hecticium

Cranberry yoghurt cake

2012-01-27T21:06:00.001Z

A little friday night baking - cranberry yoghurt cake/muffins a la Clothide

2012-01-27T15:22:00.000Z

Some dinky little butterflies fresh from the kiln

Atomic pebbles

2012-01-24T13:10:00.003Z

I have been reflecting on the molecular pebbles and thinking towards making atomic pebbles guided by actual/estimated atomic size and the number of electrons and which orbitals they might be in, ultimately aiming for a full periodic table. In the course of my Internet wanderings/wonderings I have found some great resources: Web elements have a nice spherical representation of atomic size on a graph (click on scatter plot under the periodic table) and Crystal Maker have a fine periodic table even! The chemistry consortium have a brilliant guide to 'electron habitat' (click on an individual element for its details) - have a look at Astatine as an example.

Bacteria watchglasses

2012-01-20T09:52:00.002Z

I have been having a bit of fun with illustrations inspired by the book An introduction to the bacteria and its cousin An introduction to the algae, both circa 1950. Having made little porcelain watchglass shaped discs I have used transfers from the lovely Fotoceramic people to apply the drawings to the discs. They look like I'm peering at them down a high powered microscope, not quite getting the whole organism in view.

Network node number nine

2012-01-13T16:06:00.000Z

In the latest firings I also made earth network node #9 which is imprinted with a plastic spides - you can make out the eyes on the picture and used some gravel from Helsinki - collected by Ada, Laura and Erich. They mentioned that there was even elemental copper near the collection site! The gravel was a pink crystalline type, quite different from the other samples I have had so far.

Mini jelly baby cakes

2012-01-13T14:15:00.002Z

N fancied cake last night so we did some miniture baking - tiny cupcakes in petit four cases with a mini swirl of icing and some jelly babies on the top - they're mini ones too! Their destination (the ones N didn't eat) was the lab for Kat's final day.

Time for tea?

2012-01-12T17:43:00.001Z

I have been having fun with porcelain again! Here are a few of the latest creations - gearing up for Valentine's day mostly, but also some ideas from New Orleans!

earth network

2012-01-08T18:11:00.001Z

The earth network was convieved a little while ago as an exploration of how soil types could be used to glaze little thumb pots, which I used to make nodes for a network. The connections (edges) I have puzzled over and wondered about using the connections to me, as creator/curator, with the people who donated soil or the time when the samples/donations of soil came to me. But I have settled on using the geological definitions/types of rocks at the location where the samples were taken.

This is fairly easy for the UK as the British Geological Survey have a fabulous database that gives information on both superficial and bedrock deposits. The samples are most likely from the superficial band but I could only find limited information for my international nodes, plus the connections were simpler for the bedrock geology, so I have gone for that. Above I have made coloured nodes from the geological maps too, and once I print it out I can put the porcelain nodes on top. The picture below show which nodes are where - for those with nodes your number is on the bottom! The network was drawn using cytoscape and the nodes were made in photoshop.

Happy New Year

2012-01-01T07:17:00.003Z

Gingerbread crawfish!

2011-12-31T04:18:00.003Z

At the Saints game

2011-12-27T05:11:00.003Z

Merry Christmas from New Orleans!

2011-12-25T18:45:00.002Z

Christmas colours

2011-12-22T09:36:00.001Z

As we're off to see the Laughing Geos at Christmas we had a little parcel opening in LB last weekend. Nick gave me a lovely selection of new colours (pink, clear sky, British racing green, lemon zest and cherry) for staining porcelain from Scarva and I got a chance to try them out (in a one step firing!) this week. Super exciting - and they all look lovely, though the pink seems not to have worked, which is quite normal. Sometimes the composition of the clay stops the colour from coming out.

Sprouts & gingerbreadmen

2011-12-13T13:21:00.001Z

I opened up the kiln again this week to see some lovely creations. Above some more experimental glazes - this time on some little cruets - I think they look remarkably like sprouts. And then to continue the Christmassy theme there were gingerbreadmen in porcelain - complete this time!

Christmas cupcakes

2011-12-10T16:09:00.001Z

Another fabulous (though fiddly) cutter from kitbox - I'm loving these snowflakes, I had a hand though from Mr H!

pink porcelain

2011-12-02T11:20:00.001Z

Yesterday I was at a conference in London and managed to squeeze in a quick trip to see the Grayson Perry The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman exhibition at the British Museum. I had been tempted to go after see a few of his pieces on BBC4's History of Ceramics series. But I didn't expect to be totally blown away! The ceramics themselves were fantastic - such depth - both of meaning and decoration/craftsmanship. Layer upon layer of different techniques - scraffito, slips, glazes, transfers, casts, lustres...all on one piece. And the juxtapositions of the museum collections and his objects fitted perfectly - working very well with the title of the exhibition. Highly thought provoking - an incredibly intelligent man.

While I was away Nick was in charge of the kiln, so it was very lovely to be able to open it up to some bits and bobs when I eventually got home. I had been trying out some colour blends with pink and yellow porcelains. I couldn't resist taking a picture this morning with the early morning light coming through the kitchen window.

Cambio

2011-11-28T11:08:00.002Z

At the weekend we went down to Guildford to celebrate two birthdays. We went to see the Gerhard Richter exhibition at Tate Modern and then had a very fabulous dinner at Cambio - delicious delicious fish followed by the ooziest chocolate fondant ever!

green skin glaze

2011-11-22T22:19:00.001Z

We had a super couple of days in Stow-on-the-Wold and then I was straight back to ceramics. I picked up this pebble, which was an experiment with two glazes - I love the wrinkly nature of the dry green - its almost like a separate skin on the outside on the shiny white one underneath. More experimenting to get underway!

Cakes for pudsey

2011-11-17T20:32:00.001Z

Tomorrow is Children in Need and rather than sitting in a bath of beans I have make come Pudsey inspired cupcakes for the DH bake sale & competition!

Tonight at ceramics....

2011-11-15T22:17:00.002Z

One of my fellow students, Pete, had brought Ken (above) as a model and decided he could become a resident in the studio, but first we decided to protect his modesty!! Tonight I had a lovely surprise as my first birch bark imprint test had made it out of the glaze firing - its just got black iron oxide and one half unglazed, the other half with transparent glaze. I'm pretty pleased - next I need to decide what to make with the pattern on the outside!

Handmade Christmas Decoration Exchange

2011-11-15T16:55:00.000Z

Look what has just arrived in the post - these beautiful little parcels are from Amy at ElevenAM. We are taking part in Emma's Handmade Christmas Decoration Exchange from Craft Tonic. And when I unwrapped them they had these gorgeous heart-Christmas tree decorations in them - they'll be up on my tree as soon as it gets here!

World Cycle Challenge & Mark Beaumont

2011-11-14T22:16:00.002Z

Its not often you get to see a picture of me - but here I am with Mark Beaumont. N & I are just back from Mark's talk about his new venture - getting lots of people to cycle around the world with World Cycle Challenge. I am so tempted to 'do a Dervla' but I really don't think my new boss will let me have 9months off! But it looks amazing - may be N & I could do a leg or two......Whilst there I met Mike, who's doing the Global Bike Race - 20 men & women plan to race around the world starting next February!! Looks like the two trips will have quite different routes.

All set up with @undomsci Helen

2011-11-12T09:48:00.001Z

Kings Norton Craft Fair

2011-11-11T09:50:00.001Z

I was putting some of the last touches together for the Kings Norton Craft Fair at St Nicolas Place last night. Its on from10-2 this Saturday - tomorrow- and if you need some directions this is the post code : B38 8RU.

Blue pots

2011-11-10T13:10:00.001Z

The kiln was opened again this morning - in readiness for the Kings Norton craft fair this Saturday I had been expanding my stocks. However I also had a couple of new things in there too - and here they are - some small (about 10cm high) blue pots. They're porcelain but are coloured with the fabulous intensity of cobalt carbonate and have a black 'kohl' line at the top there - that was me playing with the underglaze pencil again and I really like it. They're glazed inside, so are definitely waterproof - the high fired porcelain is normally waterproof but this is added security. And they're really smooth on the outside - I wax lyrical! I love them!!

2011-11-06T21:29:00.001Z

I had completely forgotten about this! In Brussels airport I found Nutella weekly packs, with a mini jar for everyday of a week. However I did resist buying any.

Fireworks @ Kings Heath Cricket Club

2011-11-06T20:40:00.000Z

Lost in Lace & City Choir's 90th Birthday Concert

2011-11-06T15:48:00.001Z

After another busy Saturday morning we decided that on the way to City Choir's 90th birthday concert that we'd pop into the new BMAG exhibition - Lost in Lace. Based around the ideas of the holes, spaces, boundaries and structures of lace we saw an abundance of fascinating and beautiful pieces - mostly in white or black, traditional colours of lace. It really got me thinking about other holes and spaces - like those between molecules.....evidently been thinking too much about those naughty neutrinos that travel faster than light.

After all that it was decidedly dinner time so we went for a potter in Brindley place - Carluccio's was full but this gave us the opportunity to try out Piccolino's. We had a hard time choosing as everything on the menu sounded so yummy! The fresh fish menu really caught our attention though and we have scallops and dover sole - simple but excellent.

At the Symphony Hall we settled into our seats and enjoyed Dvorjak's Te Deum and Janacek's Taras Bulba and Glagolytic mass. All was fabulous, particularly the mighty sound of the organ - and as it was their birthday there was even cake afterwards in the bar!

Moo

2011-11-04T09:35:00.001Z

My new Moo mini cards arrived yesterday - so that was a super nice surprise when I got back from Italy - and they're just in time for St Nic's craft fair next week!

Piacenza

2011-11-03T21:36:00.001Z

2011-11-02T21:05:00.001Z

Tonight I find myself in Piacenza, which was planned just not a lot in advance! Having had a tasty dinner in the hotel restaurant (lamb chops followed by plenty of biscotti) I went for a stroll through the darkened streets. There was hardly a soul about and as I clipped along I could hear strains of music coming from what looked like a sports hall glimpsed through high 16th centuary windows. Further along I found the centro storico with its magnificent cobbles the size of paving slabs and towering covered market. I love the ancient hearts if Italian towns and tonight was no different - I was particularly taken with the bookend men astride horses on either side of the central piazza, darkly resplendent in capes of night.

Christmas craft fair!

2011-11-01T17:45:00.001Z

Just gearing up for the village craft fair! Come along and say hello!

Kiln opening

2011-11-01T10:30:00.001Z

Along with the crazy plumbing I also had the kiln on yesterday. There were a few molecules in it, a petri dish exploring underglaze pencils, node number 7 from the Earth Network - this one is from Sarah in Leith and has a plectrum impressed into it, some beautiful shaped objects inspired by several autumnal walks and the first of the snowball ware inspired wreaths and one made from butterflies too. And beacuase it was Halloween a wee bat seems to have sneaked in too!

A day off

2011-10-31T20:17:00.000Z

Nick has some days off that he needs to take before the end of the year, which is a rather nice thing, so we planned to have a nice Monday, pootling through town, having a nice lunch and going to the cinema. But as with all best laid plans it didn't quite happen like that. We had noticed that the tap in the kitchen had developed a small leak and upon investigation this morning I found that the water was leaking down into the cupboard below and directly on to the plug for the dishwasher. So in my wisdom I thought - get out the B&Q book and have a look on the Internet, it can't be that hard to sort out a washer! Well, within an hour we had figured out how to take the mixer tap apart and removed the cartridge (which contained the ceramic washers), to find that there was a crack in the cartridge casing. Pottering down to Homebase no cartridges were to be found but happily they sent me on to Majit's up in Moseley. There I got lots of advice - including the immortal 'you won't get that back together' in regard to the cartridge now sitting in bits on the counter top. I meant a magnificent man, who by his own words was 'at the end of the line' (dying of terminal cancer), who spent half an hour telling me how to install a tap and picking out the bits I would need, all the while getting later and later for his own appointment. Back home, kitted out with a new set of taps and some flexible pipes, I dug out the pipe cutter and blow torch I had bought for plumbing I was talked out of in the house in Acocks Green. I even found the right adapters and we were ready to go. More B&Q book reading, a youtube video and an hour later (plus a bit of swearing!) and the taps were in place. But everything was leaking. So a liberal quantity of PTFE tape was applied to all screw joints and the leaking stopped. Isn't it amazing that a small amount of tape is the only thing between a flood and a working water system!

We did get time for a quick expedition into town for coffee too.

All Hallow's Eve cupcakes

2011-10-30T20:19:00.001Z

I was super excited when this bat cutter arrived from kit box. But I held it together until today when I could set about making Halloween cupcakes - with a smidgeon of orange puree and orange essence in the sponge and a little orange essence in the orange coloured icing, they are very tasty!!

Red House Glass Cone

2011-10-29T21:35:00.002+01:00

Today we went over to visit Laura in Stourbridge and popped into the Red House Glass Cone where they were blowing Halloween inspired glass - cats and pumpkins and spiders. We had a super time watching the pieces appear from the molten glass and then enjoyed some yummy lunch and cakes in the crystal tea rooms.

Lake panorama

2011-10-28T15:56:00.003+01:00

Having had a play with the new version of Photoshop I present the panorama of the lake above Kilpishalle where I walked with Dave in Finland. It was so tranquil up there, and there were lots of blueberries, croberries & lingonberries!

30 items

2011-10-26T15:01:00.002+01:00

The laughingsnail etsy site reached 30 items today. This seems to be a magic number - though I am not sure why, may be it indicates a certain quantity of stock and choice to buyers? Well fingers crossed it helps with a few sales!

Eucalyptus flower bud?

2011-10-19T21:01:00.001+01:00

When we were down at RHS Wisley recently we found a eucalyptus tree with these super little but odd green spiky things on it (on the right!). There were also the regular nuts - so we did wonder what they were. After a fairly extensive trawl of the Internet I think they might have been flower buds ready and waiting for next year. I found them fascinating and really inspirational. So I commandeered some green porcelain (with Sue's blessing I might add) and after a little exploration I fashioned this objet, with a texture and white dusting over the surface in imitation of the 'planty thing'.

Black cherry tomatoes

2011-10-19T09:55:00.001+01:00

With the chilly weather upon us we harvested all our tomatoes - a variety called black cherry. They're very tasty but sort of chocolate coloured (the picture makes them look rather too red). Rather than pickling this year we made some passatta - which was also an interesting chocolate colour!!

Etsy front page

2011-10-18T09:51:00.003+01:00

Oh my! My treasury made it to the front page of etsy!

Glass fusing at home

2011-10-17T07:40:00.002+01:00

Over the weekend I have completed a small experiment/test run of the kiln for fusing glass. I had some off cuts of glass for making stained glass (which meant I didn't know what COE it had and wasn't going to start mixing colours together or making anything special). These I made a little double stack of and popped onto some thinfire paper in the kiln (this stops the glass from welding itself to the kiln shelf). Then I set the program and walked away. 24h later, holding my breath and hoping I hadn't ruined the kiln, I opened it up. And phew!! Everything looked as it should! The glass had fused and the edges were nicely rounded. There is a little pulling along the long sides but that's probably the glass trying to get to the magic 6mm it likes so much. So I think we declare the experiment a success! And a progression can be made to better glass and design :-)

It's a ......

2011-10-16T11:18:00.001+01:00

...well now, the answer to that is a secret til tomorrow! Kathrine is expecting a little baby in the new year and she found out the gender last week. So I have made her some baby reveal cupcakes to tell the others in the lab what it will be. They're vanilla sponge with a little bit of cake taken out that has been filled-in in an appropriate coloured (!) blob of icing. Then I covered that up with plain icing and some rather jolly balloons!

Chocolate button cupcakes for Chocolate week

2011-10-15T17:56:00.001+01:00

This week has been chocolate week and I have been so busy it seems I haven't had a moment to myself. However I have managed to make some button moulds and cast 'chocolate buttons' using candy melts in turquoise and red. We had hoped to do this for the wedding but in the end we bought some vinatge 'chocolate buttons' from Hotel Chocolat - which with the fiddliness that I experienced this week was a good thing! Here I have used the buttons to decorate fluffy-light chocolate cupcakes topped with Dairy Milk icing. The final touch was a drizzle of dark chocolate. So I think that pretty much ticks all the chocolate boxes!! However Nick & I had one at lunch tme and discovered there could be too much of a good thing. We will need to find some willing helpers to eat all 12 of them!!

Snowball ware

2011-10-12T11:20:00.001+01:00

I was checking out Kate Malone's creations the other day and came across her interpretation of 18th centuary Meissen snowball ware. Having a few flower icing decoration cutters I thought I'd have a go at making a little decoration/wreath. So here it is as I have finished applying the last flower, its off for bisque firing now - I hope all the flowers reamin attached!

The second picture on this blog article shows an amazing original snowball ware vase! It was on exhibition at the Gardiner Museum of Ceramics in Toronto - which is worth a visit if you're in the area.

Tattooths?

2011-10-12T10:17:00.003+01:00

At the weekend we were discussing why people didn't get tooth decorations - except diamonds and gold, no blue teeth or tattoos evident but this morning I came across this webpage - tooth tattoo (or tattooths as we thought they should be called) - they're not in the mouth but still there you are!

Presumably people don't stain (on purpose) or tattoo their teeth because it looks unhealth or leads to them having problems/cavities/falling out.....

Dahilas at RHS Wisley in the trails field

2011-10-10T11:48:00.000+01:00

Kota timelapse

2011-10-03T20:27:00.003+01:00

On Saturday evening we had a great time in the kota - a wooden structure where there was a wonderful fire. We pottered in and out going for saunas and then all sat round the fire and ate smoked fish, chorizo and manchego cheese, Timi from the school in Kilpisjarvi had us singing West Indian songs too!

In the Lab again!

2011-09-29T10:35:00.008+01:00

Here we are in the lab again at Field Notes - Luis is giving us a talk about immunology and at the end we dissappear for lunch!

Aurora Borealis at Kilpisjarvi

2011-09-28T20:50:00.001+01:00

I'm up in the very north west of Finland this week on a bioart workshop. For the last two nights we have been really lucky to see spectacular Northern Lights! The red dot in the foreground above is one of the other photographers, which adds a wonderful sense of scale.
We have been acquiring the Finnish traditions by eating great local food and taking trips between the sauna and the lake for a swim!

In the lab with the Biological Milieu group

2011-09-28T09:05:00.002+01:00

Autumn crocus in Highbury park

2011-09-23T12:08:00.001+01:00

Every year I potter down to Highbury to gaze at the beautiful autumn crocus (crocuses/ croci!) and they didn't disappoint this year either!

More nodes

2011-09-10T10:43:00.001+01:00

So I might be getting married today but I also got the joy of opening up the kiln! Above are the little beach huts I made for Liz - I think they're super cute! And then below we have some things I am trying out for the Christmas fair I am doing with Helen in November and the latest additions to the Earth Network.

Love & Happiness pebbles

#6 Fleur de lys ring/trinket and New Orleans earth

# 4 Elephant brooch and Guildford earth and chalk (which is a great effect)

#3 USB port and Long Bennington earth

#5 Flower charm and Britsol earth.

Its tomorrow!

2011-09-09T13:28:00.001+01:00

The cakes are made and we took all the stuff (!) down to Redhouse Barn yesterday!

Anitcurate 6

2011-09-08T13:19:00.001+01:00

Last night we popped in to the final Anticurate exhibition where all the submitted artworks were on display - it was like going to the Summer Exhibition with the walls and cases packed! And here's the pebbles again and Dougal having a look!

Dinner at Cote

2011-08-29T17:02:00.001+01:00

Tasty tea with M&D at Cote in Guildford. Tomato tart, chicory salad, veal escalope & steak frite with a lovely 'quaffable' fleurie.

Anticurate 4

2011-08-26T19:51:00.001+01:00

Another trip down to the MAC for Anticurate 4! This time curated by the lovely ladies of Young at Heart I made it into the exhibition again :)

Dark cell culture

2011-08-24T10:53:00.003+01:00

This image is from this Jstor article http://www.jstor.org/stable/3651440

I am reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot at the moment. Its a really interesting book about the most widely used and first human cell line HeLas, and the history of the woman they came from and her family's struggles. Last night I read a section about 'the immortal chicken heart' that was grown by Nobel prize winner, and fairly loopy, Alexis Carrel. He believed that light would stop cell culture from working and so had his lab painted black and the staff wear black lab coats, the only light coming from a sky light, as you can see in the picture. This is fairly hilarious from a modern prospective until I remembered that I did something similar a few years ago. We were getting a glutathione drop in our cells and didn't know why and it was suggested that the flavins in the monamine oxidases were reacting to the fluorecent lighting in the cell culture suite. So I did a few experiments in the dark (3am) and under red light! Of course this wasn't the reason at all, and now also hilarious, but it made me laugh and remember last night while I was reading the book! (The reason for the drop was disolved oxygen in the end).

Latest ceramics - more pebbles, birdhouses and nodes

2011-08-24T10:01:00.005+01:00

The kiln was on again last night and I photographed all of the molecular pebbles I have made so far! I also made some more bird houses - one turquoise and one blue & white.

And I have made the first two nodes for the earth network:
1. Birmingham earth + toothpaste lid

and 2. Leicester earth and a button

Trying out Cafe blend - yummy!

2011-08-21T14:14:00.001+01:00

Orange Meringue Cupcakes

2011-08-19T09:40:00.001+01:00

Yesterday I bought a bag or tangerines and they were so sour that I couldn't eat them. So remembering the lemon meringue cupcake I had when we were in Cornwall I thought I try and make some orange meringue cupcakes! Easy peasy - regular cake mix (2 eggs, 100g sugar, 100g butter, 165g flour plus 1/2 teaspoon baking powder and soda each) with a teaspoon of orange essence, 2 tablespoons very tart freshly squeeze tangerine juice and the grated zest of 3 tangerines and a tablespoon of plain yoghurt to loosen it up. I put that in cases and then in the oven (180°C) for 15min until cooked through. I whisked up 4 egg whites til quite stiff and then whisked in 100g sugar. Once that cakes were cooked I popped 1/2 teaspoon of orange curd on the top, then piped on the meringue. Then they went back in the oven for 7min to brown. Very yummy!!

Down at the exhibition

2011-08-17T21:17:00.003+01:00

2011-08-16T18:08:00.002+01:00

STOP PRESS: The molecular pebbles just made it into Anticurate 3 at MAC! We'll have to pop down to see what the exhibition looks like tomorrow when the opening happens.

More Molecular Pebbles

2011-08-16T11:18:00.002+01:00

Here are all the little molecules - now out of the kiln. I was quite impressed I didn't weld anything to the shelves!

Earth Network

2011-08-10T19:13:00.003+01:00

I had an idea and I was wondering if anyone would like to help me realise it:

I'd like to make a network that represents the connections between people I know and those that they know and so on. That's nothing new really and is exactly what facebook and its like do.

But what I'd like to do is make the nodes that represent the people out of porcelain and glaze them with an earth/soil sample* from where the person is from, and to impress something into the node to represent that person (for instance a lid from a toothpaste tube, a pebble, a leaf etc etc).

*this would have to be earth or soil and not shop bought compost as that is mostly organic matter and will just burn away rather than impart any mineral conent and potentially colour to the glaze.

They could then be arranged in a number of ways - location, connection by friendship, time of arrival with me - any of the LATCH principles would be great.

If you'd like to take part please wing me an email/contact me by facebook - I'll need from you a earth/soil sample about the size of quarter of a ping pong/table tennis ball (please make sure its not poo of any kind, that's not funny!!!) and the location it came from, something to impress into the clay, your name and if you want a node for yourself a return address (also if you want your impression material back).

Potting at home

2011-08-10T18:54:00.003+01:00

The kiln arrived a little while ago and after a few false starts (and a new printed circuit board) I am up and running! I have put a couple of firings through now - for transfers, a bisque firing and a glaze firing to test out a whole bunch of colours I am trying out. So this week I went a little bit mad and made 20 molecular pebbles, including the 'macromolecular' version at the front right. Even Nick had a go. The shelves they're on here are a new addition to the garage too - good old Ikea!!

Pumkinseed Mole

2011-08-03T20:46:00.001+01:00

This was a recipe I found on the Ramekins website way back in 2006 after I got back from Mexico but sadly its not there any more. But I have a print out!! So here we are the nicest mole I can make and its pretty easy.

Ingredients:

For the chicken & stock

big pinch of salt

1 small onion chopped

2 chicken breasts

For the sauce

100g pumpkin seeds, freshly toasted (4-5min in the oven at 200C)

large can tomatillos (kindly provided by the laughinggeos in NOLA), drained and rinsed

2 green chillies

5 lettuce leaves

1 shallot, peeled and roughly diced

3 cloves garlic, peeled

3 large sprigs coriander

dash of ground cumin

big pinch of black pepper

Cover the chicken breast and onion in boiling water, add the salt and simmer for 12min until the chicken is cooked. Remove the chicken and slice it. Save the stock - straining out any onioy bits.

Put in a blender all the other ingredients with about 100ml of the saved stock. Blitz and then put into a pan. Bring the sauce to the boil and add the chicken, simmer for 15min and then serve with rice for a super yummy tea!

Stratford

2011-07-25T14:58:00.002+01:00

On Saturday we all piled down to Stratford upon Avon to picnic on the banks of the river with Naomi for her birthday celebrations. The sun came out and the boys even hired a boat and meandered down the river for a bit. In the evening we headed into the newly refurbed Royal Shakespare Theatre for a tremendous performance of Macbeth - lots of (fake!) blood and interesting alterations - the made the witches into rather ghoulish children ghosts. Really brilliant!!

Information design at Central St Martins

2011-07-18T18:05:00.004+01:00

Last week I was on a course at CSM to learn about information design with the wonderful Angela Morelli, you can find her TED talk here. Using cut and paste (no computers at all!) we learnt how to make information more interesting and several great ways to generate interesting graphics - from maps to charts, from words to numbers. In the slide show you can see various things we created - bar graphs of the niceness and utility of cups we had brought with us, the classes favourite foods displayed as a menu using a script made from their handwriting samples, a giant graph showing how expensive a weeks course is (!) and my favourtie piece is the map I made recording my travels on foot through the week. Its drawn on tracing paper so that when its closed the stacked images show how the routes changed and accumulated over time. The little pocket the map fits into is the map (wrapping paper from Stanfords) I used to trace my journeys from - its from 1947, but all the right places are there!

The course was fab - and while I was in London I took the chance to meet up with lots of friends, on the South Bank with Mum & Dad, and with Kim, Chris & Katie, with Sarah at the Wellcome Collection Dirt on Disgust evening (that's where those fabulous chemistry set lights are btw) and I even met some new folk at the Arts Catalyst's Kosmica night!And of course there was time for cupcakes! At both Peyton and Byrne and at Bea's of Bloomsbury.

Life & Death of Marina Abramovic at the Lyric theatre

2011-07-09T23:19:00.002+01:00

We've just come out of the world premiere of the Life and Death of Marina Abramovic. What a performance!! The stage was set with three resting 'corpses' set amongst red lit bones with black dogs prowling through them as we entered the auditorium, a deep bass note sounding. As the play started Willem Defoe took us throuh her childhood, which itself was harrowing, and scenes were perfomed by the starstudded cast. There was Serbian folk-like singing and powerful songs from Anthony (of and the Johnsons) which reverberated in our ears. The stageing and lighting were stunning - very clean and crisp. Our attention was rapt, even when the man adjacent passed out and needed to be moved! After the interval the cast sang en masse, and we heard more stories from Marina's life. The performance came to a close with three angelesque beings rising from the stage to thunderous applause. Phenomenal!

Note: if you want to have a peak at the performance have a look at this youtube video

Molecular pebbles

2011-07-07T10:44:00.001+01:00

Down at mac I have been having a lot of fun making these funny little pebbles in porcelain. They make me think of molecular models! I shall have to make some more when the kiln arrives!

Wednesday Cake Night

2011-07-06T20:43:00.002+01:00

We had a meeting at work today and I mistook, at a distance, the little choux pastries for coconut macaroons. But it meant that I then had a hankering for a coconut macaroon so I decided I would pick up the ingredients on the way home and make some. I also bought some ground almonds to make an orange and almond cake - not quite the same as the one I had in St Ives but atill pretty tasty!

Talisker beef

2011-07-05T16:26:00.003+01:00

This is a very yummy and quick recipe. Buy the best piece of siroloin you can!

For 2 people
225g beef sirloin steak, trimmed and cut into strips
1 tablespoon chilli flakes and peppercorns , crushed (that's total not each!)
3 tablespoons Talisker or other very good whiskey
3 tablespoons light soy sauce
4 spring onions sliced
2 peppers, red/green, sliced
1 tablespoon veg oil
1 tablespoon seseme oil
120g angel hair pasta

Mix the beef, chilli, whisky and soy sauce together and marinade at room temperature for 30min (or more in the fridge). Cook the angel hiar pasta according to the instructions (usually 2-4min in boiling salted water), then drain and add the seseme oil. In another pan heat the veg oil and fry the spring onions and peppers for 2 min. Add the beef and stirfry for another 2 min until just cooked, then add any remaining marinade and cook for a minute. Then bring everything together and serve! Very good if you're hungry and in a rush (hence the dodgy photo) - for instance after climbing!!

St Ives part 4

2011-07-03T15:12:00.002+01:00

We'd booked ourselves into Alba for a tasting menu at 8 so we thought a bit of exercising in the shape of a little cliff walk would be a good idea. So we headed off down a winding road again and left the car at Levant Mine. Sadly it wasn't steaming as the 1990's boiler had broken! We had a good explore and then joined the first tour of the day, learning all about the workings of the mine and its good fortunes until the early 1900s. Then we ventured further towards Botallack mine before heading back for a rest on the beach! Dinner at Alba was very delicious - the menu was matched by a series of Cloudy Bay wines from New Zealand, the most interesting being the Te Koko which was a Sauvignon Blanc aged in oak barrels. WHile we dined we watched the RNLI whiz out on a little zodiak, there was much interest by everyone around the harbour but it seemed that there was no medical emergency as the doctor came and went fairly rapidly. Needless to say we were the last people in the restaurant and definitely could have done with some trolleys to help with the full tummies up the hill!!

St Ives part 3

2011-07-02T14:57:00.003+01:00

As it was Saturday we decided to take it a bit more slowly so we headed out after another superb breakfast to Tate St Ives. We played with the balloons filling the sea-facing galleries by Martin Creed, (Half the Air in a Given Space) and took part in Roman Ondak's Measuring the Universe by having our heights recorded on the wall - we were decidedly in the average streak! There was lots to see and we rounded it off with a cup of tea and flourless orange & almond cake on the roof terrace. Then a potter through many galleries finally ending up at the Barbara Hepworth museum, where the lady custodian invited us to trial our hands through the water in one sculpture to play with the light. A light snack of glistening Cornish strawberries overlooking the harbour before a quick change and back for dinner at Sims Restaurant. We'd certainly been spoilt before, because their food was really good but just not quite as excellent as everywhere else we had been. It was scallops and bacon or mackerel pate followed by lamb cutlets or cod in a creamy sauce. We declined dessert but had ice creams watching the biathlon competitors complete their race on the far side of the harbour having swum from Carbis Bay!

St Ives part 2

2011-07-01T14:48:00.003+01:00

It was a stunning sunny morning so we decided to go for a spin down the very windy roads to Land's End (the most westerly mainland point), we arrived before any potential hoards but missed any end to enders too, so it was quiet and we got a little stroll in along the cliff. Then off to Mousehole for a mid morning ice cream and on to the Lizard peninsular (the most southerly maniland point), which was much nicer and more rustic and charming than Land's End. We walked down to the lighthouse and into the little harbour for a scramble over the rocks. Finally we headed down even smaller roads to Glendurgan garden and its amazing maze and tasty lemon meringue muffins! Back at the Nook we had an hour to put up the feeties before dinner at Saltwater. Another delicious meal - baked scallops or scallops with bacon jam, seafood risotto or Cornish crab linguine followed by chocolate mousse with honeycomb or pannacotta!

St Ives part 1

2011-06-30T14:42:00.002+01:00

Its a long way to St Ives, so we set off first thing in the morning and poottled down the M5 and then A30, taking a little break to Yandles, finally arriving around 5. We had a cup of tea in the Nook, where we were staying before having an explore - what a beautiful place. We chose Rhurbabs for tea - exceedingly yummy - mussles, baked chicken with sweet potato wedges & salad and then a rhubarb crumble cake for dessert!

Winning!!

2011-06-26T15:10:00.002+01:00

What a week! On Tuesday I had (the day from Hell) an interview and a big presentation to give. The interview was really hard and to be honest I thought that I had completely blown it so I headed off to the presentation thinking I'll give this my best shot and see if I can find a job else where. So I was really surprised to find a message when I got home to say they'd like to give me the job! Of course I said yes and next week I will meet with the head of the department to finalise a contract and duties - fingers crossed it'll all work out! The newest member of the School of Dentistry lecturing/academic staff.

When applying I said if I got it I would buy a kiln - might be a bit surprising but then I have been hankering after one for ages and over the last 6months down at the MAC I have been making all manner of strange and interesting objects. Today I got some time to go to the Earth and Fire Ceramic Fair at Rufford Park and I did indeed buy a kiln. The lovely people at Potclays are building it for me and I can pick it up in about 2 weeks. Its dinky - so I can get it in the car and can run it off the normal electricity supply. Starting small!!

While I was at the fair I bought a ticket for the tombola and I never win but I did this time! I am delighted to now own this pretty pot made by Katherine Winfrey! Back at home I harvested our burgeoning crop of raspberries into it. Fabulous all round really!

Gardener's World

2011-06-19T15:19:00.003+01:00

We had a super time yesterday at Gardener's World Live at the NEC. Mum was volunteering for the RHS and we had time to potter about all the beautiful plants - I managed to come home with just 2 - a cephalotus (Australian picther plant) and a tiny hosta called snowy mouse ears. Wonderful fun! Then for Father's day we popped down to Highbury Hall where they had a bird display going on - and nearly got eaten by the biggest vulture I had ever seen - she could have gone off with my car!!

Anglesey

2011-06-11T11:02:00.002+01:00

And back at Easter we took a trip to Anglesey with Jean and Dick - visiting Amwlch, Tregarth, Plas Newydd, Parys Mountain and South Stack

Grasmere

2011-06-10T10:55:00.003+01:00

At the beginning of May Nick, Charlie and I went for lots of walks around Grasmere - Silver Howe, Helvelyn and Helm Crag - some more pictures on Charlie's blog too. There was also the start of the use of the Tom Tom

Bio-ceramics

2011-06-07T15:37:00.004+01:00

I have been toying with ideas around the use of plasticware in the lab for a little while. I am struck by how durable yet disposable they are. To highlight this I have been making porcelain casts, which are delicate and not so disposable, of the humble Petri dish and trying different glazes on them to represent biological samples - either eukaryotic or prokaryotic cells - growing on them. I particularly like the one above where I have used a very tiny sliver of red glass, which seems to have pooled in small colony like patches. I have also been wondering if there is enough iron in biological preparations - for example bacteria brown on iron rich agar - to make a glaze. Below I have used Porphromonas gingivalis, which is fairly iron rich - I think a hint of brown can be seen! Next I would like to track the route plastics take through the lab - from pristine box fresh to autoclaved distortion.

Barcelona - beautiful food

2011-05-09T12:22:00.003+01:00

Dinner at El Xalet on Montjuic - a special place for a special 70th birthday dinner for Jean

Some of the delicious tapas we had - this was at Taller de Tapas in Born, totally demolished!

Yo! Sushi

2011-04-17T17:59:00.002+01:00

Yesterday we had a big old wander through Brum and ended up at Yo! Sushi for lunch. We'd both never been in before so it was a great little adventure - yummy yummy fishy lunch!

A trip to Hay

2011-04-17T17:47:00.003+01:00

Last Saturday we took a drive in the sunshine down to Upton upon Severn to visit Andy at Upton Wines, principly to check out what wines he might have for the wedding. Then as we were halfway there we carried on down to Hay on Wye for a little potter and a nice lunch at Richard Booth's Cafe at the back of the book shop. N had a yummy pizzetta with eggs on top. Along the way we found a tree keeping warm!

Action Weaver and Curious about Craft

2011-03-29T15:54:00.003+01:00

...came down to the University today to give us a taste of weaving with Travis Meinolf's super easy to use back loom. Helen and I had a super lunch time creating a little section for what will become a blanket made by the people of Birmingham. The one in the picture (with Travis) was made by the people of San Francisco.

(here's a bit I made!!)

San Diego

2011-03-22T16:17:00.003Z

After my jaunt to New Orleans I headed across to San Diego for the IADR conference. A busy busy time but we had a chance to discover Chocolat and Pinkberry. Fabulous crepes and frozen yoghurt!

New Orleans weekend 2

2011-03-15T02:55:00.003Z

Today D and I went out of town to the plantations and checked out Houmas house and Oak Alley meandering our way back along the edge of the river. No armadillos spotted but it was a super drive and we got really close to the train going over the Huey Long bridge next t us!

New Orleans weekend

2011-03-15T00:14:00.003Z

I headed off to New Orleans on Saturday and by Sunday morning we were all pottering around the French Quarter! First stop brunch at the Court of the two Sisters - beautifully draped in wisteria and delicate jazz being played in the courtyard as we ate a tasty brunch of eggs benedict, New Orleans King cake and crawfish. Of course we then had to stretch our legs and had a good browse around the Quarter before heading back to D&S's house for a spruce up before a special tea at NOLA - delicious fish and fabulous desserts, even a little becandled ice cream for me. A super day!

Laboratory Life Exhibition

2011-03-04T15:43:00.005Z

All things come to an end but the exhibition of Laboratory Life is still on til Monday and there will be a public forum tomorrow if you're in the area. Its picked up quite a bit of interest already! Check or wired and culture 24.

Giant agar dish and inoculation of the dress

2011-02-26T18:45:00.004Z

Today we've had a really busy day. Sarah & Brian made 10L of agar and poured it into our homemade petri dish. The Chinese shop even ran out of clolourless agar so we had some yellow, green and red too, which is kind of exciting looking! Then we made our embroidered dress damp and pressed it into the agar. Finally we harvested all our bacteria (that we'd grown on other agar dishes) and innoculated the dress. Pretty pooped now!

Lots and lots of embroidery and some bacteria!

2011-02-25T19:17:00.003Z

We visited the micro lab at the hospital to find out what our nasal swabs had grown - the white plates showed none of us were carriers of MRSA but several of the group had Staphlococcus aureus (of a non-resistant strain). Then we went back to Lighthouse to embroider (lots)! And then to the hostel also to embroider!

Regency dresses with Martin at Brighton Museum

2011-02-24T17:37:00.003Z

Today we were incredibly lucky to visit Brighton Museum stores with Curator Martin Pell who showed us one hundred years of dresses covering the Regency period and surrounding times. The Regency period was 1780-1830. In the slideshow there are images of the detailed embroidery and patterns in the fabrics - we're going to be using these as inspiration for the embroidery we'll do to our regency bacteria dress. The threads we use have been dyed and impregnated with natural antimicrobials.

2011-02-24T16:51:00.002Z

Visiting Simon's lab

2011-02-24T11:02:00.002Z

Here we are in the lab painting with coloured bacteria. I think we also look like bacteria moving around - we vanish to visit the warm rooms. I think I also captured a spider walking across the lens.

Lab life day 2

2011-02-22T19:47:00.004Z

Today we went out on a big ramble aound Brighton visiting the fish mongers for some fish to grow some bioluminescent bacteria, to various monuments associated with the Regency period and Mrs Fitzherbert, the Brighton Pavilion and of course the seaside! WHile we were in the lab I also set up a time lapse (a photo was taken every minute) - you can see we were pretty busy with visitors!

Infective Textiles at Laboratory Life, Brighton

2011-02-21T21:39:00.003Z

A couple of days ago I headed down to Brighton to join Laboratory Life at Lighthouse. This art-science set of collaborations has drawn together members of both art and science communities to work on some really amazing projects. I am working with Anna Dumitriu on a project called Infective Textiles. We're going to try and use bacteria to colour and pattern fabric and then, as its Brighton, create a Regency dress. We spent yesterday getting to know each other in the team - there's Anna, Brian, Sarah, Rosie and me - and getting together some ideas of how the project might work. Today we went on several field trips to source some bits and pieces. Our first port of call was to the hospital microbiology labs to pick up some of the more scientific bits of kit - a microscope, some agar plates, bins for disposing of the bacterial waste at the end. Then we popped into ASDA for the less scientific things - plastic boxes, salt, spring water etc. And finally we drove a little way down the coast to Widewater Lagoon and Nature Reserve where the water is a little brackish and there are some good sulphur eating bacteria in the mud. There were also a lot of swans ( and rabbit droppings!) but we had a fun time in the freezing cold splashing about in our wellies! Back at Lighthouse Oron Catts gave a short talk about tissue culture histories and there was an interesting debate afterwards about using living organisms in art (and science) pieces. Thought it was nearly tea time after all that we did get a moment to make up some of (Dr Simon) Park's Kitchen agar - from agar (from the Chinese supermarket), marmite, honey and pea protein powder (it was supposed to be skimmed milk powder but somehow we lost that on the way back from the supermarket!!). Tea was had at the basketmakers.

Molecular gastronomy

2011-02-12T16:45:00.009Z

This year is the International Year of Chemistry and we decided we would celebrate with a little molecular gastronomy. But not Heston Blumenthal for us, noooo we thought we'd make edible molecular models! We asked our friends what they would make - from insulin to methane came back the answers. I sketched out all the potential molecules (on the back on an envelope no less - quite unintentionally) and we chose two to make. The bonds would be lollipop sticks and the atoms would be cake balls (ala Bakarella)

'back of an envelope!'

Can you guess what they were? Or highlight the following text to find out They were vanilin (at the top of the page) and theobromine (at the bottom of the page) from vanilla and chocolate respectively. We made cake from 5 eggs, 220g butter, 220g sugar and 220g self raising flour. Then we split the batter into two, adding vanilla essence to one half and cocoa to the other. Once cooked we mixed the crumbled cake with vanilla frosting/icing and shaped the sticky mixture into 46 cake balls/atoms. Using a little melted chocolate coating we stuck the lollipop sticks into all of them (plus some doubles!) and let them set in the fridge.

'sketch molecules'

We started with the uncoated cake balls making a 'sketch' model before we got into the serious business of coating the cakes with chocolate coating (candy coat from Hobbycraft). Once coated each cake ball/atom was pushed into a piece of oasis by the lollipop stick/bond so it could set. Popping them into the freezer helped quite a lot. Then time for assembly, we heated up a skewer to melt the chocolate coating so that we could push the bonds in and voila molecules were made!
We've been carefully counting bonds and fingers crossed everything is present and correct! Remarkably tricky but great fun.

The chocolatey brown atoms are carbon, the red ones are oxygen, the blues are nitrogen and the white ones are hydrogen.

Tagxedo

2011-02-10T11:11:00.002Z

A while ago I got really excited about wordl, well today I have found something even better (could there be?!!) and that's Tagxedo - where you can make a word cloud and make it an interesting shape too!

String Bean

2011-02-06T18:18:00.003Z

Today we went in search of new fish tank plants but the usual place was completely sold out. So pottering a bit further down the road we happened upon another garden centre with aquatics and a tea shop! We were lucky in the plant department and then had a very yummy cup of tea and piece of carrot cake :-)!!