Time for mom's kipferl cookies

Every Christmas, my mom sends us her famous kipferl & ginger bread cookies. Due to some mail restriction, this year, a little less than a lb of kipferl. She has baked hundreds of cookies for everyone every year.

Apple pie at midnight

I had an urge to eat apple pie at midnight. I had granny smith apples and puff pastry in my freezer.
No extra butter, made apple sauce with rum and just brushed marmalade jam on apples and sprinkled sugar and spices. Good to go. I use Dufour puff pastry.

silo sugar pots

When I went to the farm, I loved the silo. I made those "silo sugar pots".

my sugar pot

My sugar pot makes our guests wonder what it is. It has a nice smooth surface of old wood which was under the ground. My mom bought it at a store which used to be in Shinsaibashi in Osaka a long time ago. She gave me the pot when I moved to the States.

I am working on a project making sugar pots. I wish I can make somthing like this pot, something to make people's tea time happy.

thanksgiving 2010

A heritage turkey fresh from the farm, wonderful flavors for a healthy, tasty feast. Kids were constantly making us laugh and smile. What a warm and great thanksgiving.Look at this comfy high-quality+high waist leggings. Handcrafted by his mom. Great concept.
available at OWL.

pitcher

I love pitchers. Pitchers are everywhere in my house. Tall ones, small ones, round ones and straight ones. I use them for flower vases, milk, kitchen gadgets and lemonade.

small white filing cabinet

I realized I didn't have a nice cabinet to keep things in. Finally I ordered the white drawer unit

from Bisley. The drawer moves smoothly.

My shopping policy is that I only buy something impressive that can last a lifetime or DIY-type items that I can customize. So any shopping is a big event for me and very fun.

When it comes to clothing, I don't like the recent fast fasion trend. I remake and resize vintage colothing, which are typically much better quality and have more interesting design.

green bowls

Sometimes I have customers come to my apartment to buy my ceramics. Even if we have never met, we can be confortable with each other. We share the same sense of style or beauty of life, it is inspiring for me.

Spoon shaped biscuits from Poilâne

I received a package from my friend in Paris. It was biscuits of Poilâne. My friend knows I like spices and sent these tasty biscuits with cinnamon, cloves and some other spices.
I had a nice tea time by myself with this sweet and my new white cup and a creamer just BAKED from the kiln.
It is getting colder here than Paris.

small mint green bowls

Small mint green bowls. 4"w x 2"h.

Fall in Blue hill at Stone Barns-1

The last time I visited Blue hill at Stone Barns was at our friends' wedding. It was one of the most beautiful and memorable ceremonies. This time we enjoyed the fall all over the farm.

Forbidden kima curry

Since ground lamb was sold out, I bought beef instead. I feel little guilty for using beef for Indian curry...Anyway, I cooked it quick like Indian mothers make their daily curry for short time. I added potatoes, chick peas and carrots. Of course, chai for after the meal. I heard that milk works for the heat. Not water.

baby set fro miss.L.

I made a baby set for Miss. L. I found a perfect basket for it and stuffed with felted vegetables I made. Miss. L is now in her mom's country to see her family and to celebrate her great grand ma who is 100 years old!
I am looking forward to going on a picnic at central park with her, carrying full of tasty goodies in a basket.

Grilled scallion and artichoke dip

I was wondering where I would go for my next trip. Spain sounded like an interesting scene in Europe. OK, so I started by watching Anthony Bourdain's no reservations Spain episode. Hmm....there seems to be very passionate and maniacal people out there!
I got so excited and changed my dinner plan and rushed to get some Spanish ingredients.
One of the highlights was grilled scallions with dip. I don't know about the dip, so I just mixed artichokes, garlic, lemon juice, Parmesan cheese and olive oil in the food processor.
What a feast. I simply grilled vegetables on a grilling rack that was handmade in Kyoto. Yum.

Pictured is a gray plate I found at the flea market for $8!

simple forms

I was throwing vases while imagining my favorite kind of flowers. I just felt like making simple forms with a color like roasted marshmallow.

fabric, fabric, fabric!

I went to the garment district to see fabric. My friend and I ate lunch at my favorite cafe

before we went. At the cafe, pink on the walls and the same color palette in the chair cushions caught my eye. I was ready to get inspired.

At the garment district, I was browsing thousands of fabrics at retail stores and grabbed samples that caught my attention. From my picks, I could clearly see my taste. I like deep colors, not prints, but textures, and interesting combinations of colors and stripes.

little blue plates

5" dia. little blue plates. It's good size for snacking on little pieces of cake and fruit. Good size on PC desk with coffee.
Someone who served dessert on this plate to her roommate told me that the next day the roommate asked to borrow the plate and she served nice presentation of fruits. They shared the nice tea time again. That makes me happy.

Weekend breakfast

When I was in Japan, I only wanted to have Japanese food for breakfast. I never wanted to eat something sweet, bread or coffee. But here, I even enjoy pancake breakfast. Is this weather or humidity issue? I still hate cereals though.

baking!

I have only baked bagels before. Maybe I am too tired to wedging clay to knead bread dough.
I should read a book again " Science of the bread" I bought long time ago.

The end of summer

The last weekend of summer. I couldn't sleep at all because the new neighbours had a crazy party in their roof terrace until 5 in the morning. I miss the old tenants who enjoyed nice breakfast, reading books and had an elegant parties.
I went to the US open but the rally made me sleepy and I left the game.

I am making new series of vases.

in his little hands

I love picnic. Since my hometown Osaka has the Yodo river running through the city and I loved the Kamogawa river in Kyoto, I go to hudson river side more than central park.
I finally met little mr.c who is one year old. He already can drink his water very nicely from a baby cup I made. He was so adorable!

Yoshitomo Nara @Asia Society

I went to the open studio of Yoshimoto Nara+YNG(Yoshimoto Nara +Graf) at Park Armory.

We wonder "Who am I?" and try to figure it out or express ourselves.
Even people who are not artists, they explore to find something in their jobs and activities in everyday life.
It is very difficult, painful and scary to face yourself. I am very impressed and inspired by people who try to do it very hard and stoicly.
Nobody's fool you can watch Mr.Nara's discussion video.
Mr. Konishi's blog (in Japanese) You can read the process of projects by gm products(ex graf).

Brazilian dinner

My very good Brazilian friend and I had a great time together as always and we cooked her Brazilian dinner together.
Chicken and pepper stew, colored green and beans. She used crushed garlic for everything. It was simple and very tasty. I was so inspired and cooked it at home next day.
Estou satisfeita!

metalic black

I used to use this black glaze. But I have stopped using it because it is not food-safe.
Now I am making series of vases and tried to make one sample of this glaze.

pitcher sample

Just trying to make different shapes of pitchers and with new white glaze, mat&shiny spots.
Diameter; 4"(11 cm). As for sauce or butt vase.

Hitoshi Toyoda-photographer

© Hitoshi Toyoda　2010　
Hitoshi is a photographer who has been exhibiting his works in slide shows at film festivals, museums, galleries and public spaces in the US and Japan.
Slide shows are different from printed photos. They are not permanent objects like photographs. They are fleeting images.

When I was a kid, I thought photos were simply taken by cameras using certain techniques.
It took a long time for me to realise that this is not the case. Photos capture something that you saw, not just with your eyes, but with your mind and all of your senses.

I saw his photos in small slides on his work desk. I was in his views and memories - in the moment. I experienced his very warm and sensitive views of daily life.

I wonder what kind of experience I can have if I see those images as momentary time flows.
I haven't had a chance to go to his slide show yet and I am really looking forward to it.

He will exhibit his work, including a new series, from Aug 13 at several museums and galleries in Japan.
for more info
Hitoshi Toyoda

Mary and Max

Mary, an 8-year-old miserable girl in Melborune and Max who is a 44-year-old obese jewish guy with Asperger syndrome in NY.
Those lonely two happens to be pen pal and coresponse each other about each others lives for 20 years.
This is one of the great hilarious and lovely movie to made me laugh at the begining and cry at the end.
Adam Elliot's claymation from Australia in 2009

tasty paris-9

We met great people at tables. We enjoyed conversations with Japanese people at table next to us "if we knew the dish was this huge, we could have shared!". Some french madams "I can take picture of you two. Be close, be romantic! It's Paris!"
Food was great and these conversations made meals even better.

design paris-8

Rental bikes looked good, but I preferred the pace of walking. To observe the details of people and the city. This is the best part of trip.

Sweet paris-7

My new friend told me about La Patisserie des Rêves. I bought one slice of tarte tatin and the staff wrapped it up in a cute pink box and bag. Other patisseries were usually casual and wrapped cakes with a sheet of paper - well it was fine with me though.
The apple flavor was very strong and thick.
Here is pink again. Chic but pop colors everywhere. People aren't afraid to enjoy colors here.

street paris-6

Paris's streets are smokey with cigarettes and exhausts. Stone bricks and little passages made me feel cool and let me breath. I just walked and walked until I couldn't walk anymore.

sewing paris-5

My mom was in Paris around the same time. I wonder what my mom saw there.
People in Paris are chic as I expected. The fashion was architectural and classy.
I bought some dresses by Russian designer.

old paris-4

The flea markets are like museum of ethnology on the streets.

Madame and Monsieur are very interesting too.

peeking paris-3

Walking around the little streets in the city. I love what I can see through the narrow approaches of the entrances. I totally understand cats' feeling when they are in between something. This makes me feel good. There are a lot of them in Paris.

tasty paris-2

Friends took us to merci and a nice restaurant Glou. The food was sophisticated and sensitively seasoned.

We had a great crepe dinner at west country girl with other friends. I loved their dessert crepe which had a whole baked apple, ice cream and caramel sauce.

Glou 101, rue Vieille du Temple-75003 paris
west country girl 6, passage Saint Ambroise paris

sweet paris-1

My second trip to Paris. Friends, new friends and tasty conversation and food. And sweet sweets everywhere! tres bien!

home-made gnocchi

We had a birthday party for an 8 year-old girl at our studio. We made piggy banks. They made interesting banny, flog or bee banks. They don't need to break them since we told them how to make "easy access" bank. The kids grimed.



It's too hot to have appetite. I just make something simple and easy...ok, let's make noochi.

brown striped bowl

I modified the color and texture for this bowl little shinier and brownish. This is one of the pieces available for purchace at Steven Alan store.

Lisianthus

I found poor Lisianthus at the super market on the way home from conservatory garden in central park. The Lisianthus were beaten up pretty badly. I never buy non-fresh food or flowers. But today, I felt bad for them. So I took them home.

They looked alive again in my new vase.

weekend power salad

When I make a green salad, I like to add a variety of ingredients as much as possible to give it nutrition and volume.
Flax, sesame and sunflower seeds for topping. Pear&rose vinaigrette. Potato and mushroom frittata.

Steven Alan Bazaar @east hampton

I shipped my pieces to Steven Alan east hampton store.
Steven Alan BAZAAR
East Hampton
52 Newtown Lane
East Hampton, NY 11937
t: 631-604-1726
Thurs-Sat 10am-7pm　Sun 10am-5pm

Sweet williams in new vases

A white vase is such a basic vase which does not bother the color of flowers.

vases with flowers

bike jumble in park slope

I produce ceramics and he collects vintage bicycles. Well, the space for them is our struggles.
We join the NY bike jumble as a vender.
There was a street fair at 5 Ave right next to the old stone house where the jumble was.
Bike maniacs came first in the morning and hipsters came afternoon.
A lot of people came to the market and hang out the area.
It is nice to see people into bikes, like people into ceramics.

New glaze test

Studio friend mixed new glaze and I tried it for inside of the vase.
It is very runny but has beautiful bronze sparkle.

Moddified snow white on a new vase

The snow white formula does not work at my current studio, so I did a couple of tests and tried to lower the melting point. It seemed to work.
I made a sample vase for my new project.

SOFA in NY2010

I went to SOFA(sculpture objects&functional art)mainly to see some ceramic artists works.

Lucie Rie, Hans Coper's, Ruth Duckworth, Olga de Amaral and Kati Tuominen-Niittylä's works were fantastic.