Around the world creative blog hop!

Hello Everyone.  I am taking a part in Around the world creative blog hop. Participants will answer 4 questions and will nominate 3 artists' blogs to hop to. Laura Weston, a lovely print maker, invited me to the Hop. Thank you, Laura. Her work is delightful and whimsical.  I love her stylised animals and the clever mix of the colours. They remind me of Japanese wood prints in the Showa period. Laura's Hop blog.

Now it's my turn to answer the four questions.  

What am I working on ?

I am working on a group of Angels right now. They are for Kellie Miller Arts, a nice ceramic gallery, in Brighton and for the Cupola gallery owned by the wonderful Karen Sherwood in Sheffield; they will be a part of the ‘Delicious’ exhibition. A few will be in the Contemporary Art Fair in Windsor in early November as well as in Sidney Cooper Gallery in Canterbury. They are all different and individual. I enjoy finding out who they are as I make them.

Angels (Middle and far right are available from Cecilia Colman Gallery, London)

How does my work differ from others of its genre ?

The strength of my work is originality. ‘I have never seen anything like this’ is the words I have heard most often from viewers. How are they different from others, exactly? It is a difficult question to answer, but I would say my sculptures are the residents of my own imaginative world that no one else can see.  It has everything you would like to have: sky, trees, flowers, animals and children. I can see it, but even I can’t get in. 

Remodelling the lips

Why do I write/create what I do ?

I need to create to free my brain. My head is full of stories and imagination inspired by observation and thoughts. Unless I empty it every day or so, I am not able to sleep. I used to make up and tell stories to Mike. But now I capture the details into ceramic sculptures. Each figure is a story in its own right.

A bit of surgery!

How does my writing/illustration/creative process work ?

I am good at feeling free. Then whatever comes out from clay will have its own free will. I make a face first and see if there is any spirit in it. If there is a spirit, and it tells me about itself, it will develop to a full character in a full body. If nobody is there, I give up. But sometimes a face is already complete without a body, and then it will become a mask. This is a fun part.

The agony starts when glazing starts. It is a tedious slow job, and I feel less creative when I am stirring glaze buckets and scraping the spills! But when it comes out beautifully from the kiln, I feel elated. The transformation can be amazing.

I never sketch. I just make it. I love surprise. That’s the fun part of creation for me.  There are always unexpected things happening, and I let them happen.

Line up!

***********

I have pleasure to nominate three wonderful artists whom I have known for a while. The first is Alison Deegan in UK. She is a print maker. (Yes, I love prints! I'm Japanese! :D )  I have witnessed how her works have evolved over a few years. It is amazing! Her online shops are full of her beautiful works. Artichokes and Sea urchins are my favourites at this moment. 

Artichokes by Alison Deegan Copyright

The second artist is Yvonne de Jonge, illustrator and designer in the Netherlands. She seems busy with lots of projects all of the time. Her kitteh earrings have been very popular. She has designed lots of things! A little bird told me that she has put her magic hand on porcelain. Her blog is always a fun and upbeat.

Yvonne de Jonge Copyright

The last but not the least, Raeburn from NYC. He is a painter and drawer. I used to be mesmerised by his paintings until I read his blog. He explained how 'pixelated' effect was done. To me who can't paint, it seems shame to alter the already beautiful paintings, but the effect is stunning.

Raeburn Copyright

I hope you have enjoyed hop and don't forget to check their blogs!  

    

My work is featured in Art Is A Way

We had a sunny day! How lovely! Bright sunshine makes me happy and more cheerful than usual. I did laundry of summer clothes. That's it. We are already under a winter duvet and I need a cotton blanket on top. It's autumn.

A week ago, I noticed that there were lots of visits coming to both my Etsy shop and website from somewhere. I tracked it down and found this wonderful art blog by Elsa Mora. Her paper sculptures are amazing. There are so much detail. Each piece is a story by itself. How haven't I noticed her work before in this social network age, I don't know.

She has touching 'About me' page. I love it. All site is oozing with talent.

Here is the entry where my work was featured: http://www.artisaway.com/art/ceramic/midori-takakis-ceramics/

Empress

Her website: http://www.artisaway.com/

Elsa Mora Copyright

A visit to Turner Contemporary at Margate

The UK is in the middle of a long holiday weekend. But it is my working weekend again. I have written about 2300 words in the last few days. But I finally finished all writing up!

In the previous post, I mentioned that I had delivered my work to the Cecilia Colman Gallery. Now my work is on their New Arrivals Article. Yay! : )
 
http://www.ceciliacolmangallery.com/pages/newarrivals.asp?ArtistID=103

*************

This morning, however, Mike and I went to Turner contemporary to see Mondrian. It is about 30 minutes drive. It was getting close to the end of the exhibition, so we thought we had better go!

In the town, I spotted this street art influenced by Mondrian.

Street art in Margate

The best part of Mondrian exhibition was this film about his studio. He made his studio as a 3D art work. I enjoyed it so much!

Mike was interested in this installation art by Dutch artist, Krijn de Koning. I became a model. :D

In other room, people seem to be most excited by this cloud. It was made of very thin plastic sheets held together with wooden cloths pegs. Mike said I should store all my wrapping papers like this! :D I was tempted to undo a few pegs, but restrained myself. :D 

Plastic sheet with pegs!

 The view from the upstairs was nice!

Back home, I have worked through until ten in the evening. Phew! : )

New works available in Cecilia Colman Gallery

How was your week? I have had tight head for almost a week now. Monday, I stayed in the bed, and then afterwards, it became more tolerable, but still miserable. Today, after lunch I went to London to deliver my work to Cecilia Colman Gallery. I thought the one thing I can still do with the tight head is delivering works!

Cecilia Colman Gallery is in St John's wood high street, a leafy area of north west London.

Large Duchess of Noisette (about 19cm tall 15cm wide)

Duchess of Noisette - Large

Here is the comparison with the medium size. Although they have similar style, the characters come out differently, as you can see.

Medium (left) and large Duchess of Noisette

Three angels are available there, too.

They also stock my larger bronze-gold whippets and rabbits. Please do pop in, if you are in London!

Cecilia Colman Gallery:  http://www.ceciliacolmangallery.com/

Super Moon and super firing.

We had some friends around for a Japanese lunch yesterday. We had a fun afternoon. And they are animal lovers. They met all our animal family, except for Beaper who is too scared of staircases to fly downstairs.

I'm having an off day today. I have had headache, so I have been in the bed for the most of the day. Good news is that my last refiring went well; I have completed all orders. Happy! So this is a good time for me to get a bit of headache and have a rest! :D

Three large lying whippets are going to Cecilia Colman Gallery, London. All other bronze-gold whippets are spoken for. They came out so beautifully. I was delighted to see them in the kiln!

Bronze-gold whippets

 A couple of chickens came out nicely. The largest and the smallest ones were snatched up quickly within 15 minutes of listing. Chickens were sold out! Thank you so much. : )  The middle one will get another firing. Needless to say, Pumpkin, the chicken, is our model.

Little chickens.

'Hmm, can we eat daisy?'

Last night was the Super Moon. It was big and bright. We saw it from the garden. I soaked up the lunar power. If I hadn't had headache, I would have made a few rabbits, and would have danced under the moon beam. 

Super Moon  11/08/2014

A little chicken is hiding under an anteater!

Today, I did the second glaze-firing in four days. The bisque firing went well, thankfully. I then spent the next 4 days glazing. The first glaze-firing was all white rabbits. They are relatively straight forward. But it took me 4 hours to do one shelf!

Two rabbits from left are spoken for. Others will hit midoritakaki on Etsy soon! 

They will go to the Cecilia Colman Gallery, London

In today's firing, there are two shelves.  Mysteriously the black things are bronze-gold whippets. This glaze is made of lots of metal oxides. Hence they carry a higher price tag than those with other glazes. Application is also very messy. I need to place them very carefully in the kiln so that any dust doesn't fly onto other works.

On the upper shelf, there are several refirings.

Have you noticed the anteater and chickens? The little chicken is squatting under the anteater's long mouth! :D  The kiln will be opened tomorrow morning, I hope they will come out nice! : )

Anteater, monkeys and chickens!