Ouzo, Napkin Rings, and Dinner Parties

Years ago I had more formal dinner parties than I do now. I'd have several friends over and cook a themed meal. I remember once the theme was Greek. I made dolmades or stuffed grape leaves for an appetizer. I served roast leg of  lamb with rosemary. I even made a Greek cheesecake for dessert. We had some Greek wine and even some ouzo. I played Greek music in the background. Temporarily we were all transported from my dining room to a Greek island. It was quite enjoyable.

Do folks do dinner parties any more? Somehow I miss those days. Perhaps I miss the conversations around the dinner table. Maybe I miss the theater of a themed dinner gathering. I'll have to give this more thought. Anyway one day in the studio I had some left over clay and I rolled up some textured rounds of clay. I said to myself, those look like napkin rings. I didn't glaze them I just fired them au natural, naked clay if you will.

Months ago I fired the napkin rings and they've been sitting on the fired work table in the garage. For some reason I thought of them today. I got out some cloth napkins from my hutch and found out the napkin ring diameters aren't quite large enough. To be fair these napkins are very thick and large. Still the napkin rings could be a larger diameter. I can slip a single layer of cloth into the ring but not a double layer.

Trying out the napkin rings made me think of other napkin ring shapes like leaves or branches. I thought of using different clays like speckled and terra cotta. I thought of woven or fiber napkin rings with ceramic beads. Then I thought of colorful or organic napkins displayed on plates. I thought of a whole table displayed with handmade pottery. Can you imagine it? Plates, bowls, napkin rings, cups, mugs, candle holders. Wouldn't that be a wonderful display in a gallery or in an art fair booth? So many ideas so little time. This post is part of Mud Colony what's happening in the studio. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.