okay, i'm trying a different clay of late. the problem with wetness i was having with the stoneware clay wasn't all me. the studio manager was demo'g for me and he had the same problem with it going dry easily. i did find yesterday if i pulled the handle while standing at the sink and thus using the clear running water and not the slurry my water had become in the bucket, the tearing was greatly reduced. i think that i may have to consider that a contributing problem. but i'll be in the studio today to work on it more. i do so need to update my pottery notebook.
i've updated my etsy.com blog with more pics. i guess had i been thinking i'd have posted all the pics and commentary on work in progress here. but, this blog is really intended to be a discussion of potting itself.
regards
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Thursday, November 19, 2009
just a few things from the studio . . . .
updated my blog for etsy.
played with the architectural sculpting clay today. i was dismayed to find it tears easily. but, i probly could use more work on the water use thing. seems it's gone up a bit actually. it does center a whole lot easier.
i was watching another potter there and noticed she's still having problems with centering. i don't really pay much thought to what the other potters are doing as i like to be left alone, but i seems she'd have more pleasant a potting experience if she were to get that centering under control.
wonder if it wd be a good idea to make a few demo vids for youtube showing the issues i have during throwing and how i address them and what i think the cause is. i'll make it perfectly clear i'm only a novice, but i think some things are best learned from those learning rather than teaching.
regards
played with the architectural sculpting clay today. i was dismayed to find it tears easily. but, i probly could use more work on the water use thing. seems it's gone up a bit actually. it does center a whole lot easier.
i was watching another potter there and noticed she's still having problems with centering. i don't really pay much thought to what the other potters are doing as i like to be left alone, but i seems she'd have more pleasant a potting experience if she were to get that centering under control.
wonder if it wd be a good idea to make a few demo vids for youtube showing the issues i have during throwing and how i address them and what i think the cause is. i'll make it perfectly clear i'm only a novice, but i think some things are best learned from those learning rather than teaching.
regards
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
The Casserole Challenge
i didn't get to enter the casserole challenge, sigh. Please vote in the casserole challenge. but, i'm gonna post the two recipes i was torn between:
Moroccan Baked Fish
3 lbs basa or snapper or other white fish
outer zest peel of lemon 1.5 - 3 inch X 1/4 inch
1/8 - 1/4 C cilantro
2-4 lg lg cloves garlic finely chopped or grated
3/8 t cumin pwdr
1/8 t ginger pwdr
1/4 t poultry seasoning*
1/2 t black pepper
3/8 t italian seasoning
1/16 t colorant (optional)
1/8 t salt
1/2 C olive oil
1/4 - 1/2 C lemon juice
1. grind all together in mortar and pestal or blend in blender on puree.
2. rub mixture on each piece of fish then let stand at room temperature for an hour or in fridge overnight.
3. bake at 450 degrees for 20 min.
* poultry seasoning:
3/4 tsp crushed sage
1/4 t crushed thyme
1/4 tsp pepper
dash marjoram
dash grd cloves
NOTE: this recipe makes a lot. for me i place what will fit into the pan then the remaining pieces i freeze. in a large piece of plastic wrap i dribble the oil mixture then place a piece of fish then dribble more of the oil mixture cross the top. fold plastic closed then lay flat on cookie pan or other flat pan that will fit in your freezer (i use a square strainer i have). once frozen stack in shallow, lidded container and return to freezer. this way i can grab just one to make a meal for myself or if i have company i can grab the number of pieces needed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eggless Pineapple Cake
from Manjulas Kitchen
preheat oven to 325 degrees
1-1/4 flour
1 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
1/4 t cardommom pwdr
7 oz sweetened condensed milk, canned
1/2 C unsalted, melted butter
20 oz crushed pineapple, canned
whipping cream or container of cool whip
1. drain juice from pineapple and save for use later.
2. combine together dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cardommom powder.
3. add milk and butter to dry ingredients.
4. add 1/2 C pineapple and 1/2 cup of pineapple juice to previous mixture.
5. fold all 2-4 together (don't mix but rather fold).
6. pour into 8X8 greased cake pan.
7. bake in oven for 25 mins. doneness determined by piecing w/a fork or knife and removing it to find it dry or only a few crumbs no batter.
8. remove cake from oven. cool approximately 10 - 15 min. shd still be very warm.
9. cover cake w/serving plate, and flip over. cake will fall out after gentle tapping on pan's bottom.
10. pierce cake bottom with fork. brush or spoon pineapple juice over cake.
11. garnish each slice with a dollop of whipped cream/cool whip and a spoonful of pineapple.
variations: i sprinkled cake with crushed pecans after spooning pineapple juice over it.
from Manjulas Kitchen on youtube or at manjulaskitchen.com.
regards
Moroccan Baked Fish
3 lbs basa or snapper or other white fish
outer zest peel of lemon 1.5 - 3 inch X 1/4 inch
1/8 - 1/4 C cilantro
2-4 lg lg cloves garlic finely chopped or grated
3/8 t cumin pwdr
1/8 t ginger pwdr
1/4 t poultry seasoning*
1/2 t black pepper
3/8 t italian seasoning
1/16 t colorant (optional)
1/8 t salt
1/2 C olive oil
1/4 - 1/2 C lemon juice
1. grind all together in mortar and pestal or blend in blender on puree.
2. rub mixture on each piece of fish then let stand at room temperature for an hour or in fridge overnight.
3. bake at 450 degrees for 20 min.
* poultry seasoning:
3/4 tsp crushed sage
1/4 t crushed thyme
1/4 tsp pepper
dash marjoram
dash grd cloves
NOTE: this recipe makes a lot. for me i place what will fit into the pan then the remaining pieces i freeze. in a large piece of plastic wrap i dribble the oil mixture then place a piece of fish then dribble more of the oil mixture cross the top. fold plastic closed then lay flat on cookie pan or other flat pan that will fit in your freezer (i use a square strainer i have). once frozen stack in shallow, lidded container and return to freezer. this way i can grab just one to make a meal for myself or if i have company i can grab the number of pieces needed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eggless Pineapple Cake
from Manjulas Kitchen
preheat oven to 325 degrees
1-1/4 flour
1 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
1/4 t cardommom pwdr
7 oz sweetened condensed milk, canned
1/2 C unsalted, melted butter
20 oz crushed pineapple, canned
whipping cream or container of cool whip
1. drain juice from pineapple and save for use later.
2. combine together dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cardommom powder.
3. add milk and butter to dry ingredients.
4. add 1/2 C pineapple and 1/2 cup of pineapple juice to previous mixture.
5. fold all 2-4 together (don't mix but rather fold).
6. pour into 8X8 greased cake pan.
7. bake in oven for 25 mins. doneness determined by piecing w/a fork or knife and removing it to find it dry or only a few crumbs no batter.
8. remove cake from oven. cool approximately 10 - 15 min. shd still be very warm.
9. cover cake w/serving plate, and flip over. cake will fall out after gentle tapping on pan's bottom.
10. pierce cake bottom with fork. brush or spoon pineapple juice over cake.
11. garnish each slice with a dollop of whipped cream/cool whip and a spoonful of pineapple.
variations: i sprinkled cake with crushed pecans after spooning pineapple juice over it.
from Manjulas Kitchen on youtube or at manjulaskitchen.com.
regards
Friday, November 13, 2009
a little pome for you . . . .
i came across this this am.
The Mad Potter
by John Hollander
Now at the turn of the year this coil of clay
Bites its own tail: a New Year starts to choke
On the old one's ragged end. I bite my tongue
As the end of me--of my rope of stuff and nonsense
(The nonsense held, it was the stuff that broke),
Of bones and light, of levity and crime,
Of reddish clay and hope--still bides its time.
Each of my pots is quite unusable,
Even for contemplating as an object
Of gross unuse. In its own mode of being
Useless, though, each of them remains unique,
Subject to nothing, and themselves unseeing,
Stronger by virtue of what makes them weak.
I pound at all my clay. I pound the air.
This senseless lump, slapped into something like
Something, sits bound around by my despair.
For even as the great Creator's free
Hand shapes the forms of life, so--what? This pot,
Unhollowed solid, too full of itself,
Runneth over with incapacity.
I put it with the others on the shelf.
These tiny cups will each provide one sip
Of what's inside them, aphoristic prose
Unwilling, like full arguments, to make
Its points, then join them in extended lines
Like long draughts from the bowl of a deep lake.
The honey of knowledge, like my milky slip,
Firms slowly up against what merely flows.
Some of my older pieces bore inscriptions
That told a story only when you'd learned
How not to read them: LIVE reverted to EVIL,
EROS kept running backwards into SORE.
Their words, all fired up for truth, got burned.
I'll not write on weak vessels any more.
My juvenalia? I gave them names
In those days: Hans was all handles and no spout;
Bernie believed the whole world turned about
Himself alone; Sadie was close to James
(But Herman touched her bottom when he could);
Paul fell to pieces; Peter wore away
To nothing; Len was never any good;
Alf was a flat, random pancake, May
An opened blossom; Bud was an ash-tray.
Even their names break off, though; Whatsisface,
That death-mask of Desire, and--you know!--
The smaller version of that (Oh, what was it?--
You know . . .) All of my pots now have to go
By number only. Which is no disgrace.
Begin with being--in an anagram
Of unending--conclude in some dark den;
This is no matter. What I've been, I am:
What I will be is what I make of all
This clay, this moment. Now begin again . . .
Poured out of emptiness, drop by slow drop,
I start up at the quarreling sounds of water.
Pots cry out silently at me to stop.
What are we like? A barrelfull of this
Oozy wet substance, shadow-crammed, whose smudges
Of darkness lurk within but rise to kiss
The fingers that disturb the gently edges
Of their bland world of shapelessness and bliss.
The half-formed cup cries out in agony,
The lump of clay suffers a silent pain.
I heard the cup, though, full of feeling, say
"O clay be true, O clay keep constant to
Your need to take, again and once again,
This pounding from your mad creator who
Only stops hurting when he's hurting you."
What will I then have left behind me? Over
The years I have originated some
Glazes that wear away at what they cover
And weep for what they never can become.
My Deadware, widely imitated; blue
Skyware of an amazing lightness; tired
Hopewear that I abandoned for my own
Good reasons; Hereware; Thereware; ware that grew
Weary of everything that earth desired;
Hellware that dances while it's being fired,
Noware that vanishes while being thrown.
Appearing to be silly, wisdom survives
Like tribes of superseded gods who go
Hiding in caves of triviality
From which they laughingly control our lives.
So with my useless pots: safe from the blow
Of carelessness, or outrage at their flaws,
They brave time's lion and his smashing paws.
--All of which tempts intelligence to call
Pure uselessness one more commodity.
The Good-for-Nothing once became our Hero,
But images of him, laid-back, carelessly
Laughing, were upright statues after all.
From straight above, each cup adds up to zero.
Clay to clay: Soon I shall indeed become
Dumb as these solid cups of hardened mud
(Dull terra cruda colored like our blood);
Meanwhile the slap and thump of palm and thumb
On wet mis-shapenness begins to hum
With meaning that was silent for so long.
The words of my wheel's turning come to ring
Truer than Truth itself does, my great
Ding Dong-an-sich that echoes everything
(Against it even lovely bells ring wrong):
Its whole voice gathers up the purest parts
Of all our speech, the vowels of the earth,
The aspirations of our hopeful hearts
Or the prophetic sibilance of song.
regards
The Mad Potter
by John Hollander
Now at the turn of the year this coil of clay
Bites its own tail: a New Year starts to choke
On the old one's ragged end. I bite my tongue
As the end of me--of my rope of stuff and nonsense
(The nonsense held, it was the stuff that broke),
Of bones and light, of levity and crime,
Of reddish clay and hope--still bides its time.
Each of my pots is quite unusable,
Even for contemplating as an object
Of gross unuse. In its own mode of being
Useless, though, each of them remains unique,
Subject to nothing, and themselves unseeing,
Stronger by virtue of what makes them weak.
I pound at all my clay. I pound the air.
This senseless lump, slapped into something like
Something, sits bound around by my despair.
For even as the great Creator's free
Hand shapes the forms of life, so--what? This pot,
Unhollowed solid, too full of itself,
Runneth over with incapacity.
I put it with the others on the shelf.
These tiny cups will each provide one sip
Of what's inside them, aphoristic prose
Unwilling, like full arguments, to make
Its points, then join them in extended lines
Like long draughts from the bowl of a deep lake.
The honey of knowledge, like my milky slip,
Firms slowly up against what merely flows.
Some of my older pieces bore inscriptions
That told a story only when you'd learned
How not to read them: LIVE reverted to EVIL,
EROS kept running backwards into SORE.
Their words, all fired up for truth, got burned.
I'll not write on weak vessels any more.
My juvenalia? I gave them names
In those days: Hans was all handles and no spout;
Bernie believed the whole world turned about
Himself alone; Sadie was close to James
(But Herman touched her bottom when he could);
Paul fell to pieces; Peter wore away
To nothing; Len was never any good;
Alf was a flat, random pancake, May
An opened blossom; Bud was an ash-tray.
Even their names break off, though; Whatsisface,
That death-mask of Desire, and--you know!--
The smaller version of that (Oh, what was it?--
You know . . .) All of my pots now have to go
By number only. Which is no disgrace.
Begin with being--in an anagram
Of unending--conclude in some dark den;
This is no matter. What I've been, I am:
What I will be is what I make of all
This clay, this moment. Now begin again . . .
Poured out of emptiness, drop by slow drop,
I start up at the quarreling sounds of water.
Pots cry out silently at me to stop.
What are we like? A barrelfull of this
Oozy wet substance, shadow-crammed, whose smudges
Of darkness lurk within but rise to kiss
The fingers that disturb the gently edges
Of their bland world of shapelessness and bliss.
The half-formed cup cries out in agony,
The lump of clay suffers a silent pain.
I heard the cup, though, full of feeling, say
"O clay be true, O clay keep constant to
Your need to take, again and once again,
This pounding from your mad creator who
Only stops hurting when he's hurting you."
What will I then have left behind me? Over
The years I have originated some
Glazes that wear away at what they cover
And weep for what they never can become.
My Deadware, widely imitated; blue
Skyware of an amazing lightness; tired
Hopewear that I abandoned for my own
Good reasons; Hereware; Thereware; ware that grew
Weary of everything that earth desired;
Hellware that dances while it's being fired,
Noware that vanishes while being thrown.
Appearing to be silly, wisdom survives
Like tribes of superseded gods who go
Hiding in caves of triviality
From which they laughingly control our lives.
So with my useless pots: safe from the blow
Of carelessness, or outrage at their flaws,
They brave time's lion and his smashing paws.
--All of which tempts intelligence to call
Pure uselessness one more commodity.
The Good-for-Nothing once became our Hero,
But images of him, laid-back, carelessly
Laughing, were upright statues after all.
From straight above, each cup adds up to zero.
Clay to clay: Soon I shall indeed become
Dumb as these solid cups of hardened mud
(Dull terra cruda colored like our blood);
Meanwhile the slap and thump of palm and thumb
On wet mis-shapenness begins to hum
With meaning that was silent for so long.
The words of my wheel's turning come to ring
Truer than Truth itself does, my great
Ding Dong-an-sich that echoes everything
(Against it even lovely bells ring wrong):
Its whole voice gathers up the purest parts
Of all our speech, the vowels of the earth,
The aspirations of our hopeful hearts
Or the prophetic sibilance of song.
regards
some of my potters' play lists
i've been compiling playlists of interesting pottery demos. here are a few of them.
Tim See - For Every Level Potter (42 vids)
Potters' Demos 001 (44 vids)
Potters' Demos 002 (25 vids)
these have been very helpful to me. i hope you get some use out of them. some are better than others.
regards
Tim See - For Every Level Potter (42 vids)
Potters' Demos 001 (44 vids)
Potters' Demos 002 (25 vids)
these have been very helpful to me. i hope you get some use out of them. some are better than others.
regards
i've not posted here for a while
i always update twitter (@morrigae) when i update my blogs.
i updte facebook also when i update my blogs. have you fanned me yet? http://www.facebook.com/ArachnesWorkshop
i've had a major breakthrough in my technique. getting the centering mastered has made it possible to get a better handle on trimming and footing, pulling, and other related tasks. my handles are looking way better also.
a lesson for today then is - always - always - always - start in center unless you're utilizing a technique that requires an off-center start. if you're still fighting with centering, go back and get the kinks worked out of it and then go on to cylinders. the cylinder form is the base form for all other forms. if you can't pull a cylinder you will still have problems yielding a pleasing result. had my first and only pottery instructor got me thru the centering chapter successfully i'd probly be a better potter now and not have had so long a hiatus from pottery. being able to center has relieved the frustration and aggravation i felt at the end of every studio session.
having reduced the amount of water i use tremendously, i have also found the clay to be more friendly. i was relieved when the studio mgr was demo'g something on a mug i was throwing and had issues w/the clay body's not being easy to keep wet enough to work with. he resorted to pulling with a sponge.
also, i have found that chattering is occurring accidently but is a very pretty yet delicate embellishment and i have been keeping that as part of the finished pot. i wish i could figure out how to do that intentionally. tim see does a vid on chattering here:
i'm enjoying playing with hollow rims. i have more tea cups for which i haven't taken pics. i'll try to get some today.
the square footing is actually inspired by keith phillips square mug demo.
so that's it in a nutshell. i'd like to get more input on this blog from other potters and pottery users as well. this is what i call my "muddy talk" blog.
regards
i updte facebook also when i update my blogs. have you fanned me yet? http://www.facebook.com/ArachnesWorkshop
i've had a major breakthrough in my technique. getting the centering mastered has made it possible to get a better handle on trimming and footing, pulling, and other related tasks. my handles are looking way better also.
a lesson for today then is - always - always - always - start in center unless you're utilizing a technique that requires an off-center start. if you're still fighting with centering, go back and get the kinks worked out of it and then go on to cylinders. the cylinder form is the base form for all other forms. if you can't pull a cylinder you will still have problems yielding a pleasing result. had my first and only pottery instructor got me thru the centering chapter successfully i'd probly be a better potter now and not have had so long a hiatus from pottery. being able to center has relieved the frustration and aggravation i felt at the end of every studio session.
having reduced the amount of water i use tremendously, i have also found the clay to be more friendly. i was relieved when the studio mgr was demo'g something on a mug i was throwing and had issues w/the clay body's not being easy to keep wet enough to work with. he resorted to pulling with a sponge.
also, i have found that chattering is occurring accidently but is a very pretty yet delicate embellishment and i have been keeping that as part of the finished pot. i wish i could figure out how to do that intentionally. tim see does a vid on chattering here:
i'm enjoying playing with hollow rims. i have more tea cups for which i haven't taken pics. i'll try to get some today.
the square footing is actually inspired by keith phillips square mug demo.
so that's it in a nutshell. i'd like to get more input on this blog from other potters and pottery users as well. this is what i call my "muddy talk" blog.
regards
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