Another amazing day

Hello everyone. It has been another amazing day for me. Yesterday a wonderful customer in Australia reviewed my shop. He said,

This amazing artwork is on our wall now - taking pride of place. It's cheeky, funny, witty and has so many people commenting on it, when they come into our house. Thanks for all your inspiration and hard work. May people rush to buy your artworks ...

Needless to say, I was most delighted. But I didn't quite realize that it would come true. This afternoon, I had a message from the Sidney Cooper gallery that a little rabbit and a large chameleon were sold. How nice! Then within one hour, another message came. The large rabbit and the small chameleon were also sold. Now there was only one rabbit left; they wanted me to bring more work to them! How wonderful! I soon thought of the customer's review. Wow, it became true! I took several works to the gallery after they closed. Now the glass cabinet is full again. Some works have never been for sale. One is the Minotaur which you see in my banner. I love his face and colours. The glazes look mysterious and beautiful. He looks great in the cabinet. Also the third chameleon is in the cabinet. I have promised ladies on twitter that if current chameleons are sold, I will make more, so I will start on them next week. I started working on a commissioned mask. That is going well, too. 

Today I share some of my other works with you. I have two rabbit sculptures. White rabbits are symbolic animals in Japan. You would see them everywhere on almost everything in Japan. These two are, however, a bit different. Topaz, our nervous dog, is very scared of fireworks and thunders. Once either starts, she shakes like a leaf. She become restless, and has tried to hide inside the laundry machine. She is too big for that! Even after it stops, she pricks her ears up, and listens. Nothing. But she still listens. She is waiting for next bang.That was the idea came from.

Waiting for Next bang I

  

Waiting for next bang II

  

Together on a shelf

Then some of you remember this cat. Another cat was broken on the way to assessment, so he is a sole survivor. I assembled in four layers. The brown sections are reduction fired stoneware grey clay.  

Close-up of Equilibrium - cat 

This is how they are set up.

The cat is in the middle. 

Last, let me share this incredible story with you. Late this afternoon, Mochaccino, our very old owl finch drowned. He is my office mascot. I turned back from the chair and saw a soaked and motionless Mochaccino in the water. His head was half under the water. I don't know how long he was in his water dish, but about one hour before, I saw him preening. He had a stroke some months ago. He lost the power of flight then. After that his one side of the body became paralysed. At the arrival of autumn, he became weaker. We thought he would not make Christmas. He is about 100 years old if he were a human. 

I wrapped him in soft Kleenex, and warmed him up in the hand, and used a hair dryer gently to dry him a bit. Then I prepared a hot water bottle, and placed a towel and him on top of it on our bed. He showed slight movement. I kept him warm, and changed the water bottle before it gets cold. After five hours, when I went to check the water bottle, he shot out from the towel from fear, I think. I was shocked and overjoyed at the same time. I shouted that he came back to life to Mike and the world via twitter. It's a miracle.

He is still very weak. He is now sleeping on the warm bottle in a polystyrene box, which has very good insulation. I will swap the water bottle with a heat pad when I go to sleep. May Mochaccino survive tonight.