DECEMBER CALENDAR

Here is the December calendar!

Please note that the time correction has been made on this calendar for the December 5th holiday bazaar. The time was incorrect in the email sent on December 1st!

Hope to see you on the 16th!

c@

FRUIT OF THE MONTH - NOVEMBER: PASSION-FIG-PERSIMMON

NOVEMBER - FRUIT OF THE MONTH

PASSION-FIG-PERSIMMON

Welp, here it is... the last of the Fruit of the Month workshop series photos... for now. It's hard to believe that we've inspected, tasted, constructed at least twelve different fruits in glass this year.

As I look back over the past twelve months, I can only say how impressed I am with the progress that each person has made as they've learned new glass fusing techniques. We've learned to use all sorts of scrap glass, made frit - and used "store bought" frit, mixed colors... cut circles... put a lot of thought into our creations, trying to imitate fruit in glass. It has been quite an experience for all of us, and as if that wasn't enough - we've made a lot of new friends, too!

I don't know which was more fun - making the plates, learning about fruits, how they look inside - and which way to cut them to make them the most interesting in appearance, and how good they taste, or making new friends. And I can't think of one fruit that we tasted that we didn't like!

And there are still so many fruits left to try! In November we pulled a pummelo into the studio, too ... just to taste it.

When you're in the store, you'll see this giant green thing that looks like a grapefruit. The label says it's sort of a cross between an orange and grapefruit, but it didn't actually taste like either.

Maybe you'd like to check it out yourself.

As far as I'm concerned - it's pink inside... and we already did pink with the grapefruit!


Dorothy demonstrated one way to eat a pummelo (see photo at left).

If I were to do it again, I think I'd slice it across the middle and section it the customary way for eating a grapefruit. Not knowing what we were in for, we just divvied it up among us to get to the pulp.

Unfortunately, there weren't any passion fruit at the grocery store for us to use for research in our construction of glass fruit this November. Really a disappointment, but we did the best we could using the photo from October.

When I realized that we wouldn't have a passion fruit for November's workshop, I picked up a Fuju persimmon for us to examine and taste.

The photo at left is a thin section of a persimmon. We were surprised to find that, unlike most of the other fruits we'd inspected, the persimmon had eight seed spaces instead of five... more like a daisy design inside than a star like the apple, pear and papaya.

I found this picture of a pomegranate - cut in half horizontal to the stem. Even the seeds of the pomegranate are arranged in a 5-pointed star pattern! I had to run downstairs to cut the pomegranates in my fruit bowl in half just to double check to see it in real life!

I hope you find this as exciting as I do... at least if you're reading this far, maybe you do! Now I want to keep looking for new fruits, to see what they look like inside, and to see how they taste. Maybe even try to duplicate them in glass.

But, in the meantime, for our November Fruit of the Month workshop... without any passion fruit, we had figs, persimmon and pummelo to use for research.

Before and after photos are below - and Sara's will be forthcoming, as she was unable to attend the workshop in November.



NEW YEAR SPECIAL! And, just a reminder to those of you who participated in the Fruit of the Month workshops: If you have made twelve dishes by January 31, 2010, you can make one larger piece (serving bowl size) for 20% off the normal price! If you haven't finished all twelve, you can still catch up just by coming to open studio times in January!

And watch for the December calendar coming out next! There will be a Fruit of the Month workshop reunion at the Studio Open House on Wednesday, December 16th. Everyone is invited - and those with fruit dishes are invited to bring them in for one massive group photo with everyone's dishes and artists in it! Hope to see you there!

Enjoy the before & after photos!

FRUIT OF MONTH - OCTOBER: CITRUS

Wow - the pages of the calendar are flipping by so quickly and I still haven't posted photos of the Fruit of the Month workshops for October and November yet! So, here is the first...

OCTOBER: CITRUS FRUIT

Even though the early October snow storm a week kept us from meeting on our originally scheduled date, we finally did get together (still in October!) to sample nearly every citrus fruit we could find that month (except for one, which you'll see in November's photos). We even included a few other seasonal fruits that we found at the grocery store. In photo at left, clockwise from 12 o'clock high: orange, lemon, lime, key lime, passion fruit and fig.

Fortunately, we did get the passion fruit in the very short window of time it was available, as Dorothy has been waiting ALL YEAR to get to look at the inside of the passion fruit and to eat it, as well as to introduce the rest of us to it!

The photo at left is a little out of sequence, but I just wanted you to see right away the passion that drove Dorothy to lick the passion fruit juice from the sample plate when we were done with the workshop!

I have to admit, although the inside of the passion fruit does not seem very attractive (see photo below), it was quite tasty. And really, it is not all that slimy to eat as it looks in person ... the photo does not do justice to the real fruit. Especially the slimy-ness!


However... IF you ever happen to see the passion fruit at the grocery store - unless you are fortunate to live where it grows and you have greater access to it, I highly recommend that you try it.

It is somewhat pricey for its size ... a little larger than a golf ball, and very wrinkly on the outside (when it's ripe), but worth the experience. And, hey. The cost of one passion fruit from the grocery store is certainly a whole lot less than a trip to Hawaii! So, splurge a little if you get the chance!

We also sampled figs. Now we just need to find the right glass colors that will work well with some of these pink-ish fruits.

Here I thought it was difficult to get pink grapefruit color way back in the beginning of the year... try matching glass colors to passion fruit and figs!

Actually, I think we're getting pretty close... See the photos for November Fruit of the Month!


But... back at the ranch... it was still October...

Kathy brought her orange place mat for inspiration and reference, and she also brought a plate of lemon bars that were superb.

Sorry... I neglected to get a photo of the lemon bars, and I still need to get the recipe for them! Trust me... they were beautiful and tasty, and I'm hoping to add them to my Christmas cookie trays this year if she'll share her recipe with us.

I'll post the recipe here when I get it!




Now... take a look at the dishes that were made...

The photo at the left shows the finished pieces. "Before" photos are below.

In photo, clockwise from 12 o'clock high: Patty's lemon, Sara's lime, Kathy's orange, Dorothy's orange.






Dorothy's orange - before.











Kathy's orange - before.

Stringers used to divide orange into sections.









Patty's lemon - before. Note the use of stringers for the pulp in the flesh of the lemon. Frit used to divide lemon into sections.