Mishy had the annual open house at the studio this weekend. I made some tamales, chips and salsa for the potluck dinner. She had a kiln opening, some art from various artists for sale, raku firings, open studio. Fun times. I ended up spending most of the weekend cooking. I picked out a nice big pork roast for the tamales, which I slow cooked for 11 hours overnight Friday to Sat morning. That roast was really REALLY awesome. I coated it with dijon mustard, fresh pepper, and kosher salt then cooked at high heat for the first 30 minutes. This was just to give it a crispy crust. We used some of the leftover roast for pulled pork sandwiches. The BBQ sauce was a bit too sweet and overpowering and took away a lot of the flavor. The salsa I used for the tamales was an extra spicy tomatillo, chipotle and chile de arbol sauce. I brought the leftover salsa to the potluck, cut with a little tomato sauce to add a little extra to the tamales.

I did a couple more goblin heads and a few more luminaries. I'm just sort of repeating the same things that I already made, not really trying to put much thought into it, more of an exercise to keep my clay making in shape. I'm doing this one luminary which I've added some barnacles to the side for added texture and interest. I took a picture and was going to upload it, but I misplaced the picture. After I took the picture, I noticed the surface was missing some texture, so I went back and fixed it up a bit. I have to be careful about that, I could add texture all night to these pieces. Fun to make.

I had a little bit of leftover clay and I was just squishing it around, playing with it, adding water and letting it dry in my hands. Again, more of an exercise in clay than actually trying to make something. I started making an amigurumi dragon, which people started calling 'Devil Slugs'. I remade it multiple times, again, just playing with the form. I made a sea slug body for the amugurumi dragon, then I made this silly head for it. I liked it, so I kept it. See pictures for details.

I forgot to mention, I had taken some ficus cuttings from one of my bonsai. I started these in a cup of water. They seem to have taken root, so I'll be planting them next weekend. I also started some straight in some dirt. We'll see how they turn out.