; but re-firing might help. I think I'll also do another version. I have to check which Iron I used, but I thought I used a very high purity iron and was expecting black, not dark brown. John has one C 6 temmoku that I'll try as well. I forgot to put my celadon liner in this firing, so that will go in with the re-fires along with another one from John.

My new gloss base looked good, but some of the tiles got hit with too much soda - difficult to avoid in a small kiln with only test tiles. My yellow slip (Linda's yellow with my revisions) turned out great on all bodies tested. Another really nice surprise was 2 versions of a known glaze called Juicy fruit - better at cone 5 in soda and light reduction than in my full cone 6 oxidation firing using Steven Hills firing schedule.

I'll be spending another day or two making some charts, cataloging these with follow up notes, then it will take another couple of weeks after the holidays to make, bisque and dip new tiles and then wait for two days of consecutive good weather to fire them; but I'm very happy with all the information and more potential good results with some tweaking and re-firing.

I also want to batch some new revisions of a couple of flashing slips using Ronans excellent suggestion of replacing Grolleg with EPK and Newman red with Redart.

Time now, to get a cup of herbal tea and start cataloging the other two shelves of tests.

Cone 6 soda test firing cooling

2011-12-27T08:51:00.000-05:00

The firing went well and I was home before 7pm. Love it! I think we may have gotten a bit hotter than our goal. Cone 6 in the only cone pack that was visible didn't seem to be moving although the pyrometer showed it should be. So I opened the burner shutter more and adjusted the damper for light reduction and we went off for a few minutes and when we came back cone 7 was at 3 o'clock, even though cone 6 hadn't shown any sign of movement a couple of minutes before! With soda you never know if that's a true reading; but I had the cones inside a little open hut of sorts to protect it somewhat from the soda in an attempt to get a truer reading. The tiles should tell the story.

The last draw ring showed good gloss from the new soda mixture (which Dan Hill uses for cone 6) which was 4 parts sodium bicarb, 2 parts soda ash and 1 part borax. This soda test kiln is small - maybe 4 cubic feet of setting space, and I didn't even finish the 1 gallon of solution which had 1 1/2 lbs of the soda mixture. In fact, I may have gotten a bit more in there than ideal. We'll see.

John thinks we may be able to open it this morning. I'd be thrilled to have one workable flashing slip from all those tiles! If not, we should have enough information to explore it further.

The high grolleg flashing slips tend to be dryer than some others unless fluxed a lot or have some clay substitutions. Ronan Kyle Peterson said that his experience has shown that replacing the grolleg with EPK was an improvement. So I can try that in future tests if needed.

In our first soda firing, using the Gail Nichols method, straight cone 10 flashing slips were all dry or very dry; but there were some that had more possibilities - Randy's, one of my Avery clones, and two others. I didn't put those originals in this firing with the newer soda mixture; but I did have several variations of those in the firing. Looking back, it might have been a good idea to put at least one tile of those 4 original ones in the firing with the new soda mix as a good comparison.

Another very good suggestion from Ronan was to sub Redart for some of the more refractory clays. Randy's uses Newman red which is classified as a fire clay, so that is another possible, future test.

Day after making merry and firing day

2011-12-26T09:01:00.000-05:00

Moving slowly after all the holiday merry making and too much rich food. Friend John Britt said he'd be lighting the kiln around 8am this morning, so at some point I'll be heading over to his studio with this soda mix and my fancy, battery charged sprayer.

I dragged myself into the studio to weigh out the soda mixture, and make sure both battery packs for the sprayer were plugged in, before my first cup of tea. Until I hear from John about when my presence is needed, I'm going to just vegg out and catch up on a lot of correspondence and get my own battery recharged.

Hope all who celebrate had a great Christmas and a great Hanukkah!

From our house to yours

2011-12-25T09:06:00.000-05:00

From our house to yours - wishing you a very Merry Christmas to all who celebrate and a joyous, healthy, happy and prosperous New Year!

June and Jim Perry

Twas the Night before Christmas

2011-12-24T07:11:00.000-05:00

This is for the children in your house and for those of us who still love to tap into our childhood memories every Christmas.

Today will be an all day baking and pre Christmas dinner prep day. Yesterday I went through all the flashing slip test tiles that were in the Energy Exchange firing and most still seemed too dry; but I suspect the wood ash also contributed to some of the dryness.

John and I put off our firing of the 175 plus slip and glaze tiles till Monday. Hopefully by then, we'll have heard back from Ronan on how hot they fired the kiln and what kind of soda they used in the firing. Till then, I'll be cooking and baking and indulging in some wonderful holiday meals.

Tomorrow we'll be having our family's traditional Lithuanian/German/Polish breakfast of home made babka, ham, kielbasa, hard boiled eggs and horseradish. Dinner will be pretty much a repeat of the Thanksgiving turkey dinner since the store was out of the rock cornish hens which I had planned.

Wishing all who celebrate it, a very Merry Christmas.

Mr and Mrs Claus

2011-12-23T08:31:00.000-05:00

Jim's sister Pat gifted me these delightful Mr and Mrs Claus dolls several years ago and Jim found the perfect place to display them for the holidays.

Yesterday was a busy day getting the last paper work done for the test tiles, dipping a few last minute ones and packing them up along with draw tiles and cone packs and delivering them to Johns studio. When I got there I got a quick peek at the tiles that he had just picked up from the Energy Exchange firing. At first glance, most still look a bit dry, so I'm waiting to hear more about the firing. John hasn't been able to reach anyone yet; but it looks like they did a light salting; and my guess is that they only used soda ash. I'm hoping that using bicarbonate of soda and some borax in our firing will flux those slips more.

John had some tests with laterite which had a much better finish but were darker than my current flashing slips. I brought home the box of his tiles with my slip revisions which I'll examine closely today.

I'm not sure if we'll be firing today. It will be Johns call; but I'm thinking it might be better to wait until we get the information about the Energy Exchange firing.

It's going to be turkey again for Christmas because the store was out of rock cornish hens, my first choice; but I got all my Christmas food shopping finished yesterday and if we don't fire today, I'm going to relax and go through the piles of unread mail and get this living room company ready for next weeks house guests.

Foggy mountain top morning

2011-12-22T08:32:00.000-05:00

We got a little antique Baker figure (actually looks more like a butcher holding a roast; but the ebay listing said it was a baker) to put in front of the bakery under the tree. This year Jim lit up the buildings which is an improvement. You can actually see what's inside some of them now.

Yesterday I got 175 of the finished tiles in numerical order and charted them all against the list I made when I dipped them; and got the last 6 raw dipped tiles bisqued. I found a couple of unmarked and two obviously mis-marked, so this morning I'm going to check those against the containers of glaze and slip. Counting the 6 I bisqued overnight, plus the couple John included in the Energy Exchange firing, there are at least 185 made so far. This morning I'll probably re-dip a few of the missing and obviously mis-marked ones; but first I need to make another list of all the slips and glazes I batched for this project.

When I left the studio around 6 last night, I forgot to turn up the tiny test kiln. Fortunately, I awoke around midnight and hobbled out to the studio, turned it up to high and went back to bed; and I was able to empty it early this morning. The base of one of the tiles broke off; but I think it was one that was broken before the firing and patched with some sodium silicate and not because of firing it so fast.

Our lobsters didn't arrive till almost 7 o'clock last night; but they were worth the wait. We decided that 2 lb lobsters might work better than the 3 lb ones since neither of us could finish those big lobsters even though we only have a little salad before. So I put aside the few leftovers bits and will make a tiny amount of lobster salad which we'll have as a lunch snack on crackers today.I also think the smaller lobsters would be a bit more tender. The lobster dinner ended my delicious, week long birthday celebration.

Lobster day

2011-12-21T11:19:00.000-05:00

This is another section of Jim's, under the tree village.

Today is the last day of my prolonged birthday celebration, with an indulgent lobster dinner. Jim ordered two 3 lb lobster which will be delivered some time today. With our advanced years, we decided that we should do this prolonged birthday celebrations starting this year and it's been great fun!

I would have been in the studio early; but some good friends stopped by for a visit this morning, and brought a present of home made cookies. I'll still bake some of my own, but not as many as I had planned. For now, it's time to get to the studio and finish making glaze notes on those tiles which I'll be delivering tomorrow to John Britts studio for our Friday cone 6 soda firing.

Yesterday we were out and about all day with doctor's visits, lunch, food and other shopping and didn't get home till dinner time. Fortunately we had the leftover lamb shanks so I didn't have to cook. One of our stops was to pick up some prescriptions for Jim's back; and I can report this morning that they're working. Now I just have to keep him from doing any more heavy lifting in the future!

A working birthday

2011-12-19T10:58:00.000-05:00

Was prepared to get a full studio day since we celebrated my birthday with friends yesterday with a brunch at the Grove Park inn; but as often happens, a planned day goes awry with unplanned chores which demand attention.

A huge amount of emails this morning, mainly from so many wonderful birthday wishes, notices that my Norton anti virus software has expired, and using the last of my bread, changed the plan. So now I'm downloading the software on one computer, with two other computers to do after this, then I need to start on another loaf of bread, and get an early start on tonight's braised lamb shanks dinner before I can even think about the studio.

I will get in the studio at some point this afternoon to finish sorting the test tiles and making those last minute notes, which I didn't get to do yesterday because we didn't get home till around 5 o'clock and still had to unpack the car and get groceries put away before thinking about dinner, which wound up just being some popcorn with some parmesan and spices.

After the lovely brunch and working through the tourist crowds at the Grove Park Inn viewing the gingerbread house contest entries, followed by a Sams Club shopping trip, there was no time or energy to do anything more than rest for the rest of the evening. Our friends have these insulated bags that they bought at Sams club, which work great for those long drives home from Asheville. No need anymore to spend several dollars on ice or deal with large, bulky plastic boxes. We bought two of them ($9.98 each),and everything was still solidly frozen after an hour and a half; and we can leave them in the car since they lay flat and hardly take up any space.

Time now to get that bread started, finish those downloads, and get the dinner started early.

A play day

2011-12-18T08:06:00.000-05:00

Here's one of the middle sections of our under the tree village decor.

Having an early birthday celebration with friends and brunch at the Grover Park Inn. We haven't been for two years and are really looking forward to the brunch and checking out the yearly gingerbread contest entries and the lovely Christmas decor.

Doubt if there will be any time studio when we get home. If I'm up to it, I might just go in and finish getting all those test tiles in numerical order and go over my notes. I have a couple of tiles I forgot to mark, but I did make a chart and enter which tests were dipped on which clay bodies, so maybe I can figure it out enough to either mark them or just re-dip new ones.

Before I get back to glazing the cone 10 soda pots I really need to do more studio tidying; but that job will have to wait for another day.

Fettucine revisit

2011-12-17T12:42:00.000-05:00

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We're having a repeat of this fettucine, ham, onion, mushroom dish from two nights ago. I made enough of the sauce, so I'll just have to cook fresh pasta.Since dinner is covered, I'll be able to get in a full afternoon in the studio.

Yesterday I got all the draw rings and cone packs made for both cone 6 and cone 10 soda firings and just did a bit of studio tidying (a never ending chore)since I didn't have enough time to batch that last glaze because we had to do a Walmart run before another great dinner at the Knife and Fork.

Time to head to the studio and get that last glaze base with six color variations weighed out. At this point, I'm pretty saturated with this glaze testing, so I hope all this work brings forth some encouraging results for me to switch to cone 6 soda next year.

Hubble photos to Bach's Air on G string

2011-12-16T12:57:00.000-05:00

Hubble photos and Bach's air on G string - what a great way to start or end the day!

Didn't get much done yesterday other than dipping a few more tiles and doing the attendant paper work. Too much standing on the hard, concrete, studio floor the day before made this bad hip and knees act up, so yesterday was a day to find mostly sit down jobs.

This afternoons plan is to get some cone packs and draw rings made for both next weeks cone 6 soda firing, and my later cone 10 soda firing.

The Energy Exchange wood/soda kiln is being fired to cone 6 today with some of my cone 10 flashing slips revised (hopefully) for cone 6 included; and I'm really eager to see if any of the alterations bring up a couple of good results. I really only need one good flashing slip as a base to make the switch to cone 6.

Glazes for cone 6 soda/salt are much easier to design - just make sure you have enough calcium, boron, barium and/or magnesia in the glaze to repel the soda/salt; but the flashin slips are a bit trickier, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed so that when that kiln is opened Monday or Tuesday, there might be some encouraging results to use, or at least, to build on for next weeks other cone 6 gas/soda firing in John Britt's small soda kiln.

Mashiko "Broken Earth" exhibit

2011-12-15T06:41:00.000-05:00

Here's some morning eye candy of the Mashiko Potters "Broken Earth" exhibit in the Netherlands. Thanks to Swanica Ligtenberg for making and sharing this body of some exquisite work.

Nothing new to report at this pottery - still dealing with cone 6 soda tests for a bit. I got all the current flashing slips done and some liners like celadon, temmoku and shinos batched, along with a couple of colored slips; but now I'd like to get some exterior glaze possibilities batched. I designed a couple of bases and will start weighing those out today. By the weekend, I should be finished and then go back to getting these cone 10-11 soda pots lined.

John Britt and I are planning on firing all his and my test tiles in his small soda kiln later next week, and I might even be able to get my cone 10 soda firing in after Christmas. It will be good to have both of these projects wrapped up before the New Year. It's been a bit of a mind scramble, multi tasking journey, having to shift gears in the middle of one project to start another, then merging the two into a bisque firing which I unloaded yesterday.

R.I.P. Malcolm Davis

2011-12-14T15:21:00.000-05:00

Malcolm Davis passed away yesterday - such a loss! He took American shinos to another level with his years of work on carbon trap recipes and firing techniques, discovering how wax resist over the glaze could give these wonderful patterns, etc.etc. He will be sorely missed.

Spent part of the morning with John Britt, dipping some of his test tiles in some of the flashing slips I made. He'll be putting them in the Energy Exchange wood/soda firing this weekend. I opted to skip it since it turns out it won't be just a firing of tiles as I was originally told, and with 155 of my tiles alone (so far), they wouldn't have room for all of them. So John and I will be doing another firing in his small soda kiln in another week or so. That will actually work better for me since I fire with gas and only introduce a bit of wood in the kiln, so I'll get much more useable results for from that firing.

In the meantime, the flashing slip tests in the wood/soda kiln will give us a good idea if I've fluxed them enough for cone 6 or too much and make some adjustments before we fire in Johns kiln.

On another note, this gives me more time to batch some more cone 6 glazes I've designed for soda. So, it's all good.

I spent the rest of the day (still at it), redoing my notes and chart on the finished tiles, and got my early dinner prep done for tonight's dinner - fettucine with an alfredo type sauce with sauteed mushrooms and ham. It's one of my favorite pastas, but since I put it in the category of "heart attack specials", I only make it once or twice a year and hope the wine will lessen the damage from the cholesterol. :-)

One more day of test tile batching and dipping

2011-12-12T10:36:00.000-05:00

Here's the second section of Jim's wonderful, under the tree decoration. It's such fun to wake up and turn on the Christmas tree and other Christmas lights on the staircase - such a happy pre dawn vision.

Before breakfast I headed to the studio to clean up a couple of the cone 10 slipped plates and dipped a few more raw tiles and got the bisque kiln loaded with the tiles and the last of the cone 10 pots. They're warming up a bit to dry things out and I'll start the bisque this afternoon.

The cone 6 test tile count is up to 137 tiles with more to be done today. Tomorrow I'll be wadding them all. If it were my kiln, I'd just lay them on a good layer of alumina hydrate; but in the wood/soda kiln I think it best to wad them.

With some very early studio time, I need to get my tonight dinner prepped early. It's potato pancakes tonight. The potatoes and onion are peeled so I just have to grate the potatoes and get everything mixed and ready to go so I can work till 5 o'clock.

111 Test tiles

2011-12-09T20:30:00.000-05:00

A hundred and eleven test tiles done and the test tile marathon will continue for a few 3 or 4 more days. then I can get back to finishing my cone 10 pots and get a soda firing in - hopefully before the New Year!

I quit at four o'clock when Jim arrive with 60 clams which I had to get soaking and scrubbed. Then I steamed them with white wine, onion,garlic, thyme, parsley, garlic and pepperonici pepper. That lovely broth along with butter to dip the clams and crunchy bread made for a very satisfying and filling taste treat.

Time now for some mindless TV and maybe some computer scrabble or Word with friends (my new discovery).

The day's agenda

2011-12-08T10:12:00.000-05:00

Made another loaf of this delicious nutty, fruity bread yesterday morning. Instead of going back and forth - house to studio, during the various risings, etc. I opted to take care of other pre Christmas chores like getting family Christmas cards done and some on line Christmas shopping and then spent all afternoon on getting another 12 tests tiles done.

This morning I prepped all the veggies for tonight's Mexican stir fry,enabling me to work till five. Today I'm weighing out some oribes, temmokus, and maybe another shino or two.

Under the Christmas tree farm scene

2011-12-07T09:42:00.000-05:00

Jim spent a few hour yesterday setting up the farm and village scenes under the tree. Most of these are from my childhood, with a few new and vintage additions over the years. These go very well with my overly decorated, Victorian looking Christmas tree.

Started another nutty fruity sourdough early this morning and it should be finished it's first rise in half hour or less. I'll be back in the studio right after breakfast, then running back and forth to the house, dealing with the bread, as needed.

I met yesterday's goal of dipping and marking 28 new test tiles. That makes a total of 64 tiles now finished. There are two batched which I need to dip this morning and more glazes and slips to weigh out later today. Glazes are not a challenge for cone 6 reduction, but flashing slips are, so I've tweaked some common flashing slips, upping the Neph Sy in some, doing the same in others but adding some borax and/or soda ash.

We had a lovely steak dinner at the Knife and Fork last night, and brought half of it home, so we have leftovers tonight which means I get a full studio day. Life is so very good!

Pizza and margaritas after a studio day

2011-12-05T21:25:00.000-05:00

Got a head start on batching soda and glaze tests and threw more porcelain test tiles. Tomorrow I'll smooth them out and apply the slips and glazes I made today. Between today and tomorrow day I should have about 28 new test tiles to add to some already made.There are more to make in the next several days - definitely a week of marathon weighing, mixing and dipping.

The first gas, cone 6 soda firing didn't result in usable flashing slips, so I'm re-doing some of them with added neph sy, and some with both extra neph sy and a bit of borax. They also didn't get enough body or later reduction in that firing which could may have affected the color and surface. Hopefully the extra fluxes will makes one of more of them useable at cone 6 and the natural reduction in the Energy Exchange wood pallet kiln may give rich color in the flashing slips and even more fluxing of the iron in them and some of the clay bodies.

Time to kick back for the night, play with kitty and finish watching A Christmas Carol.

Cone 6 soda/wood project back on the calendar

2011-12-04T20:53:00.000-05:00

This morning I heard from John Britt to say our cone 6 wood/soda test firing is on again at the Energy Exchange, so I need to stop working on these cone 10 soda pots, and focus on getting more cone 6 glazes batched and on to tiles in the next ten days. Fortunately I have a lot of Cone 6 test tiles already bisqued, and some tests already weighed out; but I want to make the most of this test firing and have a lot more tests ready to go since there will only be test tiles in this firing.

This morning I got a loaf of oatmeal bread started (the bread machine comes in real handy on busy days), then tidied up the gallery and studio. I had to move some of the finished South American pepper plants outside, which had been taking up studio space until the peppers ripened. I hadn't planned that job for today, but one of my customers called about coming over, so it was a good opportunity to get those jobs done.

I spent today's spare time going through some of my glaze notebooks and finding more likely cone 6 glazes and flashing slips for testing. I'll go through a couple of more glaze books tonight and early tomorrow; but I already have a pretty big stack of test sheets written out to get me started right after breakfast tomorrow.

After that, I started on dinner - a new Malaysian shrimp,green bean, shallot, hot pepper,coconut milk, shrimp paste peanut sauce dish. I'll make that one again and maybe try it with chicken next time. I also found time to do some on line Thai grocery shopping so I can continue exploring more recipes in this South East Asian cookbook. I like these recipes, because, although they have a lot prep time, I can do that earlier in the day and the actual stir fry cooking time at the end of the day, when I'm tired, is only a couple of minutes.

It was a good and busy day; but I'm ready to relax with my glaze books for another hour with some TV in the background.

Todays project

2011-12-01T19:56:00.000-05:00

Two days of dealing with computer and printer problems gave me time in between to get earthenware slip and glaze recipes and other information neatly organized into a new notebook. Dipping my feet in the world of earthenware is one of my projects for next year, along with working on lowering my soda firings to cone 6.

I got the old desktop and old laptop back working but still haven't figured out some of the problems caused when I tried to install the printer software on this laptop. The computer guy is coming Monday, so maybe he can figure it all out. Until then, I'll keep busy in the studio, and hope mercury retrograde doesn't create more studio delays for me.

It's snowing!

2011-11-29T15:51:00.000-05:00

I've been dealing with computer and printer problems all day and still don't have it all figured out; but I did get my desktop to stop freezing after a few hours of cleanup and setting changes. It took about an hour to get the printer to stop a "no paper" error message. The only fix was to unplug the printer from the computer.

Now I have to see if I can find a way, by using the printer computer settings, to stop it from printing backgrounds, so I can make copies of Jim's new book. At the moment, he's transcribing it by hand! :-(

So much for my intended studio day! Since I have the sausage,bean,potato,escarole soup made and just have to heat it and make parmesan toast, I'll continue this computer work for another hour and enjoy the vision of the falling snow from my office window.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

2011-11-28T08:40:00.000-05:00

It's been a bit of a manic week getting ready for Thanksgiving and getting outdoor Christmas lights up before the bad weather hits, and doing the majority of indoor decorating. Yesterday I got the tree decorated, and Jim and I got the garlands up on the fireplace and staircase and a few other little Christmas accents around the house.

Jim still has to do the under the tree village and farm set up; but most of Christmas decor is now done other than some live arrangements. I'll wait another week or so before I go tromping through the woods to cut some evergreens for fresh holiday arrangements. Meantime, it's time to think about getting back to the studio.

I'm way behind on this firing which was supposed to be done late October; but with a viral bug that keeps coming and going and holiday prep, I'm trying to play catch up. Thank goodness I opted to skip the December TRAC tour because my stock is way down. But with one of my ten minutes dinners planned for tonight (linguini with clam sauce), I'll get a full studio day today.

Joy Tanner soda/wood fire teapot

2011-11-21T18:13:00.000-05:00

Here's another lovely piece from Joy Tanner, with one of Anita Connelly's lovely painting in the background. They're both available now at the TRAC gallery in Burnsville, NC.

Spent forever trying to find the new chili recipe this morning, to no avail;but fortunately I had made out the shopping list so I knew some of the core ingredients and forged ahead to make up my own recipe. It turned out very well, with a two thumbs up from Jim, so I'm sharing it here, since that's just about all I did today - make chili and corn bread and dealt with a lot of mail.

June's chili- Serves 4 -6

1 lb Ground Beef (I use ground chuck)
1 C diced onion
3 cloves garlic minced
1 large green bell pepper diced
1 small serrano chile or ½ of a larger one, trimmed and minced (can use ½ or more of a jalapeno or to taste)
2 8 oz cans of tomato sauce
1 can of rotel tomatoes with green chilis
1 can of black beans
1 can of kidney beans
1 small bottle of beer
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp cumin or more, depending on your taste preference
1/4 tsp oregano leaves
salt and a few grindings of black pepper to taste
1 or 2 T Extra virgin olive oil.

Put a thin layer of the olive oil in a heavy pan and turn on high. When pot is very hot, add the ground beef and stir, breaking it up to brown it a bit. About midway in the browning, add the diced onion and green pepper. Stir and minute or two then turn the heat down to medium high , and cook stirring occasionally, till the onion is transparent, then add the minced garlic and cook, stirring about 30 seconds. Then add the tomato sauce and rotel tomatoes, kidney beans and black beans and the spices and beer. Bring to a boil, then turn to low and let simmer for an hour or two, stirring periodically.

Serve topped with grated cheddar or other cheese and diced onion. Cornbread goes great with this.

++NOTE: The chili will taste hot in the beginning and look thin, but when you top it with the cheese and onion when serving, it will lessen the heat.

Joy Tanner pots from the TRAC show

2011-11-20T15:31:00.000-05:00

Jim and I went to Burnsville Friday for Joy Tanner and Anita Connelly's opening at TRAC. Joy is a young, very talented soda/wood firer, currently serving a residency wit her equally talented potter husband, Will Baker at the Energy Exhcange. Anita's watercolors and other paintings are wonderful. It's a great show pairing!

Yesterday we took advantage of the beautiful weather to drive up to Banner Elk for some shopping, antiquing and lunch. When we got home I baked another, different loaf of a sour dough nut and fruit bread. We decided that we liked the first recipe better. The evening was topped off with a lovely dinner with good friends.

Today has been a day for dealing with some paper work, getting my Thanksgiving turkey in a brining solution, and now time to start on some early dinner prep of salad, mashed potatoes and fried shrimp.

I got the last of the pots slipped Friday, but still need to do some decorating. Hopefully I should get a pretty full studio day tomorrow and Tuesday. Wednesday will be an all day of food prep and baking.

Yummy, Nutty, fruity bread

2011-11-18T09:31:00.000-05:00

The fruity nutty sourdough bread I made yesterday is a wonderful breakfast bread. I have two other similar recipes to try; but this one is definitely a winner. I'd been looking for a heavy, chewy, nut and raisin breakfast bread for a while - similar to the ones you can buy at some artisan bakeries. It worked great with the new bake pan.

It's cold this morning and they predicting that it's going down to 17 degrees tonight, so I'll have to check those covered peppers and pick what I can as soon as the day warms up a bit, because even a thick layer of remay is not going to help with cold at that level. I should have put the cover on the cold frame and I'm just hoping my artichokes have enough life in the roots to save the plants if I cover them today.

I'm finally getting into the studio today; but will work part half a day. I have to quit early and head to Burnsville for some chores and then to Joy Tanner's and Anitas Connelly's opening reception at the TRAC gallery.

New baking pan

2011-11-17T15:03:00.000-05:00

Finding studio time this week, while planning Thanksgiving and tending to outside chores has been a challenge. Since my bread supply is low I decided to try a new recipe and the new baking pan. The fruity, nutty, sourdough bread is now wrapped up in a towel and sitting snuggly on a living rooms club chair waiting for the first rise to finish.

Chicken soup was a good choice for this cold, windy, rainy day; and I have leftover stove top rice pudding for dessert, thanks to Joy Tanner's mouth watering post about this recipe the other day.

There's still a bunch of email and snail mail to go through and some lunch waiting;but first, there's a kitty to be fed.

Cooking morning studio afternoon

2011-11-16T09:21:00.000-05:00

It's a foggy, rainy, mountain top morning - a good morning to cook. After a buckwheat pancake and turkey bacon breakfast, I'll start on my meat sauce for tonight's ziti casserole. And since my mouth was watering after reading Joy Tanners note on her cardamon flavored rice pudding, I just have to make that as well! Thanks Joy!

Then it will be on to the studio for most of the afternoon. There was no studio time yesterday, which was a running around day - first to the osteopath for treatments for both of us then, then the big meal of our day at the buffet, followed by some early Thanksgiving grocery shopping. If you're price comparing, Ingles fresh turkeys were 40 cents a lb more than Walmarts - huge saving if you're buying one of those big birds!

Kiln shelf cleaning day and long term planning

2011-11-14T07:28:00.000-05:00

OK, I've put it off long enough. Today is kiln shelf cleaning day - doing it outdoors this afternoon when it warms up to the mid sixties. This morning I'll slip the last pots and continue glazing and decorating. My daily horoscope said "expect to have a very trying day". Now how did it know it was kiln shelf cleaning day - one of my least favorite studio jobs.

The past few days have been dedicated to kitchen and household duties and studio paper work - sketching, working on glaze recipes and researching some low fired slips and glazes. Since that viral bug came back again for a few days, it was an opportunity to take it easier and get a lot of these kitchen and sit down chores done. My daughter tells me a friend of hers with this same bug has been dealing with it for 6 months - oh joy, NOT!

My long term plan (as long term as you can plan at almost 72 years of age, :-), is to switch to cone 6 soda as soon as I get some good test results and then play around with some earthenware. After this cone 10 firing I'll be getting a lot of the cone 6 tests done and hopefully get a small cone 6-7 soda test firing in next month. I have a lot of glaze tests already batched - just have to get them mixed and sieved and on to test tiles which are already made, so it should only take me a week to complete that project. Having a good digital scale is a real time saver when it comes to weighing out glazes.

Margaritas, caviar and chicken wings

2011-11-13T16:46:00.000-05:00

I'm enjoying my somewhat lazy weekend, catching up on kitchen and other household chores. The pureed pumpkin is in the freezer after first having it sit on cheesecloth to drain for a couple of hours this mornng. Half of that big pumpkin only gave me 5 cups of puree (gave the other half to a friend for his restaurant); but it's enough for two pies and a couple of cakes or batches of pumpkin soup. The pumpkin seeds were roasted after being tossed in a mixture of butter, Worcestershire sauce, seasoned salt and garlic powder.

Jim enjoyed his birthday caviar so much that he requested it again tonight; but tonight we're using the inexpensive white fish roe instead. The freezers have gotten full again and I'm needing to start using some of the over flow. So, I'm defrosting some margaritas to go with the defrosted curried chicken wings we'll have after the caviar. It's definitely a smorgasbord kind of appetizer meal.

Hopefully I'll be back in the studio tomorrow; but I had one of those night where I was up at 2am and never able to go back to sleep so I've been moving real slow today. The dinner margarita should work it's magic and get me to sleep early - I hope!

Pumpkin day

2011-11-12T14:29:00.000-05:00

Today is kitchen day - finally tackled this big French pumpkin, got it dissected, cleaned, baked, and scooped out the hot flesh. Half of it took up the entire large baking sheet. Looks like I'll be making pumpkin pies and pumpkin soup, etc. in the near future. For now I think I'll freeze most of it once I run it through the food mill.

There's no time for studio work today, so I'll just do a bit of filing and catch up on some reading, before an early dinner and some pick up grocery shopping. The days sure do fly by too quickly lately.

Moving slowly this morning

2011-11-11T10:55:00.000-05:00

Enjoying a somewhat lazy morning after sleeping in late. I'm perusing my new Lidia Bastianch cookbook "La Cucina Di Lidia",and writing out a shopping list for tomorrow and doing some of tonight's pre dinner prep.The recipes are from Italy's Adriatic coast, so there are some nice fish recipes as well that I'll be eager to try.

There's a mushroom pie recipe in this book made with puff pastry, porcini mushrooms, pancetta, cheese and shallots in a cream sauce, that sounds really good. Think I'll try that one sometime next week.

Right now I need to prep Jim's birthday caviar toppings (tonight's first course). The eggs are boiled, so I just have to finely chop them and the onion and get the bread rounds buttered. With that done, I'll be able to stay in the studio until about ten minutes before dinner.

There's just one last bowl to finish trimming and then I'll start slipping this latest group of pots that were thrown to replace the ones I knocked off a table a few days ago.

Slip sliding away day

2011-11-10T07:50:00.000-05:00

Glad to say that the little test pot was fine at cone 10. Yesterday I was wary about the clay that I used for the latest group of pots and thought it may have been a mis-marked cone 6 body; but all is well, so I can go ahead and slip those pots after I finish a couple of made yesterday.

Before dinner I need to bring that big French pumpkin in off the porch, cut it up and get it baked, pureed and into the freezer. Other than some swiss chard, and I think, some parsnips, all the vegetables are now harvested.

We had a lovely birthday dinner for Jim at PF Chang's. It was like a tapas meal - (we mainly ordered appetizers); and as full as we all were we still shared a couple of orders of their banana stuffed egg rolls with coconut ice cream. Jim asked me to thank everyone for the birthday greetings!

Time to start a loaf of whole wheat in the bread machine before breakfast, and then on to the studio for the day. It's a month of completions in a sense. Jim is starting on the last chapter of his book and I will get that soda firing in within a month. Life is very good!

Propane ouch

2011-11-09T09:34:00.000-05:00

Didn't get the kiln shelves done yesterday because the propane people didn't come till late afternoon and I didn't want to set up saw horses in the driveway, be in the middle of a job and have to dismantle everything. The checkbook is now over eight hundred dollars down after writing the check for the propane. OUCH!

I did get the replacement pots thrown yesterday but not sure of the white clay body I used since I think the bag was mis-marked, so I dried out a tiny test pot and am firing that to cone 10 this morning in one of my tiny test kilns. If it doesn't melt down or badly warp then I'll know it's cone 10 and will slip those pots tomorrow.

It's Jim's 78th birthday today and he requested poached eggs for breakfast, and we're celebrating tonight with dinner with friends. The caviar I ordered for his birthday present is due to arrive tomorrow. I serve it on little, buttered toast rounds, topped with finely chopped hard boiled eggs and onions - food of the gods. It's a delicious, decadent and indulgent treat. I didn't know that beluga is now considered part of an endangered species and no longer available, but fortunately, the other high quality caviars are still available for these very special occasions.

Escarole sausage bean potato soup and parmesan toast

2011-11-08T08:03:00.000-05:00

This is an easy, comfort food dish after a busy studio day; and the other benefit is the recipe makes enough for us to put two more dinner portions for us in the freezer, with a smaller amount leftover for lunch another day.

It was a super busy day yesterday with workers in and out; but I managed to get a lot done even with all the interruptions. Unfortunately, I was rushing a bit trying to make up for the lost time and knocked over a bunch of stacked cups and tumblers and of course, they all broke. So, this morning I'll do some throwing to replace them and with a warm, sunny day in the forecast, I'm planning on setting up my new saw horse outside this afternoon and cleaning my kiln shelves.

This time of year is always so busy getting ready for a firing, putting the garden to bed and getting the house winter ready; and it seems that there's never enough time and energy at our age to get it all done; but I'm amazed at how much we can still actually accomplish, so that's a good thing!

Cruelly abandoned cute dog needs a loving home

2011-11-07T10:07:00.000-05:00

This cute little guy was cruelly abandoned near the Creek walk here in Bakersville. A woman in a car pulled up to a person walking by and asked if they wanted a dog, and when they said "no", she just dumped the dog out of the car. Please, pass this along and let's try to find this little guy a good, loving, permanent home. David Trophia at the Crimson Laurel Gallery, got him off the street and is trying to find someone to adopt him.

I got the bisqued sorted and dusted yesterday, got three liner glazes mixed and sieved and got some pots lined. I stopped an hour earlier than intended because I had forgotten to set the studio clock back, so I used that extra hour to work transcribing glazes recipes until it was time to start dinner.

Time to head to the studio, work till 4 then come in to start on tonight's dinner - salad, Sausage, bean, escarole, potato soup and parmesan toasted sourdough.

Least favorite studio job

2011-11-06T10:47:00.000-05:00

Getting a late start probably because I have to remix and sieve glazes (my least favorite studio job)- lots of donkey work, mixing settled glazes and washing all those sieves and buckets. But, with a good, big breakfast under my belt, email read, etc. I have no more excuses, so it's time to head out and get to work.

Bodhi and his pillow

2011-11-04T08:12:00.000-04:00

Bodhi has certainly found a way to make himself very comfortable.

As I thought, there wasn't much studio time yesterday; but after we got home from a lovely lunch and visiting Jim's sister and brother in law in Little Switzerland, I did at least get the bisque kiln unloaded and mixed the decorating slip and finished one pot before coming in for dinner.

The evening was spent transcribing glaze recipes from my latest spiral notebook which is falling apart, into a more substantial, hard cover,bound notebook. This will be my evening's work for a while. I have glaze notebooks that are close to 40 years old which are in better shape than this one year old one. There's no substance to the paper in these new ones and they're definitely not suitable for long term storage. It's a tedious job; but fortunately, the falling apart notebook was only about 1/3 full of recipes.

As soon as I finish this morning's "wake up" tea, I need to get to the studio to spread our some reclaim on plaster so it will dry out enough for me to throw a few things after breakfast.

Albino stag

2011-11-03T09:58:00.000-04:00

Here's a picture of the albino deer that was enjoying a relaxing afternoon in our woods two days ago. It was a pretty sight!

Yesterday was an Asheville day with stops at Highwater for some studio supplies and a few more grocery stops. Going to Asheville is always an all day affair so there was no studio time other than to check the bisque kiln which was still too hot to unload. That will be today's job when we get back from lunch with Jim's sister and brother-in-law.It will be another day doing local chores and probably no more studio time than emptying the kiln.

I got some Carolina shrimp at Fresh Market yesterday and will be trying a new S.E. Asian recipe tonight. I couldn't find the long beans called for in the recipe; but in the photo it looks like green beans to me, so I'll just get some of those on our way back from lunch.

Great cup show

2011-11-01T12:29:00.000-04:00

Check out Charlie Cummings gallery cup show - some amazing pots. If this link doesn't show, just copy and paste this:

http://claylink.com/zen/

I spent quite a while viewing this huge, very diverse, wonderful cup show this morning.

The bisque kiln is on (turned it on first thing this morning). I'm feeling a bit wiped this morning, so I took the morning off to do some pot sketching and making out tomorrow shopping lists. I need to get to Highwater and get a few supplies and do some pick up food shopping. After company and a long weekend of entertaining, the cupboard is a bit bare.

I still have to weigh out another liner glaze and then get it and the one I made yesterday sieved, so I'll try to get to that chore right after lunch.

No rest for the weary

2011-10-31T08:20:00.000-04:00

Since I was up so early, I decided to get in the studio around 5:30 am and tidy up the pots I slipped yesterday, get them decorated and drying. As soon as the sun comes up I'll put them outside and hopefully the sun and wind will help them along and I'll be able to fire this last big load of bisque tomorrow. There are a couple of small pots which I still have to quickly slip this morning and they'll get bisqued in my tiny test kilns as soon as they're dry.

At some point today, I also need to make some small batches of two of my celadon liner glazes. If the cone 6 soda tests in the December firing are fruitful, this may be my last cone 10 soda firing and I don't want to batch any more glaze than I need for this group of pots. If all goes well, I'll still have some cone 10 clays to use up, but I'm thinking I might just do a couple of straight cone 10 gas firings of shinos in my small Olympic kiln, or even the big kiln depending on how many pots I wind up with. My thirty year old shino soup bowls have been well used and are starting to look a bit shop worn, so it would be nice to make us some new ones.

Partying weekend coming to a close

2011-10-30T13:37:00.000-04:00

Tonight or tomorrow morning I need to pack up these pots and ship them to Oregon. Now I'll have make some more of the larger bowls during the next throwing cycle.

Last night's party was a great hit and the weekend partying has ended with a lovely brunch with our son Sean at the Knife and Fork. Sean is now on his way back to California, the house is post party cleaned and tidied and my focus is already on what I need to do in the studio; but first I have to plant a magnolia bush/small tree to replace the dead Redbud tree which Sean dug out for me yesterday, and then I can get a couple of hours of studio time before dinner, which is going to be super easy with leftovers - pate, chowder and a fresh salad.

Party time

2011-10-29T09:34:00.000-04:00

This morning, our son Sean grabbed a bunch of my best pots out of the gallery to ship to his Oregon house. The shelves are looking a bit bare right now so I'm going to have to get in a lot of full studio days next week and get that last load of bisque fired and batch some more of my liner glazes which are all very low. Now that I'm over that 3 week plus virus, I have a lot of catching up to do.

After last nights wonderful dinner, with great wines, I had no trouble going to sleep. I found out that I can't finish a 3 lb lobster by myself, even when I only have salad to go with it; but Jim and Sean had no trouble finishing theirs and mine.

Although I had no trouble going to sleep, I had trouble staying asleep and have been up since a little past 3am, so I've been getting a good head start on preparations for tonight's party.

The dining room table is set and the living room is company ready, so I have very little to do the rest of the day other than making some toasted bread rounds for the pate and reheating the clam chowder that Sean had sent along with the lobsters. Our friend Jim is contributing the pork butt and the fixings for the sliders, and my Jim is in charge of the wine and acting as my "go for" person.

Lobster fest tonight

2011-10-28T08:26:00.000-04:00

After doing some seeds saving after breakfast yesterday, I got a bit of studio time finishing a small group of pots and then spent a lot of time at the sink washing clay bags and other things, and sorting through some paper work. After thatI got in some good garden cleanup time and harvested the last French pumpkin which I gave to Nate and Wendy at the Knife and Fork where we had another lovely dinner. My pork chop was unbelievably good! After dinner, we topped off the days activities with some weekend food shopping.

This morning will be spent cooking. I need to bake bread and make a pate for tomorrow's indoor porch sitting with family and friends.Our son Sean is flying in from California for the weekend, and he's having Maine lobsters and chowder shipped in (he already sent the wine), so we are going to dine royally tonight! All I have to do is make a salad and cook the lobster and re-heat the chowder.

I'm not planning any studio time today because once the morning cooking is done, I still have a lot of little household chores on the agenda to get the house company ready.

Aji Cito peppers

2011-10-26T11:05:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was a pretty full studio day. I quit around four thirty and took a few minutes to pick more of the hot peppers. These Peruvian aji cito chilies are still green but hopefully useable at this stage. Two are starting to turn yellow, so I'm hoping to save the seeds. The plants will remain covered and hopefully survive the colder weather and freezing nights this weekend; but I will put some heavier weight remay on them tomorrow.

Since today is the last good weather before rain and freezing nights this weekend, I need to plant a few things and dig up one of the aji lemonade pepper plants which is loaded with unripened peppers. It will be joining the other potted pepper plants in the studio.

A large Indian blend food order arrived yesterday and now that I have the fresh turmeric I'll be making one of the S.E. Asian recipes from that new cookbook - Kyet-Tha Khauk-Swe-Byoke (another Burmese dish I can't pronounce!). It's a spicy chicken, noodle dish with coconut milk, fish sauce, shallots, etc.I hope we love this one as much as the Burmese pork recipe I made last week. I'll get a lot of the prep done this morning and that may allow me to get a bit of studio time after planting.

Potters of Japan part 2 video

2011-10-23T09:11:00.000-04:00

Going to enjoy a lazy morning catching up with a bunch of magazines, then afternoon brunch with visiting relatives and back to lazy mode for the evening. In between I'll be popping a lot of vitamin C, immune system boosters, and anti cold/flu concoctions to relieve these symptoms. Three weeks dealing with this bug is enough!

I've been using this down time to do a lot of studio paperwork, sketching, etc. Yesterday I went through the first cone 6 soda test tiles and made followup notes. Almost every one of the flashing slips was too dry as is, so all will need tweaking before another cone 6 test firing. Changing the soda mix and instead of using all soda ash, replacing all or part of it with sodium bicarb with an addition of borax might help to flux these flashing slips without too much alteration.

The best flashing slip out of about eight or more, in that firing, was Randy's, which has some high iron fireclay and I think that iron helped with the fluxing because a 70 grolleg, 30 N.Sy. slip was dryer than the Randys, which has less Neph Sy. So I'm thinking some of these may not just need the Neph Sy upped, but may need some soda ash and/or borax additions as well.

Potters of Japan video

2011-10-22T09:34:00.000-04:00

This Part 1 video of Potters of Japan has been generously shared on you tube. Enjoy!

We got a freeze last night and the garden looks pretty sad this morning. I'm not sure if the remay and towel coverings on some of my peppers plants saved them. After tonight, the rest of the week will be above freezing, so I'm hoping that will be enough to ripen some more of these peppers. If they survive these two freezing nights, I might dig up one or two of them and bring them indoors.

I changed my studio plan yesterday. Instead, I covered plants, harvested all the veggies I could and did some weeding. After that I was wiped and decided to spend time on glaze chemistry before going to friends for a lovely shrimp dinner. This darned virus thing is on another re-run since yesterday so I'll try to get some studio time after breakfast if these chills go away and I perk up. Otherwise, I'll just work on this paper pile and glaze project.

I've been going through my glaze recipe books this week and making notes on C6 glazes to batch and test; and re-calculating some cone 10 recipes to try to get them to work at cone 6. It's a big project and one I want to and need to do, if I'm serious about changing to cone 6 soda in the future.

Drying herbs

2011-10-21T10:14:00.000-04:00

This Thai basil drying on my dining room table created an interesting pattern and reminds me of a Japanese scroll painting.

Got all the pots slipped yesterday but will have to do some touch up of the slip and decorate a a couple of them today. Spent the evening still going through glaze books and doing some pot sketching - was even dreaming of work last night.

Looks like we're getting the freeze tonight, that we escaped last night, so I'll be covering some pepper plants and harvesting what I can and hope for the best. After two nights of low temperatures, we'll have several days of above freezing at night and hopefully the last of those pepper will ripen enough to be used.

Time to get to the studio for the day. Since I don't have to cook tonight I can get in a full day.

Snow on the way

2011-10-20T10:13:00.000-04:00

Wow, rain turning to snow tonight. That might be the end of my pepper plants if I don't get some waterproof covers for them.

Yesterday was a busy studio day, and as always, never quite getting as much done as I wanted; but some pots got trimmed, handles and knobs made and attached,etc. I had to take time to clean the studio fridge (the one I've been using as a damp cupboard), because the house fridge and freezer are over stuffed and we needed to thin it out.

I worked till 4:30 and came in to prepare dinner. A headache and aching back made food prep a real chore; but the new recipe I made was a hit, and I had dinner on the table in about 40 minutes or less.

I can't even pronounce the Burmese dish I made: Wet-Tha-Khauk-Swe-Gyaw. It's a stir fry with thinly sliced pork, noodles, onions, chiles, fish sauce,garlic, ginger, soy sauce and celery. The best part is that we have leftovers for tonight.

I'm looking forward to making more recipes from this South East Asian cook book.

Well, just finished breakfast and getting a large on line order in for Indian groceries, so it's time to head to the studio for the day.

Will Baker

2011-10-19T07:58:00.000-04:00

Here's another amazing wood/soda fired bottle of Will Baker's from this years Spruce Pine Potters market - a spectacular piece!

Finally getting to the studio this morning to trim pots. It's a rainy day so cleaning kiln shelves outdoors on my new saw horses set up, will have to wait till the weekend when the sun is due to reappear.

Since most of yesterday was taken up with driving back and forth to Burnsville for our osteo treatments, lunch out afterwards and then dinner prep when I got home, my only pottery related time was spent going through some glaze books noting some likely cone 6 glaze candidates for a planned December cone 6 test soda firing. Even when you can't get into the studio there's always some other work related things to occupy your time.

Sausage fried peppers and onions heroes

2011-10-18T06:59:00.000-04:00

Enjoying some predawn quiet time after a busy, tiring day yesterday. The plan was to set up the saw horses and clean kiln shelves after trimming pots; but I decided to let the trimming wait - good thing, because when I opened the box containing the saw horses, I was faced with more parts than I could count. I started around 10am, took a lunch break and worked till 3:30 - close to 5 hours for me to get those two saw horses assembled and do a bit of kiln room sweeping and tidying.

By the time I was finished with that chore and setting trays under all the plants and trees that I brought indoors, watering them and feeding Bonnie kitty, I was wiped, so I called it a day. I took about an hour break for email and some paper work before starting dinner.

Fortunately dinner was easy - fried Italian sweet sausages, a big, sliced red onion and four sweet Italian and bell peppers from the garden and a half of a hot one. Once the sausages were browned, I added some water and red wine in the pan, salt and pepper and covered it and cooked them on low for about 25 minutes, removed the cover and turned the heat to medium high to reduce the liquid to a glaze. I served them on warmed, crunchy hero shaped rolls. We skipped the cheese for dessert because Jim had some for his lunch. Instead, we had some pumpkin pie with whipped cream and a glass of wine. It was another busy, but very good and beautiful Indian summer day in the mountains.

Today is a day for my osteo treatment so that and lunch out are going to take up half the day; and there probably won't be any time for the studio. By the time I get home it will be time to start thinking about dinner which may just be a simple pasta with fresh tomatoes, capers and olives (pasta putanesca) since I have a very large amount of cherry tomatoes on hand that we harvested two days ago.

Courtney Martin eye candy

2011-10-17T07:19:00.000-04:00

Here's a peek at more wonderful work of some of our Bakersville neighbors - Courtney Martins wood fired work on left and Shane Mickey's new soda fired pieces on the right, at this years Spruce Pine Potters market. The show was so crowded I had to settle for these quickly taken shots.

Going to try to get a bit earlier studio start to trim some pots this morning and in the afternoon I'll set up my new plywood top on the saw horses in the driveway and get my kiln shelves sanded. This is the last day of this Indian summer weather before the cold and rain arrives tomorrow, so I must get this job done today.

Yesterday we drove to Banner Elk to Lowe's for plywood and other items, and then some food shopping. Because it was warm and we had our dog Bodhi with us, we decided to grab something to eat at McDonalds and eat in the car. The french fries were soggy and barely lukewarm. McDonalds needs to work on their quality control!

On the way home we stopped at one of the road side stands about bought some freshly made kettle and caramel corn and munched some on the way home. That made up for the lousy lunch.

It was a nice drive, though. There's still some good fall color up there.

Once we got the car unloaded, I filled the new window box that I bought at Lowes and transplanted my basil seedlings which are now enjoying a sunny spot in our kitchen greenhouse window.

After a busy day I was happy to have some decent leftovers for an easy dinner. Tonight I'm making Italian sausage heroes, fried with onions and peppers from our garden. We have some lovely artisan cheeses from Murray's in New York which we'll have with some fruit for dessert. Life is good!

Nachos and margaritas

2011-10-16T08:32:00.000-04:00

The day was so full of "have to's", that one thing just led to another and I never got the studio time I wanted other than covering the pots before breakfast, that I threw the day before.

After breakfast, I made a mushroom bisque and packed up enough for two dinners and got those in the freezer, and set a little aside for us for lunch.
Then I got the veggies prepped for our nachos dinner. By then, it was time for lunch.

After lunch I had to clean off all my tropical and other tender potted plants and move them, with a bit of Jim's help with the larger pots, into the studio till spring.

Then I headed to the garden to harvest and cover all the peppers and basil because of a frost warning. I also dug up the sweet potato bed and found out what I already thought - the critters ate all of them! Well, to be fair, they actually left me two tiny ones about the size of a small chili pepper. :-(The forest critters really helped themselves to a lot of my veggies this year - more than they ever have.

Jim and I also harvested a large amount of cherry tomatoes (which keep coming and coming). I picked what looks like the last of the green beans, some herbs for drying, one of the French pumpkins and Swiss chard for a friend.

By the time all that was done it was time to start dinner - nachos and margaritas. After dinner and double margaritas, we were ready to call it a night, and at eight o'clock we headed for the bedroom to watch our favorite Brit com "As Time Goes By", followed by an episode Inspector Lewis on Netflix. All in all, it was a very good, productive day even though I didn't get any studio work done.

Today I need to get to Banner Elk for a piece of plywood to use as a top for my new saw horses. My kiln shelves need grinding and coating and I'm planning on getting that done tomorrow since it's going to be the last, warm day this week.

Gay Smith display at Spruce Pine Potters market

2011-10-15T09:33:00.000-04:00

Here's some morning eye candy - Gay Smith's wonderful soda fired work on display at this years Spruce Pine Potters market.

Today is going to be a mixture of activity. I was in the studio at first light covering the pots I threw yesterday. After breakfast I have to make a mushroom bisque, then I'll head to the studio for a couple of hours to finish and trim some of those pots.

Since there's a frost warning tonight, I'll stop working mid afternoon so Jim and I can move all the tropical plants indoors for winter. I'll also have to harvest whatever veggies are ready probably beans and peppers. The pumpkins and squash would actually benefit by a bit of frost as will the swiss chard and the couple of leeks that the critters didn't eat. I picked the seasons last ripe tomatoes this week, and I'll be using them in tonight's nachos.

Claudia Dunaway at this years Spruce Pine Potters market

2011-10-14T09:48:00.000-04:00

Here's a quickly taken photo of Claudia Dunaways display at this years Spruce Pine Pottery market - very nice work.

I didn't take many pictures at the market this year. Arriving later than usual, I found the place very crowded and it was difficult to find those little openings past the hoards of people to sneak a photo. Jim was waiting in the car with our rescue dog Bodhi, and asked me not to tarry too long, so I didn't really get enough time to really appreciate all the wonderful work. Next year I'll go back to my normal, early arrival time.

Finally got the last pots slipped and all but one plate decorated. I'll finish that this morning; and probably throw a few more small things to top off this bisque load. It's a windy and so far, sunny morning, so I might be able to get a few fresh thrown pots outdoors to dry enough to trim later this afternoon.

Will Baker wood and soda fired pots

2011-10-13T08:41:00.000-04:00

These are Will Baker's soda/wood fired pots which were available this past weekend at the Spruce Pine Potters market. He and his equally talented bride, Joy Tanner, are serving a residency at the Energy exchange and firing the new wood pallet kiln that Mark Peters designed and built. They are getting some incredible work from this kiln.

Yesterday was another day of mixed activity - after breakfast meeting with our tree man, walking around pointing out where I wanted saplings and under brush removed, then on to the studio for several hours before I had to quit and come in to make dinner.

I got a few more pots slipped and got them all decorated and today I should be able to finish slipping and decorating the last few pots to top off this bisque load.

Dinner last night was an easy, but delicious pork tenderloin browned and roasted on the stove top with some garlic, thyme and red wine - another keeper recipe ready in less than an hour. I'll post it on my other blog, at: www.plantharvestcook.blogspot.com
later.

Bucatini all' Amatriciana

2011-10-12T08:28:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was the first full day of activity I've had in a couple of weeks. In the morning I baked bread, then got about 5 hours of studio time finishing, cleaning up and slipping a few pots, and starting a new shelf of pots in the bisque kiln. I quit around 3 to feed kitty and start dinner and good thing I did.

I was going to try a new Lidia Bastianich recipe and after soaking hot peppers overnight and getting them pureed, grating and toasting bread crumbs, and starting the simple sauce, I realized that this would not be a dish we'd enjoy. We love hot, spicy foods, but 3T of hot pepper puree with just some oil,garlic, and toasted, fresh bread crumbs to complete the sauce would have probably burned our insides. I tested it with just 1T of the puree and that was too hot! So I quickly changed course and found another bucatini pasta dish and basically made that one and added the toasted bread crumbs from the Bastianich recipe. It was a hit!

Jim said, "I hope you remember what you did". Basically I used the second recipe with just the addition of the bread crumbs, omitting the pepperonici flakes and instead, adding enough of that pepperonici paste to get it to the level of heat we'd be able to tolerate. I'll put the recipe on my cooking blog:
www.plant harvest cook.blogspot.com

This morning I have someone coming to cut down some saplings which are encroaching on my grape arbor and vegetable terraces and a couple of other places, then it will be back to the studio to finish slipping the last few pots and hopefully I'll be able to start decorating. I'll probably work till around 3:30 or 4 then come in to start dinner which is going to be a simple roasted pork loin, roasted garlic rosemary potatoes,green beans and apple sauce. Our apple trees were a bust this year otherwise I'd be making some spiced cooked apples to go with this.

Right now it's time for breakfast - kielbasa and fresh apple cake (thanks to Saylor's, our local apple orchard).

More colors of fall

2011-10-11T08:54:00.001-04:00

It's a good bread baking morning - cold and rainy, so I have a loaf of a new whole wheat recipe rising in the bread machine and it should be done before I head to the studio.

This is the first day in a couple of weeks where I don't have outside appointments and other "must do" garden and household chores, and am feeling well enough to get an early studio start. Hopefully I can get a lot accomplished today before I have to head in to make dinner. Tonight I'm making another new Lidia Bastianich vegetarian pasta recipe with bucatini pasta and a very spicy sauce with a pepperoici paste addition. I've had the peppers soaking overnight and will make the paste later.

Beautiful colors of fall

2011-10-10T17:39:00.000-04:00

We had a lovely drive over the Roan to Johnson City and the fall colors were fabulous and they're not yet at peak color!

I had to get to Home Depot to get some tempered hardboard and a few other studio and house items as well, followed by some wine and grocery shopping and lunch at the Indian buffet. By the time we unpacked the car, put everything away and fed the cat, it was after four, so the studio will have to wait till tomorrow.

After such a big lunch I think some fruit, cheese and a glass of wine is in order for dinner.

Spruce Pine Potters Market tomorrow

2011-10-07T17:41:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow is the Spruce Pine Potters Market and if you are in the area, it's definitely a must visit - great potters, beautiful and varied work and incredible weather at the moment.

We just got back from a lovely drive to Banner Elk - had lunch,did some grocery shopping, and checked out a new gallery and a local country store.It was a lovely surprise to see how much fall color they already have.

My lunch, a meatball hero, was huge (couldn't even finish half of it), so Bodhi got some and I brought the other half home for dinner - same with Jim and his steak hero. It's just as well I don't have to cook tonight. I'm deliciously tired from the lovely drive and shopping.

The past two days I've gotten almost no studio time - still not feeling 100%, so I opted to spend most of my time sketching pot ideas, cooking and doing computer cleanup and some glaze chemistry. I'm in the process of making lists of what cone 6 glazes I want to test in the December wood/soda firing in the pallet kiln at the Energy Exchange. I have a lot more glaze chemistry to do to try to get some 6 versions of some glazes I'm using in my cone 10-12 firings. Most of the current bisque and ready to bisque pots are for the cone 10 soda firing but I still need about two full studio days to get this latest group slipped and decorated. This flu type bug has set me back two weeks so far, in my planned mid October firing date, which now looks more like it will be late October or early November. Fortunately, the only deadline I've had is of my own making - which is how I like it!

Hsin-Chuin-Lin video

2011-10-05T08:17:00.001-04:00

This squaring and paddling is similar to what I have to do this morning to finish one of my small squared jars. Frankly, if I had to spend as much time on my jars, as he does on his, I'd either skip making them or make a mold of a master and cast the rest.

There was no studio time yesterday because I had an appointment with the orthopedic surgeon In Asheville, about my hip. The bad news is that the hip is going to need replacement; but the good news is that there's a new procedure which reduces healing time from 12 weeks to 5. This new technique doesn't have the post operative activity limitations as the old one either. So I'll probably be having this done sometime in February or early March, and be fully healed time for spring planting.

I made a few other stops, first to the Asian grocery store, then on to lunch at the seafood store/restaurant. I bought some sea bass fillets that I'm going to use for a Burmese dish Ngar-asat-kyaw. It's crispy fried, turmeric coated and marinated fish with crispy chili, garlic and shallots. I'll get the dish's veggies and some garden beans prepped done breakfast so I can work in the studio till 4:30. After a Wally world stop for some pick up groceries, we headed home just in time for me to cook a couple of healthy hot dogs for a light, quick dinner, and crash for the night.

The new electric reduction kiln, The Fallonator

2011-10-03T11:10:00.000-04:00

Someone kindly emailed me a link to The Fallonator - the new electric reduction kiln which I mentioned in yesterdays' blog. It uses electric for the actual firing and a small bottle of propane for reduction, along with a digital controller so the kiln can fire automatically and I gather, adjust the amount of reduction.

The Fallonator site doesn't mention the price of the kiln which I believe is available in sizes from 5 - 7 cu feet, but the the puttgarden site says it's $10,00 (probably for the 7cu ft one)- pretty pricy for a small electric kiln, even with the reduction apparatus. If you are already the owner of an electric kiln, you can get on the pre construction list for the $1500 gas reduction unit which they say is very easy to install on your existing electric kiln.

One of the sites mentioned that it's not to be used to do a full cone 10 reduction firing; but instead, is meant for firing down in reduction, yet the main Fallonator site I looked at this morning, doesn't say that. So, I don't know if there have been changes in the design lately which enables a full reduction firing or if the information on another site was erroneous; but if you're interested in this kiln, make sure you find out what if any limitations there are with the reduction firing.

Here are the two main links I found with pictures and information on the kiln and related products.

http://puttgarden.com/crystal/tech/Vendors/fallon/fallonator.html or
http://www.fallonator.com

A do it yourself, inexpensive way of doing the same thing, would be to just get a tiny burner (a small, weed burning torch available for about $50 or less from a place like Harbor Freight or similar, would work and it probably would come with the hose and connector for small propane tank), and set the burner securely in front the bottom peep by setting in for instance on and surrounded by some stacked bricks or concrete blocks to secure it enough, and introduce the gas when you want to reduce; and if you have an oxyprobe or similar, you can insert that in one of the middle or upper peeps and pretty well accomplish the same thing. The only thing it won't do is fire automatically; but you'd save over $1400. You'd probably have to get a top vent for the kiln or fire it under cover outdoors; but I'm assuming that you would have to do the same with their kiln, since it's not pictured with a top vent installed.

I don't know what elements are installed on the Fallonator. They mention heavy duty elements; but don't specify if they're any different than other well insulated cone 10 electric kilns, like my Skutt, which are currently on the market. So you might want to ask about those elements. There has to be a reason for that big price tag, so maybe they have some globar type or other new very expensive elements installed.

In the late 80's or early 90's I had a tiny burner made for my little cone 10 electric test kilns, by Nils Lou, which used the same principle. In that instance, I just drilled a small port under the kiln and placed the burner under the port.

BRRRR

2011-10-02T10:14:00.000-04:00

At least some of my pepper plants are enjoying the safety of my studio for a couple of days.

We're still in this unseasonable cold spell, which fortunately, will be breaking Tuesday. Tonight it's going down to the low 30's, so I'll be covering a few more tender plants and leaving outdoor lights on to generate a bit of heat to help. I'm grateful that we didn't get the snow that they got in Boone last night!

Since I'm really tired of waiting for this cold/flu thing to totally leave,(mainly, I'm bored!), I'm going to try to get some studio time today. The past two days have been spent going through years of recipe clippings and cards and getting them sorted and filed into various recipe boxes and folders. With that job done, I'm ready to get back to work even if my energy isn't 100%.

Talking to Tom Turner at the party last night, about kilns and glazes, I found myself in firing envy, when he said his new Cone 9 crystalline pots were firing while we were partying. And of course, my husband Jim, who has been bugging me about switching to electric firing in my old age, was giving me that "I've been telling you to do this" look! LOL

I have a base formula for a cone 6 crystalline glaze that a friend in our glaze testing club/group in Oregon, gave me over fifteen years ago; and like Tom's current crystalline glazes, this one doesn't run either. I should play around with those a bit this winter, since I contemplated crystalline firing at that time, and amassed a lot of information on the process. After serious consideration, and after making pots and saucers, I realized that I just didn't want to get into that whole thing of having to make saucers, chiseling them off the pots and grinding those glazed bases, not to mention how often elements would have to be replaced. I know you don't have to make pots you like, you just have to like the pots you make; but I realized, that although I might like those pots; I really wouldn't enjoy the process.

Tom mentioned someone (I think he said in Florida), who's designed an electric reduction kiln that's doesn't destroy the elements after a few firings. I don't know if it has globar elements, or if it's some new technology; but it does sounds intriguing! I'd like to get an electric kiln that's smaller than my large Skutt but larger than my tiny test kilns and one that reduces would be a great studio addition. I don't know if this is a kiln that was just designed for personal use or if there are plans to produce it commercially; but I will definitely try to keep track of it.

Today I need to finish up some pots that have been under plastic a few days. I just hope they're still soft enough to alter and finish. Time to get to work.

Time to move some plants indoors

2011-09-30T08:42:00.002-04:00

This is the leftover chicken canzanese we had last night. I think it's about the best chicken dish I've ever tasted. It's an easy, but time consuming dish -about two hours plus from start to finish but worth it - a great dish.

Just saw the local weather - it's going down to the 30's tonight - time to bring some of my potted plants indoors, and cover some in ground veggies with remay. I have several pots of South American chile peppers still ripening, so they'll all get moved into my studio for the night few nights at least. I'll also have to get into the garden this afternoon and harvest whatever I can.

My studio and other plans for the past two days went awry with the return of the scratchy throat, swollen glands, etc, so yesterday I skipped the trip to Asheville with Jim, and stayed home popping vitamins, doing paper work, computer clean up and cooking. I perked up enough in the afternoon to pull some weeds and pick about a quart and a half of cherry tomatoes - enough to make a simple pasta sauce in a couple of days. It's dinner at the Knife and Fork tonight.

Free green beans and self indulgent whining

2011-09-28T10:01:00.000-04:00

Yesterday morning was spent running around getting the dog to the groomer, and grocery shopping, followed by bit of very non productive studio time. I should know better than try to force it when my body and mind are not up to it. Fortunately I got dinner veggies prepped early yesterday, so dinner didn't take too much time.

Hoping to garner some energy this morning, I made a big heart attack breakfast; but it doesn't seem to be working so far. I'll head to the studio and to finish up a few pots that can't wait and then call it a day; but first, I have to get back on the phone at ten o'clock and find out why I never got a call back on parts I need for my gas range, take a big handful of vitamins, and get more beans prepped for the freezer, unless someone wants about a quart or so of free, tasty,fresh green beans!

2011-09-27T08:17:00.000-04:00

I'm trying to add something new to each firing. This time it's a couple of these double jam pots. Next time I think I'll try the handle in the other direction which I think will make for a more stable attachment on this shape cup; or just change the shape of the cup.

Yesterday was a mish mash day of activity. I finally got that second bamboo and a Japanese maple tree planted and of course, once I get in the garden to do one job, there are other things that call. My late crop of bush beans is producing well, so I had to pick those as well as some cucumbers and serrano chiles. Some of the Peruvian and other chiles are coming in but I'll wait a couple of days to pick them.

Then,it was on to the studio for the remainder of the afternoon to throw a few pots and finish up some others. There won't be much studio time today. After breakfast I have to get those bush beans prepped and in the freezer and then be out and about with assorted chores. Dinner will be simple - fried shrimp, mashed potatoes and green beans, so I should be able to squeeze in a couple of hours of studio time if I get the dinner veggies prepped this morning.

Pasta Puttanesca

2011-09-25T08:28:00.000-04:00

This pasta puttanesca calls for a 28oz can of tomatoes; but I decided to use all the cherry tomatoes on hand, which Jim picked for me. It's a quick and easy dish if you use canned tomatoes and the added anchovy paste, garlic, olives and pepperonici pepper, makes for a very tasty, savory dish. The best part is I have enough sauce leftover to make it again tonight. I'll post the recipes and the bawdy history of this dish this dish on my other blog: http://www.plantharvestcook.blogspot.com

It poured overnight so the ground is probably too wet to plant that incense bamboo and Japanese maple this morning, so I may get a couple of hours of studio time before we head to brunch; and hopefully I'll be able to get those things planted this afternoon, and then head back to the studio to finish and trim a couple of pots I threw yesterday.

Japanese Anemones

2011-09-24T10:51:00.000-04:00

I think these are my favorite perennials - maybe it's because I have to patiently wait till late August for them to begin flowering; or maybe it's just because they are so beautiful! I have pink ones as well - both equally delightful as they happily dance in the slightest breeze.

Late yesterday, my other bamboo arrived (a timber, incense bamboo that has tasty shoots)and this one is in great condition. There was also a bonus Japanese maple in the pot. It looked a bit ragged but I think it will do OK. I don't know if the maple was a gift from the seller or just a volunteer that found it's way near the bamboo.

This morning we slept in after a lovely dinner with friends last night and then staying up late to watch one of our Midsommer mysteries on Netflix, so I'll put off planting these till tomorrow.

There's much to finish up in the studio today. A couple of pots need handles and the pots I trimmed and waxed yesterday will need slipping and decorating. I wish I had the energy to work till 11 pm like I did in my 40's and 50's; but these days it's usually just 6-7 hours in the studio most working days, and a couple of hours of studio paper work, sketching, etc. and cooking and garden or other chores.

The past two nights I've been dreaming of pots, but only have the faintest memory of some great pots revealed in my dreams. I have to remember to put a pen and pad next to the bed and write these down as soon as I get up!

Studio day and bamboo planting on the agenda

2011-09-22T08:38:00.001-04:00

I got a pretty full studio day yesterday and just have one large bowl to slip and decorate, then I'll throw a few more small pots with a white stoneware which I had to wet down a bit yesterday. All the Phoenix pots are slipped with Randy's flashing slip and these white stoneware pots will be for Lindas Yellow, which is nice and bright on this body; but a bit mudddy on the Phoenix.

At some point today, if there's a bit of clearing of the weather, I need to plant a bamboo (maybe two if the other one arrives). Most bamboos don't like clay soil, which is mainly what I've found almost every time I've put a shovel in the ground; but I have found two spots with what some locals call sugary soil, and one of them is in a fairly steep slope adjacent to some of my terraced vegetable beds. In this climate, the bamboo won't be as tall as it would be in a much warmer zone; and at the ten foot height, which is what it's advertised to be in this zone, I don't expect it to interfere with my vegetable growing.

Dinner is leftovers so I'll have plenty of time for studio with a short break to plant the bamboo. It feels good to be over this flu bug and back to work!

Studio day

2011-09-21T10:01:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I got some good studio time - filed some sketches, dipped and decorated some pots and loaded another shelf of bisque. We had an early dinner out at the Inn at Little Switzerland (Jim was craving one of their filet mignons). Last time I ordered duck there it was wonderful - meaty and fresh; but this time it was dry,and had very little, if any breast meat; but the lobster bisque was very good.

I'm moving a bit slowly on this foggy, rainy morning but will get into the studio to continue slipping and decorating the last few pots; but first I need to feed my sourdough starters which haven't been fed since early August. I just hope they're still alive. I also want to make a small batch of hakeme slip today to test on a couple of pieces.

Quesadillas and Cameras

2011-09-20T09:14:00.000-04:00

This is Jim's newest, favorite recipe - Quesadillas with additions of thinly sliced onion, serrano chiles and tomato. He started with this one and finished after three. A little guacamole, some melon, and a nice big margarita and some cookies topped off the meal.

Yesterday was spent harvesting and saving some bean and basil seeds, fiddling with my non working digital Casio Powershot camera and checking up on what's new or expected soon, in the digital camera marketplace. Powershot has a new model S100, coming out in November, so if my camera is on it's way out, I'll have to check that one out as well as one of the Panasonic models a friend suggested. The pre issue information on the Powershot S100 looks good, but no one is able to test it yet. Fortunately, my camera seems to be back working. On instinct or out of sheer desperation, after trying everything else,I pressed the power button and on/off button at the same time and that caused the camera to reset something. The error message disappeared and I the camera was once again usable.

It's amazing how quickly you use up time doing nothing in particular! I spent a lot of time trying to find a source for replacement micro switches for my Wolf gas range and finally gave up and wrote to Subzero, who is now manufacturing the home model of the Wolf range. The whole days time seemed to be spent on similar, little projects requiring back and forth emails.

I did manage a bit of time in the garden and only about half an hour in the studio. It was definitely a smorgasbord kind of day, with little bits of everything eating up time.

Jim Malone video

2011-09-18T18:55:00.000-04:00

This is a wonderful video of Jim Malone, one of my favorite potters from the UK. His work is strong, quiet, traditional,refined, yet unconscious and void of attention getting ego - just wonderful! I love some of the Leach and Cardew and other wisdom he shares on this video as well - a real 20 minute treasure!

Time to relax for the evening with a Midsommers mystery on Netflix, after after our quesadillas and margaritas dinner./youtu.be/3Er5PUXpo5c

This is a wonderful video of Jim Malone, one of my favorite potters from the UK. His work is strong, quiet, traditional,refined, yet unconscious and void of attention getting ego - just wonderful! I love some of the Leach and Cardew and other wisdom he shares on this video as well - a real 20 minute treasure!

Time to relax for the evening with a Midsommers mystery on Netflix, after after our quesadillas and margaritas dinner.

Wasted Saturday

2011-09-18T09:03:00.000-04:00

Last night's dinner was this fresh green bean soup and tuna salad(as you can see, Jim likes his sandwiches served open faced). The soup was a new recipe I found on the Internet and made Friday. It's not a keeper -not much flavor even with the chicken brother base, extra onion I added and it was also a bit too lemony for Jim, even though I instinctively added much less; but it sure looks pretty and the warmth felt good going down my scratchy throat!

After spending most of the day yesterday erasing duplicate photos in one of the two photo folders, so I could get down folder, it turned out to be a total waste of time! When I deleted what looked like a duplicate folder, the other, un-deleted folder, now said that it was empty Fortunately I didn't empty the recycle bin. I have no idea why I have two pictures folders on this laptop in my personal directory and another one in the Music directory and only one on my other laptop (both running Windows 7); and newly added photos automatically get put in all 3 folders! It is a puzzlement.

Since I still have a lot of tomatoes and serrano chiles, I'll make cheese,tomato onion and chile quesadillas for dinner tonight. If these chills leave me, I might make margaritas as well. I could use as much vitamin C as I can handle right now. :-)

Time to make the big Sunday, pancake and bacon breakfast.

Another raw, rainy morning

2011-09-17T10:08:00.000-04:00

It's a good day to stay quiet, sip a lot of chicken broth, and nurse myself while continuing computer cleanup and other paper work. Yesterday I did too much, spending a lot of time prepping veggies and cooking, in an effort to keep up with the garden abundance.

Cooking and seed saving among other things,kept me so busy that I never got into the studio to do any decorating; but I got a big batch of green bean soup and a pot of bolognese sauce made. We had spaghetti last night and there's some sauce for the freezer for another day; and the soup is enough for 3 meals if served with a sandwich which I'll be serving tonight with tuna salad sandwiches.

I have a lot of pot sketches on paper that I need to organize if I can finish this computer photo cleanup which is overwhelming. While my soup and sauce were cooking, I copied thousands of photos from one folder to put in another and now I have two of each in that other folder because the computer didn't recognize duplicates. Last night I spent hours on that project and got up to the k's! I think the universe just wants me to sit on my rump another day or two! LOL

Here's the URL for my gardening/cooking blog: http://www.plantharvestcook.blogspot.com/

Nachos

2011-09-16T09:27:00.000-04:00

Last night was nachos night - an easy, fast dinner using some of the tomatoes and serrano chiles so abundant this late in the season.

Yesterday and still this morning, I'm dealing with chills,swollen glands, etc.etc., so I opted to skip the studio and sit on my rump most of the day other than preparing our meals. I got a lot of computer photo cleanup done, read and filed a lot of old email and dealt with some paper work chores that seem to pile up way too fast, and put together a couple of wooden molds for slab work.

Looks like Jim may be coming down with the same bug so we won't be doing porch sitting with friends tonight. No need to share this.

There's some cooking to be done today - meat sauce for a pasta dinner and a green bean bisque to make for the freezer. Since I'm still not feeling 100% I think cooking will be it for today unless I perk up later. If I do, I'll try to get to the studio to just do some decorating on already slipped pots.

Strange potatoes

2011-09-15T14:57:00.002-04:00

Mickey Mouse?

No comment!

Someone requested a couple of the recipes I made recently (Thai Cucumber salad and Kosher dill barrel type pickles), so I'm posting them at the end of this post.

Since I'm a bit under the weather I've been finding lots of little, sit down jobs - putting together some molds I recently received, cleaning up my photo files and doing some Internet ordering. The studio will have to wait another day and hopefully all these vitamins and liquids will get rid of this fluish bug.

Here are those recipes:

Thai cucumber salad Serves 4

2 cucumbers peeled and sliced thinly
4 T sugar
2 T rice wine vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
4 T water
Pinch of Red Pepper flakes or to taste
1/4 cup red onion (halve or quarter the onion and slice very thinly)
1/4 cup fresh mint roughly chopped (or to taste. I used only a tiny bit)
Optional: 1/4 cup fresh cilantro roughly chopped

Combine all ingredients except the cucumbers and mix well to dissolve the sugar. Add the sliced cucumbers and lightly toss. (Best made a bit ahead a half hour or more, and refrigerated to develop more flavor .

PS: I omitted the onion and it was fine without it.

=================================================================================
Kosher dill pickles

4 quarts (scant 4l) water
6 tablespoons coarse Kosher white salt
18-20 pickling cucumbers, scrubbed wll
8 cloves garlic, un-peeled and lightly-crushed
2 tablespoons pickling spice (see links below)
6 bay leaves
1 large bunch of dill, preferably going to seed, washed

1. In a large pot, bring 1 qt (1l) water to a boil with the salt, stirring until the salt is dissolved. Remove from heat and add the remaining water.

2. Prepare three 1 quart wide jars by running them through the dishwasher or hand washing and then filling them with boiling water, then dumping it out.

3. Pack the cucumbers vertically into the jars, making sure they’re tightly-packed. As you fill the jars, divide the garlic, spices, bay leaves, and dill amongst them.

Foggy mountain morning

2011-09-13T07:52:00.000-04:00

This is the easy and delicious Lidia Bastianich sausage with grapes, garlic, pepperonici recipe, that I made last night, along with a Thai type cucumber salad and my potato salad. Jim said this was the best sausage recipe he's ever tasted, and I finally found a cucumber recipe that he not only ate but loved!

Yesterday was another man/woman plans, God laughs day. The plan was to make potato salad after breakfast, then head to studio for the day; but I discovered that I had two artichokes which needed stuffing and cooking. That done, I decided to check out the garden before heading to the studio. And, of course, that little decision created a total switch of the days plan.

The garden was loaded with things that needed to be harvested - tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, serrano chiles, and the last of the potatoes and of course, I also did some weeding along the way. Since I had so many cucumbers, I decided to make a Thai cucumber salad for dinner. The cukes were too big and seedy for pickles, but fine for cucumber salad. Before I knew it, it was time to start dinner and I still had a few quarts green beans to wash,trim and store.

I thought I'd continue garden cleanup today; but I'm wiped from yesterday, so I'll head to the studio instead and slip and decorate the latest group of pots. It's pizza tonight, so I'll get the toppings prepped before I head to the studio, and get the dough started after lunch.

Half a day in kitchen other half in studio

2011-09-12T10:38:00.000-04:00

Getting a later studio start this morning since I need to make my potato salad for tonight's sausage with grapes dinner (a new Lidia Bastianich recipe).

The latest small group of pots are done and needing to be dipped in slip and decorated; but probably not until after lunch.

Yesterday,after I got the clay mixer emptied and the clay pugged, I found another box of Phoenix, my standard body, (which I thought I was out of), hiding under some plastic sitting on top of my pug mill. If it's too hard for my broken down bones to use, but not too hard for the slab roller, I'll make some slab
sushi and other plates. Otherwise, I'll have to run it through the pug mill 1/2 and 1/2 with some of the very soft reclaim.

I didn't get time to go through the garden yesterday so I think I'll do that right now while these potatoes finish cooking.

David Leach Anderson Ranch 1988 Part 2

2011-09-11T09:49:00.000-04:00

Here's part 2 of the David Leach video.

Yesterday was a full studio day - trimming and finishing a few pots, some throwing,emptying the clay mixer and making clay arches to get the reclaim dry enough to pug. I'm out of my regular tan stoneware body, so it was time for that job which is probably my least favorite studio chore. The clay was pretty wet, so I left the arches sit uncovered overnight and checked them early this morning and they'll be dry enough to pug today.

Since I want to switch to a white clay body for a few pots (my yellow flashing sip looks best on a white body), my last chore was to I get my wheel and tools thoroughly cleaned, and do a quick sweeping. It was a good day!

I got an early start yesterday and it felt so good to not have my working day interrupted with garden and other chores for a change. I changed my dinner plan and opted for linguine with pesto sauce which was already made, and the sausages with grapes will wait till tomorrow. With another full studio day planned, albeit with a later start, since we opted for a big Sunday breakfast, dinner is going to be one of my fast, easy,working day meals - ham steak, baked sweet potatoes, apple sauce and garden beans.

Time to get to work.

David Leach at Anderson Ranch 1988

2011-09-10T07:19:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Simon Leach for posting this 2 part video of his father teaching at Anderson Ranch in June 1988. I took a workshop with David at the Clay House in Santa Monica around 25- 30 years ago. The Clayhouse was owned by three potters at that time and there were always wonderful workshops with visiting artists like David, Ken Ferguson, Cynthia Bringle, John Glick, Daniel Rhodes, Peter Lane and many more.

Looks like I'll be able to get a fairly early start in the studio this morning. There wasn't much studio time yesterday. The morning was spent making pizza sauce, then there was a little bit of studio time in the afternoon to trim and wax a few pots, followed by a bit of weeding and then off for an early dinner at the seafood buffet. If you get there when they open you get first dibs on the biggest, freshest oysters. :-)

Looks like it's going to be a beautiful day, so I will take a bit of a studio break after lunch to check out the garden just to do the days harvest. Tonight I'm planning on making a new Lidia Bastianich, easy, Italian sweet sausage recipe and with it a potato and green bean salad if there are any green beans that haven't gone to seed. Since I've already stocked the freezer with plenty of beans, I do let a lot of the heirloom beans go to seed around this time, to save for next year.

Energy E-change video

2011-09-09T13:46:00.000-04:00

Check out this amazing complex here in the beautiful mountains Western North Carolina

Early this morning, I uncovered the few pots I threw yesterday, hoping they'll be ready to trim when I get back in the studio. If not, I'll just pug more clay and do more throwing.

Yesterday turned out not to be an all studio day since I decided to cook dinner and have friends over, instead of the initial plan for all of us to go out to dinner. It turned into a busy day - running back and forth from studio to kitchen. I did manage to pug some clay, load a couple of shelves of pots to be bisqued and threw a few pots in between kitchen and household chores.

I also picked a lot of tomatoes which I made into a batch of pizza sauce after breakfast. Now that it's made and in the freezer, and lunch is over,I need to get in the garden and dig up one of my perennial sunflowers for my friend Laura.

My hip is trashed and I'm waiting for a call from the surgeon's office to set up my first appraisal appointment. I'm hoping to put the surgery off till some time in mid December or January. In the meantime I'll hobble along with my new shuffle gait(dragging the left leg)on a good day and with the help of my cane the rest of the time. Old age is turning out to be very interesting! LOL

Video of pueblo potter Martin Martinez great grandson of Maria

2011-09-08T07:09:00.000-04:00

This is a nice video following the entire process of mixing the clay to the firing of this famous black, pueblo pottery.

I did get some studio paper work done yesterday morning but it was a day for osteo treatments, stops at the vet and grocery store, lunch and home to make dinner.

Today will be a studio day with some time given to to harvest whatever veggies are ready.

After breakfast I'll load the next group of dried pots into the bisque kiln, pug some clay,and start throwing more pots to fill that next bisque firing.

Bisque unloaded

2011-09-07T09:19:00.000-04:00

Unloaded the 1st of 2 bisques yesterday, and realized that part of that load was cone 6 test pots and test tiles, so I'll have to do some more throwing to fill the larger soda kiln. These are just the cone 10 pots. The cone 6's will go into a wood/soda firing with some other potters at the Energy Exchange in December.

Today is a non studio day with doctors appointment and some grocery shopping taking up most of my normal studio time. I might squeeze in a couple of hours this afternoon to load the finished pots into the bisque kiln.

Michael Kline started me thinking about my moms spareribs and sauerkraut recipe which I haven't made for years, because to say Jim doesn't like sauerkraut is putting it rather mildly.I need to get those ingredients so I can make it some time this week and Jim can eat the ribs and boiled potatoes with some rye bread along with a cold beer and leave all the sauerkraut for me!

Tomorrow will be another all studio day. I have a huge to do list for this month and next and have decided to skip the December TRAC tour so I can concentrate on getting all these other things done, including getting the garden put to bed which is going to require a good amount of time and energy.

Dorothy Feibleman video

2011-09-06T11:59:00.000-04:00

There's some exquisite, elegant work in this video - enjoy!

I've been up since 3 am and feeling like my body is going to crash any minute. I managed to get to the studio and unload the bisque kiln. Yesterdays decorated pots are finishing drying; but I need to throw more pots tomorrow. I forgot that I had some cone 6 pots in this bisque load; and all the test tiles were cone 6, so I have to throw some cone 10 test tiles as well.

It's munchies night, so after breakfast I got tomatoes ready for the bruschetta and made some cheese stuffed, bacon wrapped, jalapeno poppers. I'll make the guacamole later. These will go well with the mojitos. :-)

Time to do some living room tidying before heading back to the studio.

New bird box

2011-09-05T09:29:00.000-04:00

Here's one of the two new boxes I made for this months soda firing. This is the kind of form that would work at any temperature and stmosphere. One of this winters projects is to explore not only lower (cone 6 soda firing); but also play with some oxidation earthenware (thinking of my old and getting older every day, bones!). I told Jim that I want to fire the soda kiln for a couple more years, but lowering the firing to cone 6 and at the same time play around with oxidation earthenware.

I like the idea of using the red body color as part of the decoration as well as the use of brighter colors. Many of my current forms would work fine with the switch.

The bisque kiln was down to around 700F early this morning and the studio was really hot. Jim turned the air on for me a half hour ago, so it should be bearable by now.

There are just 2 mugs to slip and the rest of the pots to decorate this morning and some studio tidying and cleanup to do the rest of the day. Before breakfast I was making my "to do" list for the next week, of a few more pots to make and glaze and slips tests that I want to make for this upcoming soda firing.

The studio should be cool enough by now - time to head to work.

Bisquing day

2011-09-04T09:09:00.000-04:00

Got the last few pots to top off this bisque load, decorated early this morning and turned the kiln on long enough to get everything warm and turned it off again until after breakfast. I just want to make sure everything is dry enough before I got ahead with firing. With bad weather coming the next few days I definitely want to get this bisque done today.

Had a great, busy day yesterday with a visit to the Soda Chicks show and sale and meeting up with my friend McKenzie Smith who is one of the visiting artists. Unfortunately I left my camera at home (I didn't notice that it fell out of my purse when I lifted it off the floor)and only had my tiny Flip movie camera.

It was another great show with so much exquisite work, it was difficult to hold myself to one big purchase; but I did - one of McKenzie's amazing platters.

Then it was time to head back to the studio for more slipping and decorating, and quitting at 5 to go to dinner before attending another wonderful opening at the Crimson Laurel gallery. A couple of pots I was interested in were already sold, darn it -a charming little chicken bowl of Shawn Ireland's that I had my eye on as well a couple of Mark Knott's pots. They probably sold when sales opened up on line in the morning; but I was out at that time at the Farmers market and heading up to Fork Mountain pottery for the Soda Chicks sale.

Social and working day

2011-09-03T07:48:00.000-04:00

I'm heading out early to the Farmers market, then on to the Soda Chicks show and sale, then home for a half a day of studio time, then cleanup and heading back to town for the opening at Crimson Laurel.

Yesterday I started waxing some pots, finishing a couple of others and mixing the decorating and flashing slips and getting a table full of pots dipped.

When I got into soda firing, one of the things I was looking forward to was what I thought would be the easier application of flashing slips as opposed to glazes; but I've yet to figure out how to get these pots slipped without having to spend a lot of time cleaning up the flashing slip drips. Dipping or pouring these flashing slips, no matter how thin, or how much I shake the pots, too often results in a few offending drips that have to be cleaned up. Glaze dipping was a lot easier! But I guess there's always a trade off - mixing the flashing slips is a lot easier than mixing and sieving glazes.