Mugs, Tumblers and Cup Marathon

Working in production can sure teach you a lot fo things. I have been making mugs, cups and tumblers with buttons for 5 years now and never did I have a problem with the buttons. Recently I was running really low on them and decided to go for a marathon of making mugs and cups. These are entirely handbuilt from slabs of clay and wrapped around to emmulate the look of fabric. To add to the effect I add buttons. With this marathon, I made 80+ mugs/tumblers/cups. It was a fun guessing game on Facebook when everyone jumped in guessing the number of buttons I had to put on these cups. I had to make 308 buttons total!! Since this was a lot of buttons, I changed my method slightly. Instead of making 10 buttons at a time and sticking them, I made 20 buttons at a time. This did speed up my process but everything comes at a price. Everything came out fine in the bisque firing and great in the glaze firing too. And then it was like watching a horror movie unfold in front of me. While sitting on the shelf after 3-4 hours of getting out of the kiln, I started hearing pops and pings. Curious to see what it was, I noticed a button from a cup just pop out! This has never happened so I was in complete disbelief. I did loose quite a few and I am now working on figuring out how to fix them and sell them as seconds. So look out for an online seconds sale coming up soon, where these will be sold at 50% off. I will make them look pretty again, so they will still be good. And while I am still stratching my head wondering what went wrong, I get an email which brings back a smile to my face. One of my repeat customers, Robyn, has been purchasing my mugs over the last few years. She sends me a picture of all my mugs and bowls she has purchased sitting pretty in her kitchen. She is using them everyday and loving them.Just made my day seeing a dedicated shelf for my work!

Turshi: Middle eastern Pickle

If you haven't had "Turshi" yet, you are really missing on something. It is essentially pickled carrots, cucmber and other vegetables, but a little high on the vinegar. It is great to have with Middle Eastern food, like kabas, hummus etc. In fact for me it is hard to enjoy those foods without turshi. And making it is super simple, super easy and cheap. Ingredients: Your choice of vegetables chopped up. I prefer, pickle cucumbers, cauliflower and carrots. Few cloves of garlic Crushed red pepper flakes. 4 cups water 1/2 cup white vinegar 3 tbsp pickling salt Divide the vegetables in jars. Boil the water. Turn off heat and add the salt and vinegar. Dissolve. Pour the hot liquid in jars and leave jars open to cool. Then place lids and refrigerate. You are done! That is it!

Organic Beet Salad

I was at a pottery show and a friend, Carol Bell, got me some amazing pluots and green eggplant. They were the sweetest pluots I have had and the egg plant was delicious grilled as well. This got me curious about her source and she mentioned Tiny's Organic which is a CSA (Consumer Supported Agriculture) program. Sounded interesting and she got me a FREE box as a promotion they were having. We got our first box which had pluots, donut peaches, golden beets, lemon cucmbers (I thought these were tiny melons first), heirloom tomatoes and some wonderful recipes too. The pluots and donut peaches were heavenly and really sweet. So they didn't last long. Then came the cucumbers, tomatoes and golden beets. I searched and read a bunch of recipes, so mine landed up being a mix. Before I get to the recipe, let me talk a little about Beets. I have had raw beets before and was not a big fan, and had also tried them boiled and they were ok. This time I roasted the golden beets along with some red beets that I had at home. Just scrub them clean (no need to peel) and toss them with olive oil and some rock salt. Then put them in a foil lined pan and cover with foil as well. Into a 375 oven for 30-40 minutes till tender. When cool the skin just falls off. The amazing magic was the way way the golden beets got stained with the red beats, having this beautiful color transition from dark red to yellow. As you know I am a man of color with my pottery, so got really excited looking at the color. :) To make the dressing, I saved the juices/oil from the roasting the beets. Added some olive oil and balsamic vinegar with salt and pepper. Whisk and you are done. For the salad Cucumbers heirloom tomato lettuce beets (of course) Toss it all with the dressing and top with goat cheese and pine nuts. It was a delicious salad. The cucumbers were crisp and the heirloom tomatoes were sweet. Fresh burst of flavor and now we are signing up for our weekly deliveries. Thank you Carol for introducing us to Tiny's Organic.

Sausage stuffed Zucchini Recipe

Wonder what to do with those huge oversized zucchinis from your garden? Well, I got one from my dear friend Ann Meersman, who has turned quite the gardener. I visited her for lunch and couldn't beleive the size of the zucchinis. Of course, I had seen some big ones before at the Puyallup Fair, but this was home grown. She gave me one and than I had to figure out how to cook it. She herslef made stuffed zucchini, so I wanted to experiment.

Here is my recipe. Slice the zucchini in half and simmer it face down in a pan for 10 minutes, till it is tender, but not all cooked. Remove the inside pulp with a spoon and push it aginst a strainer to remove as much moisture as possible. Chop the pulp. Now, saute some chopped onions with garlic and brown sausage as well. Add in the zucchini pulp. Now to kick it up a notch, I added some garam masala and red chilli powder. Mix in some breadcrumbs and parmesan and reserve some for topping as well. Sill the zucchini and bake in the oven at 350F for 25 minutes. YUMMY!!!!

Hummus Recipe : Easy and Delicious

Being in Kuwait for several years, it was pretty easy to develope the taste for good Arabic/Middle eastern food. And what is better than Hummus. Of course we all have our variations and I have mine as well. The ingredient which really adds the kick in my hummus is green chillies. :) Here is my very simple recipe. Dump the following in a food processor and blend till smooth. 2 cans of garbanzo beans (drained and washed) 2 tablespoons Tahini (sesame paste available at mediterranean stores) 2 thai green chillies ( add more or less upon your spice level) 2-3 table spoons lemon juice 4-5 cloves of garlic (Again more or less depending on your taste) 2-3 heaped tablespoons of yogurt (to make it richer you can add sour cream instead) salt to taste Blend the above ingredients till smooth and then add in 2-3 tbsp olive oil to make the mixture smooth. Serve garnished with drizzle of olive oil, tomatoes, olives and enjoy with pita or chips.

Summer Art Show Schedule

Hope you all are having a great summer. I am busy in my studio making new work and trying to catch the sun when I can.

After skipping last year, I will back at the Gig Harbor summer Arts Festival (Booth #32) this coming weekend. (July 21st-22nd)

Excited to be at the Bellevue Festival of Arts again this year (July 27th-29th). My name was also mentioned in the Bellevue Arts Week "Known for his unique sculptural work and Indian influences, local ceramic artist Charan Sachar also returns to the fair for his second year."

And for the first time I am going to be at the Anacortes Arts Festival Booth 406E(Aug 3rd-5th) So the next three weekends are packed and full of excitement. Would be great to meet you there and share my new work. Below is a sneak peek at what to expect

New Platters and Wall Pocket Vases

My Online shop is always open, so check it out

Best wishes Charan

Spokane Summer ArtFest

It is the start of the summer shows! First one down is the Artfest in Spokane. Three-day event with over 150 artisan booths, kid's Make-It-Art tent, food, music, fun! June 1 12PM – 8 PM Music & beer garden until 10 June 2 10 AM – 8 PM Music & beer garden until 10 June 3 10 AM - 5 PM This is going to be my second year here and looking forward to meeting the Spokane folks. It is held in beautiful Coeur d'Alene Park in Spokane's Browne's Addition - two blocks from the MAC and approximately 1 mile west of downtown Spokane See you there! For those you who cannot make it, my online shop is always open. And you can see my show schedule here.