Dec 30, 2009
After much procrastination we’ve finally setup a Rincón Pottery page on Facebook. Click here to visit us and become a fan.
Fans will get notification of new work as it is posted online, details of future events and special promotions that will be exclusive to our fans. Be there or be square! 
Dec 30, 2009
Its Nick’s birthday today. The weather has been a bit strange, with very strong winds and short downpours. But, presents and the promise of a lavish curry dinner (including Chicken Tikka Masalla!) are keeping us both in very good spirits.
For lunch,Nick had a special lunch “fry up”, complete with authentic UK Baked Beans (courtesy of my mom and dad, who sent Nick a boxful of English goodies). The sun is now making a comeback so hammock time might be called for. Happy Birthday Nick!
Dec 29, 2009
So Linda, Alex and Krista spent some time at Rincón Pottery yesterday and Krista took some really cool photos with a fisheye lens. This is a great way to capture both rooms in single images. I guess this is what it would look like if Gaudi had designed my studio… Pretty funky, huh? Thanks Krista!
The Gallery
The Studio
Dec 28, 2009
Linda and Bob are back in town for the holidays. Crafty Bob had contacted me before they flew over and arranged to surprise Linda with a gift of pottery as well as a gift certificate for her to spend in the gallery. What a guy, huh?
Today, Linda stopped by the studio with their lovely daughters Alexandra and Krista. I enjoyed showing this fun bunch around and they each chose a piece of pottery (mugs for Alex and Krista, a bowl for Linda). Krista took some really cool photos of the gallery and studio with a fish-eye lens which I promise to post as soon as she emails them to me. Here’s the gang in the gallery with their new pottery:
In the studio, we discovered another (non-purchasing) visitor hanging out on my VL-Whisper: a shy gecko. By the time I got my camera out he had escaped to the safety of the wheel’s leg.
Yikes… The wild life is taking over in the studio. I can take a hint…It’s time to get back to work, huh???
Dec 27, 2009
Today we spent a happy number of hours at our favorite beach playing smash ball, swimming and just lazing around in the sun. While we were doing the latter, we noticed a man show up on a bike with a bunch of empty gallon bottles and a machete. He attached a long hook to an even longer bamboo pole and proceeded to “pluck” coconuts from the row of trees behind us. He then expertly sliced them open with his machete and funneled the coconut water into his bottles.
A particularly “fruitful” pluck resulted in a large number of coconuts landing in the sand with an impressive “thud”. This earned him a round of applause (from me) which he clearly appreciated, as a minute later I was presented with an opened coconut brimming with coconut water for our consumption.
Chilled freshly opened coconut water (or “Coco Frio”) is commonly sold on the sides of the road here. I tried it once and was not overly impressed by its fairly bland flavor. However, a gift is a gift, and I proceeded to graciously sip the water (and there was A LOT of it). This time around, however, I was impressed but how refreshing I found the water (still not crazy about the flavor) and I kept drinking even after the coconut man left with his loot.
When we got home, I decided to read more about coconut water and was amazed by the health benefits of regularly drinking coconut water, which include:
Alls I can say is, once our rapidly growing “forest” of coconut trees down at the bottom of our hill start fruiting, I plan on bottling this magic water too!
Dec 25, 2009
Here’s wishing all our blog readers a very Merry Christmas, or Happy Holidays, whichever applies!
We took our ‘traditional’ walk on the beach this morning and will be cooking a yummy dinner together later. We hope everyone is safe and well and enjoying the festive period.
Nick & Miri
Some pics from our walk this morning…
Dec 24, 2009
Yesterday we welcomed Rosa and Frank to our gallery. Rosa and Frank live in New Jersey but also have a lovely home here in Rincón, which they visit as often as they can! Rosa is one of our loyal commenters and we actually met through our blog!
Last time Rosa visited Rincón Pottery , we were still in our set-up stages and the gallery was merely an empty room. Yesterday, Rosa was able to see what I’ve been up to over the past few months. That large red and black bowl many of you admired a few weeks ago? Its now Rosa’s! What can I say, the woman has good taste! She also chose a few of the brand new mugs. I hope she enjoys her purchases as much as I enjoyed making them. Thanks Rosa!
Rosa with her Raspberry Red and Licorice Black Bowl
Dec 23, 2009
Nick and I had great fun unloading my seventh glaze firing. It was probably the most colorful kiln load I’ve had so far, with 16 brightly colored mugs, lots of different glazes on bowls and plenty of glaze combo tests.
12 of the 16 mugs waiting to be shelved in the gallery
According to the grid Nick prepared for me (I might be fairly organized but Nick is SUPER organized!) I am almost done doing my “due diligence” in testing all the possible glaze combos (whew!). Of my 11 tests this time around, only two were deemed winners by us both. Here is one of the two (Raw Sienna over Raspberry Red):
Another promising new color combo with a lot of depth to it:
Mugs: Jeannie’s Purple over Caribbean Blue
And more new mugs:
Mugs: Raspberry Red
And finally, some “tried and true”:
3 Nesting Bowls: Warm Jade Green and Licorice Black
2 cereal/soup bowls: Bright Sky Blue and Raw Sienna
Massive Bowl: Jeannie’s Purple and Licorice Black
All in all, an excellent firing to end off the year with a bang. As we only set up the studio in April, 2010 will be our first full year of firing and we’re both excited to see what we pull out of the kiln next time around, in 2010!
Dec 20, 2009
I fired a bisque last week and tonight I’ll be firing my last glaze firing for 2009. In addition to a slew of bowls and mugs, I’m looking forward to seeing the results of some test tiles with a bunch of slips I mixed up (a blue, a brown and two blue/greens). A slip is basically liquid clay with colorants mixed into it. It is applied to a pot before it dries. I’m hoping to be able to use slips to augment my glazes. I’m also testing 10 more MC6 glaze combinations that seemed promising on test tiles on small plates. And believe it or not, even after this firing, there are STILL more combos to be tested… Fingers crossed for some great results!
Last bisque load toasty from the kiln
And the pots that made it into the last glaze firing of 2009
Dec 18, 2009
Last night was the 7th night of Chanukkah and tonight is the last night. Chanukkah is my favorite holiday, though it is a bit strange celebrating a holiday that I’ve always associated with cold weather on a tropical island. This year, we put a number of other twists on “Shikitari” (that’s “tradition” to those of you who don’t speak Japanese):
First, We played a new version of Driedel. Tradition would have it that during the time of Antiochus‘ oppression of the Jews, those who wanted to study Torah (an illegal activity) would conceal their activity by playing gambling games with a top (a common and legal activity) whenever an official or inspector was within sight. The new version of driedel is quite true to this tradition, as indicated by its name “No Limit Texas Driedel”. I think Nick was quite relieved that he can now actually really enjoy playing driedel (rather than just indulging me once a year).
Of course, celebrating Chanukkah without latkes (fried potato pancakes) would be blasphemous. I have to admit, though, that I find latkes a bit bland (hence the need for lots of sour-cream and applesauce!). So, I decided to jazz my latkes up a bit by adding some Indian spices. Into a traditional latke recipe, I added half a teaspoon each of nigella seeds, fennel seeds, cumin seeds, a teaspoon of mustard seeds, some cayenne pepper and a few crumbled curry leaves (all quickly tempered in some ghee). Oh boy! Tradition with a twist!
And speaking of tradition (and twists), how about a Japanese “Tevye”?:
Dec 17, 2009
For the last 2 years we’ve been saying “we really must head over to the east coast of the island and check it out”, and in all that time we’d only ever made it as far east as San Juan!
We put that right this past weekend by taking a short, 4 night vacation over in Fajardo. Highlights included…
* Kayaking in the bio-luminescent lagoon
* Hiking in the El Yunque rain forest
* Taking a tour of the Las Cabezas de San Juan nature reserve
Some quick facts;
* Fajardo’s Laguna Grande is one of only 5 locations on earth that has permanent (i.e. all year round) bio-luminescence and 3 of those are in Puerto Rico!
* El Yunque is the only rain forest in the United States forestry system.
* The lighthouse in the Las Cabezas de San Juan nature reserve is the second oldest lighthouse on the island (opened in 1882).
We also explored some of the beaches along the east coast. It was a nice relaxing long weekend, but we were glad to get home. Our overall impression… we’re happy we chose to live on the west coast!
Dec 15, 2009
Yes, we finished construction almost exactly one year ago. Not for lack of trying, for the past year, our patio has sat naked but for some plants. Yesterday, we finally found patio furniture that met all our requirements (right size, teak wood, right price). And it fit in the car too for the ride home from San Juan (2.5 hours). Next stop, a BBQ.
First beer at our new patio table? Priceless!
Dec 14, 2009
Been kinda quiet around here, huh? Nick and I just got back from a loooooong weekend on the east side of the island. Thursday to Monday afternoon with no computer! I can’t remember the last time I stayed away from the computer for that long. Tell you the truth? It was kinda nice! We have lots to fill you in of course with details of our trip and plenty of pretty pictures. For now, lets just say we are VERY happy to be back home on our side of the island. Not that we take what we have for granted, but sometimes taking a step away makes you appreciate what you have even more. Oh! And we finally bought some patio furniture! Tomorrow, more details on our trip and bisque to load and fire too! Hasta mañana.
Dec 10, 2009
Ahhh…. Winter in Puerto Rico. We are still spending a lot of time tending to our land, just sweating a tad less whilst doing it. We keep swearing we’re done planting new stuff, but never manage to keep our word (we’re now up to 75 palms…). We’re supposed to be in the start of the dry season but someone forgot to tell mother nature. The frequent rains mean everything, wild or planted, is growing like mad.
Nick has finished moving all the banana pups from behind the patio onto his banana alley, which is looking quite good:
We like how our land is evolving. It is a fine balance of order and natural chaos. Down the hill from the very orderly banana alley, a bunch of royal palms are growing as if on speed. They were quite randomly “planted” by birds or seeds falling off of other palms. Regardless of how they got there, they are beautiful:
And right off of banana alley, a row of massive rogue plantains are growing. Nick couldn’t move them if he wanted to! They are way over 20 feet tall:
Yesterday I discovered that the last plantain is flowering. Picking this bunch is going to interesting…
Dec 7, 2009
As promised, more photos of my sixth glaze firing. Lots of great stuff with Licorice Black. As I find this gorgeous glaze the one that is MOST difficult to photograph, this is a mixed blessing…
Large bowl: Bright Sky Blue and Licorice Black (overlap is BSB over LB)
Large bowl: Raspberry Red and Licorice Black (overlap is RR over LB)
Mugs: Caribbean Blue (top) and Jeannie’s purple over Caribbean Blue (bottom)
Breakfast for 2: Raspberry Red and Licorice Black (overlap is RR over LB)
¿Qué es el tiempo? Las palabras del día
