Clafoutis: I have it, You want it…

So I was without internet today, and I have already beaten all the games I own.  So as you can imagine I was quite bored, and when I’m bored I usually do one of two things; either work in the studio or work in the kitchen.  Since we are experiencing one of the hottest summers ever here in Oklahoma, I decided to stay out of the un-air-conditioned studio and work in the kitchen, where it was relatively cool (compared only to the torturously hot studio).  I’ve been watching Good Eats lately and I wanted to try a couple of recipes that looked quite tasty, and I needed to make another loaf of bread and some fudge for our bread exchange.  So here are the items that I made today, starting with the raw ingredients.   

First up is the fudge, the raw lineup goes like this; heavy cream, dark chocolate, peanut butter chips, light corn syrup, salt, and sugar (I just realized that instead of sugar there is bread flour in this picture, but I promise that I used sugar when I made the actual fudge).

And here is a picture of the fudge after cooking, cooling, and cutting.

Next is Clafoutis (I know it sounds like a disease, but it’s really a French dessert).  The raw lineup goes like this; eggs, all-purpose flour, milk, vanilla, and cherries. 

And here is the finished product.  I know it looks like a mess; I had a little trouble getting it out of the Dutch oven.  I’m thinking now that I should have let it cool in the Dutch oven before trying to remove it.

The next project I went to work on was making concentrated fruit syrups to make drinks out of later.  The lineup for these are; strawberries (the strawberries are pictured, but I also made some with blueberries, and cherries), water, lime juice, and sugar.

And here are the three concentrated syrups/juices that I made:

 Strawberry

Blueberry

And Cherry

I also made a loaf of Kolach to send out for our bread exchange, but apparently I forgot to take pictures of both the raw materials and the finish product.  I guess I just was so excited to get started that I couldn’t take the few minutes to take a picture (in my defense I was in a slight hurry to make it to the post office before they closed).  Anyway, it turned out to be a pretty good day with a lot accomplished, and now I get to wait for the internet to start working again so I can post this (amazing) post.

It’s Alive….!!!

So we finally planted our seeds this past weekend (even with our garden unfilled/finished). We thought we would go ahead because if we waited until the garden was finished all of our plants would be way behind on the growing curve. Here is a list of plants that we are planning on growing in (and around) our garden:


Oregano
Basil
Cilantro
Sage
Tomato (heirloom)
Zucchini
Cucumber (heirloom)
Squash
Sweet Peas
Green Beans
Bell Pepper (heirloom)
Serrano
Cayenne
Jalapeño (heirloom)
Green Onions (heirloom)
Leek
Carrots (heirloom)
Butter Crunch Lettuce (heirloom)
Brussels Sprouts
Cauliflower
Pumpkin
Watermelon
Corn
Potato (Purple)
Spring Mix/Mesclun Mix
Sunflower
Sweet Onion
Garlic
Sweet Potato
Blue Berries
Black Berries
Raspberries
Strawberries
Grapes

The heirloom seeds we got for free from a man named Ray who does Youtube videos about gardening (go and check him out he's pretty amusing and informing).


Here are a couple of pictures of our seeds in their little seed flats,







as you can see some of them have all ready sprouted. I am not sure which ones sprouted (we have a diagram but I didn’t have it with me), but quite a few did. We are growing the seedlings at my mother –in-law’s house because we don’t have the space or the sunlight in our house. So she graciously allowed us to grow them there (which I appreciate a lot!).

So we are still having problems getting soil for our garden, but it is coming together slowly. We got some soil from my mother-in-law, and some from one of my sisters-in-law. We will also go and pick up some more manure from our friends farm (ranch?) so we are getting there it is just taking more time than I thought it would.

On another note we joined an Etsy “Team” called Baha’is on Etsy, you all should go check it out. There are a lot of talented people from all over the country in that group (team?).

Done and done

I finished firing the kiln Saturday afternoon, let if cool all of Sunday and then unloaded it this afternoon. Here is a shot of the kiln with all of the finished work (well not all, I started unloading then remembered to take a photo. So there are a few shelves missing).



Here is a picture of all of the work sorted and ready for packing (shortly after this photo everything was wrapped and packed away for easy transport to Oklahoma).



Here are some close up photos of some berry bowls and some Milton mugs (I thought they turned out quite nicely).




Also I have been asked to make some bean pots/casseroles for someone. So here are a couple of shots of those.




Once we get settled in Oklahoma we will unpack all this work and take individual photos of everything (or group shots of stuff that belongs in a set) and start posting things on Etsy. There might be another long silence from us while we do the final packing these next two weeks, but we will start posting as soon as we start setting up our new studio.

A long time gone...

Haven’t posted anything for a while. We’ve been busy with work and trying to pack up everything so we can move. I have been able to glaze all that work from the last couple of posts. As you can see here in this photo it is quite a bit of stuff (this isn’t all of it either, the big platter/bowls are not on this cart (they haven’t been glazed yet either)).



I have also loaded all of this stuff into the big gas kiln and will fire it tomorrow. Hopefully everything will go well and I will have some pictures of finished work to share by Monday evening. Until then I need to get some sleep so I can be attentive to the kiln tomorrow.

Long Time, No Blog

It’s been a while since the last post. During the day I’ve been teaching little kids a little bit about pottery and sculpture at a local small town museum. Given that I do not have that much time to make anything new I don’t have much to blog about (hence the lack of blogging). We have finally been able to bisque-fire the work from the last two posts (although with a little difficulty). We first loaded in a car kiln (Elvira… two weeks ago) only to find out that one set of the pilot lights didn’t work. Irritated at this, we then unloaded it all a week later and reloaded it into the only other kiln that would hold that much work (we call this kiln Jezebel). This one is a front loading gas kiln (very nice, we hope to build a kiln similar to this one when we move). This past weekend I was finally able to babysit and fire the kiln, which we unloaded today, and stashed everything in my studio. Here is a picture of all the work we pulled out of the kiln, thankfully nothing broke.



Also, we finally got the original driveshaft for the treadle wheel finished. Unfortunately we realized the whole thing needs to be a couple of inches shorter for it to be comfortable. This means that the driveshaft will have to be cut down as well as all the posts on the treadle wheel.



Another project that has been in the works is getting close. This is a Baha’i Greatest Name the wife has been working on for her sister. It has a maple burl base and shell cast bronze calligraphy. It needs a bit of drilling on before it can be patina’d and attached. Almost done in time for her birthday!



After the both of us graduated this past May we’ve finally decided that we will move back to Oklahoma (where we lived before moving to Texas for graduate school) at the end of August to work towards our dream of being studio artists. Wish us luck!
…Well back to trying to relax before another day full of teaching the little ones about the arts.

A Berry, An Acorn, and a Goblet walk into a Bar...

We’ve been working on some more stuff for our Etsy shop. The first picture is of some berry bowls (they’re upside down in this photo), these are basically small colanders made to wash berry’s and the like. These are about four to five inches tall and roughly five to six inches wide.



The next photo is of some goblets (they are upside down as well, I had just finished throwing the stem so they were still wet and could not support the weight of the cup). I have always enjoyed making goblets, I don’t really know why they are just fun. Anyway they are about six to eight inches tall.



Condiment Bowls are what we are calling these little fellows. Basically they’re two small prep bowls attached to each other with a loop handle added. They are maybe two inches tall and two to three inches wide (combined to be about six inches wide). You can see some other handles in the background, which shows that the handle isn’t perfectly straight (they have a slight twist to them (I enjoy them being slightly off like that)).



Also, here are two of the butter bells from the last post. These have been finished with a handle/foot ring added to the top of the butter part, and feet added to the part that holds the water. These little guys look like acorns to us.



Here is a group shot of the berry bowls and condiment bowls along with some plates that I have been working on (which will be slightly square(ish) when I am finished).



And last but not least is the new drive shaft for the treadle wheel. As you can see I switched to pipe instead of solid steel (this is so I don’t have to weld anything, just screw them all together). You can see where the other driveshaft broke, the upper middle on the left side.



Thanks for reading, and feel free to let us know what you think and any suggestions on what you would like to see us make, we always look forward to your comments.