This blog is about our new garage studio, and how it came to be…

I started work on the studio by building a table to work on. It’s L-shaped to allow the most surface space for the limited floor space we have. In this photo you can see the table coming to life, I had to construct it upside down and on saw horses because that’s the only way I could think to build it.



Here the table has been finished, and I was feeling really satisfied with myself. That is until I realized that it was really heavy, and I had to flip it right side up before it would be of any use at all. So I had to devise some really clever way of flipping it by myself without breaking any of the legs off.



So while I try to come up with a clever table flipping idea, lets move on to the “damp room”. Which is not really a room at all; it’s just a couple of shelves that I decided to wrap in plastic (which I thought was pretty clever way of keeping pots damp). Here is a picture of the shelves, and as you can see I already have the plastic hung up behind and underneath them.



And with the magic of (a lot of) duct tape and some strategically placed velcro we now have a fully in closed damp “space” ready to be used.



Okay back to the table flipping. So I did manage to come up with some really clever way of flipping it (of course this was after several very unclever ways that almost ended up with the table in pieces). I also put canvas on the longer part of the table so it can be used for wedging and other things involving clay. While the shorter part was left with the wood showing so that we can use it for other projects such as wood working and so forth. So here is picture of the studio at the end of day one of construction (oh, I also added a shelf above the table, which should come in pretty handy). You can see the table, with the canvas on the far side, and you can see the damp “area” off to the right.



Tomorrow I am off to the city to buy some clay, and have some Pho. Right now I am off to make some pizza for dinner.

It all Starts with a Whisper

It’s the blog you all have been waiting for. I have finally assembled a pottery wheel, not a treadle wheel this time but a Shimpo VL Whisper Wheel (which was much easier to assemble). Here is my first view of the wheel as it arrived.




It’s a nice box but as my Dad said it might be tough to work in such a small space, so I opened it to see how much space I had to work with.



And you can imagine my dismay when I saw that it was made of wood just like my treadle wheel was. But it was just a packing layer; needless to say I was relieved.



Now here was the actual wheel and all the bits that came with it.



As you can see in this picture the wheel was very short, almost comically so.



Luckily it came with these leg extensions, so I wouldn’t have to lie down while I was throwing.



And after a little finagling (and at one point realizing that one leg was shorter than the rest) the wheel was finally put together and ready to get to work. But I didn’t have any clay so I couldn’t get to throwing just yet.



So instead I admired the foot peddle, which was quite a nice shape, and sat there listening to how quiet it was (they don’t call it the whisper wheel for nothing you know).

Next I will start setting up my studio so that I will have the space (well as much as you can get out of a one car garage) to actually work in. Here is a picture of our garage and soon to come will be a picture of the studio in this garage.

God Made Dirt, and Dirt Don’t Hurt

Finally we have dirt, or compost and top soil to be precise, but we have it. Now our garden can go ahead with out further delay. We will be putting our plants in the ground on the first of April, our friend Andy (and hopefully his wife Leah) will be coming down to help us move our 140 plants into their new home. This first picture is of our raised bed (s) I calculated (with my advanced maths) that it is about 190(ish) square feet. It took 2 and a quarter tons (4.5 thousand pounds) of compost and about a ton of top soil to fill it out. I spent about 4 days filling it up (it would have taken one or two if I didn’t have to go to work), and now it is satisfyingly full.



This next picture is where we will be planting our watermelons, cantaloupe, pumpkins, and possibly our artichokes. I gave it a layer of compost to amend the soil, and in hopes that it would kill the grass and weeds. But to my astonishment grass and weeds like nutrients too, and they quickly sprouted up through the compost. So we decided to cover them up with plastic and cardboard boxes in hopes that this will kill them (our thoughts were that it would block the light and get too hot for them). We will see how well it works next week.



This final picture is of where I will be planting my 40 sunflowers. I’m hoping that the fence will provide some support (and I can tie them to the fence if necessary), and be a wind break as well.



And the news you all have been so patiently waiting for…I finally bought a pottery wheel!! It should be here early next week, and I can get started throwing some new stuff. But more on that later…

When the Moon Hits Your Eye

I made homemade pizza pies tonight; actually I started them yesterday since the dough needs 24 hours in the refrigerator. All I have to say is that homemade pizza is amazing (I got the recipe from our friend Andy). I made two pizzas, one pepperoni and black olive, and the other was pepperoni and jalapeño (the jalapeño were really hot). Here are some pictures of them.





I will definitely be making pizza again (as soon as the garden gets going we will be able to have really fresh veggie pizzas).

RePlanted: Return of the Seedlings!!!

As promised here are the pictures of our seedlings after they were transplanted to larger planters. As you can see they take up a lot more space than before, as things tend to when they grow (not many things get smaller as they grow). Here is a photo of all of the planters before I filled them with plants



And here is one of them after I put a plant in each one.



I skipped taking pictures of the actual transplanting process so that it would look magical, you know "now their empty *poof* now their not!!” (actually I was so focused on transplanting the 144 seedlings that I forgot to take pictures). Here is a close up of some of our transplanted seedlings.



On the left you can see some corn, brussel sprouts in the middle bottom, pumpkin on the right, leeks on the top right, some heirloom tomatoes (from our friends Andy and Leah) in the middle, squash and zucchini in the top left, and there are some other plants that I cannot remember what they are at the moment. It’s a good thing I wrote the names on the outside of the planters when I transplanted them.
Tomorrow we are headed to OKC to listen to the curators of Momentum talk about, well I don’t know what but I’m sure it will be interesting. Then it’s to Pho Lien Hoa for some good Vietnamese soup, and then to pick up our art work from Momentum. Should be a fun night.

Enso Arts Spotlight Artist: Keturah

I mentioned that we were in an art show called Momentum in the last couple posts. We went to the opening last night and found out that Keturah won the Curators Choice Award (which is the top prize of the show). The work of art that won was her North Pacific Garbage Patchwork Quilt (which she spent like 4 months working on), here is a picture of it in case you wanted to see it again.


She won $500 and two plane tickets to somewhere of her (our) choosing. So a big congratulations to Keturah for winning top prize (now I’m going to try and convince her to spend the money on soil so we can really get our garden growing).

It’s Still Alive….!!! (Botanical Experiment Part II)

As you can see from the picture our seedlings have really taken off (they all most seem to have life of their own). I’m really excited about growing our own food, and trying our hand at preserving what we don’t eat. These little guys (and gals) will get transplanted to larger planters early next week (I will post pictures of the process because I know how everyone likes to see pictures (visual aids are great)). We still don’t have a garden full of dirt, but we have some leads on where we might get some (hopefully it will pan out because we plan to plant the plants on or near the 1st of April (and it would be nice to have some where to plant them)).
In other news we are headed to the opening of Momentum tonight to see all the art (I’m going mostly so I can eat some really good Pho (a Vietnamese delicacy in soup form)). Also, I’m hopeful that we will sell at least one of our motorbikes this month (mostly because the weather is starting to get really nice, which makes for good riding), and I can buy a pottery wheel so all of you can read something other than just about our plants (although I know how exciting it is). I also acquired a biscuit joiner, so you might have some wood working to look forward to as well as pottery (hopefully before the end of summer I will turn out some wood work (I just need to acquire a couple other tools, such as a router and bits to go with it)). I think that is enough parentheses for one day ( I have been told I use to many (I was also told that parentheses inside of parentheses are a bad way to write (so I wanted to try for a third parentheses inside of the other two to see how it will go over with my critic (my wife, oh that was one more than I thought I would do)))).