Fettucine revisit

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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.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

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.

Slip sliding away day

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!

Snow on the way

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.

David Leach at Anderson Ranch 1988

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.

Yesterdays roast chicken

Yesterday was mainly a cooking day - making bread and cooking a big dinner. Here are a couple of pictures of yesterday's roast chicken. I start with a bed of chopped onion, apple, carrot, celery,parsley, bay leaf, and juice of one or two oranges. I salt and pepper the inside of the chicken and then add some apple, onion and a wedge of the squeezed orange inside. I place the rest of the orange wedges in with the veggies. The chicken is set on top of the veggies, and then some pale dry sherry is poured over the chicken, and later in the roasting, I pour a bit more (maybe a 1/2 a cup total. I never measure.) The fruit and veggies and sherry make a lovely sauce. When the chicken is done, I cover it loosely with silver foil and let it sit for 10-20 minutes while I strain the bed of veggies, pressing hard on a strainer to extract all the liquid. I remove most of the fat, and reheat the sauce, and pour some over each serving.

My electrician is coming this morning to work on one of the small cone 10 test kilns and my lapidary machine. Since he's been delayed with an emergency job, I'll just head to the studio and get started. Yesterday I reclaimed some of the last of the Helios porcelain, but it's too soft to throw, so I think I'll just make a bridge and let it dry out a bit more while I check the condition of my liner glazes. I think I'm low on one or two of them, so weighing and mixing new and old glazes will be the job for the next day or two.

Short break in the weather

The driveway got plowed late yesterday morning and Jim was able to get to town and pick up several days worth of mail, mail an etsy purchase for me and a few other chores. With all this snow we've had to take advantage of the odd, clear day, once a week or so, to get those in town chores done.

After a totally useless day in the studio Thursday, trying to work with a bad headache and trashing a couple of pots, followed by a bad night's sleep, I decided to take yesterday off and catch up with snail and email and bills. My new Adobe Paint Shop Elements 9 software arrived along with an Idiot book on how to use it; and that will keep me busy in the evenings for a while.

I wasn't thrilled having to buy a new photo editing software but my Paint shop Pro suddenly stopped working with the last Windows 7 update and the new Paint Shop Pro got horrible reviews, so I had no choice but to get the only other viable program in the same price range.

Time to get a loaf of whole wheat bread started early and then on to the studio after breakfast; and seafood dinner with friends later. Life is good.

More kitty drama

I managed to lure Tommy our feral (not so feral these days)cat into the studio yesterday; but he freaked out once in there, and started climbing along the window edge where I have some throwing tools. He freaked again when he knocked down some of the tools and ran to the back of the studio and hid under one of of my raw material bin tables. So I decided I'd better tidy up and make the studio more cat friendly and moved some of my unfired and bisque pots high up on ware carts, made sure all glaze buckets were well covered, etc.

After that I sat at my desk doing some paper work, while talking to him and trying to coax him out from under the bin table, but he wouldn't budge. After an hour I put some food in front of the table and he peeked his head half way out, so I left the food and gave him some alone time.  Later when I went back in the studio, I saw that he had climbed on top of one of glaze bins tables, then up on the shelving and then higher along a narrow shelf where I had a lot of pots displayed. From there he settled on top of the bathroom ceiling as you can see in the picture. That's about 11 feet high!  He knocked down a bunch of jars and other containers, as well as a favorite shino piece which of course wound up on the concrete floor in pieces. Fortunately that was the only pot casualty. So I got Jim to help and we removed all those pots.

This morning Tommy was back under one of the glaze bin tables and I was able to lure him out with petting and food. Once I had him in front of the studio I opened the door, giving him the opportunity to go outside, which he did, but he came right back in twice! He was more interested in being with me and getting petted. So, I'm going to spend a lot of time in the studio today and hope I can get him to use the litter box.  I can smell male kitty in the whole studio from his having sprayed.  I'm beginning to wonder if he's ever even seen kitty litter! Jim is going to get a bigger litter box today and hopefully the new box and fresh litter without Bonnie's smell, will get him to figure out what he's supposed to use it for!

I've got some re-constituted porcelain to spread on plaster, wedge and get bagged and a few other studio chores. I dare not turn on any machinery for a day or so because I think that will freak him out even more!

Visiting an old wood fired soda pot

Been too busy to take more photos, so here's a re-visit of one of my wood fired soda pots.

Experimented with letting Bonnie kitty have the run of the house early this morning. She certainly provided a lot of interest and exercise for our dog Bodhi, as the two of them chased each other almost non stop for about 45 minutes. Fortunately she didn't knock over anything, although she did attempt to use the sofa and one chair as a scratching post, which is why Jim hasn't wanted me to allow her the run of the house. Guess I need to get a water pistol and learn how to aim it! I was able to distract her with the new laser toy. Like the fishing pole with the bird feathers, this one is a big, kitty, winner in the toy department!

After I water the house plants, and get my morning vitamins, I'm going to head for the studio and see if I can find something to do without hurting my chest. I think I might just get the de-airing pugmill working and see if I can get some of the Moon White clay soft enough to throw a few small things.

Dinner is leftovers again so I'l just have to make a salad to go with the chicken thighs, stewed tomatoes, peppers, andouille sausage, etc, and biscuit topped casserole. Jim really liked this recipe so it will go in the permanent file in the favorites recipe box.

Yoga for neck and shoulders

Found this neck and shoulder video on you tube and thought some readers might benefit from this. I know I will:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiHIs7_iMl8

Had a very aggressive osteo treatment yesterday and found out that fall I took about 7 weeks ago put one of my ribs out of place. It's now back where it belongs! My overnight droopy eyelid, turns out, is just from sinusitis, which the doctor said is probably from all this rain, dampness, etc. For a day or so I thought "boy this body is aging fast. Soon I'll look like the "Picture of Dorian Gray". LOL

Guess I'd do better living in the desert, but Jim's sinuses don't fare well in a very dry climate. Also found out that my thyroid is sluggish. No wonder I've been cold and tired so much lately, with a body temperature of 95F! So she sent me off  with some bottles of thyroid support, barley powder (I need to alkanize this old body (another minor temporary problem), and sea salt for the sinusitis. It was good to know I wasn't falling apart, just needed a good oil change and grease job, and told not to drive this body too fast. LOL

Our plan to go to Asheville today was changed for us by nature. It's raining, rained hard overnight with more rain expected today and through tomorrow morning. There are flood and wind warnings, so we're going to stay put other than Jim making his usual post office run to pick up his USA today and other mail only to find out that it's a holiday. I have the leftover roast chicken for dinner so I'll just make some mashed potatoes and honey ginger carrots to go with it. The rest of the day is going to be for studio time - finally!

Spruce Pine Potters Market - Linda McFarling

Here's that last shot of Linda McFarling's display at the Spruce Pine Potters Market. I don't know why Blogger had such problems yesterday; but trying to upload those 2 photos yesterday took me about 2 hours.

Today is a full studio day. I got in there for a while yesterday to pull a couple of handles and finish a couple of mugs and move all the raw pots off one of the ware carts and slab roller which is going to be used as the food table for Wednesday's Clay Club's meeting and pot luck. Today I'll be sweeping, mopping the floor and do more tidying.

My studio is pretty crammed full of equipment and tools but I think I'll have enough floor space for all of us to move around freely. After we eat and mull around a bit, we'll go into the house to see some of the pots in our private collection.

Since I'll be in the studio most of the day I'm just going to make a quick, easy, pot sticker dinner. It will be a nice light, comfort food meal on this rainy day. Tomorrow is the only non rainy day this week, so Jim and I are going to drive north of Banner Elk to enjoy the fall color, have lunch and pick up some things at the Mast General store.

Sandi Pierantozzi butter dish

Here's a beautiful butter dish that Sandi Pierantozzi donated for the Penland benefit auction for Liz Zlot Summerfield.

Yesterday was one of those change your mind three times days - at least as far as dinner was concerned. In the end, Jim went and got some KFC while I finished up studio work. The original plan was for me to make pizza. Then Jim suggested we go to the Inn at Little Switzerland - great idea; but mid afternoon he realized that the tennis we wanted to watch came on at 7 o'clock, so we decided to put off that dinner. It was too late, and I was too involved in the studio to stop and make pizza dough, so at that point take out was the best choice. It was either that or grilled cheese sandwiches!

Studio work consisted of putting more things away, drilling, threading and hanging more brushes, mixing three thick slips for decorating, and cleaning out a few tiny slip applicators that had dried out. Both the slip making and cleaning were very time consuming. The applied slip I use is too thick to make in a blender so I have to slake small pieces of clay, then squish it by hand and force it through a strainer a few times and then clean up all the mess. Kanjiro Kawai, who used thick, raised slip as a decorative technique , added a lot of grog to it. I got his formula years ago from Doug Lawrie, a wonderful American potter who lived in Japan until the mid or late 80's. I think Doug said that he had apprenticed with Kawai. If I don't make that decorating slip, super thick, it doesn't hold the shape enough for the look I want. If the grog addition works it will save me a lot of time and effort.

Doug also gave me Kawai's Uranium yellow recipe which I have never tried. It calls for spent uranium which is no longer being sold; but I bought a tiny bit of it when it was still available in the 80's. It was very expensive, so I think all I have is about a teaspoon of it - just enough to make a tiny test batch of the yellow glaze. If I remember, it was a cone 8 glaze. Maybe I should add that to my "to do" list -make and glaze a small, radio active porcelain vase as an homage to Kawai.

During yesterdays lunch break I ordered an inexpensive slide scanner from Ebay. I hope it does a passable job of some of my old slides. I particularly would like to get some of my Japan and other trip slides on to the computer so I can share them on the blog.

Today will be another full studio day, mainly sorting and putting the rest of all those duplicate tools and other tidying, sweeping up a bit, and if I have time maybe even throw a couple of things. This whole organization project(and I've only been focusing on less than 1/4 of the studio space) is taking forever! Silly me thought I'd be done in a day or two.