Linda's Pasta Salad

Linda's Pasta Salad

One day last summer I was looking in the cabinet trying to think what I had on hand to make for dinner. It was a blisteringly hot day, much like today which topped 110 F. I saw a package of some Trecce dell' Orto, braids of the garden, pasta I had splurged on a few months before. I'll bet Filippo knows of this type of pasta. I also saw some dried blueberries and some sunflower seeds kernels.

So I thought to throw together a pasta salad with some nice sized tomatoes I had growing in the garden. They were Juliette variety. The Juliette variety is shaped similar to a Roma, but is thinner, smaller, and comes to a point at the bottom. The Juliette stays firm, grows in clusters, clings to the vine, and is crack resistant. It's also not too juicy for a salad, unlike cherry tomatoes.

Juliette Tomatoes

I've out lined the recipe below for Linda's Pasta Salad which I made up with unique ingredients I found in my pantry one summer day. It may sound unusual to have olives, sunflower seeds, and dried blueberries all in the same salad, but this salad is a treat to your taste buds. It is sweet, tangy, salty, crunchy, smooth and oh so tasty, unlike anything you have ever tasted before all in one dish. Sometimes combining out-of-the-ordinary ingredients together turns out really wonderful.

1 lb of Trecce dell’ Orto pasta, 'braids of the garden' pasta,
cooked al dente, drained and rinsed with cold water
rainbow Rotini or other multi-colored pasta may be substituted
2/3 cup dry roasted salted sunflower kernels
no additional salt is needed in salad
1 cup of whole dried blueberries (I imagine fresh blueberries would do)
25 fresh Juliette tomatoes halved lengthwise
other fresh, firm-type tomatoes, such as Roma, may be substituted
1-10 oz jar pitted Calamata olives, drained well and cut in half
1-10 oz jar garlic stuffed green olives, drained well and cut in half
2 to 3 tablespoons herbs de Provence
1 tsp dried crushed lavender buds
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground mixed peppercorns
2 to 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 to 3 tablespoons Balsamic vinegar

Cook the pasta al dente or until just done, not too soft. Drain well and rinse immediately with cold water till cool, loosen pasta from one another while rinsing. Let the pasta drain well.

To the cooked, well drained, and cooled pasta, add the sunflower kernels, the dried blueberries, the halved Juliette tomatoes, the Calamata olives, and the garlic stuffed green olives. Next sprinkle the Herbs de Provence, crushed lavender buds and grind the peppercorns over the top. Then sprinkle the olive oil and balsamic vinegar over the top and fold (toss gently) so the pasta stays intact. No need to add any salt since the olives and sunflower seeds have enough already. Put in the refrigerator to marinate and meld the flavors together for 4 hours, fold (toss gently) once more after two hours and just before serving. Serves 8 to 10.

Serve on a bed of greens also with some crisp Italian bread and a white wine (and perhaps a fresh sprig of lavender in the wine). If you try this salad, please let me know if you like it, I'd love to hear from you. Check back again to hear about another unusual recipe I made recently. Think quick, easy and inexpensive.

Bats in the Belfry

Bats in the Belfry by Linda Starr

If you read the post before last, you probably thought I was kidding when I said I was going to show you a real live bat, didn't you? You thought it was going to be one of those baby rattler jokes or something, right? Well it isn't. Once again I was inspired to make something from one of the many creatures I happen to discover here. This time it was a bat.

I see lots of bats flying around here at night and that's not so unusual. Some of them are big and some are small. Bats are real beneficial, most eat insects, especially moths. Some eat fruit and some pollinate flowers. Bats aren't blind but they do fly by a sophisticated sonar system called echolocation. The other night, though, I was sure surprised when I saw a bat up real close.

Our garage faces West and during the summer heat builds up in there. So when the sun sets I open the roll up garage door and the side door and let the breezes blow the heat out of the garage so it doesn't radiate into the house. The other night I was going out to the garage to close the door for the evening and I turned on the light and I saw a bat hanging from the ceiling. I didn't want to close the garage door because the bat would have been locked in the garage. Finally I decided to turn the light on outside the garage, and turn the light off inside the garage, to see if the bat would leave. After an hour or so I checked the garage again. The bat had moved over a bit but was still inside the garage. So I decided to close the roll up door and leave the side door open with the light on outside before I went to bed. When I closed the roll up door, the noise scared him and he jerked his body a little bit but he stayed put.


It's hard to tell from the photo, but this bat was pretty big. His body was about six inches from head to tail. I couldn't tell how big his wing span was because he had them folded up. If you look at the photo on the lower left hand side, that little hand looking thing is his back foot. In the morning I checked the garage and the bat was gone. The next night the same thing happened and I had to leave the side door open again. Tonight I started looking forward to seeing the bat, but he hasn't come back. I'll check the garage again before I go to bed. Earlier in the week Gary said he found mouse droppings on his car. Now we know it was guano from the bat.

I really wanted to make a big platter with a more detailed bat, but I only had this small amount of black clay left. I decided to make a tile with a bat. Then I thought of the phrase, bats in the belfry. So that's what I made. A bat flying near a bell tower to commemorate seeing the bat in our garage. When I told Gary I was going to make something called bats in the belfry, he said, "That sounds about right". Wonder what he meant by that?

I often take things literally, like bats in the belfry, but it's a phrase which means someone who is unusual, batty, a little off their rocker. You don't think Gary meant that about me, do you? I have another idea for something to make with a bat, I better write it down. I just checked the garage, the bat isn't there and I'm actually a little sad. Be sure to come back to my blog again for a visit, because you never know what I might be up to. After all I am a little, well you know.

Peach Cobbler

Peach Cobbler

4 lbs of ripe yellow peaches, peeled, pitted, and sliced into 1/2 inch thick wedges (about 12 cups)
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup quick cooking tapioca
1 1/2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2/3 cup (about 6 oz) butter, cut into 1/2 inch chunks
2/3 cup whipping cream

In a large bowl, mix peaches, 2/3 cup sugar, and the tapioca, lemon peel, lemon juice, and vanilla. Let stand at least 15 minutes or up to 30 minutes to soften the tapioca, stirring several times.

In another bowl, combine flour with remaining 1/3 cup sugar, the baking powder, and nutmeg. With a pastry blender cut butter into flour mixture until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add cream and stir just until dough holds together.

In a buttered shallow 2 1/2 to 3 quart baking dish, spread fruit level. Using your hands, crumble dough evenly over fruit.

Bake in 350°F oven until it bubbles in center and top is golden brown, 50-60 minutes. Serve topped with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Momentum

Greenware's piling up around here and I have to do something about it. I have greenware on shelves, under beds, in the closets, in the studio, under chairs, in boxes, etc. Where did it all come from? Some is because of my rule to myself to use up every bit of my cone 10 clay before I could dip into the fresh bags of Cone 5/6 clay I have. I have just a wee bit more and then it's all gone. Then I have to bisque, glaze, and fire the cone 10 pieces. I also have to do some glaze tests for Cone 5/6 glazes. Then I have quite of bit of cone 5/6 greenware from earlier in the year I have to bisque, glaze and fire. Oh and a friend of mine has some greenware here too.


So I'm running out of room, because greenware is filling ever nook and cranny available. I'll have to set aside about a week to do some firing. And I have to do that before I'll allow myself to make anything more. So what's keeping me from doing all these firings? Please bear with me while I think out loud.


Well I was sick for a while, but now that I'm better, I still don't want to do the firing. Just writing this is putting me into withdrawal. Does anyone else feel that way? I've only fired my kiln once and already I don't want to do it. I just want to make more pieces in clay. I've been having so much fun I just can't help myself. Perhaps I am on a roll, a creative roll, and I don't want to stop till I stop rolling naturally. I think that's a big part of it. I don't want to loose the momentum I have now.


I wonder if I became spoiled using the studio at the college? I made my pieces, loaded them in the kiln, and they did the firing. Then when they came out I glazed all the pieces, loaded them back in the kiln, and they did the firing. That's a hard habit to break. For almost five years that was the schedule for me. During the summers I just made work and set it aside till the Fall. Of course, I didn't have control over the firings, perhaps I should be reminding myself of that fact.


I've also realized the college kiln was much larger so I was in the habit of making a lot of pieces and then having them all fired. My kiln here is small, therefore I'll have to do more firings. It seems really small to me, I have my eye open for a larger used kiln. I also don't have as much room to store greenware here as I did at the college, hence the backup. I guess I have to reorganize my internal clay clock to work within the parameters I have now.


I have some serious thinking and organizing to do to make all this work. I hope you don't mind reading about some garden and cooking related posts over the next week or so, while I reduce the backlog of greenware around here. Above you see a photo of what my vegetable bins look like now with red Swiss chard, then Brussels sprouts and the pink flowers on the right are some Jim, of Sofia's Dad's Pots, will appreciate, bee balm. But ... before I move on to the garden and cooking posts, up next will be Bats in the Belfry! Yes, please come back so see a real live bat!

Nerikomi or Inlaid Clay

Inlaid Bowl by Linda Starr

If you've been reading my blog, you know I love to experiment with different techniques in clay. Most of the time I don't do much research ahead of time, I just try something and see if it works. Last night I was down to just scraps of cone 10 clay. A little black mountain and an even smaller amount of B mix. I was wondering what I could do with the left over clay. At first I thought about wedging them together but the black mountain has so much iron I figured it would just make the B mix brown. I decided to impress some thin strips of B mix into the black mountain clay, some inlaid clay if you will. I thought the contrast of the white stoneware against the black mountain would look nice.

Inlaid Plate by Linda Starr

I rolled out three small slabs of black mountain and set them aside. Then I rolled out some B-mix and cut it into thin strips. Then I laid the strips of B mix on the black mountains and rolled them in. I was aiming for some very thin lines of white, but I didn't take into consideration the thin strips would spread out when I rolled them into the black mountain clay and the thin strips would become much wider. In the first photo the bowl is the effect I was aiming for. This was the third piece I made. I made the medium plate and small plate first. Then I realized I needed even thinner strips of B mix clay so they wouldn't stretch as much when I rolled them into the black mountain clay.

Inlaid Salad Plate by Linda Starr

When I was typing up this post, I did a search for inlaid clay and found out it's called nerikomi. I wasn't really surprised to learn that what I tried has been done before. Although these three pieces are simple in design really more inlaid clay than nerikomi, I can really see the potential for this type of technique. In most nerikomi the clay is stained with different colors and layered together into loafs and then sliced and then the slices are applied to the clay or pressed into a form to make an intricately designed ceramic piece. In most instances the inside and outside of the vessel show the same design or color. With my pieces the white clay is only visible on the surface or front side. Have you tried nerikomi or inlaid clay?


Here are some rose scented geranium flowers in my herb garden. When the leaves are crushed they smell just like a rose. The gray foliage plant in the background is artemesia 'Powis Castle' and the leaves are dried and used in potpourri; they have a woodsy scent. Next time I try this clay technique I think I'll try adding some stain to some of the clay and see what other types of designs I can come up with. Comments are always welcome.

Fern Platter

Fern Platter by Linda Starr

A few weeks ago I was catching up on my blog reading and I was struck by the way Michael Mahan had used slip on several vases from his last firing. The vases I am referring to are the three on the left in the fourth photo down on the link to his post above. The vases are so beautiful with the way he applied the slip. To me the slip looks like those cirrus clouds often seen high in the sky and the wind has thinned them out almost to nothing. The wispy look of the slip on the clay really appealed to me and I thought I would try the technique the next time I made something. Where does your inspiration come from?


Today I mixed blue and green slip together and thinned it down more than I usually do. Then I picked a couple of fern fronds from my garden and laid them on a freshly rolled piece of clay. When this particular fern frond first opens, it is a bronze color and later turns green. Then I rolled the frond into the clay being careful not to stretch the clay but pressing so the frond would lie flat. Then I took my freshly mixed slip and brushed the slip over the fronds rather thickly. Next I brushed the slip on a diagonal much thinner on the rest of the slab. Then I slowly peeled up the fern fronds. You can read more about how I've used ferns as a resist on my post fossil ferns. Next I laid the fern slab on a platter slump mold. Have you ever used a slump mold? Did you make your own or use something ready made?


For the sake of economy I try to use up every last bit of clay I have. So I also made pendants with the cut off portions from the platter. For the pendants, I added some dabs of different colors of slip, or texture, or cutouts, whatever I could think of at the time. Pendants are really fun to make and they fit nicely in the small spaces in the kiln. What do you make to use up scrap bits of clay?

My cone 10 clay is slowly dwindling away. Today I used up the only large soft bit of black mountain clay I had in the bag. Now all I have left are scraps of black mountain and B-mix and they'll have to be wedged real well to make them usable. Hey, maybe I can wedge them together. Oh no, not another idea! Up next, I'll probably be using up some scrap clay. Don't forget to leave comments or questions, I'd love to hear from you.

Jelly Palm

Jelly Palm Fruit

It's not a date, it's not a coconut, but it grows on a palm tree and it's edible. What is it? It's the jelly palm fruit, Butia capitata. When we first moved here five years ago, Gary said he wanted a palm tree. Gary loves palm trees. Gary loves surfing and Hawaiian shirts too. I guess Gary is just a tropical kind of a guy. Over the years I have shopped for Hawaiian shirts for Gary in my travels and he has quite a collection of them. Gary doesn't have a flamboyant personality, but he does love Hawaiian shirts.

Jelly Palm, Butia capitata

As I was planning our garden I tried to think of a palm tree I could plant that would satisfy Gary's need for that tropical feel and at the same would fit into the landscape. Most of the palm trees folks have planted around here are very tall and in my mind they look out of place. The natural landscape here is more mid sized with rounded tree crowns. The first palm that came to mind was the Cubean Royal palm, Roystonea regia. I remembered this palm from when I was a child living in Cuba. Yes, I lived in Cuba for two years, but that's a story for the future. The Cuban palm has to be the most beautiful palm in the world, but unfortunately it is very frost tender and so I didn't dare plant one here, much as I wanted to.

jelly palm flower stalk

As I was researching the various palm trees that will grow in this area, I came across the jelly palm. I was so happy to learn about this feather leaved palm because it was not only hardy (can withstand temperatures down to 15 F), beautiful and mid-sized, but it also produces fruit, an added bonus. So I set off to the nurseries to look for the elusive jelly palm. Low and behold at my local nursery I found one jelly palm tree, two feet tall with maybe four big fronds. I quickly loaded it up on my cart and took it home. Of course, you can't have just one palm tree since it would be lonesome, so I also got a Mediterranean fan palm, Chamaerops humulis, and a Windmill palm, Trachecarpus fortunei, two more mid sized palms.

jelly palm green fruit

Although California is full of palm trees, I've never grown a palm tree myself. So after I planted my palm trees I asked around to learn how to care for the trees. I learned from an expert at UC Berkeley Botanical Garden that palm trees recycle the nutrients from their decomposing leaves back into the tree. Which means the lower leaves of palm trees should not be cut off until they are completely dead. So I determined to leave my palm tree a little untidy for the sake of it's health. I asked someone in Texas how long it took for his tree to have fruit and he told me five years. That seemed like an awfully long time, but in the meantime the palm was pretty to look at.

jelly palm fronds

Palms actually need regular water to grow to optimum size. So for the first few years I watered the palm once a week during the summer and left it be. At the end of the third summer, I was watering the palm tree and I saw this long pod coming out of the center of the palm. I couldn't believe my eyes. My tiny palm tree, not even four foot tall yet, was putting on a flower. I worried because it was so late in the season and I didn't think there would be enough time for any fruit to mature. By November of that year I had a few fruits mature. The fruit is about an inch in diameter, has a large seed like a loquat, and if you pick it too early it is astringent like a persimmon. When the fruit is very ripe, though, they are very sweet and delicious. They taste like a banana, mango and pineapple all rolled into one tiny fruit.

The next year my jelly palm produced two pods with fruit. That year visitors to the garden were treated to tasting the fruit. Everyone was amazed at the wonderful flavor, especially children. Although there isn't much to each fruit, since they're tiny with a big seed, they're a real delicacy, almost like a candy. Since they're so small and sweet is probably the reason the juice is used to make jelly. I imagine when my tree is mature there will be enough fruit to make some jelly. This year my jelly palm is about seven feet tall and has three large bunches of fruit growing.

Sorry no clay photos this time, it turns out my illness developed into a bronchitis type cough and I have been coughing for four days (no I am not a smoker, never have been) which has me worn out. I am sick of being sick. Today is the first day I am not coughing as much and I have errands and other duties to attend to, but I have lots of inspiration stored up for future ceramics pieces, palm fronds might even inspire me. Have a good weekend and please leave comments or suggestions because I love hearing from you. Your comments keep me in good spirits when I am coughing up a storm.

Marsupial Serenade

Possum Platter by Linda Starr

We've been having some rather mild June weather this year. The other night I was sitting at the computer and I had the office window open letting the evening breeze drift in to cool the stagnant air. My cat Binky was sitting on the window sill basking in the sounds of the night. I was concentrating on the computer when my ears detected a purring sound. I turned to Binky thinking it was him wanting attention. But then I heard the noise again and realized it wasn't Binky making the sound. It sounded like a cooing and purring outside the office window. It sounded like a cat and, yet, it didn't. I noticed Binky was looking very intently at the ground outside.

Possum in my Front Yard

I walked over to the window and tried to move Binky aside, but he just wouldn't budge off the window sill. I peered out the window but couldn't see a thing, but heard the strange cooing noise again. I hurried to get a flashlight to see what was making the sounds. When I turned on the flashlight I was greeted by two black eyes, the cutest little black ears, and a long snout, looking up at me, an opossum. In the Northern Hemisphere they are an opossum but most often everyone says possum. Of course, I rushed to get my camera, hoping the little guy wouldn't disappear before I got a chance to take his photo.

Fuji Apples

I was truly amazed this tiny possum looking up at me had no fear. He was just standing there under a shrub in the front yard. Unfortunately this photo was the best I could do pressing my camera up against the screen. I tried quite a few times to get a good photo through the screen and holding the flashlight in one hand, but I just couldn't get a better photo than the one above. Once I started looking at the possum with the flashlight, it stopped its serenade, but it made no effort to run away. After what seemed like quite a while, the possum wandered off under the bushes.

Moorpark Apricot

I was really struck by the lack of fear in the possum even with Binky looking so intently at him and me repeatedly shining my flashlight and clicking the flash on my camera trying to capture his photo. If you've been reading my blog for even the shortest little while, of course, you know what else I was thinking. Yes, it's true, I was thinking wouldn't this dainty little possum be the most wonderful subject for an illustration on my next clay piece. It was as if this fearless creature came to perform a marsupial serenade just for me under my window sill. I was privileged to see the possum. The Eastern US has many possum, but there aren't as many in the West.

Red Haven Peach

Ok, I know you're thinking I must be crazy to put a possum on a platter, but there is only one marsupial in North America and that is the Virginia Opossum. I found out many folks like them; there is even an opossum society. Some people rescue injured or abandoned possum. The possum is often misunderstood, but it should be protected since it is not destructive and is a very ancient mammal. Besides I think possum are so cute. The possum is edible and in the South possum is considered a delicacy and is used in such dishes as possum pie and possum stew. Now my little possum graces a platter I made in his honor. I'm hoping to get some pink stain for his toes and nose before I fire him.

Warren Pear

I have a feeling more nocturnal animals will be visiting my clay studio in the future, so check back again to see what creatures are lurking in the night. Meanwhile in the garden my fruits are slowly maturing and will soon be ready to pick. All of the fruits I grow in my garden are varieties that aren't normally available in the grocery store. If any fruit falls on the ground, I think I'll leave it there a day or two for the possum. Next time I'll tell you about a fruit I am growing on a palm tree and it isn't a coconut and it isn't a date. Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again real soon. Questions and comments are always welcome.

Quick and Easy Rustic Arbor

What does building an arbor have to do with ceramics? Truthfully nothing at all, although I do get a lot of inspiration from my garden for my ceramics work. I just thought you might enjoy seeing this rustic arbor in my garden and might want to learn how to build this arbor very quickly and easily yourself. All you need is a little brains and brawn and a few dollars and you'll be looking at the arbor you built yourself in no time at all.


The first photo is just after I built the arbor. Yes, that's correct it was just me and a guy who used to help me pull a few weeds who built this arbor. Start to finish it will take two people, brains and brawn, two hours to build this arbor, not including the time to purchase the materials. Once this arbor is built it doesn't need painting either, just let it rust away.

You will need a sledge hammer, fence pliers, an eight foot ladder, a metal T-post driver (you can rent one or borrow one to save the cost), duct tape, one scrap piece of 6 inch 2 x 4 wood, bailing wire, four one foot lengths of galvanized pipe one inch diameter, three 3 x 6 foot sections of flat welded wire concrete reinforcing panels, six 10 foot sections of 3/4 inch rebar. Be sure to use welded wire mesh and not woven wire mesh panels. Welded wire mesh panels are stronger and keep their shape when placed under stress (wind and weight of vines) much better than woven. Hauling 6 foot sections of welded wire and a 10 foot length of rebar means you'll have to think ahead if you have a car and see if a neighbor with a truck or long SUV will pick up the supplies for you.

I almost forgot to mention, please call before you dig for the underground people to mark electrical or gas lines so you don't choose an unsafe spot to hammer metal into the ground for your arbor.


For the brains part you must consider the type of vine to grow over the arbor, the prevailing wind directions and the placement of the arbor in the garden. Height and width are important, height is important because you want to be able to walk underneath and as any vine grows it droops down and lowers the ultimate height of the arbor and sometimes encroaches on the width too. Width is important because it's nice to be able to drive your lawn mower underneath, or even a small tractor. Keep in mind the type of vine you choose is limited to those types of vines which are not too heavy or prolific since this type of arbor is not set in concrete in the ground and the metal cannot hold an extremely heavy weighted vine.


There are plenty of vines you can choose to plant, like clematis for instance. I chose a Joseph's Coat rose to plant on either side. My winds come from the East and West, so the arbor allows the wind to blow underneath through the arbor. At my location, we occasionally get heavy winds so I would not trust the arbor with the heavy winds we have here, if I had built it with the sides facing East and West.


Next cover one end of each length of galvanized pipe with duct tape. Now measure the distance you need between the posts which is the width of your welded wire mesh. My welded wire panels are three feet wide, I marked one spot and then measured three feet from that and marked the spot with some flour. Then move to the other side of the arbor nine feet over and mark one corner and then the other three feet from that one. If your welded wire panels are a different width adjust for that from these measurements. That's the easy part.

Here's where the brawn comes in. Take one galvanized pipe length with the taped end facing towards the dirt and place the scrap piece of 2 x 4 wood over the top of the pipe and hammer on top of the wood with the sledge hammer driving the pipe into the ground at the pre-marked flour spot. Ideally you want the soil to be somewhat hard so the pipe and rebar are more stable when hammered into the ground.

There is a reason why I am posting this at the beginning of summer. Hopefully the ground is still soft enough to hammer into, but not so soft that the pipe is loose in the soil. Do this for the three other pipes on the pre-marked spots. To make it easier to hammer the pipe into my ground, I hammered a pilot hole a short distance into the ground with a metal concrete stake which I withdrew leaving the pilot hole.


Get your ladder and place it at a comfortable and stable spot to hammer one length of the 10 foot 3/4 inch rebar into one of the metal pipes sunk into the ground. The rebar should go in about a foot without much force. Now comes the hard part. Take the T-post driver and place it over the top of the rebar and start slamming it into the ground. You want to get the rebar into the ground about one foot more. The rebar should puncture the tape at the bottom of the pipe and go another foot into the ground. That should make your arbor about 8 foot in height. Repeat this process for the other three lengths of rebar, hammering each into the remaining pipe receptacles in the ground.


Now place your ladder at one corner of the rebar and take one of the top rebar sections and wire the top rebar piece across the top using the bailing wire in a figure eight fashion around the two pieces of rebar, the top and side. Double wrap the wire at each intersection and tighten the wire with fence pliers and bend the ends in against the wire. Move to the other side of the arbor and repeat. When you wire the side and top pieces of rebar pull in the side pieces of rebar about two or three inches so they lean towards the center from each side.

Now place the welded wire mesh side panels between the two pieces of rebar on one side of the arbor and double wrap it with bailing wire in several places in a figure eight fashion around the rebar and the cross member of the welded wire panel several times to be sure it holds and twist the ends of the wire and bend them in so no one gets snagged on them. Repeat for the other side.

The top welded wire mesh panel is the hardest to put up since it is awkward and weighs the most. At least two people are needed and an additional step stool or ladder would help. If another ladder or step stool are not available one person can use a length of wood to extend their arm to hold the rebar panel in place till it is secured with the bailing wire. Once you have wired all the panels, you can back fill inside the galvanized pipe with some fine soil to take up the slack between the rebar and the pipe to make the uprights more sturdy. Now dig the holes for your plants on either side of the arbor and train them up the side panels and enjoy your handiwork. My arbor has been up for four years and it is doing fine.


I'm still recuperating and my creature of the night isn't ready yet, he will be forthcoming as soon as I muster up some more energy. If I haven't explained this well enough, just ask, I may have neglected a detail or two which would make this more clear. Questions or comments are always welcome.

Glaze Mystery and Illness Strikes

You might recall my friend, Connie's Tree of Life sculptures. The other day Connie brought a few bowls to my house for me to photograph so I could post them here for you to see, wondering if any of you might know the name of this glaze? It's a Cone 10 reduction glaze and the bowl was dipped. The bowl was constructed by lying a round piece of clay flat and cutting flaps and slipping them together like a dart. Thus making the bowl shape. Later a coiled foot was added. There are butterscotch, beige, and dark blue colors to the glaze. This is a glaze mystery to us, what do you think? This next bowl is the same glaze but a little different effect was achieved in the same firing.


Yesterday I got all my d rings on the pieces which need to hang like the butterfly wall pocket, the jellyfish, and the window, bails on my barrel fired pendants, magnets on some small crosses and lots of other duties. Then all of a sudden I started coughing and coughing and then by last night I had a really sore throat and was achy all over. I apologize to those who were planning to visit me at Art in the Park Visalia tomorrow. I will not be able to attend since I am really ill with flu like symptoms and a very productive cough (the details of which you would not like to know). This is the second time in two months for this illness and it is really frustrating (swine flu strikes twice?) I have been a very healthy person all my life with nary a cold or flu or anything. It all seems to be catching up to me now.


I was going to post a photo of me lying in bed, but it was rather pitiful, so I decided to post this double white hollyhock which I am sure you will enjoy much more. As soon as I am able I will post the creature in the night piece I mentioned in the last post, so stay tuned.

The River and Granite Boulders

River Bowl by Linda Starr

The Tule River originates in the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains and eventually flows behind our house. In many places the Tule River drops hundreds of feet in a very short distance and over time has carved through hills leaving behind smooth granite boulders. Today I thought about making a couple of pieces in clay having been inspired by the nearby river.


I'm using up the last of my cone 10 Black Mountain clay and decided I would make a platter and bowl. I rolled out two slabs and then slumped them into forms. I started out with the platter (third photo) and thought I would do a repetitive pattern of blue lines and circles with a stylized reference to the river and boulders. With the platter I made the textures after I slumped the piece into the form. Then I applied stained slip to the textured portions and again ran a texture tool through the blue slip. Unfortunately the platter photo doesn't show the colors very well because I used the wrong flash setting on my camera. I've already closed up my studio and am back in the house and don't want to walk out there in the dark, so this photo will have to do. But I think you can imagine the true colors by looking at the bowl colors.

River Platter by Linda Starr

Next I started making the bowl (which is the first photo). With this piece I made the texture and then applied the slip to the river and boulders and then slumped the piece into the form. As I was slumping the slab into the bowl I saw the slab was much bigger than the bowl and I wished I had a much larger form. I kept saying, "I hate to cut it off, I just hate to cut it off". A good part of the river and boulders were cut off and I am still feeling bad about it because it looked so much better as a larger piece. I guess I'll have to make another one of these river bowls in a larger size. I better measure the inside of my kiln to see how large a piece I can actually fit in there. I always do this, I start making something with clay and I forget all about everything else except for what I am making.


Although the river is probably 200 feet from our house, we can't see it at all due to the dense tree cover. Most of the trees growing along the river are willow, oak, cottonwood, and sycamore. I took the photo above in our backyard a couple of years ago after an unusual summer storm when we had two rainbows form. You can just see the beginnings of the second rainbow forming in the upper left hand corner of the photo. The taller trees you see in the background are along the banks of the river. The mountain behind the trees is Snail Head Mountain and it is littered with giant granite boulders.


This last photo is from my garden with the chaste tree, Vitex agnus-castus, in bloom in the background and a California Quail on the granite boulder. Be sure to check back next time when I post about a creature in the night. Comments or questions are always welcome.

Blue Poppy

Have you ever had a memory recur in your life? Something you thought was so wonderful and beautiful and then forgot about till many years later when something happened to refresh your memory? I had that happen to me recently about a blue poppy I was reading about on Cindy's blog, Artmaking in the North. Cindy showed a photo of a blue poppy in bloom in her yard. It was then that I recalled the only other time I had seen a blue Himalayan poppy.


Gary and I were newly married and living in Foresthill and we stayed at the Monte Verde Inn, on our wedding night 24 years ago. A few months after we were married I was called for a landscaping consultation at the inn. In the middle of the backyard of the inn there was a blue Himalayan poppy in bloom. At the time I felt that poppy was the most beautiful flower I had ever seen. The heavily veined leaves had pushed themselves up through snow with tall buds which opened to reveal a huge blue poppy flower. A flower so delicate looking and yet very hardy since it was able to survive the cold and wet winters, and the dry and hot summers. The color blue occurs only occasionally in the flower world, but it is so wonderful when it does, especially in the blue poppy.


So today I made a blue poppy flower bowl to remind me of the flower in Cindy's garden and the one I saw blooming at the Monte Verde Inn so long ago. I also made a green patterned square bowl with the last of my B-Mix clay. Both bowls were constructed from a slab and then slumped into molds, one metal and one wood. The bowls are decorated with mason stained slip. Although both of the decorations in color appear rather pale now, when they are fired, I am hoping they will darken to a much richer color. These are the same mixtures I used in the past for slip decorating.


In the first garden photo you see a view of the pergola in my herb garden with rosemary, Rosmarinus officinalis, and French lavender, Lavandula dentata, growing in the foreground. The next photo is as much of a panoramic view of the herb garden I could get from the North side of my house. All the herbs were planted five years ago from 3 inch pots and they have filled in very nicely. I designed the herb garden to be a tapestry of textures and mostly varying shades of green with occasional pops of color. Lavender is blooming on a mound in the foreground and the herb pergola is adjacent the water tank in the background. All of the landscape boulders you see in the photos I post here were harvested from this property and re-positioned by Gary and I. Gary scooped them up with the tractor we had at the time and I directed him in the placement. Please come back again to see more of the projects I'll be making in clay. I always include a photo or two from my garden and I hope you enjoy them. If you have comments or questions, please don't hesitate as I'd truly love to hear from you.

Dancing Ravens

Dancing Ravens
by Linda Starr
6" h x 12" w

Remember my post inspiration flies by? Well I've been thinking about raven inspired ceramic pieces ever since. I said I was going to post something real soon, but the ceramic pieces were mostly in my head. Many times I have plenty of ideas but every day something seems to get in the way.

Take for instance, yesterday. We had a huge wind storm which not only blew our telephone lines down, but blew many power poles down in the area. Our telephone lines are lying in our neighbor's pasture on the ground but are still working. Any minute though one of his cows could step on the lines and snap them off. If that happens you won't be hearing from me for a while since I am on dial up. The telephone company is supposed to come soon, but they have many other repairs to do in our area. The wind also snapped off the very tall power poles going beside the lake bridge - clean off at the top. The top of the poles landed on the bridge and are now waiting to be repaired. The bridge is still closed to traffic and everyone has to take a detour till they make the repairs.

Saying I was going to post something on my blog is a great motivator to accomplish my goals. So today, no matter what happened, I decided to work on a few of my ideas for raven inspired pieces, so I'd have something to show you.

Raven Tile
by Linda Starr
7" x 7"

The main piece I have been thinking about all week is the raven bowl above. I was inspired by the ravens who flew by the other day and by a Native American drawing of ravens. I wanted two ravens to meet in the bottom of the bowl, but wondered how I would illustrate them. I slip decorated a slab of clay and then put the raven decorated slab inside a bowl I'm using as a slump mold. I still have refining to do, but I wanted to show you I really have been working on something.

Asian Inspired Pendants
by Linda Starr

The raven tile was the first piece I made today for a warm up. As I'm looking at him now I'd like to modify where he's holding onto the branch. Sometimes seeing pieces after they are completed in a photo enables me to better critique my work. I also noticed I still have some touch up and clean up to do on the bowl and tile. I had some clay left over and decided to make a few pendants. The pendants are Asian inspired, which doesn't quite coordinate with the previous pieces, but making them has given me some ideas for other pieces I might make, perhaps a few raven pendants.

Blackcurrant Whirl Hollyhocks
by Linda Starr

Here are some hollyhocks blooming in my herb garden. I'm back to working on more raven inspired pieces. Till next time.