coordinate + craft + clay: filipino party decorations and ponderings about black clay

The last big birthday party I remembered was when I turned 7. My family was in Puerto Rico, and my parents had invited lots of people. My dad grilled, of course. Vintage photographs show that my parents had also thrown me a party when I was a toddler. I realized at the age of 59 that the parties were likely for both my mother and me as we shared the same birthday. Doh! Feeling sad, nostalgic and a bit floored and selfish that I never honored my mom with a birthday party and that I'm turning 60 next next month, I decided in honor of my parents to coordinate and cook for another birthday party. Birthday invitation has been sent, I've talked with a manager at a Filipino restaurant about what party platters to serve for a buffet dinner in the condo clubhouse. I would love to have it at the restaurant upstairs which can accommodate 30 people, but parking near Avenida is a pain.               

I also tried Avenida's happy hour to sip a pandan rum-based Old Fashioned and preview the food a bit. I really liked the fried tofu with red onion and soy vinegar dipping sauce. 

For the party, I'll be cooking my own recipe for adobo and borrowing a rice cooker as well as renting a snow cone machine to have shaved ice for a halo halo bar.

I’m decorating too which is my favorite thing ever, but I’m keeping the celebration simple and the budget modest. Bamboo plates and utensil ware in ceramic crocks (I hate plastic), kraft paper to cover the tables. No balloons or streamers. Fresh flowers galore inside vases, where one can't see the bottom of the stems. The glass vases will be on reserve in case guests actually do read the invitation and gift me with fresh flowers. I’m in beast mode with making flower bottles and bowls to decorate my party.

I'll admit that building with Dixon Sculpture was not easy because it kept cracking.

In going through my stash of clays at school, where I found and started hydrating a bag of red clay, I found an Aardvark bag of really dark clay labeled with my name and CHAR. I'm guessing and hoping it's their charcoal, medium grit body with no issues of bloating. I'd always loved Rae Dunn's work with black clay. 

I've been looking at ceramicists' processes with black clay (slab and coil and use a metal rib for smoothing) and images of black pots too. I like this pot.

And the other night in a very crowded studio, I painted porcelain slip on these greenware pots... 

And I'm hoping these pots have already been bisque fired and that I can overglaze them with the studio's Majolica or White Satin.

clay: red sculpture and dixon sculpture flower bottles

I'm making flower vases with a bag of Dixon Sculpture red clay. I wonder though what color the clay will fire to because the raw groggy clay is similar in color to raw speckled buff. However, I had a last bit of Red Sculpture, and so that 1 pound or so went into the making of a flower bottle. Because I have test tile of a pattern, I added texture to the neck and the spout. I also round cut-out of the bottle opening to hold the cylinder as an accent for the outside of the bottle. Floating Green is too opaque for my liking. I'll look at the glaze samples of the Red Velvet at the studio and will likely choose Teal Appeal or True Celadon in combination with another glaze like Peppermint Creme. And then I made a shorter and stouter flower bottle with the Dixon Sculpture.      

Here's a short flower vase I made earlier than the bottles from Dixon Sculpture. I made another short vase with holes on the top but no cylinders too that's not pictured. I'll likely glaze all these pots with a gloss white. I like these brutalist flower vases more and more. They make me think of erosion with all their cracks and cragginess and shaggy bits.

And the very last of the Red Velvet went into the throwing of this bowl, which I trimmed. The interior and the slight rim is going to be glazed with Coyote Sun Drop--probably just enough glaze in the bottle to finish this bowl.

T'was a good weekend of clay, and I'm hoping to make it to the studio this evening to make one more vase. I'm thinking of making an Ikebana bowl where I hump the groggy clay slab over a plaster mold and then paint the interior with white slip (I've got a bottle of Snow somewhere) and then grab a fern leaf or find a fern stencil as some kind of accent inside the bowl. I've got a heavy Japanese pin frog to put at the bottom of the bowl to prop a single bloom.

craft: women in woodworking class at cabrillo college

I signed up with my friend, Meral for a women in woodworking weekend course in Aptos. We planned to overnight in Santa Cruz and do a little beach and fun dining too. Our morning started with coffee and lunch pickup at Gayle's, then seaweed and feather collecting at New Brighton State Beach, where we saw a pelican rescue. Next lots of demonstration and practice with power and hand tools at Cabrillo College. Sasha, our instructor, taught us how to safely use power tools such as...

....planer, table saw, compound miter saw, band saw, drill press, and belt sander as well as various hand tools like Japanese and European hand saws, chisels, and planers. 

Before leaving class on Saturday I managed to cut dado joints by first making thin cuts on the table saw and then chiseling them out to dry fit the box together before gluing and screwing the next day. 

After that exhausting--but fulfilling--day of woodworking and checking into our hotel, we went to Bad Animal, a combination bookstore, wine bar and Thai restaurant. We met up with my friends, Cybil and Lyra--my beach cottage roommates.            

We bought orange wine and browsed art books. Meral found an illustrated memoir of being a Black painter in the Jim Crow South to buy...

...while I searched for a book on Picasso and his ceramics years. No such luck, and so I studied the menu.

 

For starters, we ordered the fried tofu, cabbage and herb salad and roasted pork belly. For entrees, tofu and glass noodle soup, braised black cod, green coconut curry chicken, jasmine rice. We dug in right away that I forgot to take pics of our beautiful meal.

Bad Animal is more expensive than a family-run Thai joint, but the food definitely showcased Michelin chefs' skills with Thai authenticity and French technique. Plus the ambiance was magical as I love a bookstore devoted to art, politics and culture AND having an encyclopedic wine menu.

The decor and lighting though hipster evinced the laid-back and intellectual Santa Cruz vibes I adore.

After dinner, we all walked just a few blocks to Pretty Good Advice on Pacific Avenue because I love their soft serve--lactose free and delicious purity. That day's flavor was horchata. We also browsed Bookshop Santa Cruz, where Meral found another art book she loved and I found titles I had already checked out from the public library. Pacific Avenue is also where I love to shop for surf wear for me and hubs at Santa Cruz Skateboards, one-of-a-kind gifts at Artists & agency, and duck in and out of New Age stores for tarot cards and crystals. Cybil and I love too the greeting cards and postcards at Paper Vision.  

The next morning, I took Meral to my favorite coffee house, 11th Hour and ordered my favorite honeybee latte (honey lavender + espresso + steamed milk is all the breakfast fuel I really need). I also examined the local ceramics for sale.

Whereas I paid $45 for my very first artisanal ceramic mug almost twenty years ago, they now typically retail $65 here in California. Zan charges $125 for her large porcelain, mishima-decorated mugs that take her hours to complete. And so I'll be pricing my mugs accordingly. $45 if it's just glaze on my favorite clay, $65 if I've gone to the time-consuming and trouble of mark making with mishima or sgraffito and under glazing on my mugs. Next I took Meral to eat my favorite brisket taco at Aptos St. BBQ.

Meral agreed the brisket and SAUCE were dang delicious. Then we went to class. I didn't finish my tool chest. Once home, I did, however, show Patrick the ingenious lid to my wooden box. He said I should find a book that fits exactly into the gap on the top and hide its opening mechanism.

One of my marine biology books almost fit. I'll post more pics when the box is finally done. I am presently in love with the look of the white pine that I think it a shame to varnish it and for it to get honey colored. And so I'm on the search for a water-based whitewash pickling stain (

BEHR PREMIUM

 

8 oz. #TIS-580 White Wash Pickling Transparent Water-Based Fast Drying Interior Wood Stain

)and a water-based polycrylic (

Varathane Transparent Satin Crystal Clear Water-Based Acrylic Ultimate Polyurethane Finish 0.5 pt

) to prevent the wood from yellowing.

cook: meatball banh mi

Friday night and had just swam a mile and was relaxed and hungry. Our garden has been busting out the cucumbers and peppers. Plus I had leftover Vietnamese pork meatballs chock full of lemongrass, herbs, fish sauce, and garlic from a Brendan Pang recipe for noodle bowls over a week ago at the back of the fridge, which sometimes freezes our food (so the meatballs were still good). I hate to waste food, and so me and hubs were eating leftovers on our own for dinner. Tomatoes and lasagna for him and a bahn mi for me. Pate and Kewpie mayo on one half and more Kewpie on the other half of the sandwich roll. Then summer bounty: cilantro, English cucumbers, pickled daikon and carrots, jalapenos and leftover meatballs. Maggi seasoning and hoisin sauce too.      

 

Half a bottle of chilled Chardonnay and dinner is on the table.

But note to self. A sourdough roll is not as tasty as a plain French baguette for a banh mi.

clay: dragonfruit salt crock

Clay Body: Dragonfruit

Glaze: Black Pearl

Method/Firing: Handbuilt & Letter Stamp/Glaze pour and brushing/Cone 6  

cook: asian herb pork meatballs rice noodle bowls

Here are the ingredients from a Brendan Pang recipe I copied from Instagram of which I made the meatballs and already had the pickled carrot and daikon in my fridge.

 

Instead of banh mi, I decided that the dish would be an Asian vermicelli and meatballs. I added a generous amount of lemon grass and more cilantro to the meat mixture.                    

Rather than frying the meatballs, I decided to bake them in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes.

I had half a bell pepper in the fridge and just bought a head of red cabbage that day and added those to an herb mix of Thai basil, mint, cilantro, and sawtooth cilantro. I also made nuoc cham with jalapenos, garlic, fish sauce, sugar, lime juice and water while my rice vermicelli were boiling in water for 4 minutes. Into a large bowl went the noodles and then the vegetables and herbs and pickled daikon and carrot.

I suddenly remembered the cucumber I'd bought earlier and added that to the salad bowl. Dinner is served.

Toss the noodles and vegetables, top with meatballs and spoon nuoc cham.

This meal contains 4 servings, and so there are leftovers for a couple lunches during the week.

clay: red velvet sake cup

Clay Body: Red Velvet

Glaze: Coyote Sun Drop

Method/Firing: Thrown/Stencil & Brushing overglaze/Cone 6                      

This sake cup was really a test pot. I wanted to see what the Sun Drop glaze looked like on the Red Velvet clay. A bright yellow overglaze on a red clay body looks fantastic!

From the finished ceramic shelf, I found 2 small plates, a bowl and a very small cup. I'm still waiting for a Red Velvet coffee mug. I spent yesterday afternoon at Clay Life just glazing. I'm making a line of what I'm calling Morning Ritual. Butter boxes, tea cups, coffee mugs, cream pitchers, small plates, bowls, bud vases and a teapot to be made. 

clay: butter box

Clay Body: Red Velvet

Glaze: Coyote Sun Drop

Method/Firing: Handbuilt/Cone 6

I labored over this box with tar paper and coils and then lots of rasping and sanding and sponging as smooth as possible while still greenware. I was careful too with the glazing. The size is perfect for the California butter stick of 4 ounces. And so the dimensions for my favorite Kerrygold 8 ounces butter bar means I've got to make another different tarpaper template. But I'm running out of the Coyote Glaze and may have to start using yellow underglaze and Cone 6 clear glaze until I can get more.

clay: cone 10 black mountain tableware

Clay Body: Black Mountain

Glazes: Artic White

Method/Firing: Handbuilt (plates) and Thrown (bowls)/Cone 10 Reduction

Below are Meral's pots. She wasn't exactly thrilled with the commercial glazes on her pottery and wished she had used more of the high school classroom glazes. Her favorite was the porcelain with the celadon glaze.

I love Jeff's pieces. His ceramics are giving me ideas about underglazes and sgrafitto on Black Mountain.

I'm also in like with Zan's porcelain mishima as well as the Sperry Crawl over underglaze.

I lunched with Jeff today and proposed that we resume Summer Clay Club at the high school class room next week. I've got lots of bags of Cone 10 clay--Black Mountain, Sculpture Mix, and Coleman Porcelain.

cook: sauce tomat

I gave all the tomatoes in this bowl to my brother, intending to cook BLTs for the family after a funeral, but couldn't stay after all. However, we had 3 large tomatoes that were too ripe to give away and which I decided to cook into dinner. I chopped the tomatoes into small chunks and sauteed them with butter and olive oil and chopped scallions and garlic. Next I reserved the tomato chunks and then just boiled down its juices into a thin sauce tomat. 

In the meantime, I boiled thin spaghetti for 5 minutes, reserving some of the salted pasta water to thicken sauce just in case.

 

While the sauce was furiously boiling down, I added some heavy cream, lemon pepper chicken breast cut into chunks, and a slug of my Chardonnay to cook into a thicker sauce. Next went the thin spaghetti and lots of ribbons of fresh Italian basil and the slightly cooked tomato chunks. I tossed pasta, protein, tomatoes, and sauce for a constant 5 minutes to emulsify and coat the noodles. No pasta water needed as I let the pasta soak up the flavorful juices.

Served it up saucy and wet like we like it.

No leftovers as I like to eat the tomatoes as fresh as possible and can easily cook this dish again in under 30 minutes.