Sneak Preview

OK, so I have no idea how I ended up in a blog popularity contest with the most popular food blogs in the world, but I’ll take it. If you haven’t already, and you are so inclined- on the basis of, you know, liking this blog- please click over there and lavish me with hatty appreciation. If I can get my traffic to a respectable level, it will be ever so much easier for me to wrangle some attention for this book that I’m writing. And thank you for your support; it’s very gratifying.

I spent all day at the ceramics studio, since we’re about one bisque kiln away from firing the big one and I’m on a mission to get that done as soon as we can. today was pretty productive, not least because the family dropped me off to go berry-picking and I was stranded there all day. I made 16 things (8 bowls, 8 plates) plus a not-too-shabby geodesic teapot. Here’s a shot of some of the last batch, freshly bisqued and ready for glaze:

There are a bunch more, and more to come. It’s funny- I’m obsessed with ceramics right now, and yet I’m lucky if I can carve out half a day every two weeks in which to make them. It’s so interesting, and relaxing at the same time; if I had the time I would take a year and completely immerse myself in it- and then maybe another year to learn wheel throwing. Part of it is the long delay between the fabrication and the finish firing- it keeps me in a more or less perpetual state of unfulfillment, since by the time the kiln fires I’ve begun a new batch of stuff. In any case, this batch will yield something like 8 pieces each of ten or so different shapes, each glazed differently. And I have big ideas about what I’m going to serve on them.