2016-02-07 - Sunday - Dutch baby with apples and cinnamon

Sunday I made another Dutch baby pancake. This one was based on a recipe my friend Amy gave me on Facebook. It had apples and cinnamon on it and it was delicious.

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2016-02-06 - Saturday - Glazing like a crazy man

Saturday was a marathon.

I started out with one of my new favorite breakfasts.

Took some photos of the flowers blooming in the front yard.

Went to the farmers market with Karen and Stephanie.

Went to Clayworks and helped Kimberly remove some stuck fuses from a misfiring kiln. Re-slaked some of my clay. Did a little housekeeping on my shelves. Talked to a few people for a while...

...and THEN the real day started.

Eggs and oatmeal and sriracha.

Daffodils.

Vinca Minor.

Remember all of those Empty Bowls I've been making? This year I decided to glaze them all at once instead of doing them in small batches.

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

I had to wax all the bottoms and after that I started experimenting with painting underglaze as a wash and using my squeeze bottle as a pen to fill in details. Suddenly I realized it was 7:00 pm. I dropped everything and ran to the grocery store. I bought some food for supper, went home and fed us, and then back to Clayworks to finish the glazing. I left Stephanie making a batch of fudge while her boyfriend, Brett was on Skype with her. Crazy kids.

Everything was where I left it (I left a note saying I'd be back after supper) and I was alone. I turned the music up and got back to it.

While I was having a lot of fun trying new things, I had to keep a pretty good amount of pressure on the squeeze bottle to keep the flow going and after a couple of hours of it I realized I was hunched over and my mid-back was killing me. I stretched my back out on one of the tables for a few minutes before continuing the process.

I finally got finished with the underglaze at about 11:00 pm. Next I had to paint clear over all the paintings. After that I painted wax resist over the clear. I dipped the bowls in the main color glaze for the non-painted areas. Finally, I wiped all the excess glaze off the feet of the bowls and took them to the kiln room.

By the time I finished cleaning up my mess it was almost 2:00 am and every joint hurt from standing on the concrete floors for so long. I'm almost 58 now, and these marathons are not getting easier.

Next year I'm going back to glazing small batches.

Stack 'o bowls.

Waxing the bottoms.

Having fun with underglazes. These are just some of them.

Stephanie making fudge with Brett's support.

Finished the underglaze.

Almost finished the glazing.
I still have to finish the six in the foreground.

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2016-02-04 - Thursday - Eggs and Pots

One of my new favorite breakfasts is steel cut oats, soft-boiled eggs, and sriracha sauce. The steel cut oats are a bit nuttier than rolled oats and are almost like brown rice. I veered off of this recipe for rice, spinach, and soft-boiled eggs with sriracha sauce, which I also love.

Beth at Budget Bytes (budgetbytes.com) has some wonderful recipes that are all doable within a budget. I have totally adopted her method for soft-boiled eggs and her egg quesadilla recipe. Go check her site out, and tell her I sent you.

Bowl by me.

Thursday night I went to Clayworks and cleared more cobwebs out of my head before starting anything new. It really is therapeutic to have your hands in clay and making things.

Playing.

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2016-02-02 - Tuesday - Small Victories and Garlic

You may remember I have talked about banding our trees to stop the wingless moths (adult female form of the fall cankerworm) from getting to the top of the tree to lay their eggs. It's the best way to break the cycle and save the trees.

When I examined the banding today I saw that a lot of moths got stuck and dumped their load of eggs in death. It's sad, but I will take the victory to save our trees. Last spring was horrible with the maple leaves looking like doilies and the thousands of inchworms hanging on threads everywhere. When you'd walk from the car to the house you'd have them all over you. We found them everywhere.

Egg misfires.

Tuesday night I went to Clayworks and cleared my head of making bowls by throwing some familiar forms. I want to take off in some new directions, but sometimes you have to clear the cobwebs out before taking off. It's like a lemon sorbet between meal courses.

Garlic pots.

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2016-01-31 - Sunday - John Britt Workshop Day 2

After day one when I thought my head couldn't hold any more information, there was day two. I wish I had a whole semester to learn this stuff because it's very dense (like me). I took lots of notes and John gave us some great handouts. I won't be sharing any of those, but I highly recommend attending one of his workshops to get your own.

I'm of two minds after the workshop: I feel empowered by new knowledge and I realize how little I know. The dichotomy of learning.

I have included photos of some of my favorite groups below. As you can tell, I'm big on variations of texture and color.

Leading on.

Three on the left, different clay bodies in reduction.
Four on the right, different clay bodies in oxidation.

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2016-01-30 - Saturday - John Britt Workshop

Saturday was the first of a two-day workshop at Clayworks with John Britt. I have been looking forward to this workshop since it was announced.

John knows glazes.

He can talk in elemental notation and explain things to everyone, including beginners. He's also quite funny. He approaches glaze formulation with a lot of knowledge and a lot of humor. The combination keeps us non-chemists from getting information overload.

The last time I attended a John Britt workshop it was only a one-day lecture and it was centered on high-fire glazes (cone 10). This time it was based on mid-range firing (cone 6).

You can get both of his glaze books here:

The Complete Guide to High-Fire Glazes, Glazing & Firing at Cone 10

The Complete Guide to Mid-Range Glazes: Glazing and Firing at Cones 4-7

Leading the class.

Some of the almost 3000 test tiles he brought with him.

Discussing options.

Did I mention how many test tiles there were?

Sunset out the back door of Clayworks.

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2016-01-28 - Thursday - Slippery

Thursday I trimmed and slipped a bunch of the Empty Bowls I have been making. One more step of many in the process. It's all about the process.

Stay tuned.

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