We are so excited to participate in the May 18-20 Public Garden flea market. It will be held under the Esplanade bridge, in conjunction with the Singapore Arts Festival and National Arts Council.
Do drop by our booth to check out wax seals, sealing wax, and our new owl plushies.
Here’s the map to the Esplanade bridge:
While we were at Tiramisuzi’s studio, she invited us to participate in the One Million Bones project which aims to raise awareness for genocide and other atrocities going on today.
Each bone created generates a $1 donation by the Bezos Family Foundation up to $500,00. There are different ways on how you can participate in this project. You create a bone, get a bone made in your name, donate, or host a bone making event.
We both created spine bones made of left over clay. Lex patterned his spine bone like the photo while I chose to create a broken spine bone. Once dried, Suzi said that these will come out pinkish and she will help us by coloring them white.
We went back to Tiramisuzi’s studio last weekend to glaze our pinch pots. Suzi gave us a quick lesson on the difference between glazes and underglazes. The most important thing beginners need to know is that underglazes, after firing, would have a close-to-consistent color as prior to firing, while glazes, after firing, may be colored differently compared to its initial color after applying the glaze.
Pinch pots after being fired
I chose to use Malachite which is a shade of teal on the outside and a vivid orange glaze on the inside. I lined the rim of the pot with white underglaze then added a transparent glaze on top so that the white lining becomes shiny.
Glazing my pinch pot
Katrina used crackling painting China Seal, which is close to a sea foam color, as the main color of her pinch pot and she lined the rim with a bright yellow underglaze for a pop of color. She also put on a coating of transparent glaze to make the lining on the rim shiny.
Kat's Pot
The glaze was quick to dry and, before we knew it, we had put on the recommended 2-3 coats per color. We can’t wait to see the fired pots.
I’ve been trying to learn Copperplate Script since last year and I felt like there was something missing to make practicing more fun. I couldn’t make my letters look fancier.
When I stumbled upon Calligraphic Flourishing: A New Approach to an Ancient Art by Bill Hildebrandt I was ecstatic, until I realized that not only was the book out of stock, it was also out of print. I even emailed the publishers to see if they had a copy they could sell me or point me to a distributor that had some copies left to sell, since I refused to buy the used copies that sold for more than $300 on Amazon then. They just told me that they are planning to release a similar title in the next two years.
Evey now I then, I would check out Amazon to see if the books I wanted to buy were significantly cheaper in the US than here in SG. I love reading books in print and in digital format but nothing beats a good book. There are just some books you have to own in print. When I checked Calligraphic Flourishing for the nth time, I was so happy that there was a $40 used copy of the book on sale. Bought it on the spot.
I was very much intrigued on the contents of the book. Why would a book cost more than 20 times it’s original retail price? Was it that good? Yes it is.
It has the basic instruction on the different types of flourishes and what practice methods are recommended. I’ve been reading this book for most of the day and it’s such a pleasure to learn from Mr. Hildebrandt. The instructions are clear and simple. There are recommended exercises which would help improve your technique quickly.
Even though the book was a second hand copy, it was in very good condition. It had nice soft cover which is very sturdy and cream pages in heavy stock. The text is written in a form of italic text which is ok to read in print but not so in digital format. I got a headache when I tried to read the excerpts of the book in Google Books which you can find here.
I hope they release more books on Flourishing. I’m not geographically blessed to be able to attend seminars that are usually held overseas.
Watching Food Network is Bad for your Waist Line
We love to experiment with food and learning new recipes. Since we cooked our quick recipe for honey ribs and we didn’t want to cook rice to go with it, we decided to make some sort of potato dish.
Yes, we’re Filipino and most dishes we make would go with rice even if it traditionally should not, so we surfed the net for a quick potato dish.
We got this Balsamic Roasted Red Potato recipe from All Recipes and modified it to fit what we had in the pantry.
Ingridients:
3 tablespoons olive
1 pound Russet Potatoes, quartered
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried nutmeg
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
Preheat the oven to 250 degrees Celsius, prepare a baking tray, and place wax paper on it and set aside.
Heat the olive oil in a large nonstick pan in high heat. Once the pan is hot enough, toast the garlic until it is lightly brown then lower the heat to medium. Toss the potatoes in and combine the ingredients until all the potatoes are coated with oil and garlic.
Sprinkle all the dried thyme and toss the potatoes until the thyme is evenly distributed. Do the same process for the nutmeg and 1/2 teaspon of salt. Turn off the heat and add a third of the balsamic vineger into the pan with the potatoes and toss again.
Potatoes before baking
Spread the potatoes on a baking tray and sprinkle the rest of the salt and pepper on the potatoes. Bake for 45 minutes. Toss the potatoes back in the pan and add the rest of the balsamic vinegar coating all the pieces. Bake for another 5 minutes and serve.
Balsamic Baked Potatoes
I just found out last month that there was a farmer’s market held here in Singapore twice a month at Loewen Gardens. I’ve never been to a Farmers’ Market before so I’m keen to go on the next schedule. I’d like to try the baked goodies and jams aside from the produce.
I found this great post from 365days2play. 365days2play kindly let us use her photos on our post. Check out her blog for posts on food, travel and lifestyle.
We headed to Susan’s studio last Saturday to get a lesson on pottery. Since we didn’t have any experience handling clay, Suzi started us on a simple project making pinch pots.
Tiramisuzi's studio at Goodman Arts Centre
We got a tour of the entire ceramics studio then she showed us how to condition the clay properly which is important before starting a clay project.
Around Suzi's Studio
I worked on a tear shaped bowl while Katrina made a flower shaped bowl. Time flew by so fast. We spent several hours molding the clay and chatting. Suzi told us that the clay needs to dry thoroughly before it can be fired in the kiln.
Pinch Pots
We’re going back for a second session where we will learn how to glaze the pinch pots. It was a fun session and we look forward to our next lesson with Suzi.
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