Rabbit, Minotaur and Storm.

The Easter holiday is over. I hope you had fun! Yesterday I had to spend most of the day in  bed again due to illness. The bad headache came back again. But I was able to manage to post a rabbit mask to a lovely friendly lady in Australia in the morning. I usually take Topaz, the loyal pooch, to the post office, but not yesterday, I quickly drove there and drove back. I am crossing all fingers for his safe journey!

Beautiful crackle glaze. 

He has one of the most beautiful crackle glazes I have used. But it is very difficult to show well in photos. So here is a close-up for you.

I use the Royal Mail tracking service for purchase over about £80. It is peace of mind for both customers and myself. A few months ago a lovely gentleman in US was on holiday, when the sculpture had arrived at NY airport. He told me he had been tracking it, and hoped that it would arrive by the time he got home. And it did! If there is a request, I will, of course, change ordinary airmail to airmail tracking service. Please let me know before your purchase!

Minotaur, the beautiful beast, crossed the ocean to live with his loving owner. 

I felt so unwell that I didn't open the kiln by myself yesterday. Mike did it for me in the evening. It was mostly successful, glad to say, but one piece definitely needs another firing. A few pieces are getting finished, which takes some pressure off me. The Landmark Art fair, which I am going to participate in is in June, 20-22. My self-imposed deadline is the end of May, but I am aware that so many things could go wrong, and I must make more than enough. I had two lucky so called sold-out shows (In fact, not every piece was sold but most were gone).  So I would like to prepare well in advance for this fair; visitors should not be disappointed.

She came out beautiful and mysterious. 

I am a workaholic, and like to get things done well in advance. Mike, in domestic occasions, is the opposite, he says there is still time until late and has to do things in hurry. (Note: he is truly professional, and just gets things done for his work, or, in fact, anything related with IT at home.)  I used to nag him, but I gave up. Each has his/her own pace. Having said that, I am the one who almost misses trains, planes, ferries and he arrives well in advance. But the point is that I seldom miss anything because I will run fast!

 
She came out so beautiful and strong. That's what I like. A strong, resilient and confident women. The strands of hair are still safely attached, too. What is great about sculpture is that it looks different from different angles. Also the light makes a big difference. I love the face changing expressions according to the light. If you have one of my sculptural pieces, please put it in a different place once a while. You would be surprised how different it looks.

Preparation for Clouds, my exhibition

Hello everyone. I had another sleep marathon today! I have stayed a whole day in the bed, got up about six, and did a bit of work, then it's time to go to bed again! We have done a bit too much yesterday. First in the morning, I re-painted masks at home, then I went to the studio to re-paint Cloud and a mask and started re-firing them. Mike took an afternoon off to help me for preparation for the show. After lunch, we went to an acrylic display showroom in Faversham, an old city with a creek, famous for the oldest brewery in UK. I bought several display units there. Back home, I had to lie down and have a nap; I was too exhausted. After a dinner, we went to B&Q to get materials for a mounting board. Then we touched up thin parts of glazes on three chameleons. All went to refiring. Mike cut the wood to the size and painted. Phew! What an action packed day! 

I refire my work several times; this is the longest process in my whole creation. I can't do it in a rush, just have to take one step at a time to create depth in the colours.

One of the masks came out was such a beauty, it perked me up! I have experimented this bronze-gold glaze. I am very happy with it. He has such strong stare. I felt I was drawn to him.

Other refiring went well, too!

Before second refiring

After

Before second refiring 

After! No more long Johns!

And this is the mounting board Mike is making. 

First coat of paint

Last, I like to share the photo of a visitor to our garden. A squirrel. He drives our dogs crazy. Topaz barks like a mad dog, but Pearl squeals like a piglet! As you can see, the squirrel doesn't care! Dogs are locked in the lounge so that they can't see this fluffy one. Then Topaz found a big ginger cat licking her fur in the front garden! 

'What wrong? Squirrels love hazelnuts. Everyone knows it!'

 


 

 

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.     

Creation on the hottest day of the year

Hello everyone. It was the hottest day yesterday. Canterbury reached 31c. My office room gets quite hot although I use a fan with all windows open. I managed a long webcast, about two hours, in the morning, but that was it. I went cooler downstairs and worked on a tablet. In the evening, while I waited until the bedroom becomes cooler, I had a clay session. The garden door was open, and Pumpkin the chicken was there talking to me, 'Foo, fewwww, cooo'. So I made this.

Pumpkin

After I finished it, it was still hot, so I made this, too.

What's that?

A chick with big feet!

Dogs were very lazy. They even didn't want to go for a walk.

Melting Pearl

Moi?

But at nigh when it got cooler, Topaz suddenly brought toys to me. So I played with her a bit. : )

'This toy, that toy, all are mine' game 

Summer heat has helped our veg and fruits in the garden. We started harvesting tomatoes. 

Each of us has to eat a bowlful of raspberries everyday. 

About four cucumbers ripe everyday. I make simple pickles, and eat them as savoury snack. Pumpkin gets large ones for snack.

Needless to say, we have loads of beans and courgettes. Mike cooks several courgettes in a large pan, and we have them with pasta or as they are wit Parmesan cheese on top over several days. We are still keeping a tab on beans, as I like them so much. Dogs get overgrown beans with their meals. Parrots also enjoy them. So we eat what Mike grows. But Mike keeps buying fruits such as nectarines and melons from supermarkets, and they get rotten because we can't eat all at the same time. A bowlful of raspberries and a handful of cherries from the garden are enough for one day. He even buys two punnets of nectarines, even though we are only two, big (Mike) and little (me!). He does this every year. How could I stop him? : O

Rabbit mask and dogs' misery

Hello everyone. After recovering, I have worked 7/7 and 12/24 to catch up with the six-week-loss. As a mature student with day work, little Online shop to run, animal family to look after, 24 hours seem to be not enough. Still I sleep as much as I need. That's my priority. Mike calls me a dormouse! But I have trimmed down everything else.

Last night we had art critique class. Unusually, all students were present. The time is tight. We have an essay deadline and  the assessment of our works are looming. Those who finish this year had to get their final works to be ready for the MA show in early September. Even I started feeling a bit under pressure, although I am the first year of two years course.

This morning, we found good results of glaze tests in the kiln. Phew! It is one of our favourite glazes, but still when we made a new batch we run a test. After that, we have spent a whole day decorating and glazing pots. It was so cold in the garage, we did it in the house. Messy! We have finished five bowls and one plate today. The plate is being fired in the university kiln right now. The bowls will be fired tomorrow here. I am anxious. When I fire tableware, I am much more anxious than sculptures because there are so many things to go wrong. We are crossing all our fingers!

This is the small rabbit mask I quickly made to fill the space in the kiln. What a fun! This crackle glaze looks so good on the white stoneware clay.

 

Small rabbit mask

rabbit mask-before

Side

Our dogs have not been very happy this week. We took Topaz and Pearl to a vet for jabs. Pearl was petrified. She attempted to escape from the window of the waiting room. She also hid behind me, whined, barked and needed to go to toilet twice! In the meantime, Topaz was excited. She likes vet visits for some  reason we don't know. She even led us to the vet door, and tried to go inside by herself. Even so, she didn't  like teeth check. Notice the position of her tail. (picture below)

Then this week one of our neighbours is having workmen removing the existing patio and laying a new lawn in their back garden. The sight of the heads of workmen moving above the fence (that's what dogs see!) drove them crazy! They believe that the heads are new types of squirrels running on the fence. They become hysterical and wait for them to appear at the back door. They had to be locked in their crates for a long time. I hope the work would be over soon for everyone's sake!

Topaz will need teeth cleaning soon. : (
Pearl is hyperventilating with fear! 

 


 

Packing puzzle

Hello everyone. It has been grey rainy Monday here in Canterbury. But I didn't mind it. I was too busy to be bothered by the weather today. First in the morning, I woke up, and got dressed straight away. Mike and I pit-patted to the garage to open the kiln. Ta-da! Success! A little dance! Ceramics were still warm; we picked one by one to check them. Glaze tests went well. Now we can carry on finishing bisque pots and sculptures.

I re-fired Miranda's curse 'Garrulous'. Her story is here. 

Miranda's curse, 'Garrulous'

Miranda's curse, 'Garrulous'

After breakfast at the table (the first time in about one month!) I continued packing my ceramics to be posted. In my experience, multiple sales frequently happen on one day for unknown reasons after a couple of quiet weeks. I had four sales yesterday evening. I packed one last night. I needed to pack two this morning. I am waiting for a confirmation from the last one. Packing the first order took a bit longer than one hour. But the second one took me a whopping two and a half hours!  He is the reason.

Triton

I asked Mike to make fitting polystyrene forms to protect a plinth. Luckily to me, he is on leave this week. I packed him like a cocoon. But I was not able to find a suitable box. I have tried two boxes, but neither fitted well. In the end, I had to make one specially. I made it from a large box; It became like a cradle for it. Now I just hope it will travel well. All my fingers crossed.

     

Triton Packed!

I usually think packing as a puzzle or a game, 3D free cell, so to speak. My sculptures are all different in shapes and sizes; they often give me real challenges. I don't charge my customers for my time for packing although Etsy told us to do it. I must get better at it! As far as there are suitable boxes, it's stress free. A problems is that I can't have all boxes of different sizes and shapes. About a half of customers purchase multiple works, so this makes even more complex than it is already.

I think packing is quite similar to making sculptures. You have to have three-dimensional planning and imagination. So I am making the most of the opportunities to train my brain. Who knows when I am eighty, I might be able to say 'I kept young by packing various sculptures in all sorts of boxes for decades.'    

  

His wish was granted.

Hello everyone. It was a cold day. We had heavy frost this morning. Winter is with us. I shampooed Topaz at lunch time, and forgot to have a lunch, About two o'clock, I started feeling hungry and wondered why. Suddenly it occurred to me that I skipped a lunch!

I have worked on this head for several evenings. Yesterday evening I made a body for him, but he didn't like it. I tried to coax him by putting a bow on the head, adding eyebrows, removing eyebrows, adding them again, adding hair, removing hair and giving him a paper crown. But he just flatly refused it. So his wish was granted. I made another head for the body today. (I took photos of it, but they are all blurred so I will show you it next time.)  What did he get, then? This sac.      

Paper crown

Fine art and our depressed chicken.

Hello everyone. Earlier this week I wen to see my dentist for a check-up, and I will have to go back treatment next week (How disappointing!). He insisted that I should see my GP for the condition he noticed then. So today I went to see my GP. Although it took a long time to get through to the receptionist to make an appointment in the morning, the actual time I saw him was short, and I didn't have to wait much neither before that. He gave me a referral to see a specialist. I used to be very scared of any medical places. My body used to become cold. I still don't like visiting them. But thankfully I don't have panic any more.

Another autumn carpet

People in the Fine art department are interesting. I noticed that they often say 'We are doing FINE ART!' in capital letters. I have degrees in social science from both Japanese and English universities. I have never heard anybody saying 'We are doing Sociology!' or 'Anthropology!'. Psychologically, I would label this behaviour the manifest of insecurity and inferior complex. They may have a different opinion.

My last whippet that I had made late summer is sold. I still have a small pair and a tiny one I made for myself as a brush holder. I have sent three larger ones to the kiln, and they should be bisque-fired soon.

'Out of Sorts'

This evening I made something a bit different. I titled it 'Out of sorts'. It's our Pumpkin, the chicken. She went to moult, and she looks completely lost and depressed. She stopped laying. She also eats much less, and shows little interest in food. She is usually very bossy, assertive and very hungry. Over night she changes her personality. When I finished making it, I said to Mike, ' I made something I have never made this evening'. He replied  with a grin 'It's fine art!'. He has a sense of humour!      

The answer was in the box

Hello everyone. Mike took a sick leave, and I also sent apologies to the class meeting. Poor Mike had high fever and he had slept during day despite incessant Fifi, the Patagonian conure's screeches. I felt better than yesterday, still not able to think or to read anything.  A sentence looked to me a line of meaningless characters.

I suffered from a tight head, but when I felt a bit better, I continued with the wall mask I started yesterday. I wanted to finish it while I was unwell. I was curious what I would make when I am ill.

The wall mask I made when I was unwell.

First this head had rabbit ears. But the head rejected them. So I cut them off from the head. Then it had dog's ears. They didn't work neither. So, I tried to put a pair of horns. He rejected them again. In the end. he wanted to have human's ears. Ask and it is given. He was given a pair of Mike's. He looked contented. I was wondering why I made this head, which reminds me of Matt Lucas, with Mike's ears. It was puzzling me until I went upstairs and opened the polystyrene box which contains all things to be taken to be bisque-fired.

Ah! I picked the monkey's head and held next to the head. I instantly knew that both were a pair. I discovered that I made the head to be a partner of the monkey. It was my 'DoGoo' moment, if I can use the word like that.

An Item 

Do you know Kinkajou?

Hi Everyone! We had a sunny day today, but the air was that of autumn. The forecast is that we would have several days of warm weather. Lovely!

I was woken up just before seven by Topaz's mad barking. The reason was this chap. He comes to our hazel tree to steal nuts about 20 times a day. Anytime either of our dogs sees it running with a nut in the mouth, all hell breaks out. Flower pots on the windowsills get knocked off. The garden door was scratched.  They bark like mad dogs! And they look like mad dogs!

Nut stealing squirrel.

Late morning I took Topaz to the post office. The injuries on her feet got better and she was very happy to be taken. I wrote 'to be taken' but she actually lead me to the post office. She is clever enough to remember the route after several trips. Our route has a pelican crossing. I obligatory push the button because she won't cross it until the beeping sound for the blind starts. I taught her this since she was a puppy because I thought this might save her life one day.

Beautiful crackles on her cream coloured body.

Attractive matte cream glaze breaks to dark pink spots, beige and a bit of shiny parts.

This evening I was listing my ceramics in my Etsy shop. After I listed two whippets (above), Etsy site went down. I was ready to list my Kinkajou wall mask next. Do you know Kinkajou? They are nocturnal animal living in central and south America. They are omnivorous; parts of their diet is nectar and honey, hence they are also called  'Honey bear', although they are not related to bear family. One day I saw this animal on BBC wild life program. I like it at once, so I made a small wall mask. I did a glaze test on it. The test became so good that I kept him. Irony was that despite the test result, when I applied same layers of glazes on the one I had test for, it failed completely. The failure was probably caused by the thickness of the first glaze. Glazing is the most difficult thing in ceramics in my experience.  

Kinkajou wall mask

As Etsy is still down, I will retire early. I will list more of my ceramics, probably all September. So don't forget to check them out once a while. Good night, everyone!

From National Geographic

Power cut, fox and new rabbit for sale on Etsy

Hello everyone. We had power cuts twice today. It was so inconvenient. When the first one hit, I was watching corporate webcast of a half year result. The screen went to black suddenly, and all sorts of house alarms started near by. Only thing working was my little old mobile. Nexus was working, but not WiFi. aghhh. I decided to walk dogs, and hoped power will be back by the time I came home. It didn't. I decorated more ceramic models with enamel, and prepared for listing my ceramics for Etsy, as I have lots to list. I also peeled sticky labels off cardboard boxes. There was still no power. It only came at 12:15. We had no power for about 90 minutes. Mike came back for lunch as usual, and we quickly grilled toasts and made coffee, then everything went to black again. AGHHHH. This time, we had no power 2.5 hours. I gave up and decided to read a comics that my friend sent me from Japan last week. It was very thick volume. I finished it, but there was still no power. It was half past three when it finally came back. Most of my working hours were gone.

Nonetheless I listed one of my rabbits this evening. Him! He is one of four in new tribe. I was making a traditional crouching rabbit, but my fingers moved as if they had their own will. Ta-da, the first of this tribe was born. Isn't it strange? But similar thing happened to me when I was making 'a rabbit in the bunny suit' in 'Born in the year of the rabbit' series.

He is a bit alert and curious. 

Hello, folks! 

I wanted to tell you this. Last night we were woken up by odd sounds. I knew what they were. It's a fox. I got up from the bed, lifted blind and peeked outside. The sound came from a green behind neighbors' houses. The fox was very loud. Our dogs became excited. It sounded like 'GEOW'. They were short sharp loud calls.  While I was watching the direction of the green, a large hairy fox appeared, looking back to the green, and made the call intermittently. It trotted, stopped, looked back and called. I wonder if it was looking for another fox, perhaps its cub or mate. Foxes are beautiful animals. They look alert and purposeful. After I saw it disappeared into a street, I went downstairs to calm down the dogs.

Both Topaz and Pearl were alerted. They barked and searched for 'it'. I told Topaz that the fox was quite big, and she would be scared if it approached her, so forget about it, and go to sleep. She was not very convinced, but went back to her bed. Pearl didn't know what to do. She went to both windows at the back and front of the house. She refused to go to sleep again, but I pushed her into her bed. I covered her with a blanket, but she didn't settle or even sit down. After some coaxing, she finally settled down. I thought about the fox when I went back to the bed. Mike moaned he had become fully awake. But somehow I quickly went to a dream land where these wild animals roam. Next time I noticed it was already morning.      

I wanted to chase it. I could have caught it, I could have eaten it......  

The full moon rabbits fresh from the kiln!

Hello everyone. We had a hottish afternoon. Mike and I didn't want to do too much after work. This sluggish feeling is the evidence of real summer! We are finally having it.

Today, I will share the photos of my full moon rabbits fresh from the kiln. As I mentioned yesterday, I make rabbits on the full moon nights. The latest full moon was the third of August. So for three to four nights around that time, I was a bit possessed, and made rabbits as quickly as my hands could move. It was exhausting, but I feel it's worth concentrating. Some of them I made at that time were glaze fired.

My full moon rabbits.

This time, I have used different types of clay to see how the same white glaze looks. One of the clays fired to a cream colour, so the rabbits also have a hint of cream. The four on the right side are my new creation. I made one as a sample (the smallest one), and love it so much that I made more! The one behind them is another new creation of mine. It is a rabbit box and really wacky! lol Mike calls it 'Midori's Humpty Dumpty rabbit'! What an apt name, that is! I have decorated him with enamel this evening, I will fire it later in the week. I will show you how wacky it looks after enamel firing.

Ah, did you noitce that lone figure next to Humpty Dumpty rabbit? That's a little monster. Now and then, I get itchy fingers to make little monsters. Mike usually wants them, so they seldom appear in public. They lead very secretive lives on Mike's night table. Mike already wants him and his birthday is approaching ( next Wednesday!). But I might check the market with him. You never know people might like monsters, too!

I have listed the two largest rabbits today on my Etsy shop. I said 'largest' but they are all smaller than those rabbits I usually make. I created these small guys for overseas bunny lovers. My rabbits sell well in UK on eBay. But because of high postage for overseas, I seldom list them on Etsy.

They are desktop size. Like everything else I have made, all rabbits are different, so you will find your special one.      

The full moon rabbits

Hello, everyone. The Olympics is over. We felt a bit sad, but I had lots to catch up with. Mike also went back to his office after one week off. During the Game, I have made lots of rabbits and more.

Mike took the beautiful moon on the third of August, 

On the full moon nights, I make rabbits. I started doing this a couple of years ago. We say, in Japan, sacred rabbits live on the moon and make rice cakes. On the surface of the moon, you can see a rabbit is lifting a large wooden pestle, In front of him, there is a large wooden mortar. The full moon gives me extra power to create rabbits. It is like a little ritual, or even custom. When I see the full moon, I always think of the rabbits. The image of the rabbit was so embedded in me. ( So, imagine my surprise when Mike said that the moon was made of cheese, not just cheese, Swiss cheese! ) I treasure these little rituals. The little bit of special feeling, that makes difference.

Some of my new rabbits using new crank clay

I also made a bigger whippet. She is too big for a knife rest, but I just wanted to make. The model is Topaz. I had to order her to remain in the position. Topaz is more skinny than the one I made. The head model is Pearl, but she is so lazy that she wouldn't remain in 'Down' position for even some seconds.

Topaz obeys to commands. She is a clever girl.

  When Pearl rests, she usually rests like this!

Pearl likes informal positions.