Preparing for Kris Kringle Market

Been busy preparing for the Kris Kringle market tomorrow. This blue brown bowl is 10 in wide and 3 in tall. I'm packing up lots of plates, butter, and soap dishes as well as pinch bowls. Everything in the bisque and glaze load came out just fine. Many times I am pleasantly surprised and thankful at my luck in making and firing.

I've run out of soy wax to make my own candles, so I'm using inexpensive candles for these handmade votive holders. Who doesn't like to see a flickering candle in the winter; these make a great hostess gift. Now if I can find a local source for clear cellophane. Everyone tends to pick up each candle to smell them, like they do with my fragrant soaps as displays on my soap dishes. Either they want to purchase the soap or candle separately or they wander off without a purchase. I'll see if wrapping these changes that dynamic. What do you think? Should I wrap them?

 I've had a small container of cobalt that's lasted me almost 10 years. Here I've tried it under lavender and transparent green. The lavender looks promising. It only takes a tiny amount of cobalt to stain the bisque. Lucky because cobalt is so expensive. It's inexpensive to try these color experiments on ornaments and then later I can try them on larger pieces.

Meanwhile I've strung more ornaments. Everyone loves the turtles and the unicorn. Actually each ornament is popular for one reason or another. Wonder if someone will like a lavender cow? We shall see. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.

Extra Shelves

To fit more work in this bisque firing I added extra shelves. It's difficult to see them but they are smaller shelves on the left side of the kiln. One has the small bowls and the other has the flat trays. In the photo below you can see how I've tucked in the posts to fit these two smaller extra shelves. It's like working a puzzle fitting work in a kiln. Each time work is loaded it's a different puzzle. In a bisque load work can touch, but in a glaze load work cannot touch. If it did the glazes on two pieces touching would be glued to one another. Not good. I'd like to purchase two more corelite shelves but they's about $60 each. Hopefully I can afford them one of these days.

I fired on Sunday and all turned out ok. It was all completely dry, thank goodness. Yesterday and today I am spending glazing and Wednesday I hope to fire the glaze load just in time for the market on Saturday. You might know it, it's supposed to rain. It's a covered market but many folks don't come out in the rain. Ugh. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.

The Badlands

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The other day I watched a program about The Badlands in South Dakota. The Badlands is now on my bucket list of places I'd like to visit. The striking geological landforms are rich in fossil beds. Imagine a land filled with saber tooth tigers, three toed horses, rhinos, camels, ruminating hogs and many more unusual mammals.

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Present day Badlands is a national park of 224,000 acres and has one of the few remaining herds of wild bison. I learned the lowly prairie dog is beneficial to many animals in the area including the bison. 

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Prairie dog den excavations make loose dirt and the dust is used by the bison to rid themselves of unwanted insects by rolling around in the dust.

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The Badlands are home to the largest undisturbed mixed grass prairie in the United States. Erosion by wind and water over the decades has uncovered layers of sedimentary hills rich in minerals. The red soil is iron oxide and the purple soil is manganese.

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The first know human inhabitants of The Badlands were Paleo Indians or mammoth hunters. Later the Sioux displaced other Native American tribes who followed the bison there. When gold was discovered in 1874 the Sioux were displaced by settlers and miners. So many sad events in history for the Native Americans.

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Have you been to the Badlands? What's on your bucket list of places to visit? Thanks for reading and for all your comments.

Spicey Cranberry Sauce

Here's a twist to the traditional overly sweet cranberry sauce, spicy cranberry sauce. Saute one shallot chopped fine and a one inch square of fresh ginger grated fine in one tablespoon of olive oil till fragrant. Next add 1 teaspoon each of mustard seed, anise seed, fennel seed, cinnamon, and a couple of pinches of salt, and a dash or more of red pepper flakes. Stir constantly and cook a minute or so then add 1 3/4 cup of water and 1 3/4 cup of light brown sugar. Cook this mixture till it reduces to 2/3 volume. Add two 12 ounce packages of fresh cranberries (discard soft ones) and cook till they pop. Taste and add more red pepper flakes if needed. Remove from heat and stir in 1 cup of golden raisins. When mixture cools add one tablespoon of freshly grated orange rind. Refrigerate overnight or at least 4 hours before serving. I adapted this recipe from Vogue.

a wild turkey in my California garden.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all.