clay: the week’s projects

The kiln gods at the high school studio produced a mug I love.    

On the bisque, I adhered first a Western underglaze, a wash of marine blue to fill in the nooks and crannies of texture and then a coat of Amaco electric blue followed by a couple coats of a Western celadon gloss. In the interior of the mug, I painted a few layers of just the celadon. And then I crossed my fingers that I’d end up loving the outcome.

And I do love ❤️ this glaze combination. I plan on making more of my ocean mugs with this glaze combo of blues and celadons. And no cooking posts this week because I've been eating leftovers.

At Saturday clay studio, I brought out of the kiln room the two pitchers I’d been working on these past couple weeks. I’m not in love with the rutile green and celadon. Did I not stir the glaze enough before dipping or painting? Next time I’ll try warm green and celadon.  

 

I don't have a lot of this reclaimed clay and was going to make plinths on which to prop mugs for pop-up sales displays. However, I saw this soap dish online and decided I wanted to re-create it. 

I'm now noticing in retrospect that I needed to fold or curve up the four sides of an oblong shape.

And I'm wondering if I'm going to have to stilt the dish if I decide to glaze the dish as it was pictured.

And so yesterday in the studio, I made two of those organic shaped soap dishes and one conventional type. They're getting bone dry on a shelf for me to pop on the green ware shelf next Saturday. 

I'll likely paint wax resist and then dip them in the bucket of gloss white at the high school studio. And I'm going to ask Cecilia's niece to make a low-scented soap on which to perch on them. Something lightly almond scented with oatmeal and honey perhaps for exfoliation and moisturizing. Handmade soap to go on handmade soap dishes for holiday gifts.

When I arrived home after buying onions at Dean's produce, I saw I only had a little bit of mashed potatoes for the beef stew I was planning to cook for dinner. Really it was going to be beef bourguignon, but I was using Pinot Noir rather than a Cabernet Sauvignon. 

I also didn't have celery on hand as usual for a mirepoix and decided to add a starch factor with green peas.

And instead of drinking the rest of the wine with dinner, I saved it for another cooking endeavor and drank a buttery Chardonnay I liked. 

I bought this giant mango wood board on clearance for only $5 from Anthropologie. It's so ginormous that it can't be hung on my cutting board peg board, and so it's in my closet, which some I'll purge of other impulsive and impractical purchases.

But maybe I can hang it in my dining room if I get rid of a framed poster or the vegetable quilt hanging of which I was going to re-sew the border anyway. The board is rather perfect for pizza gatherings.