Happiness is in the studio

I have been busy in the studio: preparing for glaze-firing and making new work from morning to evening. As the day is short, I do all preparation for firing first to make the most of the daylight although it can be gloomy all day.

Here are a few pics of those ready for firing!

Antetare WIP

My first aardvark for a lovely lady. The model is Otto in London Zoo. 

Otto the aarvark -WIP

A  herd of tapirs! WIP

I have aslo added a couple of new works  in my shop.  A bronze glazed wren, a large crow and a whippet. Check them out!

Wren on my Etsy shop

Whippet - my Etsy shop

Large crow on my Etsy shop

And from my shop, Strawberry the rabbit, Crow, and Angel card have gone to loving homes this year. Thank you so much!

Strawberry -sold

Small crow -sold

Angel card - available 

 

More works went to loving homes for Christmas!

Less than one week to Christmas. I'm a bit surprised how quickly time has gone, especially I have been unwell for most of December so far. But I'm finally on the mend. I hope I am not starting jinx! Whenever I said I feel better, I got ill again in the past. I hope this time I nailed it down!

Quite a few works have gone to new homes since the last post. Thank you so much!

Aya have gone to a lovely lady. The model is one of my school friends. She was a book worm, and we used to talk about the books we have read during breaks. Now she is an assistant professor in literature in Japan.

Aya

The girl with a shield bug has gone to a lovely gentleman. She is my first piece with an insect. I am not very keen on them, but I have admired the beauty of shield bugs. Besides, they are stubborn. They don't know how small they are. If you try to move it, it will put its feet down!

Girl with a shield bug jewellery

The fourth crow has flown to a loving home. After making a few for the first time, I loved them so much. I made more. They look cool on wood mounts.

The large crow on the right has gone to a crow lover. The ones on the highest and lowest mounts are still available. 

The little lamb is so sweet. I squealed when I made her. Wouldn't you? : )

Lamb

I have finally made a Newsletter sign-up form online. I am not frequent sender, but I'm aiming at 3-4 Newsletters in 2016.  If you have left your details at one of the shows, you are on the list. Please do sign up if you would like to hear up-to-date event news.

   

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New arrivals in my shop!

How was your weekend? Mine was a full working one. Mike has also spent three days to move the greenhouse to a new site; he took Friday off for that. We have been busy as tender for our extension, which will be my studio, is close. He has been preparing lots of things for that, and I have been working hard in anticipation of disruption, especially firings.

I have listed lots of new works this month, and some of them have already gone. Please do check often, as I am adding almost daily.

Tapir greeting cards

The right one has gone. 

Mother and her cub -  Polar bear

All Pockets Friends -  The kitten has gone. 

The left one is just listed, and others will join soon! 

Owls! The right one has gone.

A pair of bunnies - Pocket Friends

And the last but not the least, A giant anteater! :D Have a great week!

Anteater

They are avaibale from my Etsy shop!
http://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/midoritakaki

They have gone to loving homes!

Hello! Here are those found loving homes recently! .

The last three clear glaze whippets have gone to super homes. 

All kittens have also gone to lovely ladies here and also in the US.

Continuing cat theme,  Alice with Cheshire cat have gone to a lovely home in the US. I might make a Cheshire cat or two, as he was such a character!

 Also the large crow has gone. 

Frida the monkey on the left went to a lovely lady, who lives with several bunnies I made. The one on the right will be in my shop soon! 

And this lucky blackbird has landed at a loving home in the North.  I have two more blackbirds in my shop, if you are interested. 

I have listed some new greeting cards. Most of them are new designs. Several have already gone. Do have a look. Cherubs and Angels are great for Christmas cards. If you would like to have more than 2, please let me know before your purchase. I will give you a quote for shipping.

It has been grey here in Canterbury this week. I hope you are having brighter days there! : ) 

 

A storytelling of crows

Canterbury had been blessed with fine weather for a whole week, but now it's back to normal  Mike told me I must go to post office to send packets early if I would like to miss the oncoming rain. I did!

Lately I have made several crows. The first one has flown away to a lovely gentleman. Three different crows are in my Etsy shop now. I have been interested in crows since I read King Solomon's ring by Konrad Lorenz in my teens. When I visited Germany in my early twenties, I even looked for 'the crows', Jackdaws, which I had never seen in Japan. Now I see them several times a week here from my house.

Small crow - sold

As you know, they are intelligent and very social. I love watching them exploring large bins, attacking hawks or just poking grass. They are usually in pairs, but when they are on the ground they are never side by side. They keep a good distance from each other. As I am familiar with finch and parrot behaviours and calls, I often tried to understand the behaviours of crows based on that knowledge. But I can't get close enough. They simply walk away or fly away. They are wary of humans.

Large Crow

 One summer I saw three large crow fledgilings on the ground in a very quiet woods. Parents were calling them, but they were too young to fly. Then later that summer, in a different woods, I saw a cat size chick perching about 2m from the ground. It looked amazingly large. It was not at all bothered as Topaz and I walked underneath. After walk, I saw him again on the same branch. If it was not magical, I don't know what it was. These two incidents are my closest encounter.

Crowing - medium 

There is a green on the way to my post office. People use it for Sunday sports or picnics. It used to be for cattle in the Middle Ages. But it is now surrounded by houses. Anytime I walk there, I usually see a group of crows plodding the ground. I kept observing them. There are jackdaws, rooks and carrion crows. Finally their shapes and postures were etched in my brain. I made my first crows in a weekend, last month.

Shiny beak - small

They are in my Etsy shop

 I am very happy with how they look, so I made more. They come with their own mounts, or plinths. They pretend that they can't move, but I feel they might twitch once a while when nobody is looking. I wish they would tell me about their lives one day.