Studio Tour

I spent most of yesterday cleaning in my studio, so I thought now is the perfect time to give you all a little tour!

Welcome!

My studio is a little sunroom under our porch. I think the previous owners used it for potting and feeding their cat. (Caleb found a few cat food pieces in one of the cupboards.)

It has windows on three sides so the light is fantastic in here. That little blue table is where I do all of my stenciling and sgraffito work. The rosemary on the counter is a seasonal occupant and soon it will be headed back outside for the summer. Along the wall to the right I have two big industrial shelving units.

This is where I keep most of my things. My shop inventory is on the top left. Below that are finished greenware pieces that I've left out to dry. Down from there is a lino cut that I have been working on sporadically. And below that are all the pieces to my light setup for taking photos of my work. The right self holds things that I made that are interesting but didn't quite work out, tools, clay, and on the bottom, plaster molds for slip casting and a bucket of slip.

Off in the corner, I have my wheel, a bucket for clay scraps to recycle, and a mop. Right now I'm using the matching chair to my little blue table but I need to get comfortable stool instead. The seat on that mosaic chair is tilted the wrong way and it's very much not ergonomic.

I keep pieces that I'm working on in these cupboards. I wrap them in plastic to slow the drying time. I also store underglazes, stencil, newspaper, sheets of plastic, and a few tools in the cupboards and drawers.

Pencils, brushes, and decorating tools live in cups, making it easy for me to grab the whole thing when I'm working.

I have a couple bulletin boards set up for sketches and printouts and random insprirational things. That gray thing is the top of my space heater. This room doesn't have heat and it can get really cold in the winter!

And over here by the backdoor is Caleb's favorite spot.

*In case you're wondering about kilns, I also rent space at a local pottery studio. So when I'm finished making and decorating my pottery, I load the pieces into boxes with lots of foam and packing peanuts to protect them and drive them over to Mighty Mud to be fired. It's also where I do my glazing.

Little Plates and Other New Things In The Shop

It's been a busy week for me! On Monday and Tuesday I repainted my living room. Wednesday through today (Friday) I'm been photographing and listing items for the shop and working on some new items. And I am pooped. It's 5:00 and I am ready to call it a day. So instead of trying to come up with something interesting to say, I'm just going to show you photos. Enjoy!

I'm so flattered!

Craftster.org chose me for their Best of 2013!




I'm so flattered and excited!


They featured my yarn bowls and black and white lace animal mugs. How cool is that!

 Thanks, Craftster!!

I'm back!

I'm back from my annual holiday vacation from blogging! It seems that whether I plan to or not, I always take a break around the holidays. And then it takes me a while to get back into the swing of things. So how about some bullet points to bring everyone up to speed?

- I had the opportunity to make some neat custom mugs in November/December! That was a great experience. I love working with customers to create something I may have never thought of doing on my own.
- I went to California in December. It was simultaneously trying and wonderful in the way that only visiting family can be. I also saw those two rather elegant deer in the blurry photo above.
- I've picked up my knitting needles again! I'm making some wool socks for my husband to keep his toes warm in the cold.
- Speaking of cold, the "polar vortexes" have hit Tennessee and we've been getting single digit temperatures and even some snow. The dog loves it of course. Me, not so much.
- I bought the dog a new bed for Christmas. It's great! It's made from hemp and the filling is made from recycled plastic bottles. And it's completely washable. Which is so important when your dog spontaneously decides to pee on his bed.
- I'm really excited about my garden. It's too cold to do anything with it right now, but I've been picking out seeds and drawing up plans. 
- I'm working on some new things for the shop! I'm experimenting with more colors and I have some new ideas that I'm excited about! I can't wait to show you!

Luminaries

Easy Dark Chocolate Pudding From Scratch

This is my favorite pudding to make. It's very rich and almost mousse like in texture. Plus it's fairly quick and easy, so it makes a great dessert when you have unexpected guests.

*Use good quality chocolate and thank me later! 

Easy Dark Chocolate Pudding
original recipe at Epicurious

Serves 4

1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
4 ounces fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (I like 70%)
1 1/3 cups whole milk
1 large egg yolk
vanilla

Combine the sugar, cornstarch, and a pinch salt, in a medium saucepan. Chop the chocolate (it's super easy to do in a food processor) and add to sugar mixture. Whisk together the milk and egg yolk (make sure not to add the icky, rubbery white thing that likes to stick to the yolk) and gradually stir it into chocolate mixture. Bring mixture just to a boil over moderate heat, stirring constantly with a silicone spatula, and bring it to a boil. Continue mixing for 1 minute. Remove the pan from heat and whisk in a small splash of vanilla (1/4-1/2 teaspoon).
Spoon the pudding into small ramekins (teacups also work, in a pinch). Eat it warm or chill puddings in the refrigerator. In a pinch, you can pop them in the freezer, surfaces covered with plastic wrap, until cooled, about 30 minutes.

For a yummy variation, add a pinch of cinnamon to the dry ingredients!

Ornaments and Giveaway Winner!

New in the shop this week: Snowflake Christmas Ornaments!

My sister makes fantastic paper snowflakes, so I asked her to collaborate with me on this project. She mailed me a big envelope full of snowflakes that I used to create these ornaments.

Also, my Mug Giveaway has ended and Connie has been randomly selected as the winner! Congratulations, Connie!!

Dried Tomatoes

Because we were moving, I decided not to try to grow anything this past summer. It was kind of a sad decision for me to make, but it didn't make sense to put a lot of time into a garden that we would leave just before harvest. So I was happily surprised when a volunteer tomato plant popped up in the garden at our new house.

This little plant has been awesome! On Sunday, I picked over 2 pounds of grape tomatoes and today I picked another pound.

I'm not a huge fan of raw tomatoes, though my husband can eat them by the handful. So I decided to dry them. It concentrates the flavors and you can use them like sun dried tomatoes. I like to chop them up and sprinkle them on macaroni and cheese.

I used the dehydrator this time, but you can also make them in the oven.

It's so stupid easy that you don't even need a recipe. Just wash your tomatoes, cut them (little ones like grape and cherry can just be cut in half), and then space them with some room in between on the racks of a dehydrator, set it for vegetables (about 135 degrees Fahrenheit) and wait until they're dried out and leathery. This batch took about 18 hours. Store them in a freezer bag in the freezer, and you'll have them through the winter, if you can avoid eating them all at once!

ps. Don't forget to enter my mug giveaway! It's ending in 5 days!

Giveaway!

I'm having a giveaway! The winner will receive this mug from my Antlers Collection. This one features a Tibetan Antelope and it can hold about 11 ounces of your favorite beverage.  I threw it on a potter's wheel, stenciled the lace design, and hand carved the antelope. It is food safe, microwave safe, and dishwasher safe. 

 

* This is my first giveaway, so please be patient with any little hiccups along the way.  :o)

How To Enter:

1. Head over to my etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/JessiVanGundy and take a look around.

2. Come back here and leave a comment telling me which piece is your favorite.

3. Enter the raffle in the widget below.

(Please make sure that the name you comment under is the same as the name you use to enter the giveaway!)

The Fine Print:

1. No purchase necessary.

2. Open to people with US mailing addresses only.

3. Winner will be chosen by a random number generator.

4. One entry per person.

5. Winner will receive an electronic gift certificate redeemable only on my etsy shop ( http://www.etsy.com/shop/JessiVanGundy ). The winner may not redeem the gift certificate for cash. However, it may be used for anything in my shop of equal or lesser value to the original prize.

6. Any personal information (email addresses, mailing addresses, etc.) will be kept private.

7. This blog is not responsible for any technical problems that might inhibit you from entering the giveaway, such as lost entries, etc.

8. The giveaway will close on Wednesday, October 2nd at 12:00am EST. The winner will be announced the following day.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Process

Clay is a slow medium. It allows you to do things on it's own fickle time frame that changes based on the weather, where and how long ago the clay was dug from the earth, and a myriad of other factors. Rush the drying time and it may crack in protest.

Pottery is a process heavy endeavor and each step has it's own unique timing. And the process is one of the things that drew me to ceramics in the first place. I work best with deadlines and schedules and ceramic work comes with them built in. If I want something to ship out for a friend's birthday in a month, I know that I have to start it now to make room from drying time plus two firings. And I also know that I need to make a spare in case something goes wrong with the first.

What I've Been Up To Since May

I went to California to visit family.

Santa Barbara Mission

We bought our first house. It's in a wonderful neighborhood and much closer to Matt's work. It has a wonderful screened porch and a sunroom that I turned into a studio. The rest of the house is a little cookie-cutter right now, but I think over time we'll give it some character.

Door to my studio!

I've been putting together an etsy shop! Opening very soon!

New technique I've been working on.

Fresh Batch of Yarn Bowls

These are made with a speckled white stoneware.

Doily Bowl: approx 5.5" wide x 3" tall

Olive Green Bowl: approx. 6" wide x 3" tall

Turquoise Bowl #1 : approx 5.5" wide x 3" tall

Turquoise Bowl #2 : approx 6" wide x 3" tall