Kent McLaughlin Bowl

Here's another great pot from my collection. It's a huge, rope impressed,stoneware bowl by Kent McLaughlin. Kent is what I consider a "potters potter" always producing, beautiful, solid work that transcends gimmicks and the latest fads. He has a solid understanding of all parts of the process of making which is evident in all his work.

This week's been a constant reminder of that lovely saying "Man plan, God laughs"!
Life has impacted all my plans to get in the studio. Yesterday the plan was to get some seed starting in the morning, make a blueberry pie and get to the studio. Instead, the painter arrived; but sat around with me keeping her company for an hour and a half while she waited for the rest of the crew to show up with the paint she needed to get started. That ate up the pie making time! Fortunately she's a very intersting gal with amazing life experiences, so I didn't really mind the delay to my own plans. Then the crew needed input on where to place the pedestal sink, what more needed painting, approval of the new plumbing, and on and on it went. I was only happy I wasn't in the studio and had to keep coming back to the house to deal with all these questions and decisions.

So I decided to get on with my indoor seeding planting which took just about the rest of the day other than meal prep in between. So far I've planted onion, leeks, scallion, kale, spinach, artichokes, lettuce and a bunch of perennials. I've found places for all of them either in the greenhouse window in the kitchen or under the grow lux lights in the basement. Don't know where I'll put the seedlings once they need transplanting but I'll deal with that when the time comes. I may just have to buy more light fixtures and grow lux lights in another month!

Today was a nesting day which I decided to devote to cleaning up my huge paper pile in the living room, unpacking some of my jewelry making supplies in the basement, and making a nice, early, vegetarian dinner - tossed salad with garlic vinagrette and mushrooms stroganoff. Jim loved it so much he had seconds, so that is definitely a keeper recipe. He's open to vegetarian recipes as long as the man part of the recipe is not tofu! Although, I must say, that I've found if I deep fry cubes of tofu, and use them instead of chicken, for instance, in Indian or Chinese recipes, he will eat it. I think the problem for non vegetarians is getting weaned off the texture of meat as well as the taste; but I'm cooking 1/2 vegetarian and half non currently hoping to get the balance to about 80-90% vegetarian down the line.

None of the workers showed this morning even though, to Jim and I who grew up in the the Northeast (New York and Pennsylvania), the roads weren't that bad. There was only about 1 1/2" of snow; but the road was slippery. My 75 year old husband drove into town to pick up the mail and get me some sour cream for my mushrooms stroganoff. He just drove slowly and had no problem. The weather here years ago was much worse - 3' snow falls were common ten years ago; but these days 2" of snow keeps people home and schools closed. Go figure!

We were grateful to have a quiet day with no workers in the house, so I'm not complaining! It's been something of a cozy, vacation day with no studio time other than going in there after dinner to water plants, cooking and paper organizing and computer work (I turned the computer on this morning only to be faced with the blue screen of death, which took an hour or more to fix), and watching the snow fall.

I'll get in the studio tomorrow and get some work done and get away from the noise and mess of construction. That is, if the crew shows up. In any case, I'm still planning on studio time since I'm feeling guilty about staying away so long and there are pots than need slipping and decorating and more pots to make. But I have enjoyed these days off to catch up on things in the house that needed tending to.

Well, that's it for this cold (was 5F this morning)snowy, day.

Till later,
June

Gay Smith jar

Here's another sweet little soda fired jar by Gay Smith.

Yesterday was cooking, doctors appointment, seed starting and dealing with sub-contractors - needless to say - another "no studio" day. Today I should be able to get a half a day in the studio this afternoon. We're expecting the snow to start around noon, so Jim is going out right after breakfast to do some shopping and other chores and I'll hold the fort with the carpenters, painter and electrician. I was up at 5:00am, got the dogs out for their morning walk, had tea and tackled email. Afterward I mixed up more seed starting soil and prepped a few planters and after breakfast I'll plant some kale, shallots and lettuce.

I started my indoor seed planting yesterday -got onion, parsley, artichoke, leek,scallions, basil and celery planted. Other than what I'll plant today, that will be it till next month when I start some of the other warmer loving veggies like tomatoes, peppers,etc. I find that basil does well as an indoor plant in a sunny window. Luckily I have a greenhouse window in the kitchen with herbs like oregano, thyme, parsley and basil. In fact, I need to pinch and re-pot those few basil plants and get them into a bigger pot. Before I had the greenhouse window I could grow a lot of basil in a single, 5 gallon bucket in front of a sunny window and that supplied us with fresh basil through the winter.

I'm contemplating making a blueberry pie while I'm housebound this morning, if my frozen berries from July are still good.

If I have time after dinner, I'll go through my stash of flower seeds and see if there are any perennial seeds that I can start now. I harvested some day lily seeds last fall, so I might just start them. The problem is figuring out where I'll put all these seedlings once they sprout and are big ready to graduate to bigger pots. I only have 4 sets of grow lights in the basement which are currently being used for outdoor plants I'm over wintering .In the next month or so I may have to move some of those to the studio and squeeze them around the citrus and other tropical trees and shrubs that were too big to move into the basement for the winter. Otherwise I'll have to buy another fixture and more grow lights.

Time to get started on that "to do" list of the day.

Till later,
June

Will Baker soda fired vase

Here's a lovely vase by Will Baker, one of the young, talented potters in our area. I love the simplicity and strength of the form as well as the heavy soda on the right side of the piece.

Today the house is full of workers- a couple of carpenters, an electrician and a painter and it's another non-studio day dealing with all this activity. I had to start dinner at 8:30 this morning since I have a doctors appointment early this afternoon and the lamb shanks I'm making for tonight's dinner take 3-4 hours to cook.

I'm sooo tired of having people around the house tearing things out, creating messes and a lot of noise; but at the same time we want these things done before our daughter and her husband visit next month. More than the dirt and noise it's the demands on my time that these projects are taking and the loss of studio time that I mind. One day this week we'll have to go out shopping for bathroom fixtures and probably tile since I'm not thrilled with the samples I got from Lowe's. It would have been a lot easier and probably cheaper to have bought a piece of land and built a new house rather than all this construction which have been ongoing for 5 years!

The Super Bowl was fun last night even though Jim's team didn't win. It was a nail biter in the last quarter. I'm actually getting a taste for football and not just the fun commercials! LOL

We got out in the garden for a couple of hours yesterday and I got all the roses except a couple of the climbers pruned and filled two huge garbage bags with dead plant material. It looks like a couple of the roses have bitten the dust, including one of my heirloom climbers, even though they were very well mulched. The climber looks like some critter just ate the whole root system! There's going to be another warmish, sunny day at the end of the week which will be an opportunity to continue the clean up. I'd like to get the garden really tidy before I start planting more perennials and potatoes, next month. I noticed that some of the perennials are peeking through already!

Time to stir the lamb shanks! All that wine, broth, garlic and herbs are wafting through the house like great perfume!

Till later,
June

Tara Wilson creamer and sugar

Here's a creamer and sugar by Tara Wilson. It was fired in my friend and neighbor, Shane Mickey's anagama. Tara was working locally for a short time a couple of years ago, before heading west for another years residency at Archie Bray Institute.

Yesterday I managed to get a few hours studio time in the afternoon to pull some handles and trim some pots. It was one of those days when it was hard to get off the sofa and the computer. I went back after dinner to clean my tools and sweep up.

Today is Super Bowl Sunday and my potatoes for the potato skins are just about finished baking. It's going to be a downright balmy, near 60 F day, so I'm going to do some yard work. It's the ideal time for pruning roses, and trimming the dead perennial tops. I'll do that after lunch before the 3 o'clock men's final of the Australian Open Tennis, which we don't want to miss.After that it will be Super Bowl time munching on my very unlikely munchies menu of pate, potato skins, grapes and cheese and crackers.

Time for our bagels, smoked salmon, cream cheese breakfast.

Till later,
June

Linda McFarling

Here's one of the Linda McFarling pieces in our collection - crackle slip on soda fired jam pots. I love her forms. She also happens to be one of the nicest people around!

We're starting slow this morning after a late night and a restless one for me. We watched the woman's final of the Australian Open which wasn't one of the best matches; but it was nice to see Serena Williams add another major title to her list of career wins. Watching her play earlier in the week, we didn't think she'd be able to raise her game enough; but she fooled us and many of the broadcasters. Safina not being at the top of her game also helped. I think the nerves took over and that definitely puts lead in the feet and shoulders. I used to play a lot of tennis and recognize the symptoms. :-(

I'm off to to the studio for the day. Dinner is leftover ribs from Cheddars,and all I have to do tonight is bake some potatoes for the potato skins for tomorrows Super Bowl viewing. I found the recipe on line for Ruby Tuesday's potato skins, posted by someone who worked there and figure this would be a good time to make a batch from scratch. I have pate already made and bought grapes and cheese and other munchies for the game. As Jim likes to say "honey,we're stylin"!

Till later,
June

Mark Peters wood/soda fired

Here's another pot from one of our very talented local artists - Mark Peters. This was fired in both a soda kiln and wood kiln - a lovely piece!

Our construction shopping trip was a bust other than the purchase of a pedestal sink for the smaller upstairs bathroom. At least we had a nice dinner at Cheddars with friends. Next week we'll have to check out our local plumbing supply store for the bath fixtures for the remodeling. We did get a couple of tile samples. The one I really liked was way too expensive for a bathroom we never use, but if I found a couple of neutral less expensive choices with some textural interest in the glaze that we're hoping will work.

Today is just yet another no studio day. We had to get one of our dogs to the vets by 8am where he's spending the day for a series of tests that have to run 8 hours. After dropping him off I had to get to the hospital for my own sonar scans which took longer than I thought. Tests came out fine, so by then we were ready for a big breakfast since I hadn't eaten since dinner last night. By the time I got home it didn't seem much point changing into work clothes to just work for an hour, since I had mail to read a dog to walk, and the taped semi final of the Australian Open tennis to watch.

Ceramics Monthly and my Cooks Illustrated arrived so I'll peruse them for a bit before we head back out to pick up Shanti at the vets and do a short grocery shopping stop - another very busy day with no time for the studio!

Till later,
June

Shopping day ahead

I spent the morning taking some photos of some of our local artists for the blog. Here's the first one - a large wood/soda fired jar from Ruggles and Rankin who have recently relocated to New Mexico. I'm glad I purchased some of their work while they were still here.

Last night's Tilapia dish was disappointing after all that work. The fish tasted great but the rice with the salsa, black beans, pineapple and cilantro was a bit strong for the fish. That recipe does not go in the recipe box!

They should have the front porch finished today and I guess they'll start tearing out the upstairs bathroom tomorrow or Monday. The new porch is looking much better with the larger, 6" posts replacing the 4" ones.

I spent the morning on picture taking for the blog, cooking and computer work. After lunch we're heading for Elizabethon and Johnson City, TN, to buy sinks, a tub, tile, and fixtures for the bathroom renovations. Hopefully we can buy everything and be done early and head for an early dinner at Cheddars with friends.

Time for a light lunch, read my mail and sort through some of this paper work. I'm planning on working over the weekend to make up for the studio time lost this week on vet and doctors appointments, and these construction projects.


Till later,
June

Robin Hopper slab bowl

Here's a Robin Hopper slab bowl that my husband bought for me years ago - an interesting piece.

I'm definitely in cooking mode these days and finding that doing as much prep in the morning and then getting in a bit of studio time later makes for us getting better meals but me getting less studio time, at least for now.

The pinto beans yesterday were the BEST! I didn't do them purely vegetarian. After tasting them I felt they were lacking a bit of depth of flavor, so I added three pieces of applewood smoked bacon pieces for a bit of smoky flavor. I imagine one could try just a bit of smoke flavoring to get the same effect without adding meat.

We've never had a "just beans and cornbread" dinner and we will be having this dish regularly! It was a big hit and we have leftovers for another day.

I'm eager to try more recipes from this new vegetarian cook book; but tonight I'm making tilapia filets marinated in a lime, orange juice, garlic, etc and then baked on top of white rice cooked in chicken broth and then mixed with a mixture of fresh pineapple pieces, black beans, salsa, cilantro, etc. Most of the pre-prep is done so I'll be able to get several hours in the studio after lunch before I come in to get it all cooked.

Time now for a quick salad lunch and on to the studio.

Till later,
June

Cooking beans half the day!

Here's a really nice bowl that we purchased from a gallery in Rotorua, New Zealand in the 80's. It's wood fired with a rich, rust shino and what appears to be wood ash over on the upper third.

Rotorua is this unworldly looking, and feeling, amazing place. From our hotel window we could see all the volcanic steam vents which are all over the town. The Maori still use the hot springs for boiling food and some cooler ones for soaking. It's a country we really loved and if I were moved to live in any other country at this stage of my life, I think it would be my choice.

The climate, like California, runs the gamut - from sub tropical in the North to temperate in the South. The people are warm and wonderful and the country is pristine with beautiful beaches, glaciers, rain forests and plenty of potters. One small town, Nelson, had 80 potters in residence when we were there. There are more sheep than people and many times we had to to wait while some of the huge groups had right of way on the roads. In fact the sheep actually cause a bit of a population problem from their gaseous output! LOL

I thought I'd get a 1/2 day in the studio but our contractor wanted a morning meeting about the upstairs renovation which went of forever. The only studio time I got was to go in at 7am and cover some pots I threw yesterday.
The rest of the day was spent cooking a pinto bean dish from my new vegetarian cookbook, corn bread, and salad dressing, unpacking groceries, doing email, phone calls and a few other house hold chores.
Time to stir the beans again and get the salad greens prepped.

Till later,
June

Following a day or rest

Here's a wonderful salt glazed slab plate by New Zealand artist Merilyn Wiseman which we purchased when we were visiting Auckland in the 80's. It's a wonderful piece with various slips and flashing on a intriguing shigaraki type body.
I found this link for her web page if you want to see more of this artists work:

http://merilynwiseman.com/gallery/index.html

Yesterday was definitely a day of rest. I was prepared to get in the studio for a bit and instead wound up doing glaze chemistry, paper work, cooking, re-potting some tropical plants and watching the Australian open. The day just flew by.

I was up before 6 am this morning so used the time to take a few more photos from my pottery collection for the blog. After breakfast I'll be back in the studio. There are pots to slip and more throwing to do today.

Workers should be arriving early to replace a heavy shelf in my studio and begin the rebuilding of the floor of the front porch. As I suspected on Friday, they didn't show because the wood wasn't delivered until the afternoon. I'll happily take refuge in the studio after breakfast, from the construction noise!

Till later,
June

Robin Hopper Pitcher

Here's a really nice pitcher from my collection by Canadian potter Robin Hopper. Robin lives outside of Vancouver and if you're ever in the area it would be very worthwhile to visit his studio. He has a wonderful Japanese style garden that he's been working on for years which is an extra plus in addition to seeing his shop and gallery which include his domestic ware as well as his one offs.

I actually got a few hours studio time in yesterday between taking the dogs to the vet, doing lunch, walking the dogs and meeting friends for an early dinner. The job I wanted to finish was cataloging and storing all those tests tiles covering the slab roller and I was able to get that done and finish the note taking and had a little time leftover to trim a pot before I had to come in and get ready for dinner at the Japanese restaurant in Burnsville.

The new vet did some blood work on our 12 year old Lhasa, Shanti. She thinks that his balding tail and thinning body hair and swollen stomach may be a disease that is treatable. If the results of yesterday's blood work indicates a problem, we'll have to take him in another day for a round of testing that takes 8 hours to completion. We came home wondering why the other vet never tested him for this since that balding tails and other symptoms have been obvious for over a year! The younger one (4 years old today), Bodhi, came through his physical with flying colors; but Shanti the 12 year old is definitely showing his age with some clouding on his eyes and dwindling energy; but he still gets around pretty well, especially when the smell of food is wafting from the kitchen!

Jim and I found it somewhat ironic that our dogs get a yearly physical and we don't!

Today will be close to a full studio day. I'll quit around 4:30 to come in and make a new pasta dish from my new Italian cookbook - linguini with clams casino and then relax for the evening going through some pottery notes while we watch the Brit Coms - our Saturday night ritual when we're at home.

Six hours is about max for me in the studio these days. I'm hoping that once I reach the one year anniversary of my hip replacement surgery that I'll get my energy up to the pre-surgery level and be able to spend more time in the studio and garden. I've ordered a great many plants and seeds the past couple of days, including 2 American persimmon trees I ordered from ebay this morning, and I'm going to need that elevated energy this spring to get all those things planted!

Some of the things I planted in our lower meadow died from the poison exuded from some of the black walnuts trees down there and persimmons are one of the plants that aren't affected by those toxins so I'm going to give them a try.

Till later,
June

Sesame seed toaster

I didn't have time last night to take more photos, so here's another pot from Japan. It's an open body meant for toasting sesame seeds.

Another non studio morning - the dogs have to get their annual physical and shots today, so the morning is spoken for. Hopefully we'll get home in time for lunch and I may actually get in some studio time after lunch before we have to join friends for an early dinner.

Yesterday was another non studio day since the workers showed up to do another coat of sealant on the basement walls and finish some electrical work in the house and studio. My friend Jim got my new compressor oiled and working so now I have no excuse to start playing with my pneumatic extruder again. Now I just have to find some time to get in the studio! He over filled the oil and had to spend about ten or fifteen minutes removing it from the monster compressor.

I made good and fun use of the non studio time and got out my companion planting book "Carrot Love Tomatoes" and drew up my vegetable garden plan for this season, watched some of the Australian Open Tennis and prepped some meals and did some computer clean up.

The workers will be here this afternoon to start on rebuilding the floor of the front porch, and replacing a studio shelf, if the wood delivery arrives on time. Jim will be home so I won't have to baby sit our rescue dog Bodhi who freaks out when people are working in or around the house.

We found that one of my heavy, wood shelves which houses small, but heavy buckets of raw materials had not only warped but was pulling away from the wall. Good thing we caught that or I would have had one huge mess on my hands if that shelf gave way.

Time for breakfast and off to the vets.

Till later,
June

Doug Lawrie Shino Bowl

Here's a Doug Lawrie bowl from my collection. Doug lived and worked in Japan for years and moved back to Santa Barbara in the 80's. He does the most amazing brushwork and this shino bowl is a great example.

My intention of working in the studio yesterday changed when workers showed up to do waterproof painting in the basement and some electrical work. The painters were here all day, so I never made it to the studio other than to give some instruction to my electrician friend, who went out to get some supplies and didn't return, so I suspect he'll be back again today. Instead, I used the day to go through just about every seed catalog that had arrived the past few weeks and got all my spring seed and plants orders finished. It was a nice job on wintry day!

I ordered vegetable and flower seeds, raspberry, boysenberry and blackberry bushes, more asparagus plants, sweet potato slips, a bunch of perennials and an apricot tree. Hours later when I ran the list through my mind I realized that I'm going to be doing a lot of digging this spring, so I'd better get back in the studio this afternoon.

I'll be house bound this morning since Jim is off to the dentist and one of our dogs Bodhi, who is a rescue dog, freaks out with strangers in the house and one of us needs to be here. It was also one of those days that the phone never seemed to stop ringing. Before I knew it, it was around 4:30, the painting crew was leaving and it was time for me to start dinner while musing on how fast the time goes these days and how little seems to be getting accomplished.

Till later,
June

A do nothing day

I thought I was done with posting some of the pots from my Japan trips, but Michael Kline's has been posting his new yunomi pictures on his blog so I thought he'd enjoy this hakeme yunomi with thisclassic pine tree design.

As I suspected our day was spent mainly in front of the TV enjoying the Inaugural events. What a joyous day for America and the world!

I did manage to get meals on the table and go through many of the garden catalogs that have been arriving the past couple of weeks. I've gotten some seeds ordered already and now I'm taking my time not to get too carried away ordering more than I can plant! As Michael Cardew told me years ago, when I admired his vegetable garden "we can't make it too big or we'd have no time to make pots!".

This year I'm going to plant a couple of elderberry bushes - an homage to my youth and picking the wild ones with my grandmother in the woods of Pennsylvania so uncle Georgie could make his elderberry wine. He had a very small wooden barrel which was usually pretty empty by the time the wine was actually ready because he and his friends we're always tasting the batch checking for readiness! My cousin Anita and I would sit on the swing under the grape arbor hand picking those tiny berries off the sprays. Nice memories.

Today will be a studio day. I hope I have more energy after breakfast!

Till later,
June

Mashiko temmoku/kaki plate

The Japan pottery collection show comes to an end for now with this lovely temmoku plate with kaki and white glaze pours from Mashiko. I have a bunch of smaller items - sake sets, yunomis, etc. that I may post in the future. It's time to give a couple of other countries in my collection some blog space.

This plate is typical of the work being made and sold in Mashiko -a lot of clones of Hamada's work. A huge, chun platter that I had the hotel ship (wrong move), arrived in pieces because the only wrapping they did was put two thin sheets of tissue paper around the platter. And I paid for that packing!!! AARGH!

I don't know what if anything I'll get accomplished in the studio on this auspicious, history making, Inauguration day. Between the Inauguration ceremonies and celebrations and the Australian Open tennis (we're big tennis fans), I suspect we're going to be glued to the TV most of the day!

Till later,
June

Japanese plate with pine tree design

Here's another one of my purchases from Japan. This potter was known for his orange teapots, but I spotted this charming plate which spoke to me more than his orange teapots. He gave me a big smile of approval when he saw my choice and told my friend I had a good eye. I still remember this little old man's amazing vitality and hospitality.

Today was a studio day - finally! I got some mugs trimmed, pulled some handles, threw a few things and in between came in the house to make some corn bread for dinner. After dinner I went out again to cover pots and sweep up.

When I came in, I worked on some glaze recipes. Some needed tweaking, so I'll try them out in the next firing.

Till later,
June

More Oribe pots

OK, Michael, here are a couple more oribes. The tiny box is black oribe and the others are the tiniest sake cups - really sweet - begging for lots of refills! The lighter color on the box isn't true. It's more of an off white/light cream.

I'm taking your and Jim's advice and staying out of the studio. My knees are also a mess from the rigorous athletic pursuits of my youth and a lot of hard court tennis when we lived in California.

I've made good use of my non studio time to take a few more photos. This is the end of the Oribe pics. There are a few other pots from Japan that I'll post in the next couple of days.

Till later,
June

Another small antique oribe plate

Here's another antique oribe piece from one of the Japan trips. I had a few of these, which we're obviously part of a set. I gave one to my friend McKenzie and have a couple left (every potter should have at least one piece of Oribe :-)

The icy snow mellted and I was able to get out into the garden to pick some sage leaves for the chicken. Got all my veggies prepped for dinner, so now I'm going to have a light lunch and then work on that glaze chemistry for a bit before I start dinner.

Till later,
June

Contemporary Oribe Serving bowl

Here's another contemporary oribe bowl that I bought in Japan in the early 80's. As you can see, I'm definitely partial to Oribe!

This morning it's cold and icy here in these mountains. My husband came in after walking the dogs and feeding the birds and the feral cat and suggested I avoid the studio this morning. If I took a fall, I'm afraid my new titanium hip which is only screwed in with one large screw may decide to pop out and since I have no desire to repeat that surgery and recovery time, I will heed his wise counsel.

The pots I threw yesterday and others which need slipping and decorating are covered. The studio plants are watered, so I think I'll get some of my dinner vegetable prepping done this morning. On the menu tonight is a mixed herb and garlic roasted chicken on a bed of chopped vegetables with white wine, garlic mashed potatoes and honey ginger carrots, so I'll just get an early start on all the peeling, chopping and dicing.

I also have a couple of glazes to tweak using my glaze chemistry software, so I'm not lacking in things to do without studio time if the weather doesn't improve.

Till later,
June

Antique Oribe basket

Here's a lovely antique Oribe basket that I purchased in Japan. It's one of my favorites.

I didn't get very much work done in the studio. When I went in, the pipes were frozen, but there was some water in my throwing bowl so I threw a few pots and did some sorting of my soda/salt test tiles, came in to make us some hot chocolate for lunch, took some photos for the blog and then back to the studio. By now the water was coming through the pipes, but I wanted to continue on the tile project. At 4:30 I covered pots and cleaned the wheel and tools and headed back to the house to get dinner ready.
After dinner I took more photos and now I'm going to relax and watch the Brit coms!

Till later,
June

ORIBE YUNOMI

Here's a modern day Oribe pot that I bought in one of my Japan trips in the early 80's.

It was 2 degrees here this morning, colder than they've seen in these parts for a long time! I got a couple of hours work in the studio just doing a bit of trimming and putting some handles on some mugs. The studio was warm enough because I keep the heat up for my tropical plants who are wintering in there.

Even the dogs did their morning business as fast as they could this morning, for which I was very grateful!

Till later,
June

Michael Cardew Pottery teapot

Here's a sweet little stoneware teapot that I purchased from Michael Cardew on a visit to his studio around 30 years ago give or take a year or two.

Today is another cooking day. For some reason, I arranged my recipe selection to require two days of intense peeling, chopping, slicing and cooking. Yesterday's beef stew took over 6 hrs (the recipe said 1 1/2 hrs), to cook. That must have been the oldest steer in North America; but the new recipe with Porters's beer was wonderful. Thank goodness I started the recipe before noon! Needless to stay, having to hang around the kitchen stirring every 15 minutes for 7 hours kept me out of the studio!

On the menu today is a Tuscan vegetarian stew with cannellini beans, porcini mushrooms, tomatoes, carrots, onion and a lot of chopped kale, 8 cloves of garlic, and vegetable broth,which looks healthy but I'm not sure of the smoky flavor from the porcini mushrooms. I've added a lot more herbs than it called for to give more depth of flavor. Maybe the post cooking sprinkling of parmesan cheese will help.I hope we like it enough to save the leftovers since there's a lot of it! In any case, to help it out the texture of the meal I'll make some garlic bread to go with it.

After lunch I'll be able to get in my studio time. Mugs need handles and some bowls need slipping and decorating.

Till later,
June

MASHIKO KAKI BOTTLE

Here's another pot from one of my Japan trips. This is a typical Mashiko, kaki glaze over a resisted panel of clear glaze with enamel decor.

The past two days have been filled with the busyness of life - yesterday we had to go to Asheville for food shopping, a few items at Highwater Clay, get the car serviced, have lunch and get me a new orthodontic pad made. There was no time for the studio and so far, today is also getting filled up with non studio things!

This morning I had to bathe and groom both our dogs after breakfast, get myself showered as well and deal with some computer problem and order some new shoes.

Now I'm going to get started on tonight's dinner - beef stew and hopefully once I get it started cooking, have a light lunch, then maybe I can get some studio time in before dinner.

Where does the time go!!!

Till later,
June

Tom Coleman Shino Bourbon Pot

Here's another pot from my collection - a Tom Coleman Shino bourbon cup.

Today wasn't much of a work day - put some handles on some mugs, mixed up a flashing slip and dipped a few bowls, worked on a friends blog and did some cooking.

I found a book of Frontpage 2003 that got good review from Amazon customers, and ordered a copy. Maybe it will be more user friendly than the original manual. One can only hope! LOL

Till later!
June

SHIGARAKI POT

Here's a lovely pot from my personal collection. We lugged this wood fired beauty all the way from Shigaraki Japan from one of my visits in the 80's. It's one of my favorites.

Wound up doing everything but studio work yesterday. Linda McFarling and John Britt stopped by to go over my soda/salt test tiles, get some recipes and test batches to test in John's new soda test kiln next week. It's a sweet looking little kiln and I can't wait to see the results of his firing! The rest of the day was filled with non pottery related chores - working on a new web site for a friend for a couple of hours before we headed out for dinner with friends and making some 100 year old sourdough starter for my pizza making project in a couple of days.

Time to head to the studio and actually make some pots!

Till later!
June

Snowy mountain morning!

It's beginning to look like a winter wonderland out there. We're up to about 2" of snow and it's still coming down, creating this exquisite blanket of white on everything!
Today was going to be a "running around" day - dogs to the groomer at 8am, breakfast out, a couple of shopping stops then back to pick up the dogs; but as the saying goes "Man plans, God laughs!".
At 7am we got a call from the groomer that they were canceling all the appointments for the day. So today will wind up being a studio day.
I did my followup paperwork on the soda/salt test tiles, had a lovely visit with John Britt and Joy Tanner and got filled in on their current project of building a small soda test kiln. From the picture I saw, it's going to be a little beauty! There was a bit of time before I had to go in to prepare dinner, to throw a few bowls and a couple of mugs and do a bit more studio organization.
Our Clay Club meeting/get together for food/drink and fun was canceled last night as well. Mercury isn't supposed to go retrograde for a couple of days and we're already experiencing it's classic delays, postponements, etc.


Till later!
June

PICTURE OF MORE FOUND SODA/SALT TEST TILES

Here's a picture of the other test tiles I found. Finally got all of them cataloged this morning and now I'll have to go through the list and make another follow up list.
This project was on my New Year's "to do" list - one down a few more to go!
Time to have some lunch and get back to the studio to throw some test tiles.

Till later,
Junehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

BREAD FOR BODY AND SOUL- BERTHA'S RECIPE

I was given this great bread recipe years ago by a fellow potter. It's a super healthy, heavy bread, full of protein and other goodies. I'm typing it exactly as she gave it to me. I found the wedging instruction charming! Enjoy!

Ingredients:

YEAST:

2T of dried yeasat
1tsp sugar
1 cup lukewarm water

4 cups white unbleached flour
6 cups of whole wheat hard flour
1/2 cup of non-instant powdered milk
1cup fine ground wheat kernels
1cup medium ground whole wheat kernels
3/4 cup whole wheat kernels
4 cups of luke warm water (approximately)
1T (heaping) sunflower seeds
1T (heaping) sesame seeds
1T (heaping) linseeds
2T wheat germ
1tsp vegetable oil
3-4 buttered cake pans

* Since the seeds and wheat germ need to be stored in the refrigerator, they must be allowed to rise to room temperature before using.

!. Mix the white unbleached flour, the whole wheat flour, the non-instant powdered milk, salt and the three types of wheat kernels in a big bow; leave centre free for pouring yeast in.
2. Sprinkle yeast into cup with luke warm water in which 1 tsp of sugar has been dissolved; let yeast dissolve and start bubbling.
3. Add yeast into the middle of the flour mixture; with a wooden spoon mix a little of the flour with the yeast and let rise (15-20 minutes); then gradually add the approximately 4 cups of luke warm water until the dough feels humid and a little sticky after being mixed.
4. With your hands, wedge very thoroughly, approximately 80-100 movements until dough stops sticking to hands
5. Add the sunflower, sesame, linseeds and wheat germ; wedge again until the seeds are well spread.
6.Drip the vegetable oil into the bottom of the bowl and turn the dough ball in it so as to cover it all over with a thin coating of oil; cover bowl with cloth or plastic sheet.
7. Let dough rise approximately double its size; then divide into 3 or 4 buttered cake pans (I think she meant bread pans); cover with cloth or plastic sheet; let rise approximately to double its size again.
8. bake for about 1 hour in 400 -460 degree F.

FOGGY MOUNTAIN MORNING

Here's a lovely slab bud vase that bought from the late Tatsuzo Shimaoka in the early 80's during one of my trips to Japan. It's a lovely example of quality hakeme brushwork. Shimaoka worked with Hamada Shoji for years and later in life, like Hamada, became one of Japan's National living treasures.

I had a computer problem that kept me out of the studio yesterday but I got it fixed by late afternoon. For a while it looked like there was no solution to why my blog posts were winding up on another blog! And in the crazy world of computers there was no way to find an answer to why this happened or how I could correct it. The blog forum was filled with unanswered questions to various problems and the frequently asked Q&A section never seems to have a question and answer for your problem! AARGH! It turned out that the problem was my listing on the other site as watching that site. When I removed my name, it solved the problem! Who could have guessed that could cause my messages to be diverted there when I wasn't signed on to that blog!

This is a one of those "run around" days - food shopping, doctors appointment, lunch out and by the time we get back it will be time to start thinking about what I'll be cooking for dinner. It will probably be my ten minute linguini with clam sauce or linguini with pesto and a salad, since we definitely saturated meat eating over the holidays.

Hopefully I'll get a couple of hours of studio time in this morning trying to finish cataloging those soda/salt test tiles. I found another bowl of them the other day and got half of those cataloged and have about 10% of the project left to complete.

Till later,
June

NEW VIDEO ON YOU TUBE

That almost balmy day yesterday (and another today) enabled me to comfortable clean all my kiln shelves and sweep out the bottom of the kiln. Next I have to remove the bag wall and clean out the firebox and rebuild the bag wall. That will probably be in a few days since today's time is spoken for. This week is filled with dog groomer and doctor appointments as a food shopping and an early dinner trip to the Tapas restaurant in Asheville so studio time is going to have to be squeezed in when possible.

I found another bowl of soda/salt test tiles so I'll have to finish that cataloging project today and maybe have time to throw some more test tiles. Once I get the new compressor working I'll have to make a die for the extruder for test tiles.

I got a new you tube video up last night. It's a quick, jerky tour of my little gallery space. Forgive my beginner film maker clumsiness! :-(. Actually, it looked better uploaded to my computer and something strange happened between the upload, making it into a video and then getting it uploaded to you tube. There are weird pauses in there that are not in the original clip. This was is part of my first try with the new Flip video cam. Now I have to learn to shoot slower since this camera makes what you're shooting go blurry if you scan too fast; but it is sure a handy little toy.

Here's the URL for the Gallery video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMSbZ7Nnv_w

Hit the "play in HD" link at the bottom right of the screen for best picture quality.

Till later,
June

UNLOADING THE KILN ON YOU TUBE

Well I finally figured out how to operate my new mini cam and get the
video uploaded to the computer, put together the various bits and
make a crude, first attempt, one minute movie of me unloading the
last months soda/salt firing.

It's on you tube and I think this URL should take you right there if
you want to see it.Here's the link for the video. Just copy it and paste it and
it should take you right to it; otherwise just go to: www. you tube.com
and type in June Perry and it will bring it up among a few others.
Hit the button on the bottom right of the video screen to give you an improved
picture.
My first attempt at viewing it was a tiny bit blurry and then I hit the button to
get higher quality and it was a huge difference! I'm learning as I go!

http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=g6HoCJGcamI

You have to sign up and/or sign in to rate the movie.
Now that I figured out how to do this, I'll be making more little
clips as time and energy permit.

It's going to be warm today - high 50's, so I'm going to take
advantage of this warmer weather and clean my kiln shelves!

Till later,
June

BACK IN THE SADDLE

I've spent the last 3 hours cataloging those soda salt test tiles and I'm half way through. It's gone faster than I thought, maybe because so many of the tests are the same slip or glaze on various clay bodies, which makes it go faster. At this rate I'll be done by the end of the day and ready to get on to other chores.

Here's a picture of what my husband calls "June's command center". It's an over abundance of tools near one of my wheels. I designed this gizmo so I'd have everything pretty much within reach when I throw. As you can see, I'm a tool junkie!

TWCHNORATI PROFILE

Technorati Profile

SODA SALT TEST TILES

As the year is ending I've been taking some tiles (3 days actually) of going through buckets of test tiles to sort out the soda salt tiles, line them up numerically on my slab roller. Some broke during the process and I had to stop and start gluing them to make them somewhat photo ready.

Here's a photo of them backed by my temporary studio greenhouse, which is the winter home for some of my citrus, avocado and other tropical fruit and decorative plants. If you double click on the picture, it will open a very large version of the tiles.

The next step is going to be cataloging them - copious note taking before I weed through to discard some and keep some that I think I want to use in the future.

If anyone from Clay Club or other interested soda salt firers want to look them over, they'll be up for about another 3 days or longer - depends on how long it takes me to go through all of them and make my notes.

Hope everyone has a safe and very Happy New Year!

June

CHRISTMAS EVE

Today has been cooking day starting with a huge, traditional Polish Christmas eve breakfast and then making a batch of pate after lunch. Tomorrow will be another all day cooking with the same big breakfast of kielbasa,ham,hard boiled eggs, horseradish and sweet bread and a dinner of rock cornish hens with a balsamic reduction, wild rice/basmati rice with almonds and currants and green beans. I was going to skip dessert but Jim brought home a box of chocolates which will go with the lovely wine he'll be serving.

I'm slowly catching up with the house paperwork so I can be free to be back in the studio after I'm done with these antibiotics. There's still a lot of work to do on getting all my scraps of pot sketches into my permanent sketch book.

Here's a lovely "snow" picture our daughter sent. She was in San Cassiano Italy for a singing engagment and took this photo from her hotel room.

Enjoy!
June

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Down with something

Today is my 69th birthday and I'm celebrating it with antibiotics and a Tapas meal with friends tonight!
My hopes of getting in the studio this week have been dashed with the arrival of some kind of upper respiratory crud, so I I'm hoping these antibiotics will do their work quickly so I can get back to making pots right after Christmas.
In any case, I'm tired of playing on the computer trying to figure out how to do things to this blog, that it seems I can't do with this software, so tomorrow I'm going to the studio to sort out a lot of test tiles of soda slips and glazes and take some pictures of them and see if I can post them next week.

Till later,
June

PICTURES FROM LAST SODA FIRING

Here are a few more pots from the last firing. There are more under an earlier blog.






Well, I've had a few days to relax a bit after the TRAC tour. We didn't get a lot of traffic and all my sales were made to local repeat visitors. Things were definitely slower this year but sales weren't as bad as I thought they could be in this economy. For the spring tour I think I'll take an ad out in the local paper. With anywhere from 80 to well over 100 artists on the tour which covers 2 counties, people can't see every studio in 2 days, so it's time to do some promotional work. I get sales from half the cars that come which is good, so I just need to get more people to come.

I've been catching up with some paper work and doing a bit of cooking that needs more time and attention instead of those quickie recipes and frozen pizza that I rely on the week I'm getting ready for the tour, and getting our Christmas tree decorated and getting the rest of the house decorations up. This is the earliest I've ever gotten that done!

We had our Clay Club meeting Wednesday night which is always fun. There was a call to bring pots for show and tell, so I brought a couple from the last firing as well as a present mug for John Britt to thank him for his help unloading my kiln last fall before my hip replacement surgery. I was a mess and could hardly walk and he volunteered to come over and help me unload - what a sweetheart! He had admired one of my fish mugs but wouldn't accept it when I wanted to give it to him. He said if it doesn't sell, you can give it to me. Well, of course, it wound up selling and so I had to wait for the next firing to get one to him!

Our meetings are mainly social with some pottery talk in between and always a lot of good things to eat and drink. Kyle Carpenter, a young, very talented salt firer, came all the way from Ashland to join in on the fun. I had to leave early so I didn't have much time to chat with some of the late comers.

Joy Tanner and Will Baker two other young and very talented soda and wood firers, came in later because they had just finished firing at Linda McFarling's. I'm eager to find out how that firing went since they tried the whiting/bicarb of soda mix this firing. Linda and I have the same kiln, built by Shane Mickey and we've both been dealing with uneven firings. Joy said that cones were even throughout the kiln, so I'll be interested in checking out Linda's new bag wall arrangement.

I solved the cold bottom in my by getting Shane to chimney raised and having him redo the bag wall; but it worked too well and the bottom was too hot! Next firing I'll have to close up the bag wall at the bottom and raise it a couple of courses, or maybe just use Linda's configuration and see how it works with the higher chimney. My kiln is in the garage and has a 12' ceiling so I needed taller chimney that she has in her kiln shed.

Next week I'll be back in the studio and I want to spent a day or two batching up some glaze tests and throwing some test tiles. My goal for the new year is to do more slab work, get the new compressor working and start experimenting with my Bailey pneumatic extruder. My other studio goals the coming year is to get new business cards and postcards made, get more colors in the body of work (therefore more glaze testing), and play with some of the new forms I've been sketching. If there's time, I also want to learn more about web page design so I can do the things I want on my web page; but that's being a bit ambitious because besides the studio and house chores, by February I start thinking about the garden and start my seed planting under lights. It's amazing how the time seems to be flying lately - so many good intentions and not enough time to do it all!

June

Today has been super buy pricing pots, getting the gallery cleaner and set up. Fortunately my husband Jim did the gallery cleanup and I just have to price and set the pots around, get last minute rattan handles woven, pictures taken etc.
I'm on schedule with the preparations for the TRAC tour this weekend.
If anyone is here in western NC this weekend, the Mitchell and Yancy Counties TRAC tour is a real treasure trove to top potters, glassblowers, weavers, metal workers, basket weavers, etc. There are tour maps available at the TRAC galleries in Spruce Pine and Burnsville, or you can pick them up at the various studios.
If you need directions to my studio, just email me at: ShambhalaPottery@verizon.net.
Here's a picture of the beautiful winter wonderland view from our front porch a few days ago. All the beautiful snow is gone now except a few small patches; but it was wonderful while it lasted.
Here are a few pictures from this weeks firing.

Till later!
June

KILN WEEK FROM HELL!

Finally got my soda kiln fired after several glitches with bisque,, liner glaze problems and just plain clumsiness and equipment failures! Getting back to work after a year off due to a non working hip and then recovery from hip replacement surgery, has been a bit challenging, tiring and awkward at times. First there was hundreds of pounds of hard clay and reclaim clay to deal with as well as major studio cleanup to do before getting started throwing.
Throwing went OK other than dealing with clay I over softened; but it didn't take long to get those muscles back. Then there was the joy of getting all the slips and glazes remixed and sieved - another daunting task.
Loading the second of the two bisque kilns went fine, and then unloading the second bisque turned out to be a crashing experience, as one of the tall posts on one of the half shelves decided to topple as I was walking away from the kiln to put down another shelf. That little crash resulted in several cracked pots. No problem. I had extras. Then several bowls with a cream liner, which looked fine on application on a raw, dry pot (evenly watered it down quite a bit),cracked horribly in the Cone 03 bisque and was too fused to be removed -more lost pots.Then, while wadding and loading the soda kiln , a 9" half brick post toppled onto 3 small pots sitting on the kiln floor, waiting to be loaded - more broken pots! Suddenly my full kiln load was looking pretty sparse, so I went around the studio looking for a couple of likely candidates for re-firing.
There was a nice, large bowl among the likely candidates and that filled half a shelf, and I found a couple of old plates to glaze, so things were looking pretty good. Kiln finally got loaded, bricked up, with pilot burner on overnight. Next morning it was over 300 degrees and I proceeded with the firing, going nice and slow, as I always do. Around 550 I heard the explosion -fortunate that I was there to hear it!.
I turned off the kiln and had to wait the following morning to deal with it. Got up at 4am, walked the dogs, unbricked the kiln door to discover that it was the big refire bowl that was the culprit. The kiln gods weren't too cruel, as it was on one of the upper, front shelves, so I didn't have to unbrick the whole door - just the first 8 -10 courses or so. I was able to reach down to the floor to pick up some large chunks and was able to reach the likely places to remove chards that had settled inside of some pots. There were some shelves that had to be removed, and I had to re-apply some loose alumina hydrate and reload those shelves and brick her up again. By 7am I was back firing.
Great, I thought;but the kiln demons weren't done with me! Twice during the lower temperatures, the burners kicked off; but I was so tired that I had affixed myself to my camp chair in the kiln room and was there both times to re-start the burners immediately. Other than bathroom visits and one fifteen minute break to quickly gobble up the Kentucky Fried chicken dinner that Jim had brought home, I sat near the kiln. I wasn't taking any chances with how my kiln luck was going!
Well, at 2000 degrees, the kiln kicked off again, so I jet propelled myself out of my camp chair and quickly depressed the button on the safety valve. 10 minutes later, after multiple tries, those burners refused to go back on without me holding the button down. By now the pen hanging on my sweat shirt was burning me and my metal watch was burning my left wrist, and the water was dripping off my forehead at an alarming rate. So Iquickly released the numb finger on the button, closed up the ports (burned several fingers doing that), and damper ran into the house and screamed to Jim to call Shane. I quickly ran back to the kiln room, started the burners again, and they were kicking back (I forget thatI had the damper in and didn't remember until Shane got there!) But I at least got the pilot on and in about 10 minutes Shane showed up and determined what I had already figured out, that the basal valve was probably shot. He said it could also be the thermocouple in the pilot burner, so using his amazing strength and two large wrenches, he managed to take the thing apart and jerry rig his extra large C clamp to keep the pipe connections closed so Icould finish the firing.
By the time we got the kiln turned back on it had dropped to 1700F.
Another thing - the kiln had been firing hot at the top in past firings so I had Shane add to the chimney so that it would be about 3' higher the the roof peak. He also adjusted the bag wall earlier when he did some other work on the kiln and burners. Unfortunately,we probably should have only made one adjustment because the higher chimney did what I thought it would do - make the bottom hotter! The problem is that we also opened the bag wall a lot at the bottom, so it got a lot hotter! I wound up with cone 12 at the bottom left and on the opposite bottom at the read, with cone 10 barely starting in some places on top, and various levels of cone 10 and 11 in some other places.
Since it was already past my ideal peak temperature, I decided to accelerate the salting (I had already done some of the Nichols whiting/sodium bicarb mix and some wet soda ash applied to scrap wood pieces, and one salt burrito) and wound up throwing in 2 more salt burritos, a couple more angle iron doses of the Gail Nichols mix, and one round of spraying soda in about 8-10 ports. The draw tiles looked like I got some surface shine, so I'm hoping I put enough material to do the job. I have no idea how much salting material actually went into the kiln! In panic mode, and time being of the essence, I wasn't going to be fussy about weighing anything. At 2am after a much needed shower, washing and blow drying my hair (I smelled like a fireman after a day fighting fires!), I finally crawled into bed, convinced I should take up book binding or or some other less strenuous, less dangerous activity at my age.
I un-bricked the door a while ago and as I suspected, the pots are quite dark from the 3 salt burritos, and also too dry, which I also suspected, so there will be a lot of refires. One refire in the front looks great, so I imagine I can get these satisfactorily re-fired.. One plate has a couple of pieces of debris in it and that's one of the pieces I check earlier. It was clear then, so it's a major puzzlement where they came from.
I'm waiting for a delivery of my new video cam which is due tomorrow and I'll try to take some video of the kiln and then I'll unload it and see what we have.
Well that's the end of my woeful tale, if you've had enough stamina to read this novelette!

Till next time,
June

It was snowing at 5am and there was already a lovely, light coating of white on everything.It's 7:30 am and it's still snowing and judging the by sky, it doesn't look like it's going to stop any time soon.
I finished my wadding last night and will load the kiln after breakfast. I don't know if I'll fire it tomorrow or Sunday. It will depend on when I get some more test glazes finished.
A kiln shelf toppled on some bisque ware and broke a bunch pots as I was unloading, and a new, high clay liner glaze crawled horribly on a few bowls even though it was applied quite thin, so I'm hoping I still have enough pots to fill the kiln.
My friend Shane extended the chimney yesterday and put on a new metal cap that he fabricated. I'm hoping that couple of extra feet will help the draw so the kiln will fire more evenly.
Well, time for poached eggs, a healthy dose of vitamins followed by kiln loading!

June

Well, the studio is somewhat organized, at least organized enough to actually throw a couple of pots. My friend John Britt invited me to put some pots in his upcoming oil spot firing and that gave me the impetus to sit down at the wheel and see how it would go. I was concerned that my new hip might present a problem with throwing, but so far so good!
The garden weeds are taking over but I just couldn't stay out of the studio a minute longer to pull weeds! It's taking enough of my time processing all the veggies I planted! So I'm back to a regular studio schedule - finally!
We're having an incredible summer here in the mountains but the the local katydids that forewarn frost, have been making their noises for a couple of weeks now, so if it's true that they start their cacophony six weeks prior to the first frost, we may be getting that frost the beginning of September rather around mid October.
Well, lunch break is over and I'm heading back to work.

Till later,
June

Well, summer is going by so fast but at least now I'm able to work in the garden. After my hip replacement surgery in April, I had to wait 3 months before I could work in the garden or studio. Today will be my first day in the studio - a week later than I thought because my garden helper hasn't been able to come and I've had to focus my time and energy on catching up with garden work and trying to get back into a normal routine.
Since it's my first day back to work, it's going to be spent mainly organizing and cleaning up a studio that has been sitting idle all this time, reclaiming all the clay in the clay mixer and getting some machinery oiled and working. I need to figure out how to get the oil in the big new compressor for the extruder and maybe finally get the old oil out of the pugmill and new oil in so I can start using the de-airing feature. It's been sitting idle for a while until I could settle on one major clay body.
I should take a picture of the mess - before and after!
I'll try to post some pictures in the next day or so of the studio and garden.

THE NEW MASTER BEDROOM SUITE

Here are a couple of pictures of the new master wing I designed. Also, since my toddling around with a cane isn't conducive for physical labor, I've also been working on my web page. Here's the URL:

www.shambhalapottery.com

There are some photos in the gallery of the last firing.

Well, the new addition is done and looks fabulous; and it was completed just in time for this bad hip of mine. I'm having hip replacement surgery on April 8th, so full time studio work is going to have to wait until the summer.
I did get in the studio the other day to just throw some test tiles; but most of my time is not being spent taking 35 years of save glaze recipes (numbering over ten thousand now), and hand copying them into studier, hard cover notebooks.
As I'm going through these glazes, I've been adding more soda/slip slip and glaze recipes to the text files in the Yahoo soda/salt group I started a while back.

Well, it's been an amazing summer. Because of my injured hip we decided to add a first floor bedroom wing and that, the garden and pottery have been plenty to keep me busy.
I started a soda salt firing group on Yahoo for other soda/salt firers or anyone interested in vapor firing. The URL is:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sodasaltfiring


You have to be approved to participate and that is only to avoid spammers.

I just fired my kiln Friday and will be unloading tonight or tomorrow morning. Our dog Shanti has been fighting a massive eye infection due to an abcessed tooth and we need to get him to the vet again late this afternoon so he can have that tooth extracted tomorrow morning, so the kiln may have to wait until tomorrow to be unloaded.

I tried a new technique in this firing, using some salt along with the soda and a few ounces of borax, because my usual method of spraying the water/soda solution was not an option right now with all the hip pain I'm experiencing. So instead, I made a paste of the mixture and spread it on pieces of scrap wood and introduced them into the firebox.

From my peek into the kiln this morning, it appears that that was too much salt. Some of the pots are way too dark - sort of sewer tile brown - not what I would have expected on a white stoneware! It also looks like the area under some of the lids is lighter color, which is definitely not going to work. I'm assuming the salt did not hit there and those are going to be strange looking pots! At this point I'm wondering if firing them in the electric kiln at a bisque temperature might help brighten them, or if they will be a total loss.

I'll try to get some pictures taken of some of these pots and post them on the yahoo group and maybe here as well if I get the time.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Well, I'm finally getting back to work! My hip is still a mess,as a result of the bad fall which gave me a badly sprained ankle along with a possible stress fracture; but I can't sit and plant with this rain (which is the only physical activity I've been able to do since this happened), so I'm heading for the studio today to do some throwing - at last!
It's been an incredibly busy summer of planting while sitting, and planning our new first floor master suite. (If you missed the story behind the accident that started this project and your have a lot of time on your hands, you can scroll down for the details!) :-)
I thought I was almost done planting and then the earth moving machinery arrived last week along with the bad news that all the plantings I had put in on the hillside behind the house had to be dug up so they could grade. So now those plants are waiting for the first dry day for me to get started on the replanting!
Since I've been very antsy to get back to work, any planting is only going to be alloted an hour or two on any given day so I can get in studio time.
I also have a new EZCube and want to get a few more pictures of some pots to put up on my web site. That's the other thing I've been doing this past week - trying to redo the web site. I'm a lot happier with the home page now; but it will take a while to finish it. Wish I knew more about HTML so I could create the page that is in my mind!
The unintended consequence of the accident was that I had all this time to plant,since it was something I could do sitting down; and my garden is looking incredible this year with all the new plantings. This is year 2 for most of the garden and I'm amazed how well it's doing, especially since I lost so many roses due to the early summery weather followed by a hard frost which killed and badly injured many plants. Even the Japanese maples, a couple of other shrubs and some of the fruit trees which looked dead are showing signs of new life! So our losses weren't as great as we first thought. I will have to replace a couple of fruit trees; but that's all.
Well,that's it for this month. I'll try to get some garden pictures taken as soon as the sun comes out again and post them here. We've been getting a lot of much needed rain this week and last, which is most welcome!

It's been a crazy few months - heavy work cycle leading up to the December studio tour, post tour cleanup and then getting ready for Christmas. Right after recuperating from a month long virus in December (fortunately it hit me late Christmas day),in middle January I was getting ready to get back to work in the studio when a sad little dog showed up at our door step late one night. After a couple of weeks trying to find his owners, we realized that the universe had given us this sad, frightened, traumatized little terrier. If that wasn't enough for the little guy, our other dog decided that he was going to try to get rid of him by being downright nasty. Needless to stay, my hopes of getting back to work were put on the burner while I got this new member of our family, who we named Bodhi, acclimated to our household. I tried to take him into the studio; but the studio cat Shino,immediately determined he was an enemy interloper and started attacking him.
Since my husband is allergic to this homeless cat who adopted us last summer, we had no choice but to take the new family member back into the house and let the cat maintain reign over his domain (the studio) until they got to know each other better. That also meant that I had to stay close by until everyone got used to him and he got used to his new surroundings and new house mates.
It's obvious the little guy had been abused and even the presence of a fly swatter sent him into uncontrollable trembling. Now after a few months, he's settling in beautifully, even willing to fight back a little with his nemesis, our Lhasa Apso Shanti tries to bully him; but most times Bodhi makes every effort to avoid conflict and remains his sweet gentle, self.
The vet, after a series of tests, shots and thorough examination, said he was healthy and determined his ago to be about 1 1/2 to 2 years. So it looks like we can enjoy many more years with this little guy and the vet can take a nice week end getaway on our fee!
Since I couldn't get in any studio time, I got started early on my seed starting and now I'm up to my ears in vegetable and perennial plants which are taking a lot of my time and a lot of house space.
We had an unusually warm March to the point that trees and shrubs were blooming too early and then the deep freeze arrived. I managed to save a lot during that first freeze, covering pots with old boxes, quilts, remay - whatever I could get my hands on, but we lost a lot of this years crop from our fruit trees, some of which were totally denuded by the cold and we also lost some roses and perennials which I'm now in the process of replacing.
We were fooled into thinking that the unusual cold spell was over and we uncovered the plants several days later to find that we had saved a lot of them; but then a few days after that another hard freeze was forecast. I took a deep breath, ran up stairs to grab am armload of quilts hoping to at least cover some of the more tender things. Well, I was in such a rush, that I missed the last step to the landing, went flying and wound up with a severe ankle sprain. And the only saving grace was that the hard freeze didn't happen.
So, after a week on crutches, and sitting with my foot elevated and surrounded with ice packs, I'm now able to hobble a little, which is an improvement from the step, drag the injured foot,I was doing last week. I called it my "The Mummy" walk imitation; but I still can't get into the studio to stand and wedge. All I've managed to do it grab some clay and make a lot of cone packs! So I'm back to gardening which I can do sitting down and I'm getting a lot done. I'll try to take some garden pictures this summer and post them here.
I've given up all hope of making and firing pots for the spring tour; but the garden is filling up fast with all this planting. It also gave me time to do what was necessary to get the kitchen remodel finished (the last of the granite backsplashes will be done Monday).
I also had plenty of time to design our new bedroom wing. This accident was a big wake up call; and we decided that at our ages, a first floor master is definitely the way to go; and it's also just in time for our ten year old Lhasa who is now finding it frightening to go down the steps lately.
I got one of those EZCube setups right before the accident and I'm eager to try it, so as soon as I can I'll try it out and take some pictures of a few more pots from the last firing. In the meantime I'll keep planting until this foot heals and I can get back to the studio.