a lil ray of sunshine...

Ahhh what a day.....mud and me on the deck having a cuppa..

20 degrees C and beautiful sunshine...happy now...

I tried out a gluten free brownie recipe the other night and mmmm pity about the sugar content if you have a better one let me know....I also converted my anzac cookie recipe to gluten free and coconut free, they likewise are very moreish...

Gluten Free Brownies

2oz unsweetened chocolate
1/3 cup shortening
2/3 sifted rice flour
1/2 t baking powder ... or use self raising flour
1/2 t salt ...I think i used a 1/4 t
2 eggs
1 cup sugar i think... i'll use less next time
1t vanilla extract

melt the chocolate and shortening together over hot water
sift flour, baking powder and salt twice.... didnt do that either!
beat eggs until light
add sugar, vanilla, then chocolate mixture and blend
add flour and mix well
pour batter into 8 x 8 x 2 inch pan
bake at 350F for 30-35 mins
cool and cut into squares...

And next time i make a curry i'll have pics to go with that recipe too...

I did some more work on the teapots this afternoon and hopefully tomorrow i'll get some finished..
The other job in my life has kind taken over for a bit but i should get some studio time in this week and get some throwing happening. I have a few commissions which is nice so i really should get warmed up and get a start on those.. And unloading the kiln tomorrow night, so some new mugage and the latest batch of tiles...more sunshine tomorrow!!

goldilocks is at it again...

well that was a crazy wkd!! saturday started early for those who made it down to the club for start up pf K9 at 7am....huh hemmm...urr i got a little lost trying to find stuff in my studio after the big tidy up so it was well later when i got there and the raku kilns had been firing up already and breakfast all cooked..

K9 finished the firing by 3.30pm a well slow fire just to make sure those large pieces were fired nicely and a bout 12 firings in the 3 raku kilns it was some session!! a bit too much smoke but you get that in group and newbie situations all good and only one big crackup on the refire of a teapot, the evidence is in one of those bins in shatters...

so post firing i still had some time up my sleeve!! loading my car for market on friday night was a great idea i didn't have to do it when i was exhausted after a day of rakuing... :P

I'm off to glaze some of those mugs after a late lunch today and will finish the outsides tomorrow night and get that last cone 6 firing through a couple more tiles to come and yes i am cutting it fine to the deadline i need to get them packed this wkd it will take approx 10 working days to get them to the US and they should be there right on time for 15th september... ooh box hunting note to self!

And this monday it's a 'hung parliament'... we still don't have a clear election result.. deadlocked at 71 seats each Labor and the coalition ' Libs and Nationals' with 4 Independents and 1 Green holding all the balls at this point... either party/team needs 76 seats to govern..

well happy potting all and a busy week ahead... :))

ahh the good oil...

The bisque kiln fired today and hopefully all is ok, will know soon enough, with quite a decent steam after the pack all felt dry for the fire...I have some market wares in that i'd like fired for this wkd and hopefully tomorrow I will get this sorted..more decorating to be done and reload the glaze for a mid week firing..

With the sun out this afternoon it was ideal studio time and the bees were buzzing that's a good sign the apricot tree is flowering and the other fruit trees won't be far behind it...a not so good sign i had the first fly inside today just a reminder to fix the fly screen on my door!

so a few closeup shots of the big tile deco, mmm and a lil throwing this afternoon i decided to bite the bullet and try some throwing with the local clay mix again the red is the best feel, it really seems to open up the clay that is probably the sand content it is the easiest to throw with that i've ever used, the test of course will be the glaze fire...These guys are all in one i'll cut the lid holes later and maybe do some reshaping too.. What will be interesting is seeing how this clay copes with stoneware temps and how my glazes react..then it will be back for some more samples of clay across the road..

This afternoon I was trying to concentrate on getting some tea sets together you know how distracted i can get, so ive started on my usual teapot forms, the lids go on separately with off centre lids and off centre handles.. they look like fat bowls at this stage and with a lid, a couple of handles and some textures and a spout they come to life...Rose and i have a commission to explore this week more later on that one and some lovely studio time planned this week with another kiln commissioning firing for k9 ..

and a lil raku firing on saturday at the club, drop in if you're local 11am - 3pm with a BBQ lunch...@ TEA TREE STUDIO crouch rd Golden Grove a couple of dollars should cover it plus gas if you use the big kiln...there's a polling booth next door at the church so very handy for us we can vote at the same time as raku firing...YEY!!

attacking the surface again...

A lil clay therapy yesterday.... it really is an amazing substance isn't it...

I must say that lil firecracker that went off yesterday on MK's blog was interesting...so peeps what did ya really think?? ha... I guess when you invite someone controversial to write in your space interesting words will ensue.....

My latest pieces to go through the fire for Clay and blogs show and some decisions will have to be made who goes and who stays...hmmm..

The slip combinations are working nicely now and i'm getting a good feel for which marks to make and when to cover it all over and start again...love that part...

 The 1st pic is the largest piece about 45cm x 30cm wet..and i'm going to leave that one very loosely drawn.. the 2nd HA! yes i did set fire to the newspaper while drying off some slip...a lil toasty warm up for the piece..!

And some closeups! must bring in the big camera and get really close for those..

 This work has been wet now for 2 weeks and it's getting really frustrating waiting for things to dry out before firing coz we all know what happens when you don't!! :P  And now thankfully the sun is out and i'll get loading the kiln this wkd hopefully as the mugs are all dry now..yes..!

Well hope you all have a great wkd making stuff or hanging out with ya peeps... ciao for now :))

I just thought i should add a footnote the post has now been removed from michael k's blog but you can get a taste if you missed it over at tracey's page  ....and movin on.....

keeping it local...

It's been a day and a half today...starting with pruning the roses they were rather out of control and now looking rather neat with their new hairdoos! I think i would enjoy bonzai but really no more room....

And back to my local clay something really curious happened in the last glaze fire the red slip went clear when i glazed over it...hmmm...just thinking there is rather a lot of sand content to the sample i have and maybe the sand contributed something extra?? not sure so here's the next test all of the colour samples i mixed 50/50 each with my standard white body and out of all 3 the red is the nicest feeling, prob because of the sand content...and here tis in the first pic....
the other pieces are mixed 50/50 and also the darker pieces are the pure local clay samples...should be really interesting to see the next batch of results the clay felt really nice to work with...

And onto handles here's some new muggage and a couple of jugs i've been working on getting some taller mugs and oversized handles too...the smoother mugs will be for my print tests, woohoo!! I'm ready to test drive my new screens... go the gocco box and cheers Anna for sorting all this for me..

Of course what post would be complete without some lovely slip on tiles?!! these guys will be my last through now pre exhibition as they will need to be selected for the show and sent very early september, it's creeping up so quickly now hey guys!!

And now to this evenings treat Anna, Ali and I went to a Sala show 'Experience Elements' the show is at Humna's place and is a collaboration between Erin Lycos, Nick Graalman and Humna Mustafa...
See also Erin's blog for more info on the show..
This is a really personal show in a home setting filled with lovely work Erin makes all the thrown work for Humna to deco on and Nick has made an almost no budget time lapse film of Humna's work that involves the capturing of the drawings and portrays the transient nature of her work in henna..
The snaps are from the film 'Elements'.