My Vegetarian Thanksgiving

Yesterday we cooked the traditional turkey and all the trimmings for the meat eaters.  However, I have recently decided to go vegetarian so I had to come up with something else for myself.  Who knew that tofu and brussel sprouts could be so delicious?  I got the inspiration for this dish from the blog 101 Cookbooks.  The recipe is called Carmelized Tofu.  I adjusted it to use sliced, roatsed almonds because I had no pecans and I also tossed in some dried cranberries and sesame seeds. Then I substituted maple syrup instead of brown suger.  I made the sauteed brussel sprouts and put it all on top of some nice, fluffy quinoa with a splash of Bragg's Liquid Aminos and a little sesame oil.  Oh my gosh, I was in heaven, and no turkey, mashed potato food coma!  Now if I could have stayed away from the pumpkin pie and vanilla ice cream that would have been another story altogether.

Other fun stuff going on includes my new (ahem, used) little kiln baby.  I drove out of town on Wednesday to snatch her up.  I can't wait to try her out.  We have the 220 outlet in the laundry room but the room is so tiny only the washer and dryer fit in there.  So, alas, I will have to get a small shed or run the proper electric out to the garage.  But, oh I am itching to try her out!

Last, but not least, my Black Friday/Cyber Monday Etsy sale is in full swing and is proving to be pretty successful so far.  Most of the work in the shop are one of a kind items, so if there is anything you would like to purchase you might want to head on over there and get it before it gets snapped up.

I made the Front Page of Etsy Today!

My little ceramic dipping bowl made it to the front page of Etsy today in this wonderful treasury!  And to top it off,  the bowl sold.  Woo hoo!  I'm so excited because this was a bowl I made when I was at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina in June. 

Heart Tile Wall Hangings

When I first started back to college in the fall of 2007, my first ceramics class was intermediate mold making.  One of the projects was a multiples assignment involving tiles that needed to be 2" high.  I started by making a clay positive and then cast it in plaster and used it as a press mold.  Being fall, I wanted to use plant materials before everything fell off the trees.  I used maple seed pods in this one and rubber stamps for the lettering.

Returning to school was a stressful change and I found myself doing whatever I could to remind myself of peaceful, happy things.  These tiles were direct reminders to me of what was important and what I needed to do for myself.  I created about 30 tiles, all with different impressions and wording.  I was told that the hearts brought to mind the work of Jim Dine and the many heart paintings and sculptures he created.

Most of the tiles were finished in 2007 but I recently unearthed a bunch that I was still doing some tests on and had not finished.  The completed tiles had been fired at cone 04.  The above tile had a wash of purple mason stain and I glazed it up with a satin clear and fired up to cone 5.  I am quite happy with how it came out.

 

This last one also had purple stain and I applied a combination of commercial red glaze and a crackle glaze that fluxed into the red and added some color variation.  This one is also fired to cone 5.

I have had so much that I have needed to catch up on since graduating and then I am really trying to keep myself focused on making sculpture for my portfolio and grad school applications.  However, these tiles keep sneaking into my mind and I feel like making a few more. I better use them as a reward for when I get the sculptures finished.  They are a nice relief project. Pun intended.

In the meantime I have listed these in my Etsy store.  I can't keep everything I make no matter how much I love them or there wont be room to make more.  Sigh...

Have a delightful weekend full of peace, stillness and love!

Put De Lime in De Coconut!

Ok, ok, already!  I WAS going to go into the studio.  That was before I got sucked up into Etsyland.  Take a look at this fun treasury I made.  I know, I know, I'm going now!

Another Etsy Treasury

 

I have been getting into a lot of Etsy treasuries lately.  This is a really nice fall themed one by Caitlin Sainio.  Besides playing around working with my Etsy shop I have been busy getting ready for BFA open studios the end of October.  I have about 4 or 5 different projects underway.  I have slip cast pieces, platters for decoration with terra sigillata and mishima, and thrown forms to assemble into sculptures.  Right now I am working on how to get them all to look like a cohesive body of work which I think I will do using the biomorphic imagery that I am so interested in.  Keep your fingers crossed that i will remember to take my camera so I can get picks for everyone:)  Have a great hump day!

P.S.  My piece is the Tomato Red Vase,  just in case you were wondering.  Peace.

Catching Up

I think I am finally starting to catch up.  Maybe...  Well, I have been trying to anyway.  Taking too many naps though messes up you sleep cycle so I've got to ditch that developing habit.  Besides, I wont be able to when school starts and I don't want to have to go through withdrawals. 

My mother had a minor procedure done to her foot so I got to hang around today.  Not like I really needed to go anywhere.  Uh, wait!  Overdue library books.  Yikes.  But, as I was saying.  I finally got through sorting paperwork in the  spare room and today I made another mess.  I got into the boxes of pottery I got out of the kiln the day before I left for Fresno.  Now there is pottery all over the floor and paper piled up in a corner.  The cat likes that.

I photographed almost all of it with my new canon SLR, hehe.  Here is a gorgeous little shino chawan that turned out great.  I posted it to my Etsy shop along with some other items.  I will be posting more in the next few days.

I think I threw this with B-Mix.  It is the only one.  I wish I had made more!  I love the speckling on the inside.   I think with the next photo shoot I need to move the piece either back away from the white or use some black fabric or paper to absorb some of the reflection that is happening on the bottom of the piece.

Now I am starting to accumulate a lot of work.  I am not sure if I should just keep working to sell it on Etsy or if I should sign up for a craft fair.  Hmm...  One thing is for sure.  I have so many new ideas from the clay workshop that I'm not sure what I am going to work on next.  Decisions, decisions.  Time to whip  out the sketch book and start working on some ideas.

Etsy Treasury Love

I finally made the call.  I am not going to make any more pieces for my show.  I loaded all my dry sculptures into the kiln this afternoon for a bisque firing.  Woo hoo!  Now I have one more cone 04 glaze firing to do.  Then, when my porcelain pieces come out of this bisque, I will have a cone 10 firing to do.  That's it!  I am excited to say the least.  I am even going to take some time off for ME this week.  It is spring break after all.  I am a little giddy about it.  Oh, what should I do?  Where should I go?  So many choices and such lovely weather.  It is supposed to be 74 degrees tomorrow.  I actually felt overheated today.  When it is 100 degrees this summer, today will seem cold in my memory.

On another lovely note, I keep getting put in these wonderful Etsy Treasuries.  This is completely awesome!  This treasury was created by dorothydomingo who has a delightful Etsy shop with ceramics, beadwork and quilting.  My piece is the Sea Foam Pasta bowl which is on the third row down, first image.  It is a great beginning to what is shaping up to be a wonderful week.  I almost forgot, my son got off his crutches yesterday!

Etsy Treasury

I made it into an Etsy treasury thanks to Erika.  Thanks Erika!  You have beautiful jewelry and it made my day to see my heart bowl with all the other fun heart items.  Etsy is really a great place to find gorgeous handmade items.