Gearing up

No big surprise, I'm still spending a lot of time in the pottery studio. This month, I've been focusing mostly on handbuilding and playing with different surface decoration techniques. I still feel like I have light years to go, but I have made quite a few things I'm pleased with. The annual pottery sale is next weekend--I can't wait to see how it goes!

Eggshell bowls with African textile motifs.


Blue stars bowl.


Sgraffito detail


Little square dishes.


Turquoise and white bowls.


Oh, and I saw Josh Ritter in concert the other night. What a cutie! I've never seen someone grin for an entire concert. If you haven't seen his video for the curse, please click over!

In the pottery studio

I've been spending a bunch of time in the pottery studio, getting ready for a pottery sale in late November. Lately, I've found a new favorite apron--it's a flight attendant apron from United Airlines previously worn by "Lori." Headphones on, The Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs" playing.


The glaze buckets eagerly waiting to be used.


I've been making a lot of mugs--I'm enjoying making this shape, improving my handles, and this time I tested out a bunch of different glaze combinations.


The olive green and white is one of my new favorites. Pretty yet earthy and classy at the same time.


The caribe and white is still going strong.


A bunch of my Alhambra tiles have also come out recently. I'm liking the way the darker colors break on the edges to highlight the carving. These tiles have a little ledge in the back so that they can be hung on the wall by a nail.

Street Food & Other Fun

After spending two weekends in row out of town last month--and numerous out of town weekends in the preceeding months, I was starting to feel disconnected with my new city. I think these things go in waves for me. But the nice thing is, this feeling gave me a burst of energy to get out and explore a whole lot more. I started following a lot of local organizations on Twitter so that I hear about fun events before they happen, and I'm doing my best to reach out to friends and acquaintances and put myself out there. Having moved so frequently in the past 5 years, it can be tough to start over again and again, but that's just the way it goes. Might as well make the most of it!

This week was packed full of good stuff--I signed myself up to volunteer for an upcoming film festival, I joined a gym, I've been doing some good things in the ceramics studio, and I got to go to a street food party. The Justice League of Street Food is kind of a silly name, but it's a fun concept. Denver has all of these great food trucks and carts--many associated with local restaurants. Every so often, a bunch of the trucks gather in one place for an evening with a DJ and a great atmosphere.

From Deluxe Street Food: truffle & parmesan fries, truffle mac & cheese balls, and a black bean sope. So good!



The sweetest of all, I won a punch card for 6 free cupcakes from the Denver Cupcake Truck. Now I just have to track them down again to collect.

The latest

Gigantic tea mugs, just the way I like them. These are my favorite so far.

Small vessel, inspired by ancient Iranian pottery forms.

Mise en place bowls. I'd like to make a whole bunch in different colors.

Last weekend

I spent some quality time with the girls...


Diva


Lola


...and picked some purple cauliflower from my garden

I turn my back for 5 minutes...

The latest sneaky produce from my garden.

Visiting

Celestial Seasonings Tea Factory (more fun than I expected)


Tour de B-cycle, Denver. 25 miles, 43 bike stations in one day.


Dushanbe Teahouse, or: why can we import more buildings from Tajikistan?


Historic Georgetown, CO. I just love that pup waiting for his owner.

Ceramics update

I've spent quite a lot of my free time this summer working on some things in the ceramics studio. This is my first time throwing pottery on the wheel in 11 years, and my first time back in the studio since 2004. I'm still perfecting my skills, so not everything comes out exactly as I want, but I have been rapidly improving. Here's a peek at some of the more successful items so far:

Baby things

I met my lil' nephew last month and brought a few handmade gifts: Sheldon the turtle (renamed Mervin by my sister), a bright blue baby placket neck pullover, and a small blanket.

Summer kitchen

Well, hello there!

I've been enjoying my summer so much that I've neglected the blog for two months! To be honest, I'm not knitting or sewing much lately. It might be time to reinvent this space a little, though I haven't quite figured that out yet.

I've been completely buried in vegetables lately--from my own garden, and from the farm CSA. It's great, and overwhelming. Here are a few things I happened to photograph:


Homemade pizza on my new pizza peel. This peel is great--I had been using my largest cutting board, which was not nearly large enough. This is a fresh, organic spinach pizza.



Tahini smashed english peas. Soooo good, I wish I was eating this right now.



Almond cake with strawberry rhubarb compote, via Smitten Kitchen. This was really tasty, though I preferred the cake without the compote. The compote was wonderful with plain yogurt.



Spinach and zucchini lasagne, back when the farm sent me two gargantuan bunches of spinach, and I was not yet at war with my over-productive zucchini plants.



This was either round two or three of zucchini bread fest 2010. There's much much more to come! I think I used this recipe, and it was good.



My first zucchini plant attack involved plucking some of the male flowers to make these great homemade zucchini blossom quesadillas. I used yogurt instead of crema, and threw in some green onion. Quite nice!

Ceramics!

I started a ceramics class several weeks ago. It's a great class with plenty of open studio hours. I try to stop by 3-4 times a week--if only for an hour. Those of you who have worked with clay know that it takes a lot of time and attention. This is my first time back at the pottery wheel in 11 years--I have done several campaigns of handbuilding since then, however. I'm still regaining my skills, and am very much at the small-bowl-stage, but hopefully by the end of the summer I'll be able to branch out a bit more.

The pots above have been bisque fired and are ready to be glazed. That's the step that always makes me a bit nervous--glazing is as much of an art as making the pot itself, and it can really make or break a piece. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I like most of them in the end!

Meet Sheldon

My first knitting in months--I finished him over the weekend and my wrists did not appreciate the quick pace of the project. If you haven't met Sheldon, he's a free pattern from knitty.com. He wears his shell like a little sweater vest, and it comes off. I almost think he's cuter without it, just this little green blob.

Craft book projects #2

My second craft book from the library was Bag Bazaar: 25 Stylish Bags to Sew in an Afternoon. Overall this is a good book, with a variety of bag styles to choose from. I decided to make a laptop sleeve, which is loosely based on the "Ellen" pattern from this book, though I changed it up by adding a flap. I used a nice canvas print fabric I found in Thailand, and vibrant blue fleece for the lining. It came together easily, and didn't take a lot of time.

Craft book projects

I decided that if I'm going to check out craft books from the library, I'd better actually make an effort to do some projects from them. Up first: Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson.

I'm a bigger fan of this book than I expected--there are a lot of really nice, simple, and elegant projects--many of which you might have trouble giving away when you're finished. I chose three projects to complete. It helped that two of these were things I needed, and already had fabric for. The third will make an excellent gift.

Quilted coasters made with batik fabric my mom brought home from Indonesia. My poor coffee table will certainly thank me!

Kelly's pincushion in an assortment of fabrics from India, Africa, and home. I've never had a pincushion before, and already it has come in handy!

Lastly, the super quick + easy baby quilt. Oh man, I was absolutely loving this quilt when I sewed it up--it was effortless and so fast...

...then I realized that I had four threads to knot and tuck in for each of the cute little satin diamonds that quilt the piece together. It took me the better part of my evenings this week to finish that. But, hopefully the little guy will love his blankie. The fabric is from Joann--pretty cute!