the easy bay

Monday, September 8, 2014

heath ceramics factory tour

Recently I had the opportunity to visit the Heath Ceramics factory in Sausalito. Ric and I registered for our dishes from Heath, so to say that it was excited to get a behind the scenes look would be an understatement. Okay, okay, so Heath is a pretty (expensive) hipster, Californian brand and I'm not ashamed to say I'm in love with it. However, on the course of this tour I really got an appreciation for the history and thoughtfulness behind the design.

Even though we arrived late, the staff was flexible and friendly-- they let us join in with the tour that was underway. We were led through backstage by a very friendly woman who works at the factory store.

I was pretty shocked how close we could get to all the drying pottery and machinery. It was so interesting to see all of the individually operated machines-- now I know why it's so expensive! Nothing at the factory is computerized or automatic.

Molds and the pottery they make.

Most of the molds for jugs and mugs at the factory.

Casserole lids drying.

Plate machine thingy (that's the technical term).

I want all of these. Look at those cute lil cappacino mugs!

Pre-glazed small pitchers.

Put a lid on it! Ha....ha...

I had no idea they were making clocks, but oh sweet baby Jesus I want one.

Their master glazer is Edith Heath's niece. She experiments and gets to make beautiful tiles like this!

Original molds for tiles.

Gimme some numbers!

// The Deets //

- Reserve your tickets ahead of time-- they're free but sell out if you wait too long.

- The factory tour has what they call "seconds" and "thirds"-- items that have slight defects that are on sale!

- The tour is about 30 minutes.

Have fun and let me know how it goes! Better yet, tell me what your favorite Heath piece is! It is really hard for me to pick just one, but I the one that I use the most are the mugs from the Rim Line. We have them in redwood and white-- I think the redwood is such a neat color. I feels like I'm drinking out of the earth.. in a good way.

Friday, August 29, 2014

a few lessons learned

I've been living in Oakland for over a year and working in San Francisco almost a year now and I've gathered some important bay lessons.

If you think you're being a weirdo, don't worry! Sure enough someone much weirder is walking in the room right now. In fact, look over there-- that guy is wearing an animal onsie costume and doing push-ups on the train!

The musicians playing for quarters probably have a iPhone charging nearby in the BART station. Trickery!

Rent costs do not equate to clean sidewalks. In fact, the more expensive the room (which is really an old outhouse), the more poop you'll find in your planter box.

I'm sure there's much more to learn. Bring it on, Bay!

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Yosemite the Beautiful

Besides being one of the most beautiful places in the world, Yosemite holds a dear place in my heart's memory. If you haven't visited yet, stop what you're doing and go now. Seriously, stop reading this. Just kidding, you probably wouldn't be able to find a campsite because Yosemite is one of the most popular national parks in the U.S.

So here are some tips to help your future trip to Yosemite go as smooth as those rose quartz rocks you can buy in Curry Village!

We call in mid-March to book our sites for lake August. That's right-- you gotta call months in advance to get an assigned camp spot. That's not to say that you couldn't rest your head somewhere if you just showed up. There are backpacker's camps for slackers like you.

There are bears in that there them hills! But seriously, there are a lot of bears in Yosemite. Unlike other places you might have camped, you need to lock everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) in a bear box, like the one above.

There is a hybrid, "green" shuttle that transports you all over the park. I'm always so impressed because it just feels fucking WEIRD to drive in a national park. I mean...you're in nature and yet you're creating more pollution and burning fossil fuels. It just doesn't make sense, I tell ya.

catch up

It has been a while since I've written actual content for this blog. Partly that is because I wanted to take a departure from my last blog and make it less of a diary narrative and partly because I just haven't been able to wrap my head around what it is I want the persona of this blog to be. I've never blogged with an audience in mind before but with this project I felt an unnamed pressure. Then I realized the reason I loved blogging is because I did it for myself. So I'm back! Writing has been sorely missing in my life and I need to claim it back!

So in that spirit:

FIRST YEAR IN THE EASY BAY!

2013-2014 has been a generally insane year for me. I planned a giant ass, 300 person / 4 day wedding, put a ring on Mr. Ñ, and moved to Oakland three days later. A month later, I travelled with my family to London and with Ric to Berlin, came home and landed an awesome job in San Francisco. Since last October the adventure has just kept on... keptin..on....?

Anyway, here is a brief recap of our year here so far:

Once upon a time... we moved to Oakland.

Let me tell you a little something about our neighborhood. We're two blocks away from Lake Merritt, the riviera of Oakland and the hunting grounds of human-eating geese (ok, the second part is a lie).