Paul Soldner

 

Paul Soldner 1921-2011

I am honored to have met you.   

Paul Soldner   

Woodstoke 2000 

 Penryn, CA

 

 

Janet Mansfield, Paul Soldner, Morgan Britt

James Coquia, Janet Mansfield, Paul Soldner

Persimmon Bread Recipe

Just before Christmas the sun came out just long enough for me to run out to the persimmon tree, still dripping with rain,  and harvest some fruit before the birds could eat them all.

 

Actually, the tree is so tall I could never get to the top so the birds might as well enjoy those ones. I love the way the bright orange of the persimmons contrasts with the bright blue winter sky.

 

I picked a large bowl while the neighbor cat watched the fruit wildly swinging in the tree each time I would pull one off.  She is a crazy cat.  She loves when the fruit falls and she chases them, picks them up and drags them next door to her happy mistress who loves persimmons.

I left the bowl of fruit to ripen on the counter and got ready to head south to visit family.   These were crisp, ripe and juicy for eating but I wanted to make persimmon bread with them and for that they need to be super soft and mushy.  By the time I got back they were just right for mashing and baking.  

 

These are the Fuyu variety of persimmons which can be eaten while still hard and crispy but I am more used to baking with the Hachiya variety which cannot be eaten until it is soft as it is bitter and mouth puckering when still crisp.  However, if you wait for the Fuyu to get really soft they work just as well and there isn't a taste difference in the bread.   It was too bad the fruit wasn't ripe enough to bake with before Christmas.  When I got to my cousin's house she told me about all the fond memories she had from eating persimmon bread, especially with vanilla ice cream sandwiched between two slices.  Yum! As a New Years Eve celebration,  I baked persimmon bread.  Today I went and got vanilla bean ice cream for it even though it has been freezing and raining!

So here is the family recipe I promised I get to my cousin so she could make some more memories with her family.

Persimmon Bread

Cream together:     1 Cup shortening (I have always used butter)

                               2 Cups sugar

Beat in:                   2 eggs

Add:                       2 Cups persimmon pulp

Sift and add:          3 1/2 Cups sifted flour

                               2 tsp. baking soda

                               2 tsp. cinnamon

                               1 tsp. ground cloves

                               1/2 tsp. salt

Beat together

Add:                        2 Cups raisins or dates

                                2 Cups chopped nuts

                                (I prefer my bread without nuts or raisins)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease two loaf pans and fill with batter.  Bake for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours.  Test by inserting toothpick in center of bread.  Bread is done when the toothpick comes out clean.

Sorry I don't have a picture for the bread and ice cream.  I am too cold after eating it to get out the camera!

Earth Lovers

I made it into a lovely treasury today!  Yay, and finals are almost over.  Better hurry and get out of here for my last critique!  Plus I just put some fresh pieces in my Etsy store.

My first YouTube Pottery Video

I finally figured our how to upload a video from my dslr.  Then I had to drop it into a few different programs before I could do some editing. Still can't figure out most of the program but here it is so far.

Jason Briggs Inspired Sculpture

I went to Horseshoe lake recently to capture some sunset images.  Before the sun went down I saw this great dead tree with great textures and holes.  It instantly reminded me of Jason Briggs and the workshop I had with him at Fresno state last summer.  That was so much fun and he gave us some great demos and the most ridiculously entertaining lecture I have seen! Thanks, Jason! These pictures are for you.

 

 

Here is one of the sculptures I have been working on that was inspired by the workshop.  I haven't decided how I am going to finish it yet.  Hmmm...

Tis The Season...

...to be in another wonderful Etsy Treasury!  That's my Winter Evergreen Eco Mug down there.  Yay!

Tiles Inspired by Jenny Mendes

Last spring ceramic artist, Jenny Mendes, came and spent a month at Chico State to prepare a body of work.  She graciously shared her knowledge and let me sneak (hehe) into her work space to pester her.  Just kidding.  I really enjoyed getting to talk with Jenny and getting to know about her and her work.  These tiles were inspired by Jenny's work.  I started them just before she left in April and I just now got around to taking pictures of them.

I'm thinking of trying some more things out with this terra sig work.  I made these tiles on some recycled clay which was NOT a good idea.  It seems like the sig wants to jump right of the edges if I even look at the tiles.  I did throw some platters out of some earthenware and have started applying some imagery to those.  I am quite interested in making some more tiles.  The problem is just to figure out how, when or if it can even fit into my schedule.

Trying out different configurations.

Poladroid Pictures

So last night I stayed up way too late.  I got sucked into dropping my photos into this polaroid simulator called Poladroid.  I like the way my images look with this treatment.  The way they turn out is completely random, much like old polaroids.  I might try making my own polaroids so that I have more control and predictability.  Yeah, like I have the time for that.  At least there is no school today so I can either catch up on housework, work on my papers or completely enjoy the day doing neither!  Have a great Veteran's day.  Here is some more eye candy.

Satin Mint Organic Sculpture

I recently donated this piece to an auction fundraiser for the University Art Gallery at Chico State.  This was a new glaze that I had been testing out and I absolutely love it.  It is called Chung's Satin Mint and I got the recipe out of The Complete Guide to High-Fire Glazes: Glazing & Firing at Cone 10 by John Britt. 

What is amazing to me is how much this glaze changes depending on thickness and atmosphere in the kiln.  I got a lot more reds and pinks than I expected.  I had a couple of pieces come out completely pink from a heavy reduction and a few pieces that didn't get as much reduction had more greens and yellows.  

This piece was thrown with recycled clay and then given a coat of white slip and porcelain slip trailed dots before bisque firing.  Lush!  I can't wait to do some more work with this glaze.  If I have time, I want to take the base and try some other color variations.  Fun, fun, fun.  I love glazes and glazing!

 

Still here, part two...

 

Yes, I have been pitifully absent from my blog as of late.  What have I been up to?  Not much, really.  I made it through our BFA open studios event and coinciding BFA exhibit in our student gallery.  I got tons of positive feedback.  I still need to get some images of the work I showed for that.  I have two term papers to write that are due after Thanksgiving.  Yuck!  I have lots of sculpture that I have been working on and I am gearing up for my culminating exhibition next spring.  I have my show six weeks into the new semester so I am trying to make some preliminary headway on that.  Making work is the fun part.  Writing and the business side?  Well, necessary.  

And then there is Etsy.  I was spending way too much time on my store and it was proving to be too much of a distraction from my studies.  I decided to leave it alone for awhile, but recent sales and the holidays coming up have tempted me back to it.  Here is my most recent listing for this gorgeous chili bowl.  I love how this rutile glaze turned out.  Delish!

Vintage Backdrop

I have been thinking about ways to spice up my Etsy shop lately.  I like my graduated backdrop, especially for gallery shots but I was getting a little bored with it.  I decided to grab this vintage table with a distressed mirror top out of the dining room and take it outside.  What a refreshing change!  No lights to deal with and I love the way you can see the bottom of the piece reflected back from the mirror.

Throw in a fall leaf and get a little bokeh going and I had it made.  I like this image so much I want to frame it and hang it on my wall!

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.

I'm in an Etsy Treasury

My Autumn Gold Sauce Bowl made it into this lovely treasury by Nikkoblue.

Fall Chestnuts

 

Well, you know fall is here when the chestnuts start popping out of these ridiculously menacing seed pods.  I dare you to pick one of them up!  Ah, the squirrels are so happy.  All the nuts, pecan, almond, walnuts are ripening and the critters are harvesting for the winter.

 

Here are my slip castings in progress.  Right now I am making a bunch of forms and storing them damp so that I can decide how I want to put them all together.

Here are some of the forms that I did bisque before I decided to wait on that.  I have been moving them around in different configurations to see how I like them.  These have wholes in the back so that I can mount them to the gallery wall.  I will be using these for my BFA culminating exhibition in the Spring.  I'm a little anxious and a little excited all at the same time.  Wait, make that a lot anxious and a lot excited!  Phew.

Laser Toner Transfer Decals

Here are some more experiments with the laser decals.  I used a black and white photo that I took to make the decal.  I increased the contrast a bit before printing it out.  I love the way this works.  These are water slide decals.  The toner in the in the laser printer has to contain iron and it has to be a black and white only printer.  At Chico State we get our transfer paper from Bel Decal.  Here is some info on the process from Ceramic Arts Daily.

I actually layered this transfer over another image making technique.  This drippy, black, organic shape was created with a photo lithography technique similar to the one I was using last semester.  This technique is done on leather hard clay while the decals go on top of the glaze. This time, instead of using xerox copies, I used Pronto Plates and drew the image directly onto the plate with a sharpie marker and then inked it up with the linseed oil/mason stain ink.  Pronto Plates are are made of polyester and the technique is referred to as polyester plate lithography.  It is well adapted to use with clay but I would suggest trying it out on a flat tile instead of a round cylinder.  The plate is like thin plastic and likes to spring back when trying to wrap it around something.  This image is nice and crisp with the right glaze.  I did about six tumblers with the image and this is the only one that ran.  Glaze matters.  This is the only one I used a different glaze on.  But I can't remember which one!  I kind of like this drippy, ethereal thing going on.

This test is interesting, not because the tumbler is so wonky, but because I layered a celadon over mamo and it crazed a lot at the bottom where they overlap.  The crazing caused the decal to split apart along the craze lines.  This could be used to create some way cool effects. 

I hope everyone is having a great weekend.  I took the day off to be domestic.  Lol, like running around town shopping and then cooking is taking the day off.  But I had a good time and that's all that matters.  Oh, I did sneak over to the studio and unloaded some kilns, but that only took an hour so it doesn't really count.  Can you blame me?  I had to see how my stuff came out.  Delish!

Too Much Fun

I have been having way too much fun in the ceramics studio lately.  Of course we had a critique for class that was coming up so that kept me pretty busy.  I think I have had the most fun with the laser decals I have been designing.

Here are the results of two different deer images I have been working with.  I'm loving this process.  These two pieces are going to go on Etsy tomorrow for a test run. Our instructor got a laser printer for the class since the print shop changed the ink.  I'll have to write more about this process later and put in some links to resources but I've been going full steam ahead today.  Fired the kiln, helped mix 600 pounds of recycled clay, mixed a batch of casting slip, had a ceramics photo shoot.  And, oh yeah, got my NCECA student exhibition entry in an hour and a half from the deadline! Have an excellent weekend.

Shameless self promotion.

In the interest of clearing way for more work coming out of the kilns I have been adding more sale items to my Etsy store.  Just wanted to let y'all know in case you were already working on Holiday gift shopping. 

Oh, and I can't wait to see what comes out of the kiln tomorrow.  I did some photo litho transfers onto some tumblers and bowls.  I also did shellac resist on others.  These are all Coleman porcelain with some celadon glazes and some micro-crystallines.  Plus the experiments that I couldn't help myself with.  I LOVE glazing!  Did I say, I love glazing.  Yeah, well go check out my shop then get a good nights sleep.  Wait!  What am I talking about?  It's already tomorrow here in Cali. Oh, well.  Night all.

Laser Toner Decals

It is 12:30 am and I'm up late working on some laser toner decals that I am going to print out tomorrow.  Just remembered I've got to be to class by 8 am.  Yikes!  Zzzzzz....

I'm still here, really!

Ummm, how does a whole month go by before I realize I haven't posted in a really long time. Oh yeah.  School started.  Well, I can at least try to blame it on something.  I really have been busily working away at stuff, just not remembering to take my camera to school with me.

I got up early and headed of to school today to do some plaster mold making.  This was the piece I had been working on down in Fresno.  After the semester started, I tried to make another drop out mold and I must have undercut the sides after I got it stuck in the last mold and had to rework it.  So I decided to go ahead and practice 5 part mold making.  I know, ambitious aren't I?

What I thought was only going to take a few hours took me all day, literally.  I went in at 8 and didn't leave until 7.  I still have to go back and clean up my mess.  Plaster everywhere, but a girl's gotta take a break sometime.

I have lots more pics of the molds.  That's right.  I made not one, but two.  And the last bit of number two is waiting for me to go finish it.  Oh yeah, and clean.  Ugh.  I better go before I completely collapse.  Have a great remainder of the weekend!