clay: gravy pourer or kimchi bowl

Clay Body: reclaimed (most likely Speckled Buff and Bmix)

Glazes: Floating Blue

Method/firing: thrown/Cone 6 

 

I think I remember adhering a tiny bit of the studio's Floating Blue glaze on the rims of a candelabra atop Majolica (the studio's white gloss glaze) and loving the look of it. And so on the reclaimed clay, it's mostly a clear glaze with lots more blue pigment that yes, "floats" all over the pot. I think I wish I had dipped the bowl into Majolica and then used a fan brush to add a coat of the Floating Blue. Next time.

clay: teal appeal & black pearl bowl

When I went to retrieve this bowl last night, t'was not to be found. Either someone took it (and it's not the first time that has happened to me), or it's unrecognizably on some other shelf. I told David, the kiln loader and owner, I was just curious to see its glaze outcome. Patrick said it must've come out nice for it to disappear. 

Oh well. Do it again.

field trip: ruth asawa@sfmoma, part 2

Ruth Asawa had woven so many hanging wire sculptures that I didn't want to get exhaustive in the blogs with cataloging them, but it is interesting to note each listing or placard the provenance of certain pieces and to know when in the 50s or 60s after her stints at Black Mountain College and at San Francisco State University and during marriage and motherhood, of what materials Asawa availed herself to keep creating.

 Asawa was for sure prolific with her weaving art.

And the wood paneling in the gallery evokes the mid century interior of an SF home in which Asawa displayed her handiwork. I especially loved the few ceramics that were in the exhibit.

 

There were pictures of Asawa's various public art of the larger installations of bronze sculptures and bas reliefs. But I was not going to take a picture of a picture.

I wonder if at SF State is where she would have started to conceive and then execute her much larger installations.

I was enthralled by Asawa's paintings with ink and watercolors.

I love too that they were still life paintings of food. 

 And I too have been wanting to render eggplants, but on to sgraffito.

Just when I'd thought I'd seen all her work, you walk into rooms of more. 

 

 

I suppose these smaller wire sculptures may have been her maquettes. 

There was also a large wooden door to a home that Asawa carved as well as plaster and clay masks that she had cast, which I didn't photograph. As I mentioned before, the rooms filled with her work kept continuing.    

 

Her wire sculptures mounted onto a wall rather than suspended from a ceiling were evocative of trees and branches.

Well there's the answer to my question on maquettes.

 

Asawa had such forte too with 2-D.

I left the exhibit feeling inspired and energized about my own markings on paper and shapes formed by my own hands.

field trip: ruth asawa@sfmoma, part 1

I’ve viewed Ruth Asawa’s hanging wire sculptures, usually one or two and sometimes a group of three or five at the SFMoMA or the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, the MoMA in NYC, or the National Gallery of Art or the Smithsonian Museum of American Art in Washington, D.C. I’ve always loved her biomorphic forms crocheted from wire with their transparency and volumes of air. AND SO to see her oeuvre in one location and in one room after another was so illuminating. You walk at the beginning of the exhibit into galleries that instantly propel you to her lovely hanging 3-dimensional sculptures.

I was intrigued by her work in other medium, like this chair below on one of my favorite kinds of papers.

And I didn't read all the placards, but am now marveling at the undertaking to bring all of her work together from her family's Noe Valley home, private collections of family and friends, and other major museums.

Her wanderings into design and production art (or lack thereof) were fascinating to read about.              

I didn't take pictures of her origami-like wall sculptures made from paper, but they're in my head. I told my colleague, Demian who teaches math that one of her sculptures made me think of the Fibonnaci spiral, which turned into a conversation about right triangles, geometry and the Golden Ratio, drawing other museum-goers around us to listen. And there are no flops as far as I can see in her body of work, which makes me wonder if she discarded a lot of her experiments in other media.           

field trip: linner@pogu

Weekend scenes. I only sold $50 worth of my pottery, but selling wasn’t really the point. Really I just wanted to get rid of pots that were sitting in my storage rental. If I could only get rid of boxes of fabric just as fast. I gotta start sewing too. Maybe a business pop-up called Clay + Cloth is in my future. That Saturday, I gave a lot of ceramics to fellow ceramicists, and then brought what was left in the box to the parks and rec for those potters to pick the pots they wanted and sell the rest at their pop-up as my donation to their studio. Looking at all those different pieces also helped me to figure out what I want my voice as an artist to be. I also took pics of my favorite pots by fellow makers. I admired Sam’s bananas...

and wind bells...    

and a fellow potter’s bear mug.

I even had time this weekend to trim pots that weren’t really leather enough for trimming, but I went with it and they’ll be more cute banchan bowls for glaze play and white vessels for my tableware line.

I let Patrick cook our stay at home steak night dinner this weekend though I cooked the sides to add some plant forwardness. Besides baking a potato, I made a Broadway pea salad, water chestnuts and bacon and white sauce not pictured...        

...and roasted golden beets.

More salad components for weekday salad lunches.

And instead of spending a Sunday in Santa Cruz because we’re doing a long weekend stay by the beach instead, Cybil and Lyra and I went to lunch-dinner aka “linner” at Pogu, the restaurant in the middle of Jagalchi. I ordered a soju melon cocktail and the 30 dollar abalone and rice.    

 

Cybil ordered the same cocktail and the beef and rice bowl while Lyra went for a Grand Marnier soju cocktail and the seafood and soft tofu soup and rice meal. I tasted Lyra's soup and said, I would do that and loved her citrus soju drink.

Later at the sushi and oyster counter, I ordered a half dozen of the steamed oysters (kept the shells for a crafting project I told them we'd do in Santa Cruz) while Cybil had a beer. Then we went to the bakery called Basquiat to eat slices of whipped cream layer cake slices baked with rice flour. And then the long walk through the mall to the Japanese dollar store where I bought macrame hangers for future plant pots I'll make and my favorite Hi-Chew candy and a cute notebook to jot in. And then to another favorite bakery of Cybil's so she could buy custard tarts and Lyra a boba tea while I was disappointed that I didn't get a mochi matcha donut for later though I did buy Patrick a trendy Dubai chocolate bar. T'was a full afternoon of enjoyable companions and fun eating adventure.

cook: panini picnic

I’m off this morning to sell my wares. And so I made sandwiches for me and Meral for, I hope, a productive Saturday.    

The upscale grocery store near me mailed me coupons for free 1 pound organic chicken breasts, and so while there I thought I would also pick up their Italian panini for lunch the next day. Alas the store was out, and so I decided to shop for its ingredients instead: Acme baguette, porchetta on sale, basil and soft mozzarella balls. I made the pickle butter first. I didn't have cornichons, but I did have small dill gherkins and a bucket of my husband's spicy pickles. I softened the butter by letting it sit out and come to room temperature, and I think I chopped about half a cup of 4 small gherkins and 1 spicy dill spear. I also sprinkled garlic powder, Old Bay seasoning, and shook Crystal hot sauce on to the butter and then added the finely chopped pickles and probably 2 tablespoons of fresh dill. Using a hand mixer and a medium whisk were so messy! I should have used a bigger bowl and let the butter soften more. Instead I mixed with my soft spatula. But pickle butter done and ready to construct panini.

Besides my pickle butter (which tasted awesome by the way) and porchetta, my mise en place included ciliegine, Kerry Gold cheddar, and leftover charcuterie of dry salami, salami with fennel, and capicola. 

I cut the baguette into 4 and sliced in half. I used the spatula to spread the pickle butter on both sides of the bread.

I decided that the sandwich didn't need cheese as it was already so rich from the butter and meat and kept it simple to just those two ingredients.

Italian panini next. Olive oil and balsamic glaze to soften the bread and then fresh basil leaves on top as the first layer.

The next layers were balls of mozzarella on one bread half, and one dry salami, one salami with fennel, and one capicola slices on the other half.

Lastly, I wrapped the sandwiches in plastic wrap. I hated the smell of the plastic wrap, which is what Patrick also uses to wrap our Christmas tree for storage. And so next time, I'm going to use parchment paper and aluminum foil instead since I can’t find cellophane either. I have yet to taste the sandwiches, but had tasted all the individual components. I know the paninis will be fantastic when I am starving later.   

cook: sashimi rice bowl

There's a new product at Costco: sashimi! Don't get me wrong. I love their usual prepared wasabi tuna poke AND spicy or sriracha mayo tuna poke, but I also love hamachi and salmon in my raw fish rice bowls.

For my lunch bowls, I added to the sashimi, grilled salmon belly, wakame or seaweed, edamame, pickled ginger, green salad dressed in Asian sesame dressing, avocado and cucumber sushi (for the rice factor), and as always, sliced scallions plus a sprinkling of furikake as well as drizzles of wasabi sauce and sriracha mayo. My favorite fast weekend lunch.