Pattern at:

http://bittersweetblog.wordpress.com/2007/08/14/bake-me-a-cake/

I took a few vacation days this week to attend a Level 1 Certification class in Art Clay. I have a glass kiln and was looking for things I can do with it.  Art clay is made up of very fine silver particles (1-20 micron), organic binders, and water. It feels like clay. Once completely dried and fired, the remaining piece is 99.9% pure silver.  More pictures soon.

I heard about an Tarot Related Art Show in Seattle three months ago. I made arrangements to interview the woman putting on the show because it makes interesting content for the podcast and the show is open to anyone who wanted to be part of it.

I got caught up in the excitement of it all and signed up to do two cards, despite the fact I wouldn’t call myself an artist. I procrastinated until the weekend before last. I got the materials and template ready but didn’t get the energy to clean up my workspace enough to start.

I usually start by re-creating the thing I want to make in Glass Eye. I did install it on my mac in paralells and started doing this. Part way through I decided I’d much rather have the whole image so I opened it in Photoshop and resized to to fit the frame. Then i cropped the picture down to printable sizes and taped them back together.

Normally I would take the glass out of the frame but it was so tight I was afraid I’d never get it back together.

It is fried won ton season. Made some for New Years this year. (Traditionally it was Christmas eve.)  I spoke with my sister Jenny yesterday who sent me her Pot Sticker recipe.

• Gyoza wrapper    45 pieces
• Napa Cabbage (or bok choy) 6 leaves (2/3 C)
• Ground pork       1 lb
• Chicken broth pwdr        ½ tsp
• Salt         1 tsp
• Chopped green onion         ¼ C
• Sugar         1 ½ tsp
• Grated ginger root        1 tsp
• White pepper    ¼ tsp
• Dried black mushroom
• 3 pieces soaked/diced
• Soy sauce     1 Tbsp
• Sesame oil             2 Tbsp

Blanch cabbage in boiling water w/salt for 2-3 minutes.  Cool and squeeze out water.  Finely chop.  Mix pork with salt, sugar, white pepper, chicken broth powder and  soy sauce.  Add cabbage, ginger, green onion, mushroom, and sesame oil.    Fill wrapper with pork mixture in a half moon shape.

Arrange pot stickers in pan and brown until crust forms, shaking pan occasionally.  Add ¼ C hot water with 1 tsp each of sesame oil and vinegar.

Cover and cook until water is absorbed (repeat if desired.)  Add a little oil in pan and pan fry until crusts are golden and crispy.  Makes about 40-45 pieces.  Can freeze after wrapping.

My glass work bench has been buried in junk for too many months. Sunday I dug it out and started a mosaic project. I had some glue that was supposed to be for mosaics but three days later it still wasn’t dry. I got some new glue at Fred Meyer that seems to set fast and I don’t need a gas mask to use it.

I had some trouble last night at Body Pump during the chest track. I had crazy nerve pain in my left hand. I had problems holding the bar. I noticed slivers in my hand. I should have worn gloves (don’t tell Paul) I had a couple of dozen glass slivers in my hand. I had to pull them out with tweezers when I got home.