Last nights Spicy, Italian Eggplant and Chicken dish - nice to find another way to get Jim to eat eggplant! It isn't pretty but it was tasty.

Spent this morning checking a list of soda/salt recipes and posting them to my yahoo soda/salt firing group. I found a copy of the list on another site and a lot of the recipes were missing the additions. So I posted it again on my Yahoo group and I'm putting it out here for future reference and for those who are not part of the Yahoo group. These are just a few of the over 10.000 recipes I've collected, (some of my own creation,) over 37 or so years.


Soda Firing Glaze Recipes most in the C 9-11 range, a couple that will work at C7.

#166 Woo Blue Brown C9-10R

42 Custer Spar
18 Whiting
13 Ball Clay
27 Flint

Add: Red Iron oxide 4%, Rutile 4%, Bentonite 2%

#167 Shaner Yellow Red Glaze C 9-10

49 Custer Feldspar
20 Whiting
4 Talc
4 Bone Ash
23 Zircopax

ADD: IRON OXIDE 4%

#171 plum glaze C 9-10

4500 Custer Feldspar
1300 Whiting
2800 Silica
1100 EPK
776 Red Iron Oxide

#356 Sea Gull Eggs C9-10
(not to be used on interiors. Barium and nickel are toxic so use careful studio practices when handling).

96 Potspar
35 Barium Carbonate
20 Whiting
30 China Clay
30 Zinc Oxide
10 Rutile

#1009 a Jane Hamlyn glaze

subbing OM#4 ball clay for AT ball clay. This will run a bit at C 10 if you're firing to full cone ten you might want to add about 5-10 more grams of a combination of the ball clay and silica.

24 Custer Feldspar
18 Whiting
30 Kentucky OM#4 Ball Clay
30 Silica
ADD: 5 % Red Iron Oxide

#1014 Walter Keeler Blue C9-10

100 Potspar
60 Ball Clay
40 Dolomite
ADD: 1.3% Cobalt oxide
1.0 % Copper carb


#1170 Temmoku
It will go amber/gold in salt firing, black in soda.

316 Kingman Feldspar (can use G-200 or Custer)
204 Silica
75 EPK
133 Whiting
71 Red Iron Oxide

#1319 Chris Staley Red/Green

C7-10 Ox or Red.(because of high copper only use as exterior glaze). He fires porcleain so this may be at it's best on porcelain or on a white stoneware.

50 Custer Spar
15 Whitng
13 EPK
20 Flint
2 Dolomite
ADD: Bentonite 2%, Copper carb 8%, Red Iron Oxide 1%

#1320 Special Ash Cone 7-10 Red or OX Chris Staley

50 Mixed Hardwood ash
25 Kona F4 Soda spar
25 Tenn. #5 ball clay
Add: Cobalt carb 1%, Rutile 5%

#2297 Clear Liner Cone 5-10

50 Plastic Vitrox
50 Gerstley borate

Add: a handfull of Aberhill clay. (can use without this).

#2298 Clear

50 Colemanite (can use Gerstley borate)
50 Cornwall Stone

*add a handfull of kaolin, or Albany or Alberta slip, or Ochre, etc.

#2310 Sandra Johnstone Liner C10

15 Potspar
63 Albany slip (try Alberta slip as a substitute)
11 Whiting
6 silica
5 Red Iron Oxide

#2311 Sandra Johnstone Pumpkin glaze C10

44 Kingman Potspar (try Custer or G200)
12 Whiting
10 Barium carb
10 Kaolin
3 Silica

Add: 1 Red Iron Oxide %
6 Rutile
2 Bentonite
*Base is in grams and doesn't total 100%

#2333 June Perry Matt Kaki C 10 Reduction

In soda/salt this looks like a plum temmoku. I designed this as a regular C10 R glaze but it works well in soda/salt.

50.0 Custer Feldspar
18.0 Grolleg Kaolin
12.8 Silica
7.7 Whiting
11.5 Red Iron oxide

#2501 Kaki.
This is a regular C10 R beautiful Kaki glaze, which turns into a Temmoku on some bodies in soda firings.

55.90 Cornwall Stone
6.15 Talc
5.64 Wollastonite
10.26 Kentucky OM#4 Ball Clay
12.82 Calcined Kentucky OM#4 Ball Clay
9.23 Silica

Add: 6% Red Iron Oxide

#2517 Sam Moligian's alkaline blue glaze C10 ox/red.

50.00 Kona F3 Soda Spar
21.42 Whiting
14.29 EPK
14.29 Barium carb.

A: Add: Zircopax 5%, Cobalt carb 0.5%, Red Iron oxide 1%. Bentonite 2%

NOTE: with this much toxic barium, only use as an outer glaze. My first test on this ran a bit with a flat cone 10, so you might want to not fire that high. I’ve added 2% bentonite but it may need a bit more EPK and a bit more silica for a full cone 10.

#2597 Wettlaufer Spodumene C10

26.5 Potspar
22.1 Dolomite
22.1 Ball clay
17.7 Spodumene
8.8 Zircopax
2.2 Tin oxide

#2659 Walter Keeler C 9 liner (this may be OK at c10).

70 Cornwall stone
30 Wollastonite
Add: 8% Red Iron Oxide

#2792 Randy's Green C9 Ox or neutral (may go to cone 10) (different than #7730 other Randy's green)

7.61 Dolomite
10.86 Whiting
26.09 Custer Spar
21.74 Kona F4 Spar
13.04 OM #4 Ball Clay
20.65 Flint

Add: Copper Carb 6.52%, Tin oxide 4.35%, Zircopax 8.70%

*WARNING - anything with this much copper should not be used on cooking surfaces. It will definitely fail the lemon juice test and may fade when exposed to long term dishwasher use.

#2807 Gustin Shino (good liner, apply thin, particulary if you use it on bisque,or it will crawl).

45 Neph Sy
11 F4 soda spar
15 Spodumene
15 Ball Clay
10 Calcined kaolin
4 Soda ash

#2914 Temple Wood fire/Light salt Cone 11 Persimmon

10.00 Bone Ash
5.71 Talc
7.15 Whiting
50.02 Custer Spar
5.70 EPK

#2985 Shaner Red altered for cone 10

45.7 Custer spar
3.7 Talc
21.5 6Tile clay
3.5 Bone ash
18.7 Whiting
5.4 Red Iron oxide
1.9 Bentonite

#3104 Rob's Green (Hunter green)
(different than Rob's Green #7730 on this list)

75 Cornwall Stone
18 Whiting
5 Gerstley borate
10 Copper carb
7 Strontium Carb
2 Bentonite

*WARNING: Don't use on food surfaces. It's unsafe because of the high copper content.

#3108 Oatmeal.
This is a recipe that I have used in regular C10 R firings.

49 Custer Feldspar
19 Dolomite
20 EPK
4 Whiting
4 Tin Oxide
8 Zircopax
2 Yellow Ochre

#3142 Jeff Oestrich high clay Shino
should be good liner C10

42.88 Neph Sy
10.28 Kona F4 Soda spar
14.47 Spodumene
14.29 OM#4 Ball clay
14.29 EPK
3.78 Soda Ash

#3148 Jeff Oestreich Shino
on Windsor porcelain..
This was one of the best soda/salt Shino recipes. It will carbon trap and makes a very good liner glaze. It may also work as an exterior glaze.

40 Nepheline Syenite
30 Spodumene
17 Kentucky OM#4 Ball Clay
5 EPK
8 Soda Ash

#3165 Amber Celadon C9-10 Dark treacle brown

(lighter on porcelain or white stoneware). You can use it very thin for reddish accents in soda.

36 Albany slip (try Alberta slip)
22 Custer spar
3 Gerstley borate
14 Wollastonite
8 Whiting
14 Flint
Add: 8% Yellow ochre

#4125 Sohngen Stony Yellow
This is a very nice matt, quiet, light green in soda.. This glaze is a matt yellow in a C10 R firing.

67.0 Kona F4 Soda Spar
34.0 Dolomite
21.0 Talc
14.0 Spodumene
9.0 Whiting
50.0 EPK
4.0 Bentonite
3.8 Red Iron Oxide

#5014 Gordon Hutchen high clay Temmoku C10 R

16.5 Alberta Slip
30.0 Local red clay
37.2 F-4 Soda spar
9.3 Ball clay (I use OM #4)
2.3 Borax
4.7 Red Iron ox.

(for the local red clay I think, if memory serves me, that I used Redart and I think it needs a lower melting red clay. Redart is a bit more refractory than your average earthenware. Next time I'm going to batch this with red clay from our property).

#5015 Shaner Shino slip (different than his others posted on this list)

36 Nepheline Syenite
12 Spodumene
9 Kona F4 Soda Spar
3 Soda Ash
12 Om #4 Ball Clay
28 EPK

# 5862 Vivika's Orange
This is another C10 R glaze that is used in regular C10 R firings. This glaze works great on porcelain or on white stoneware or over white or porcelain slip on stoneware bodies. Because of barium content only use only on exterior of pots or sub 4.95 strontium carb. for the barium. Not good on iron bearing stonware in soda/salt.

56 Kona F4 Sodaspar
15 Nepheline Syenite
13 Whiting
7 EPK
6.6 Barium Carbonate
8.0 Tin Oxide
4 Red Iron oxide.

Add: Red Iron oxide 2%, Rutile 4%

#6330 another Malcolm Davis Carbon Trap
This shino is darker than his other one I posted. This one works better, with better color over the porcelain slip.

38.6 Nepheline Syenite
9.3 Kona F4 Soda Spar
16.3 Soda Ash
5.7 Redart
17.9 EPK
13.0 OM #4 Ball Clay

#6362 Malcolm Davis Red Shino
(carbon traps. Crazed on porcelain in soda. OK on stoneware).

42.94 Nepheline Syenite
10.34 Kona F4 Soda Spar
7.00 Soda Ash
6.34 Redart
18.91 EPK
14.47 OM #4 Ball Clay

#6365 Amber celadon
(light amber on white bodies, more of a deep amber brown on higher iron bearing bodies)

26.09 Custer spar
25.97 Whiting
6.99 EPK
19.98 OM#4 ball clay
20.97 Silica
Add: 9.99% Yellow ochre, 2% Bentonite

#6601 June Perry's Chun blue
This chun did well in the soda/salt environment. The color is a lovely powder blue with a lot of pink/lavender color throughout on porcelain.

31.44 G-200 Feldspar
10.72 Ferro Frit 3134
4.09 Barium Carbonate
9.65 Dolomite
5.49 Whiting
1.56 Zinc Oxide
7.02 EPK
27.59 Silica
2.44 Tin Oxide

Color C, ADD: Copper Carb 0.5, Rutile 5.6, Cobalt carbonate 0.2%

#6925 June Perry blue green Celadon
(this is a very rich, buttery celadon that I use as a liner glaze) Color is deeper, richer with more reduction, but fine with light reduction.

31.12 G-200 Spar
5.05 Dolomite
18.01 Wollastonite
19.47 Grolleg
26.35 Silica
Add: macaloid1%
A: color add: 1/2% black iron oxide,2 tin oxide
B: color add: 5% alberta slip, 1% black iron oxide, 3% tin ox.
Another variation is to do B but substitute 1% cobalt oxide for the iron. It gives a very bright blue celadon. I use these as liners.

#7730 Randy’s Green
(not safe for functional ware)(different than #2892 other Randy's green)

22.8 Custer Spar
19.2 Kona F-4 spar
17.4 Flint
13.6 Barium carb
10.9 Ball clay
9.5 Whiting
6.6 Dolomite

A: add Opax 7.5%, copper carb 6%, Tin ox 4%

#7803 Val’s satin black
beautiful buttery, satin finish on this black glaze. Avoid using is as a liner. It may not be a safe liner on functional work due to the amount and type of oxides.

20 Custer spar
20 F-4 soda spar
2 Whiting
15 Dolomite
20 Flint
10 OM#4 ball clay

Add: Cobalt carb 3%, Red Iron 3%, chrome ox 1%, manganese dioxide 2%

#8436 June Perry Oribe
(this one stays bright green in soda) (don’t use as a liner. There’s too much copper in this for a safe glaze for functional ware. It won't go turquoise like Shaner Oribe; but will stay a nice bright green.

30 Custer spar
6 Talc
10 Whiting
5 Barium carb (can substitute 3.75 strontium carb for the barium)
5 Strontium carb
15 OM#4 ball clay
20 Silica

A: Add 6% copper carb, 4 tin oxide

#8473 Somebrite green
(apply very, very thin for best color. Goes too dark is applied normal thickness and can get a de-vitrified surface). Don’t use as liner glaze. It’s not safe with this much copper and low silica. It makes a nice accent glaze with flashing slips.

45 Custer spar
7 Whiting
10 Zinc Oxide
25 Strontium carb
13 OM#4 ball clay

A: add copper carb 5%, Rutile 1%, Red Iron Ox 1.25%

#8483 Robs Green
(not a safe glaze because of high copper content) don’t use on interior of pots.

70 Cornwall stone
16 Whiting
9 Barium Carb (can sub 6.75 strontium carb)
5 Gerstley Borate

Add: copper carb 8%, bentonite 3%

#8457 Yellow Salt (don’t apply too thin or it goes brown. Can get too shiny at full Cone 10) Best color on body with some iron content. This is a soft, not very durable glaze, so I wouldn’t use it as a liner. Cutlery will scratch the surface. (from John Britt's wonderful book).

60.7 Neph Sy
20.0 Dolomite
15.2 Zircopax
4.1 OM#4 ball clay

Add: bentonite 3.8%, Red iron oxide 0.9%
Can add some epsom salts to prevent hard settling.

#8719 Raw shino liner C 10

71.5 Neph Sy
28.5 OM#4 ball clay

#8891 Ayumi C9-10 (nice light green matt. Can craze if overfired it hit directly with too much soda)

3.6 Soda ash
11.0 Dolomite
5 .5 Whiting
36.4 Kona F-4 Soda spar
18.0 EPK
20.0 Strontium carb
5.5 silica

Add: Copper carb 1.5%, Bentonite 2%

#8980 Gustin Shino
(I use this one as a liner on raw pots or quite thin on bisque to avoid crawling). It might work better for bisque if you use calcined kaolin.

15.2 Spodumene
10.8 Kona F-4 Soda spar
4.0 Soda ash
10.0 EPK
15.0 OM#4 Ball clay
45.0 Neph Sy

Soap dishes

Here's stage one of a couple of soap dishes with a very thick slip. It's the same slip I use on some jars and I thought that as a thicker mix, it might work well for a soap dish. Today I'll cut them into modified ovals. The next ones will be a big larger; but this size should work for those smaller, guest soaps, and maybe some others.

I spent the early part of my morning going through my old Rhodes book on kiln building and I'm thinking of having this cross draft rebuilt as a bit smaller sprung arch, which was my first gas kiln about 37 years ago. It would give me less space to fill, and give Jim and extra inches of space for any future car he would want.

Late morning we did a Walmart run. My old scallion seeds don't seem to want to sprout so I needed to get another package and pick up some organic potting soil and more seed starting mix. All my other onions and leeks have come up and are doing fine in the kitchen greenhouse window, and outdoors, my fall planted garlic is up about 4 inches. My parsley seems to have survived the winter as well.

Now that lunch is done I think I'll do some early dinner prep for a new Italian recipe of spicy eggplant and chicken and then head to the studio for a bit.

Planting afternoon

I made a fruit salad with almond cream for breakfast. It's a nice light, protein breakfast for this balmy February morning. To make almond cream just soak almonds in a lot of water, overnight for about 12 hrs. In the morning, pour off the old water, put almonds in a good blender, cover with water and puree (add more water as needed;but only enough to keep the almond cream moving while being blended. You can use as is, or add a bit of natural sweetener like Stevia, maples syrup, honey, etc.

Yesterday afternoon we did a Johnson City run for some food shopping at Earth Fare, followed by Lowe's and Home Depot stops for a few boxes of pansies, a grape vine and much needed bamboo shades for my studio. I love having one of my wheels and desk near the window, but I need to cut down on some of the glare so I can see my pots and read my computer screen.

We had an early dinner of Caesar salad and their fabulous Mussels (steamed in a lovely pernod, lemon, garlic and basil sauce) at Carrabas before heading back over the mountain.

I did get morning studio time yesterday and now I'm heading out to trim the last couple of plates and continue dipping and decorating. So much for my thinking I'd have all this done early in the week!

This afternoon I'll be busy planting the perennials before the later, expected rain arrives, and doing some much needed garden cleanup.

Easy supper of welsh rarebit

On busy studio days like today I look for something easy to cook. This is welsh rabbit with peas, tomato slices and bacon - easy, fairly quick and tasty. It's basically a roux, melted cheese, beer, some dry mustard and Worcestershire sauce.

After re-arranging some pots in the bisque kiln I realized I could squeeze in a few more pots so I'm working on them now. My intention of firing this bisque early this week has now been put off for another couple of days while I wait for these latest pots to get finished. A few got trimmed, waxed and slipped today and on this lovely day I was able to put them outside to dry. Tomorrow I'll decorate them and myabe trim, wax, and slip the couple I threw today.

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.

First seedlings of winter are up

The first leek seedlings sprouted overnight! Whahoo! I do love this time of year, with the promise of spring so close. Looks like we have a lovely day, but still coolish, so I'm putting off my outdoor planting till later in the week when we're expecting a couple of days in the low 60's.

We've been enjoying a lazy Sunday morning, catching up on email and snail mail, but I will get a few hours of studio time today before I start on tonight's roast chicken, mashed potato, honey ginger carrots dinner. Jim promises to open a really good Chardonnay as his contribution.

Right now I need to get a loaf of whole wheat started in the bread machine and then head to the studio. There's only one more pot to slip and about 3 to decorate. All should be dry enough for the bisque early next week.

Pizza night after a day in the studio

I had a full studio day and came in to get the pizza made around 5.

Today I got the bisque kiln about 90% loaded, and dipped and decorated a few more pots. I should finish decorating the last few pots in the morning, and will load and fire once they're dry which I'm hoping, will be by Tuesday.

Seed starting, citrus in bloom

We were out and about part of the morning and most of the afternoon with various shopping chores and a lovely lunch at the the Tin Lizard in Spruce Pine. Since we had a fairly big lunch we opted to just pick up some Won Ton soup and a couple of egg rolls for dinner.

If I didn't have seeds to buy, I would have stayed home and worked; but I wanted to get more onion and basil seeds and some perennials, and do some more grocery shopping. Walmart has all their seeds in stock as well as packaged bulbs and perennials. With the warmer weather coming in the next few days, I intend to plant the lily of the valley and cinnamon ferns, and do some more pruning.

When we got home I planted two small pots of Genovese and Thai basil, the new onion seeds and another variety of leek.

The basement smells divine, from one of the over wintered, citrus trees which is blooming. I can't put it outside, so I'm hoping I may be able to hand pollinate the flowers with a Q tip.

I did manage a few minutes of studio time to put the finishing touches on a teapot.The rest will have to wait till tomorrow. There's dinner, and a Netflix movie to watch and some sketching to do for the rest of today.

Pugmill needs some attention

On this cold, blistery,snowy morning, I find myself yearning for those early signs of spring - crocus, pussy willow, forsythia and daffodils. Some birds seem to be building nests so spring can't be too far off (she says optimistically!). Since I'm too old to be broody, I plant seeds this time of year. Sunday I planted a small pot of leek seeds and this morning I planted some bunching onion seeds. Tonight I'll plant another couple of small pots of two other varieties of leek.

The only studio related chore I did yesterday, was move most of the kiln shelves from the kiln room to the studio. They should have been cleaned after the last firing while the weather was still mild; but my aching back just wasn't up to it. It's supposed to be sunny and milder this weekend, so hopefully I'll be able to grind them outside. The rest of the day we were out and about the county doing chores and didn't get back till late afternoon. After emptying the car, putting away our purchases and tending to our furry family member, it was time to think about dinner.

First studio job this morning is to to follow friend Shane's and Bluebirds possible fix instructions and see if I can get my Powerstar pugmill de-airing again. It was working fine several days ago. When I'm done, I put wet towels and plastic in all the openings so I don't think dried clay is the problem, unless some got into the hose leading to the vacuum chamber. Or, maybe it could be that it needs a new gasket or a new pressure gauge, or????

Even though I'm not planning any throwing in the couple of day, I'd like to have this resolved, so it will be ready to go when I do need it. I'll give it a few minutes of my time this morning, before I move on to my main focus of the day - continuing slipping and decorating. I'm aiming to get these finished by Friday and bisque soon after.

John Britt video on making screw tops.

I purchased these molds from Axners a while back and they're sitting on my slab roller table waiting to try.

This morning I slept in and the freshly thrown pot I left on the wheel, waiting to be worked on this morning, dried too much overnight even with the studio heat turned down. Fortunately it was just a cylinder that I was going to square off this morning, so I'll throw another one before I continue slipping and decorating. I want to get the rest of this white stoneware out of the pug mill so I can start on the Phoenix which I want to use for some slab work.

My laptop wireless is working great in the studio and I used it to listen to some archived Coast to Coast talk shows which come on too late at night for me to stay awake. First I had to spend a half hour or more trying to find out why the sound didn't work; but the settings somehow got messed up. Computers often change things without any human input. Sometimes I think they're haunted! :-(

Time to head to the studio for the day. Jim's been making me a little lunch plate (some grapes, almonds and a small piece of cheese)so I can work straight through. For Super Bowl Sunday, at Jim's request, I'm making nachos and margaritas. Jim's rooting for the underdogs, the Green Bay Packers. He says he likes the quarterback, whoever that is! I usually only watch the commercials or when Jim urges me to watch some great play. I'm not a big fan of sports where the player may be taken off the field or ring in a stretcher, much more preferring to watch tennis, golf, track, etc. Saying that, I do enjoy the enthusiasm and celebratory rituals of the Super Bowl.

Delicious Cuban black beans and rice recipe

Yesterday I spent most of my time working on the after effects of a bunch of viruses that hit my computer. Norton immediately filled my screen with bright red, warnings of about 3 viruses and I quickly tackled the problem. Even after Norton removed them the computer kept freezing. After several, unsuccessful reboots, I remembered to hit the F8 key at the beginning of the reboot. A repair button was an option on the page that came up, so I selected that; and it seems to have solved the problem. I'm not really sure if the problem was due to the after effect of those viruses, the several re-installations of Paint Shop pro, or something else.

The day wasn't a total waste since I manged before and after the problem, to free up another 1 1/2 gigs of memory by deleting duplicate and other photo files, and got Paint Shop Pro working again.

I'm making an easy and delicious Cuban black beans and cornbread for dinner. The cornbread will get made this morning, then I'll head to the studio for the day and around 4 o'clock come in and start on the chili. I made this dish a couple of weeks ago and Jim liked it even more than my other, more time consuming, bean dish. Here's the recipe if you want to try it.

CUBAN BLACK BEANS AND RICE Makes 4-6 servings

2 cans black beans
1 tsp. finely chopped garlic
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 c. chopped onion
1 tsp. extra virgin olive oil (I think I used about 2 tsp)
1 can chopped Rotel tomatoes (these are spicy)
1 bay leaf

2 (5 oz) packages. Vigo yellow rice (Spanish flavor)

Instructions:

Saute the onion in olive oil, on medium heat, until transparent. Add the remaining ingredients, except the rice which you cook separately according to the package instructions. Simmer the chili 1/2 - 1 hour. Serve it over the rice.

OPTIONAL: Top with chopped hard boiled eggs,and/or diced onion. It really didn't need the egg for taste; but it does add a little extra protein and color to the dish.

(You can add extra minced serrano chiles if you like your food super hot; but add it after you've cooked the chili a bit since the Rotel tomatoes contribute a good amount of heat.)

Decorating

Slipping and decorating is going slowly, as usual. I'm just about finished with half of this group of pots. I'm taking a risk with a new, Amoco, black under glaze which seems to be working smoother than the black decorating slip I usually use. I think this Amoco under glaze that Kyle Carpenter mentioned a while back so it should work at cone 10.

It took 3 hours for Ron the computer guy and I to get all 3 of my computers setup with the router. I'm now wireless. The only problem is that it's not accepting my code, but I can make it work by hitting the button on top of the router, which is upstairs. I'm probably going to get on the phone again tomorrow and see if they can find out why this isn't working.

Since the wireless setup took so long, the only studio time I got today was a few minutes to trim and wax a plate I threw late yesterday and take a photo for the blog.

Busy, but lovely Sunday

We're having a lovely Sunday, starting with a great, rich brunch of Eggs Benedict at the Tin Lizard in Spruce Pine, followed by some productive time in the garden doing more pruning and cleanup. I didn't get enough garden cleanup in the fall, so I'm hoping we'll get more mild weather before planting time to get this garden in shape.

I made a cavatelli, cauliflower, pancetta, chicken broth and onion pasta dish for dinner which was intriguingly different and very tasty. Even Jim enjoyed it and he doesn't like cauliflower! Thank you Lidida Bastianich for another lovely recipe!

Tomorrow I'll be in the studio all day, mixing flashing and decorating slips and starting decorating, which I had hoped to start earlier in the week. I want to get a firing next onth so I need to get more studio time in the next two weeks to finish these pots and maybe do a few more slab pieces.

Now I'm going to watch the rest of our taped Australian open men's final, and do some more of the never ending computer file sorting and cleanup.

Roofing felt bats

If you aren't aware of this type of bat, here's a helpful video showing how to attach a roofing felt bat to your wheelhead using slip. This technique also works well using canvas instead of the the roofing felt. Both materials are readily available, lightweight, inexpensive and easy to store.

There was no studio time today; but I did get in the garden on this lovely, spring like day to prune one of my peach trees. Yesterday was an Asheville day for some food and wine shopping and my belated birthday dinner at PF Chang's with friends.

I did manage about an hour in the studio to finish and wax a couple of pots. There have been way too many things to keep me out of the studio this week, and tomorrow will be no exception. Since it's expected to be another wonderful, warm day like today,I'm going to take advantage of it and get some more pruning done and be back in the studio Monday when the temperatures are expected to drop down to the 40's.

Time to get started on a salad for dinner. I have my leftover Peking duck and Jim is opting for some crab cakes.

Interesting Cory Lum video on making plates

I've used this technique for small plates; but I'll have to try it for larger pieces as well.

We had another great dinner at the Tin Lizard pub in Spruce Pine last night. They have a new chef and new sous chef and the food was great.Everything was fresh and perfectly cooked. We shared the crab fritter appetizer again. It's served with a remoulade sauce with good attitude. Jim had the salmon poached in Riesling, topped with sauteed mushrooms and leek and baked en croute; and I had the lamb chops with a light curry seasoning. Brian, the chef, makes the very best carrot cake which Jim had last week. Last night he ordered the banana cheesecake that I had last time, and I chose the flourless, chocolate torte which was a super rich and very creamy - pure decadence! It's wonderful to have another, young, talented chef in the area.

I'll be heading for the studio for a few hours now. There were too many things to keep me out of the studio the past few days - mainly some major computer work and household and other chores that seemed to just eat up my day.

Light blanket of snow this morning

Woke up to a light but lovely coating of snow this morning which is disappearing very fast.

Not much to blog about, pottery wise. Yesterday was an all day headache day, so I spent time on paper work - noting glaze recipes,filing emails, writing out recipe cards - all those mundane chores you save for those slow down days.

This morning is a smorgasbord of activities.I'm baking bread, and dealing with various paperwork projects. I found a list of various traditional pizzas, i.e, Napolitana, New York style, etc., using bakers percentages which I had to convert ounces, then grams - just one of those time consuming little jobs that pile up. I love Ron Slagle's pizza dough recipe, but I want to see if I can find a recipe for the type of pizza dough I had in New York while growing up. It would be nice to have an alternate recipes for a change of pace.

Next on the list is a few glaze recipes I need to check on my glaze chemistry software. That will be followed with planting some artichoke seeds. Hopefully, by starting this early, I'll have better luck this year and actually get some fruit!

Another job on my days "to do" list is to get my Nikon digital camera and book out today and find out why I'm not able to get clear focus. If I can solve that problem I'll shoot some more pots. And then there's software to install on my other laptop. There's also some new software to install and old software to re-install on my laptops.

Jim is bringing home some Chinese takeout for dinner, so I'll have plenty of time to complete all these little jobs.

Pizza and margaritas again

I love having pizza and margaritas twice in a week. The leftover dough was better after a couple of days in the fridge - more flavorful.

Today was a studio day and I actually managed to get everything on my "to do" list done, other than putting a couple of handles on a platter which just wasn't dry enough. By the weekend I should be ready to start dipping and decorating this group of pots.

As soon as I finish this margarita I'll head back to the studio to clean up the test tiles I threw today, cover a couple of pots and close up for the night.

Tonight is "Top Chef", which we both enjoy. I fell asleep last week, so I'll watch the re-run before tonight's episode. Hope I can stay awake this week; but I wouldn't take bets on it after a double margarita .

Pizza and margaritas night

We had a great seafood dinner with friends at the Knife and Fork in Spruce Pine last night. The owners are now heading to California till the end of February and will be sorely missed; but we're thrilled that they came from from their Florida vacation with all that lovely seafood for their customers. We all agreed that the tempura shrimp was the best we've ever hand, and the grouper and other shrimp dish was outstanding as well.

Decided to stay in today and make pizza and margaritas and catch up with weeks worth of magazines and the latest catalogs. All my springs seeds are ordered, so I'm just doing a cursory scan and the rest of these seed catalogs. In another week, I'll be starting some seeds, like artichokes and some perennials. I've cleared one of the six foot tables in the basement, so I'm set to go once the seeds arrive.

The Australian tennis starts in half an hour and we'll be watching that while I continue with the paper pile. Tomorrow I'll be back in the studio to do more throwing and maybe do some slab sushi and square plates/platters.

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.

Snow tapering off

My day started early with a lovely 6am trek through the snow to the studio to cover a couple of pots I threw late yesterday, then packing a new Etsy purchase. Hopefully we'll get the driveway plowed today so Jim can get it to the post office later this afternoon.

The studio Buddha statue is sporting another lovely top hat and his body is about 80% shrouded with the snow. The snow is tapering off and there's even a glint of sun light peeking through. Looks like the weekend is free of snow, so we'll be able to get out to do some food shopping and other chores.

Today will be another full studio day - mainly trimming and some assembling and maybe even time to throw a couple more pots.

Dinner will be a simple London Broil with sauteed mushrooms, baked potato,and broiled tomatoes. That's as much cooking as I want to do on studio days. I prepped the veggies before breakfast and Jim will get the oven turned on at 4 so I eat my twelve almond lunch in the studio and work straight through, till 4:30 and have dinner on the table by 5. Life is good!

This is the stone fountain in front of my studio. The snow covered bamboo spout creates an interesting look.

Everything is covered again with new snow. More rain and snow are predicted for later, so it's going to be another sit tight couple of days with all the ice and snow in the forecast through Thursday.

I never did make it to the studio yesterday - spent all morning doing dinner prep (a really tasty turkey meatloaf dinner). The seed ordering took me all afternoon and evening. I went through a dozen seed catalogs and ordered seeds and plants from 9 of them.

There was also a problem to solve with my Paint shop pro which has stopped working after the latest Windows 7 Pro fixes. So this morning I had to get on line and find and order the Photoshop Elements 9 which I know ,works with Windows 7, since I downloaded a trial copy two weeks ago. Now I'll have to learn a whole new software.

There were also grandchildren birthday presents to order this morning. Now that all this is done, I'll be heading to the studio for the rest of the day.

Buddha's snow hat

I love when my studio Buddha wears his snow hat. Shortly after I took this shot, the wind blew it off; but it's snowing again, so he'll soon have another hat. It's going to be fierce out there- snow, followed by sleet and a sheet of ice later today.

Jim and I got out after the driveway was cleared yesterday and we able to pick up mail and Jim's niece's chemo medicine, and do grocery shopping for her and ourselves. Our local road wasn't too bad, and the main roads were well cleared. With all the snow in the forecast through Thursday, it looks like we'll be nesting again till Friday.

This morning I got in the kitchen really early and chopped and sauteed all the veggies for tonight's turkey meatloaf, got it put together so Jim can just pop it in the oven for me while I'm in the studio this afternoon.

Doing some seed ordering last night, I ound a new white cherry that blooms late which can avoid the problem we have here with late frosts which can wreck havoc with early blossoming cherries. I ordered that, 50 new strawberry plants and some veggie seeds, and a Goji berry to replace the one some critter ate last season. There are a dozen more catalogs to go through; but not much more to order since I still have a lot of seeds from last year.

Snow and more snow

The snow is beautiful and it's still coming down. This picture was taken from our front door earlier this morning.

I headed out to the studio around 6:30 to trim and wax a couple of pots from last night, among them, a couple of family pots - kitty dishes, honey jar for John Britt's wonderful honey, and a kitchen utensil jar.

Today's plan is to throw some medium sized bowls and some medium sized jars. One will be a nice, wide flour jar for myself - that is if we don't lose power. The house is well taken care of with a huge generator but not the studio. We've had a lot of mini power outages since 4 am. Hopefully it will be OK long enough for me to get some throwing done.

Late start on an icy morning

Decided to wait till some of that ice melted on our driveway. It looked and felt more like an ice skating rink than a driveway at 6:30 this morning when I went to the studio to cover some pots - very treacherous. So, I spent some after breakfast time sketching some pot ideas and catching up on the morning emails. I've never seen the entire driveway covered in a sheet of ice like that! It took me about 5 minutes to walk to the studio.

This time I'll put the cleats on my shoes and get myself to the studio. Yesterdays pots need trimming, assembling and waxing.

Back in the saddle again

Sent another Etsy pot off this morning. Seems this double boxing is costing more than the $9 shipping I charged. It was good to find out that the post office charges are based on the combination of box size, weight and distance.

I'm taking a "rest my back" break after trimming and waxing some pots and putting a couple of hundred pounds of Moon White through the pugmill a few times. It needed softening after sitting a few months. Soft clay, slow wheel works for me. As soon as my back goes out of spasm I'll head back to the studio to do some throwing.

It's going to take a few days for these muscles to get back in studio shape.

Hamada Shoji slide show

You tube is such a treasure for these slide shows and videos of long gone great like Hamada, Cardew, Leach, Voulkos, etc.

As for me, I'm still winding down from the holidays, and doing computer work and cooking while waiting for my thumb to heal. Yesterday I did some delayed Christmas, cookie baking and tried a new Cuban, black bean chili. It was pretty easy prep, chopping a bit of onion and using canned beans and a can of spicy Rotil tomatoes; and it was excellent - definitely a keeper recipe.

Jim is slowing taking down the Christmas decorations, but leaving the tree for last. It's always a bit sad when the last vestiges of Christmas are gone and the living room is back to normal.

In between cooking yesterday, I spent hours on cleaning up one of my old websites just using the editors on the host site. It will be my evening job for quite a while until I can figure out the problems with my own software or just create a whole new site. If I understood HTML it would be a lot easier and quicker.

As for today, I'll try to get into the studio to do a bit organizing before I go through my sketches and throwing/making list.

If this thumb isn't up for throwing, I'll put the slab roller and extruder to work. Friend Shane and I want to fire my larger soda firing in February, so I need to start making pots, one way or another.

New Years day

Hope everyone had a lovely New Years celebration. Jim and I had a delicious, 5 course, early dinner at the Knife and Fork, and got home in time to watch the Lincoln center concert on PBS. We lasted till 11:30 which is late for us, but couldn't make it till midnight; but did catch a peek of an area in Russia welcoming in the New Year.

We started the New Year this morning with fresh squeezed orange juice from the lovely box of citrus fruits Jim's niece and husband brought when they visited from Florida Thursday. That cold spell they had just made the fruit sweeter!

Our plan for this windy, rainy day,is to relax, watch the Rose Bowl parade (me), and the football (Jim). I'll try to do  some web page cleanup, maybe go through the new seed and garden catalogs that arrived the other day, and make a New Years day Fettuccine with sauteed onion, mushrooms and black forest ham slices.

Jim, our in house, wine steward, will be opening the wine our Sean sent us - an '07 Colgin, (in Wine Spectators top 3 last year or the year before). Needless to say we're very much looking forward to tonight's dinner!

Hope everyone is enjoying a relaxing, yet fun filled day to start the New Year!

Happy New Year

It's been a few days of computer hell. While trying to clean up my website, uploading the changes  wiped out the website - twice! My hostmonster server recommended a new, free software which I will download after breakfast. They were able to re-load my site from a few days before;  but of course, all the changes I worked on for two days were gone.

Then Verizon emailed saying I had two days to transfer all email to Frontier since they would no longer be forwarding any of the Verizon mail. So, I spent most of yesterday's free time taking care of that chore. At least I'll be starting the New Year with a lot those piddling little jobs out of the way so I can concentrate on getting back to work. 

This morning I'll be baking bread after breakfast and then back on the computer loading that new web creation software and seeing if I can finish the most basic web page tidying. 

I'm so itching to get back into the studio but the tip of my sliced thumb, although healing, is still tender still very tender, so throwing has been out of the question; but hopefully by Monday I'll be back in the studio and if I can't throw, there will be plenty of other things to do. I have a couple of B-mix clone formulas I came up with that I'd like to batch if I have the right ball clay on hand and there are more glaze tests to weigh and mix and always some paper work to deal with.
Hope everyone has a fun filled and safe New Year's Celebration! We're opting for an early dinner with someone else doing the cooking, and knowing us, we probably won't be awake to ring in the famous New York ball ringing in the New Year;  but will catch the taped celebrations on the news tomorrow morning. Life is good and certainly, never boring.

Our White Christmas

Here are a few shots taken from the front porch and out the front door and our bedroom door. I took a nice hard fall yesterday, walking back from the studio  (don't walk in slippery snow wearing moccasins!), so today I decided to stay inside and enjoy this beautiful snow from a warm, safe place!

Christmas was wonderful and now we're enjoying the leftovers and staying cozy while watching more snow falling. We're expecting another 1-3" today with strong winds this afternoon, which will probably remove the lovely white snow blanketing the tree branches.

I made a few changes on my web site this morning - added my Etsy link and finally got around to entering my new email, at least on the front page. Today will be spent making a few minor changes on the other pages, if I can access them. After that I'd like to hit the books and try to start on a whole new design for the page - new color, new format,etc. It's a good, time consuming job until I can get back to making pots, once this thumb heals.

Hope all who have to travel today have a safe journey home!

White Christmas on the way

From our house to yours - wishing all who celebrate a very Merry Christmas!

Woke up with chills and general cold/flu symptoms and hope I can muster up the energy to do all my Christmas cooking. Following family tradition I'm making a big Polish breakfast (ham, kielbasa, hard boiled eggs with horseradish and sweet bread. Dinner will be a white wine basted roast duck, asparagus and au gratin potatoes (a menu change over the rice originally planned). Jim loved last nights au gratin potatoes and there's plenty leftover for tonight. He's picked a lovely Frank Family Pinot Noir for dinner - a very good choice for the duck.

Yesterday I took a small chunk out of the tip of my right thumb while slicing the dinner potatoes, so between that and this bug, it doesn't look like I'll be able to do  get my hands on clay for while. Instead, I'll  shift gears and continue this computer clean up and just maybe, finally have the time to tackle my out of date web site.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Wishing all who celebrate a most Merry Christmas, filled with love, companionship, good food and lots of merriment. And in the words of Tiny Tim "God bless us everyone!"

We made merry last night with dear friends at the Knife in Fork in Spruce Pine. The place was packed which is well deserved! Chef Nate smokes his own trout and his delicious smoked trout appetizer is a meal in itself. That was followed by pork belly, mashed potatoes and squash with a cinnamon bread pudding and vanilla ice cream dessert which I shared with everyone at the table. Great meal.

Today I'll watch some Christmas movies, maybe tidy some bits on my out of date web page until I can get around to working on the new one, and continue with this Nikon D100 re-education. I'm still not getting the focus right, even on manual. Yesterday I intended to spend more time with it, but I made a couple more Etsy sales, so I had to get those pots packed up and ready to ship. A bit of a cold is slowing me down as well; but I did manage to take a few more photos but still can't seem to stabilize the head on the tripod. Next time I'm going down there with a little level so that some of my photos won't look like the pot is sitting on a tilting, sinking ship!

Tonight I'm making a simple ham steak dinner with scalloped potatoes.. My big cooking day will be tomorrow, starting with a big Polish breakfast, and a dinner of white wine basted roasted duck, asparagus, wild and white rice with sauteed mushrooms, currants and slivered almonds, and friend Betty's cookies for dessert. 

Our under the tree village

Once I get the tree decorated, Jim's spends the day arranging the village scenes under the tree. He always does such a great job. It's a painstaking process which he actually enjoys!

Now that I've made some Etsy shipping charge changes, after finding that actual shipping was more than I thought, and figured out the focus and F stops on the Nikon D100 (with the generous help my computer friends), it's time to try to figure out how to stabilize this camera on the tripod. If it works, I'll try to redo some of those blurry photos on Etsy.

I've decided that Etsy is way too time consuming when you weigh the monetary profit against the amount of time and effort of photographing, measuring size and volume of each piece, getting each entry listed with all the descriptions, pricing, shipping and other information, then packing and shipping. You can't write off the time you spend, against the profit, doing all those things either. The profit from a mug, for instance, is cut in half when you consider the hour plus time it takes to get all those things done to list a single piece, and the time and cost of getting it shipped to the customer. So for now, I'll leave up the current pots, maybe post a few more since it will be quiet after Christmas any way; and unless I  can find a reason to change my mind, that will be it for my Etsy experiment.

If Jim could work a computer, cook or garden, maybe I'd be happy to give it that time; but since I take care of all those areas and more, as well as making pots,  I'd rather use that time making the pots and spend non studio time in the kitchen and garden.

My winter project, when not making pots, is going to be a total redo of my website which is pretty pathetic and long overdue. Once that's done, I can set up a for sale section on my website if I want, since I now have a Paypal business account.

Jim did the last of the Christmas food shopping yesterday and friend Betty showed up with a big plate of home made cookies this morning, so my plan to bake cookies today has shifted to other pursuits - mainly taking those photos if I can correct the wobbly tripod head.

Almost totally useless day yesterday

I don't know why I try to do anything during Mercury retrograde! The day started with good intent to photograph pots with the Nikon D100, which seems to be something of a dinosaur after only 6 years. After spending some time with the manual to refresh my memory, I reset the camera to it's original settings and started to view and delete some photos; but almost immediately, the battery needed recharging, so that job had to wait. Recharging seemed to take forever. So while I waited I ordered another battery, did a lot of computer filing, got the current email read, and then after checking the Nikon site to check for any current changes on memory cards that might be compatible with this Nikon, spent hours trying to find a higher capacity memory card. What a futile, frustrating few hours that was. Messages like "no longer available", and "this item has been discontinued", etc. kept coming up. I finally had to settle on a Scandisk 256MB capacity that I found on Amazon, when I was hoping to find the Lexar 1 gig. The only other one I was able to find that was compatible with this Nikon D100, and available, was an IBM 2GB one in the $200 range and I didn't want such a high capacity.

Jim had better luck with his early car shopping. He came home very excited with the Subaru brochures. Seems we both like the Forrester better than the Outback which means less money, better mileage and best yet, I don't have to dismantle and rebuild my whole kiln since the Forester is shorter than our current Highlander.We even agree on the color!

Getting the Forrester, means that my kiln won't have to be totally rebuilt. I'll just have to buy some new, more powerful burners and Shane will tweek the burner ports and bag wall.

After a comforting and easy linguine and clam sauce dinner, I faded fast and never made it to the lunar eclipse. Tonight is pizza and margaritas and if this camera battery can hold a charge, I'll try to re-take some of those pottery pictures after breakfast, start my pizza dough after that and do some kitchen cupboard reorganization this afternoon.

Some spice and Indian food orders arrived this week and there's no room in the cupboard I use for my international foods and spices. Some of the least used items will have to be moved down to the basement pantry.

My aim this week is to complete these little household projects and get the rest of the studio items ordered before the New Year and before I start another throwing cycle.

Going back in time

Around 4am this morning (I had been up since 1 am not able to sleep), after I got my emails down below 800, I decided to change my facebook photo to this ancient one, taken around 1982. Where did all that time go! I want to get a pair of those overalls again. They were great for the studio.

Yesterday was filled with birthday cheer, family all calling, friends stopping by with a bottle of nouveau beaujolais and Chritmas cookies. Needless to say I never did get to take the photos I intended. To get better clarity on the pictures I'm going to switch to my Nikon D100 instead of using the Powershot. It's been so long since I used the Nikon, that I'm going to have to tackle the manual to refresh myself on the basics. That will probably be the chore of the day, then an easy linguine and clam sauce dinner.

Etsy avatar

Here's the new photo I uploaded as my Etsy avatar. Someone suggested I put a picture of the kiln, but the avator space is so tiny, the kiln didn't show well.

Yesterday I announced it was my birthday,instead of today. Guess I should have looked at the calendar. On one hand, I love that my life is such, that most of the time I can ignore calendars! In fact, I don't even keep one. Jim has one on his desk and if I need to be forewarned about a date, I have him note it in his calendar.

Yesterday was a busy day starting with getting the new table down to the basement and redoing my photo setup, then kiln meeting with Shane, followed by getting antivirus setup on all three computers which took quite a while and other computer work, recipe filing, and cooking a lovely Chicken Normandy for dinner.

Shane is going to get two new burners for the kiln, and make some other minor modifications on the burner ports and bag wall and we're going to make pots and aim for a February firing and see if the modifications will make it fire a little more evenly. If it works, I won't have to take the extreme measure of taking the whole arch down and starting from scratch.

The Emeril Lagasse Chicken Normandy recipe is divine. It's not an every day dish with all that cream, butter, and bacon; but it was delicious and the two chicken breasts I bought were large enough that we have leftovers tonight. My friend Betty made me a lovely birthday pumpkin roll cake with a cream cheese filling - really delicious! It went great with the Bremer chardonnay Jim picked for dinner.

I didn't have time to redo some of those Etsy photos so I'll try to do that this afternoon. Later, dear friends are coming over to share some of the special cheeses I ordered from Murray's in New York. It was an indulgence; but those cheeses are sublime and not available locally or in Asheville. Today is going to be a nicely balanced day of non strenuous productive activity, and relaxing time with dear friends. What could be better!

Made my first Etsy sale

Here's another wood fired, soda, pot available on my Etsy shop. Love the flashing on this one.

When we arrived home after food shopping and dinner out, I found that I had made my first Etsy sale. It's a start!

Yesterday was a busy day. At home, I was mostly on the computer - spent quite a bit of time reading about Etsy and modifying my listings accordingly. I had planned to re-take some of the photos, but realized that the table I was using needed to be replaced. Because of a bow in the middle it was making some pots look cockeyed. So we headed for Walmart and I got a smaller, 4 foot long, solid table which is going to work much better.

My antivirus software expired yesterday, so that was another long session trying to download it and get it installed, after several error messages. Tonight I need to get it downloaded to my other computers. Hoping those installations will go smoother than the first one!

This morning I have a meeting with friend and super kiln builder Shane Mickey about the possibility of doing some modifications on my kilns size. After that I need to get the new table down to the basement,redo my photo set up and retake some of those Etsy photos.

Today is my 71st birthday and plans for dinner in Asheville have been put off because of the expected snow, so I'll be cooking Chicken Normandy for us and Jim will probably open one of our special chardonnays to go with it.

It's amazing how quickly the days fill up!

The world of Etsy

Here's one of the pots I put up for sale on Etsy yesterday, along with a couple of other new ones. There are now 20 on the site and maybe more to come. Some disappeared after posting and it took a bit of digging to find out where Etsy put them. I think it's wise to not put all the work up at once so that your pieces show up on the first page whenever someone does a search for your category. Etsy charges $7 to be showcased, and I think that just spacing your listings will serve a similar purpose; but I need to do some more reading on this Etsy marketing tool.

My photos looked fine when I downloaded them from my camera,but looked fuzzy when uploaded to Etsy, so I need to re-take some of them. After reading some Etsy hints, I'm going to follow the recommendations and take multiple views of the pots.

The other thing I found is that shipping to places like Australia can be higher than the $30 price I put up, which I had seen on other potters Etsy sites. Someone on another clay group said a single pot cost her $56 to ship to Australia. After hearing that, I immediately went back to my Etsy site and removed all shipping location fees but US and Canada. All the pots I posted on Etsy are $75 and less, so I can't imagine someone wanting to spend $56 to receive a $30 mug Another bit of shipping information she share was that shipping a mug, using USPS priority mail with the free boxes was a bit over $8, which was cheaper than packing her own box.

What I'm finding is that even with great feedback on my work, I haven't sold a pot. That affirms my idea that people are more prone to buy a pot from you on line if they've already seen, held or purchased your work. Having a large mailing list or a national reputation is definitely a benefit.

Unfortunately, I've never put in the time to develop that kind of mailing list and at my age, I'm not going to attempt to become a marketing expert; but I will ask studio visitors in the future, to put their email addresses in the guest book.

One of the other things I absolutely need to do, and soon, is to revamp my web site which is in bad need of updating. Now that I have a Paypal sellers account I will be able to set up a shopping cart on my web site eventually. I loaded up my software yesterday and realized after some glitches that I need to relearn it. It may be easier at this point to just trash the old site and start from scratch.

Etsy shop is up

I just finished uploading the last of 16 pots I've put up for sale on my new Etsy shop. You can copy and paste the link because, for the life of me I can't figure out how to make it open by just clicking on it. Anyone know how to do this? Or, you can just scroll down below the Etsy bar on the right and click on my name and that will take you to my Etsy shop.

My Etsy shop
http://www.etsy.com/shop/JunePerry

I tried to post a good variety of shapes, sizes and colors, but kept it to the more affordable pots for the most part. You'll see that I've only put shipping costs of US and Canada. I did that after reading another Etsy poster who mistakenly posted what she thought was a reasonable fee for shipping a pot to Australia, only to find it cost her $56 to ship the item. Yikes! So if anyone wants something shipped Australia, Europe, the far east, S.America, I'll have to find out just how much that would cost.

At this point I don't know if this will work as a sales venue for me. It's a lot of work and I'm not sure it's not better to just use retail outlets who do all the work, leaving me time to make more pots. We'll see.

On one hand, I thought "what if I don't sell a single pot (it's possible!); and on the other hand, I thought "what if I sold a lot of these pots and have to pack and ship them all. Do I have enough packing material". Ah, the dilemma.

Etsy shop a work in progress

http://www.etsy.com/shop/JunePerry

It's been a few frustrating days trying to figure out Paint Shop Pro enough to get my Etsy banner created. It's not what I want; but I still need to figure out how to get a more complex banner.

Here's the link to my new Etsy site, which is still in progress. There's no work for sale yet; but hopefully will be by next week, or sooner.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/JunePerry

Suggestions and feedback are very welcome. I could use some Etsy hints, for sure!

It was 2degrees F here this morning - good weather for just staying inside cooking, and working on this Etsy and other computer projects.

I'm heading to the studio and gallery this afternoon, only to get my laptop and to select a small group of pots to list on Etsy.

Keeping warm by the fire

It's a balmy 6 degrees F out there this morning. Guess it's going to be another couch potato day working on the computer and trying to learn to make sense of some software.

Yesterday I registered for an Etsy account and now I have to find out how to set up a page. Since we can't get out of our driveway at the moment, due to snow and ice, it would be pointless to try to sell anything (I am optimistic), since it's questionable about when I'd be able to get to the post office to mail anything. In any case, just getting registered is a start.

This morning I'll spend time again trying to get 3 or 4 photos side by side and save it as a single photo file that I can use as a header on my Etsy site, using Paint Shop pro. The first step was to pick a few photos and crop them. That went fine, to a point. I made all the photos the same size, but when I brought them back up on the screen, some appeared larger even though they're saying they're the same size. Why???? Another problem to solve.

After frying my brain reading my two help books, it seems I have to use layering to make a montage; but can't find explicit, step by step instructions that make any sense. Even the "Paint Shop Pro for Dummies" book is confusing to this brain; but I am determined, so I'll forge ahead. The problem with these books, is they don't focus on the job at hand; but go off in all sorts of tangents of information not needed for the job at hand.

Yesterdays breads

These are the whole wheat and light rye breads I baked yesterday - perfect, snowy, cold, windy day chore.

With more of the same weather today,  we're looking forward to tonight's Polish pork stew over egg noodles dinner.   In between cooking I'll be continuing this computer cleanup. There are still over 800 emails that have to be read, filed, etc.This is going to be a winter project as it's taking a long while to get these read, sorted and filed. My aim today is to get the number under 800. 

I'm not venturing out in this blizzard, so the studio "to do list" will have to wait till tomorrow.

I've gotta make me one of these

I saw this video this morning and thought it was a great idea. Today was an in town day - osteo appointments, food shopping etc. Since I was out and about any way, I stopped by the auto supply store in Burnsville and ordered a couple of the foam sponges shown in the video so I can make a couple of these trimming sponges for myself.

I've had a few days after the tour to catch up with the house paper work, household and outside chores and the last of Christmas chores - i.e, sending grand kids cards and presents sent, etc. My menu for next week is planned and the larder is stocked, so I'll be able to get in the studio by Sunday to finish some post TRAC organizing before I start a new throwing/making cycle next week.

Wonderful slide show of pottery from the 4 corners region

This is a spectacular collection of Native American pottery or the Four Corners region.

It's another very cold, snowy morning - perfect for staying indoors and catching up with computer and paper work again. Got both old hard drive working and am finished retrieving a lot of the data from one drive and half finished with the other one. I didn't get it finished in time to tackle the wireless router/modem which I might try today.

Yesterday, the only studio time I got was clearing my slab roller which doubled both as my sales/wrapping area and hospitality table. A deep gash on my thumb, testing some new knives two days ago, is keeping me away from clay for a few days; but once I clear the paper pile here in the living room, I might head back to the studio to deal with the paper pile on the studio desk. There may even be time to watch one of the two Netflix movies that have been sitting here for well over a week.

We'll stay put today, grateful for the freezer full of food that frees us from driving for groceries in this snowy, icy weather. The wind/chill factor is well below -5 today.

The snow is snowing, the wind is blowing but I can weather the storm.

I think that only the most hardy will venture out in this weather today. It's been snowing lightly for hours and there's a lovely coating on everything; but Jim says that it's icy under the snow which may make our 400+ foot long driveway a bit tricky. The fridge and freezer are usually full so we're fine  and can just sit tight if necessary.

This morning, when walking Bodhi, Jim found a dead hawk and a dead morning dove right next to him. We think the hawk must have been hunting in the low snow visibility this morning, caught the dove, and then hit the side of the house - very sad.

I'm using this quiet time to make my studio "to do" list for next week and I think I'll tackle the paper pile. I might even read the instructions on the new wireless modem and router and see if I can set it up without outside help. I couldn't get a modem to work in the studio and friend Jim, who's an electrical contractor,  said it may be because it need  heavier wire. 

After that I can get the old, dead hard drive from my studio desktop into the case I bought last week and see if anything is retrievable. There's always something to do!

Gallery photo

Here's my main gallery. It's was a cute, gambrel roofed, tool shed that came with the house. I had it insulated, covered with bead board, electrified and carpeted with indoor/outdoor carpeting; and installed shelving. It works really well. If it weren't here already, I would have picked a slightly wider size so I could more work on pedestals for more of a gallery presentation; but I've solved that by creating the annex gallery in the studio (see yesterdays blog for photos).

Since a TRAC error kept me off the map, look for my Shambhala Pottery and TRAC tour signs which will be posted on Cane creek road and in front of our mail box just off Cane Creek road. I'm 3 miles out of town,  past Gay Smith's pottery and before Shane Mickey's. The TRAC gallery has a little map next to my pots at the preview opening tonight.

I've been up since 4am getting my "to do" and other lists made and catching up on emails. Now it's time to shower, get some food made for for the tour and doing all the last minute things before noon. The morning is going by super fast!

Annex gallery photos

My little gallery was too full so I created a little annex gallery in the studio. Here are a couple of shots of it.

We stopped in to the TRAC gallery right before it closed and got a quick preview of some of the of work that will on the tour.  We'll be able to spend more time tomorrow, at the official preview; but even with a quick peek, we could see just how wonderful the work is. We are so lucky in this area to have some of the finest artists/crafts people in the country.

The people at TRAC put a little note on my pot display about my not being in the tour pamphlet and they put a little map on the pedestal showing my location. Jim and I were very touched to see how well and generously they handled the error of an ex employee which resulted in the mess up of my tour application getting misfiled and not processed.

Jim dropped off some cards at my friend Lisa Clague's studio. Lisa is an amazing sculptor who is doing the tour this year and typical of her generous spirit, when she heard of the TRAC mixup/losss of my tour application, she wrote and offered  to have me bring some cards to her studio so she could send people my way. Joe Comeau, another potter friend also offered to put some of my cards on his stores counter. With all this generosity, I may actually get a few tour goers. Life is very good!

Soda salt fired cruet and stand

Here's a cruet and stand from this firing, which will be for sale during the tour. I usually make them without a knob on the lid, but this time decided to try a little flag like knob, which I think works well with the form.

This morning I finished painting the other sides of the last two shelves and got the A frame display unit set up with the shelves that were already dry. That was followed by seven hours of studio tidying and cleanup. My desk will need tidying but the rest of the studio is  good. I'll run the wet dry vacuum over the floor in the morning, because today's mopping left streaks, which is the norm in a pottery studio.

With just 2 days to go, I'm more ahead than usual. The gallery is in good shape and the only job I'll need to do is arrange some pots in the annex gallery I'm setting up in the studio and get the hospitality and wrapping table set up.

I'm not expecting a lot of visitors due to the TRAC mess up that kept me from being listed in the tour pamphlet. Also, there's possible snow in the forecast for Sunday which may also impact the tour turn out. On the bright side, I have a clean and tidy studio, ready for the next cycle of work. It's all good.