home sweet home: nesting and back to clay

I was telling Patrick last week that traveling has kind of lost its luster for me. I didn't sleep well while away from my structured life in an unfamiliar house though I had the air conditioner cranked for my hot flashes. However, it was good to get away because travel always makes me appreciate home more. I live in an gorgeous part of California full of nature and cultural attractions that itself is a tourist destination. The Bay Area is awesome, and so this summer I vow to enjoy my own backyard more. I arrived home to this spring bouquet. I love these tulips from our garden--they're called Parrot.              

And I got hubby to cook steak and a baked potato for dinner on my first work night while I did cauliflower duty. Our garden produced not only the flowers, but also the vegetables I roasted.                       

I did bring a sewing project with me on my travels, and I frequently stayed up late most evenings working on the quilt. I keep thinking of all the fabric and sewing supplies that I'm temporarily storing at my workplace. It does weigh on my mind. Not good. I read a newsletter from an author about habits and mindsets for a better life, and he had this to say today: "Look around your environment. Rather than seeing items as objects, see them as magnets for your attention. Each object gently pulls a certain amount of your attention toward it. Whenever you discard something, the tug of that object is released. You get some attention back." He's exactly right. I've gotten rid of a lot of works in progress and piles of cloth that I had hoped to have already sewn into quilts and home furnishings. My goal was to finish all these projects by the end of my school library career. But the guilt of storing all that shit where it shouldn't be plagues me and makes me resolve to be even more ruthless with getting rid of even more.

It felt good to have my hands on mud this week. My pinch pot came out of the bisque kiln.And so I glazed its  interior and the text on it in Marshmallow (matte white) glaze. 

I also finally glazed Meral’s pot in rutile. I’ll see what color it turns into in the gas kiln before epoxying a stone quartz atop for a knob.          

And I finished a bottle. Will it be THE autobiographical bottle? I don’t know.                                   

I wrapped it tightly in plastic, so that it remains leather moist and I can paint white slip on it before carving a Mishima-style pattern. Or should I sgraffito carve? I really should sketch in my clay journal. On Saturday, I got to finally view my finished candelabra. Oh.         

I don’t hate it, but I don’t love it either. I love the base and the holder for the tea light. I like the look of vines and leaves and flowers and their placement and balance. But the clay. I thought I used all one clay body of Smooth Red. But it looks like some speckled buff got wedged into it. Other classmates liked it. But I don’t know. I did enjoy making it and will likely make another. So what will I do differently? A white stoneware for the next one with brighter underglazes for the foliage and flowers. A red stoneware for another that’s without embellishments and just stark geometric forms. That day in the studio I made numerous speckled buff pots to contain succulents.

But there was dinner to make next, and I was longing for salmon like I’d grilled in Indio. But maybe with a beurre blanc like I’d eaten with my sand dabs in an Italian restaurant in Palm Desert.    

And I wanted to sauté the cabbages from our garden which had been in the refrigerator all week while I was in Palm Springs . 

And cook mashed potatoes. I missed good mashed potatoes.             

Meh.                                    

The salmon was just okay, for the sauce was too sharply tart and the fish was a tad overdone. I should have used the mellower white wine vinegar which I didn't have instead of Meyer lemon juice. I wish too I had grilled the fish over wood charcoal like the trout amandine and broccoli and green beans I’d eaten at the Daily Grill restaurant in Palm Desert. The cabbage and mashed potatoes though were delicious. And I have leftovers to eat later for lunch or dinner this week.