I finally got a close up of the largest gopher tortoise. Here he is in our front yard. You can see as they get older they get longer instead of the more square shape. He is very shy and ducks back into his shell if he sees me. I quietly snuck up behind him to get this shot.
We decided to try some fish in the smoker. I thought smoked salmon was my favorite, smoked cobia has moved to the top of the list. I used one lemon, one lime, brown sugar, olive oil and balsamic vinegar to marinate the fish over night. Meanwhile I soaked hickory chips in white wine and smoked these two thick fillets for about 25 minutes, absolutely delicious.
Here are the three colors from the test tiles that are my favorite. The two tiles on the left are with the speckled clay, the first is a pale aqua and the second is pale green breaking to brown. The third is with white clay and is pale green breaking to light brown. I plan on the plate being a rounded square shape. Here are some sketches of patterns of carvings or stamps on the the plates I am designing.
Still haven't narrowed down which of the carvings or stampings I like. I want enough carving to show the breaking of the glaze, but no so much the plate is busy looking. Finally got my computer fixed so I'll get to comments today. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.
Nice colors on those tiles!
ReplyDeleteI really must get some new specs - when I first read the title of the post I went eeew! I thought it said 'smoked cobra'...
ReplyDeleteI love tortoises and turtles of all kinds. It must be fun to have them in your yard. And that fish sounds delicious.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the peek inside your notebook. I love little slices of life like that.
Did not know that about gophers. Must admit I have body parts that do the same thing as they age.
ReplyDeleteGood ideas for new plates. I appreciate being able to see your notebook. Mine only has things on the right side and I'm about to start back going to other way...maybe upside down for the fun of it. Lovely tortoise.
ReplyDeletehow big are your test tiles? attach a bail and they would be beautiful pendants! but I am imagining they are bigger in reality.
ReplyDeleteHi Robert, thanks, I am finally getting around to making test tiles, silly me been doing things backwards. Ha.
ReplyDeleteHi Elaine, thanks, the font is kind of hard to read, I been meaning to change it but afraid I'll mess everything up. Although I guess in Florida the python is eating all the native fauna and folks could have them cooked to reduce the populations. Ha.
Hi Teresa, thanks, it is really great to see the tortoise, if we see them we stand still till they get through eating so they don't run back to their den, they are only out less than 20 minutes or so and then go underground.
Hi Patti, thanks, I would rather get long than round myself, Ha.
Hi Barbara, thanks, yes we must keep the fun in it all, Ha. My sketch books are almost full and I need to get another one because I am going back over and filling up the small spaces and the sketches are getting too small.
Hi Michele, thanks, these test tile are only 1.5 inches square and I didn't glaze the sides of them because I thought I'd use them for a mosaic. I do have some I glazed the sides and put holes in but next time I won't put the holes and use the bales I have which I totally forget about.
Linda, we have a new Crucible kiln with a bartlett digital controller and we are needing help. WE have fired with cone packs and the digital process has us stuck. Do you have any firing scedules, books, guides etc. We need guidance for Cone 6 firing, cone 10 firing, cone 5 firing. The controller comes with settings for fast and slow bisque and fast and low fire.cone 6.
ReplyDeleteWe hate feeling so incompetenat. I know you fiddle constantly and I thought maybe you if anybody could help us. Many thanks, wished we lived closer.. Joan Tucker thepathwithheart@comcast.net
Hi Jeannette & Joan, I sent an email to you.
ReplyDelete