Ceramics: Saturday in the Studio

I spent Saturday morning stitching more quilt blocks while I pondered what to make in clay in the early afternoon. I had spent a little time some weeks ago, scraping glaze from kiln shelves and then layering on more kiln wash and this week, loading green ware and glazed pieces into the kilns.

On the way to the clay studio, I noticed the bisque frost porcelain coupe plate I had rolled out a few years ago. I had used Saral paper to trace out a Hokusai-inspired wave which I had intended to paint using a ceramic underglaze "pen" filled with Amaco black velvet underglaze and wax resist. I learned this technique from a workshop with Sarah Gregory who then fills in the outlines with diluted underglazes for a watercolor effect. I got frustrated with the stopped-up and clogged pen tip the previous Saturday, but patiently on this particular Saturday soaked a tip in water and then used a wire to gouge out the clogged underglaze. I still have yet to unclog the .3mm tip but was able to to use the .8mm pen to complete the outline of waves.

I then watered down Western underglazes of Sky Blue, Medium Blue, Baby Blue, and White to paint inside the black lines. I rather love it and want to do more of this kind of surface decoration. I also used some tar paper to slab together another butter dish from sandstone buff clay, which I'll refine next week and construct a handle and a well for the lid to rest in the dish. I'll play and test out the Archie Glaze of Opal on it too when it's bisque fired. And then it was time for dinner. 

That morning I surveyed the fridge and pantry and was gonna make chicken mole to eat with black beans and yellow rice. But I had spent so much time in the ceramic studio that dinner had to be quicker to make the 6:00 p.m. mealtime. And so stopped at the supermarket and picked up bratwurst that was on sale and surveyed my fridge and pantry again afterward.

Bratwurst and mashed potatoes and sautéed buttered cabbage and beer I decided.

I enjoyed it, but I think it'll be another year before I do this meal again. I'm hoping tonight to tackle the chicken mole. The mole is already prepared from Frontera to which I just need to add pureed tomatoes and chicken broth. And I had simmered black beans with onion and garlic a few days before to reheat with leftover yellow rice. However, I've never cooked mole before and wasn't just going to glop the sauce over cooked chicken. And so I looked up a recipe for chicken mole. And so I'm going to poach the chicken, but reserve the poaching liquid to reconstitute the mole sauce along with pureed tomatoes as well as toast the sesame seeds for garnish. Stay tuned because I hope t'will be good.