fried green tomato

i super love this glaze ... it's a tomato/red that becomes this gorgeous green colour under oxidation firing - fast becoming my favourite mode of firing.

the first public holiday in six months and i come down with a cold. bah! hope you were lucky with the horses today!

Watching: Project Runway Season 8 Finale, spoiler alert: Mondo was robbed!
Exploring: BBC world service podcasts

Fresh out of the kiln

Slowly, slowly, I am learning how to throw bigger pieces on the wheel and about different glazes and firing methods.

The outside of the first pot has lovely specks of brown throughout that arises from oxidation firing. On the inside, I used a runnier glaze that produces blue and grey flecks.
For the second pot, I used a neutral glaze both inside and out, but using reduction firing that results in a shinier finish.

And since I can't help but be a scientist, here's some fruit in the second bowl for scale purposes.
Elmo immediately deemed them suitable for noodle soups - perfect for the won ton dumplings he made last weekend, yum!

It's so exciting to see the pots when they come out of the kiln; there's plenty of room for improvement, but I'm happy with how these have turned out. So much fun..

Eating: Delicious blood oranges (YUM) and ...won ton noodle soups =)
Watching: Mr Barry Morgan at the Melbourne Fringe Festival - so cheesey!

in the sun

when we started learning how to throw clay onto the wheel, our teacher mr j baffingly said to us: You have to stop looking at the clay.

not that any of us beginners have quite got to that stage yet, but slowly, we have come to realise that if your hands are in the right place, applying the right pressure, you could even potentially throw a pot with your eyes closed!

mr j also says: I'm teaching you to make a canvas.

no matter how perfect or "individual" your pot, the choice of glaze or other finish is make or break. we have a wall of beautiful glazes to choose from, but we also had the opportunity to play with Japanese washi paper.

very kool!


Listening: lovely summery 60s pop sounds of "Volume Two" from She & Him and the new Teenage Fanclub album "Shadows", ah!

PS: Don't forget to subscribe to the 3RRR radiothon!

pot luck

Mount Sturgeon

we recently spent a long weekend in the Grampians National Park with ms k and dr jp, the latter now firmly ensconced in adelaide ("ït's ok").

we stayed in dunkeld, a sleepy township not quite half way between adelaide and melbs. we were well chuffed to hear that this is a well beaten path: a local told us that Maggie Beer used to drive down from the Barossa Valley to meet up with Stephanie Alexander, from Melbourne, at the Royal Mail Hotel.

it's a beautiful part of victoria: we were rewarded with clear skies and stunning views on our walks.

On top of Mount Sturgeon

we wandered into local artist Anne Fleming's gallery on the main street and admired many of her beautiful pots and drawings. her work is elegant and simple, beautiful!

it was so inspiring that i've since been taking pottery classes. after a couple of months, a few pots came out of the kiln:

not quite as delicate as fleming's, but a good start and plenty of room for improvement =)

ps: i couldn't resist posting this pic too: you will find this shop on columbia road in london, past the flower market