Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Penland 2013, Day 4
Penland Day 4 began really, really early. I woke up at 5:30 and decided I may as well get up and head to work. It was super foggy at that time of day. Quiet, beautiful, and best of all, I had the studio all to myself. I turned on the kiln, drilled some holes in the copper I prepared yesterday, then managed to enamel all of it before breakfast.
Today Arthur and Tanya (the awesome teaching assistant) demonstrated silkscreened enamel. Who knew? I took an enameling class at Pratt in Seattle several years ago, but I had no idea that we had just scratched the surface of all of the different techniques, both traditional and modern. Silkscreening definitely falls in the latter category, and the setup is surprisingly easy and inexpensive. The demos took up a lot of the day, and I spent the afternoon putting more layers of enamel on some of the pieces, painting on others, and getting ready to make my own screens to print tomorrow.
Clockwise from top left: Lilly Loom Building in the fog (the view is from the Metals Studio porch, roughly what I would see if I could see through the wall behind my workbench); The Pines (where we dine) and the meadow in the fog; Tanya’s silk screening demo; Some finished enameled objects (the one on the left, maybe not so much…); Enamel in progress.
Ali’s Spicy Ginger Beer
I was turned on to the beauty and deliciousness of the combo of bourbon and ginger beer by my friends Russell and Christine. R&C are are total ginger beer aficionados, special ordering it by the case from Full Throttle Bottle in Georgetown. I came across a recipe for ginger beer from this great blog about cocktails (which is also where I found the vermouth recipe), and thought “I can make that!”
This batch turned out less gingery than I anticipated, having added about twice as much as last time. But still is delicious with a splash of Makers!