bodner046

We ended the long weekend with one last night of grill-a-pa-looza. This time I did all the cooking, even manning the grill in a light rain. This is my favorite recipe for chicken tikka masala, if you want to give it a try, the recipe is here . The only thing that I did differently this time, was cook the chicken on the grill instead of under the broiler. I can't take credit for the naan. It came from the grocery store. It is on my to-make list, because it should be an easy bread. There was no fancy table setting last night. We carried our plates to the living room and streamed a little TV. I will leave you today with this little pig. Not a great photo, but the glaze on this guy came out great. I will list him in the Etsy shop later, where there will be some better photos. Have a great week!

Day three of "grill-a-pa-looza" weekend was wonderful! Jeff barbecued pork belly for samgyeopsal. The meat is sliced in strips, then cut into smaller pieces with scissors. Rice and pork belly is placed on lettuce or perilla leaves, rolled up, and eaten in one bite. We are not very good at the one bite tradition! I also made a version of the traditional dipping sauce, ssamjang. The ssamjang is salty sweet, with just a little heat from gochujang. If you are wondering about the scissors, they are used for cutting the pork belly... no knives on the traditional Korean table! One of the greatest joys of being a pottery collector, is choosing just the right dish when serving food. I particularly enjoy it when we cook Asian influenced meals. So many little dishes filled with sauces, vegetables, and rice. While many of our pots go into the dishwasher, most of these get hand washed, which gives me the opportunity to spend extra time with each one. I always hope that our pots go to home...

Jeff and I may not get a three day weekend to celebrate Memorial Day, but we still get in the spirit of the holiday. The last two days were spent prepping pots to fire a bisque in the gas kiln. Jeff finished the loading last night while I started the process of grilling pizza.  I have dubbed this weekend, "Grill-a-Palooza." Fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, pepperoni, vidalia onion... drizzled with balsamic vinegar glaze We kicked off the weekend with bbq chicken, corn on the cob, and salad. We ate so late that I never thought about taking a photo. Chicken isn't that exciting to photograph anyway! Jeff is going to be the cooking star tonight. He is making samgyeopsal, which is a Korean recipe for grilled pork belly. We will have lettuce leaves to wrap it in and the other sides have yet to be determined. I am sure jasmine rice will be involved. Sadly, we are all out of kimchi (GASP).  Memorial Day has now become the kick-off of summer, but I still remember what this day is re...

I have been struggling with some of my letter stamps. I have 4 or 5 different sets. Some are rubber stamps, one interlocking set that is designed for clay, and another metal set that I believe are jeweler's stamps. My largest font are rubber stamps and they are not well made, making it difficult to line the letters up. They are also not very deep, which means I am often carving them out. The stamps that I use on the standard piggy banks is starting to show some wear, particularly the letter "A." Last month I searched the web for a deeper set of stamps, with a font that appealed to me. The only one I found was $66 dollars. The size was fine for the standard size piggy bank, but really too small for the large pigs. I decided I needed to think about it before plunking down the dough. Lo and behold, last week on facebook, another potter posted a link to these "stone stamps". She was using them to letter dog bowls. I was able to order a set for under $5 and have them...

When we unloaded the kiln last week, Jeff commented that my order for dinnerware with flower stamps was a big one. In actuality, it was two orders not one big one. It was sheer coincidence that two people who have been collecting this pattern, ordered new pieces within days of each other.  I wish orders like this happened more often. It is much easier to get in the groove of making one style of work for a day or two, never mind the fact that glazing goes really quickly. I usually make extras whenever I do orders. No extras of bowls this time, but I did make an extra of the sugar and creamer set, as well as mugs. You can find those in my Etsy shop. Today, I am back to making piggy banks.

I am not a thrilled about making sponge holders. They seem too much like work to me. But we sure sell a lot of them, even after raising the price to $20. They also can be placed any where in the kiln and take up could be empty space. I even put some of them on the bag wall... especially the ones with shino glaze.  To move things along more quickly, I have a bin of pugged clay that was dropped through a harp to measure each lug to 3/4 of a pound. No weighing or wasting time. Just sit at the wheel and throw those little guys.

I hadn't made cheese stones since last fall. I am not even sure why I didn't spend the winter cranking them out, to keep ahead, The thing with flat items is that it's hard to get them in the kiln. They are sort of space wasters. I usually make a bunch, they go through the bisque firing, and then it takes many glaze firings before they are done. I think this is where I lose interest. The waiting just kills me! Wednesday afternoon I threw a few and was totally shocked that they were ready to be trimmed by Thursday afternoon. I am still not used to working in a studio with air conditioning. It can really move things along in the summer. Even though we turn it off at the end of our day, the studio stays cool and dry overnight. I have found the best method of drying these evenly, and keeping them flat, is stacking them between squares of sheet rock. I top the stack off with a plaster form, just keep the last one weighted. I find it's best to dry these for at least a couple o...

I figured I was about overdue for a pig post. These are the latest oinkers from last week's firing. I hadn't done any pigs with the shino and "glaze splash" combo in over a year. Our copper red glaze was crawling like crazy and the rutile glaze was often foamy looking. Jeff re-mixed the copper red, and added a little darvan. He said the darvan keeps it a little more fluid, but he doesn't think it's what stopped the crawling. As for the rutile... I just stopped using it. I can get a similar look by using our nuka glaze as a replacement.  I have had requests for pigs with hearts and stars, but not necessarily together! The nuka glaze often gives a blurry look to stamps and lettering so I decided to glaze a "heart" piggy bank with Temple White. This glaze works well with the under-glaze and I think I like the simplicity of using this glaze alone. The true test is, "Will it sell?" I will also offer this piggy bank with a name on it as well. You...

Jeff and I have been really excited about the collaborative works we have been creating. It seems like nearly everyday he hands me something and says, "Carve some ginkgo leaves on this." We have been so happy with the pots that a few weeks ago we decided to apply to Piedmont Craftsmen , here in North Carolina. Jeff spent a few nights photographing our work (he is a much better photographer than me) and uploaded the application.  This week we got our letter of acceptance! There were 68 applicants this year, representing a variety of craft media. We were one of twelve that were accepted. This is the first part of the jury process. In November there will be a physical jury during their annual show. We are feeling pretty confident about the next step. That being said, we got right back to work, glazing and loading the kiln. These pots are pretty labor intensive from start to finish. The interior is glazed in tenmoku and then the rim is dipped in the same glaze. The excess is spon...

Call me old fashioned, or just call me old, but I am not liking a new trend in photographing pottery. I am sure you have seen it... solid white background, often over-exposed. The pots look like they are floating in air.  Edges are not crisp, and often the colors are inaccurate. I am not totally against the white back drop... in some situations it works. There are some Etsy shops that use it and it is appealing if the work is in focus. I was curious if potters are using this new technique to apply for shows, and is it acceptable? I figured that the best place to take a look is the 2016 Strictly Functional Show. The majority of the work is photographed with the traditional gray scale background. There are some with the stark white background. Here is a link to the 2016 show: Strictly Functional Pottery National What are your thoughts about this new photography trend?  In the mean time, Jeff and I are still photographing the old fashioned way...

Jeff and I just had our 2nd anniversary at 505 E. Main. Finishing our studio is still a work in progress. It's been a balancing act to keep making work and get construction projects finished (finding the money is a whole other story). This week we finally got the rest of the trim up and painted. The upper gable end, and the soffits still need to be scraped and painted. We really wish we could afford to hire a painter to do that portion. Just looking at it overwhelms me! Quite frankly, I would love to have all the soffits wrapped in vinyl because I really hate to paint. Thank goodness most of the house is brick. Jeff has also been installing some landscape timbers along the front planting area, and shoveling in new top soil. I have flowers started from seeds, and they should be ready to plant as soon as he is done. We now have a big blank canvas of a wall. Jeff and I have been kicking around the idea of painting a mural of pots on the left side of the windows. Something simple, like...