Nudes

Hello everyone. Today I had a frustrating office day. Not everyday is a happy one. I finished work before three, walked dogs, and went to the studio. Luckily I could shift from one mode to another easily. I had a couple of bisque figures to finish, and also a head to re-fire. I will go back to finish all tomorrow afternoon.

Today I will show you the nude figures. If you remember I went to a life drawing class last autumn. I made small figures then. I kept four of them, and reduction-fired them last week. I am so happy with the result.

We will have another a life drawing this Saturday. I hope I have a good time again!

Too much is as bad as too little

Hello everyone. We are still in a dark, cold, damp spell. I have stayed at home except for short dog walks. My work got busy and I need to focus on it.

Today, I will show you porcelain fired in reduction. They are my test pieces. Although I had known that porcelain become blueish white in reduction firing, I didn't expect they become this blue!  Those we used to use in Japan were not this blue in my memory.

I decorated these porcelain pots just before I finished packing the gas kiln. I ran out of ideas of decoration; I don't like repeating same design. As I was moving the brush, I thought, 'Umm, is it too much?' but I kept going. Alas, it became OTT!

It started ok.

 

Somehow I felt more was more at that time. 

Ah-oh. Too late. I did too much!

Back is still nice, though! lol

This is yunomi (tea cup). Despite the mistake with the bowl above, I somehow carried on. There is too much cobalt decoration all over, even inside! I soon remembered Japanese saying, 'Too much is as bad as too little'. Aghh, too late!

Yunomi with too much decoration!

Last one is something I cherish. I love the pine ash glaze. I make it myself; I burned the pine branches found on the campus nearby, washed the ash about 50 times, and made the glaze. But the problem is that I don't have enough pine branches to make lots of ash, so the ash glaze is only a small quantity. I poured inside, but I had to brush outside. I love the colours. It has the atmosphere of early spring. 

Inside is natural celadon. Ash has higher iron content than other trees easily available In Japan. So when they make celadon glaze from scratch, Japanese use pine trees.  

Pine ash glaze, natural celadon colour

   

My favourite reduction fired bowls

Hello everyone. We had a cold weekend and stayed home happily. I took the photos of recent works yesterday. Porcelain cups look flat on the photos; that made me feel flat, too. I have asked Mike for help; he used to be a hobby photographer with a dark room, when I met him. Despite gloomy daylight, he could manage to take much better photos than I did.  So I listed a couple of the my porcelain items on my Etsy shop. I will list the rest gradually over the week. So if you are interested in, please check them out.

Friday afternoon, I unloaded the gas kiln which I did reduction firing the day before. They are successful. I fired lots of Japanese style bowls with beautiful Shino and pine ash glazes, which I made by myself. While I was unloading them, I suddenly became homesick; I was thinking something like, this pot would be great as a rice bowl, or the pot would look lovely with the stew my mother used to cook and so on. From there, the memory flooded me. It was my rare moment to be sentimental. Japanese ceramics are one of a few Japanese things I miss a lot. There are nothing like them in England.

Here are some of our work fresh from a kiln! This bowl is our most favourite. I used our new Shino glaze, which came out much redder than ordinary Shino. I would like to have the stew in this!

My favourite - Thrown by Mike. Decorated by Midori with celadon, Shino and pine ash glaze. Dia. 15 cm

Inside 

Foot ring

The next is a rice bowl. Outside has banding. White rice would look delicious in this bowl, I imagine!

Thrown by Mike and decorate by Midori.
A lovely rice bowl

This is another bowl with Shino, but different one.

Thrown by Mike, decorated by Midori.  Good for salad! Dia. 15 cm

Inside

This little piece is my test. I used celadon. It appears like mint ice cream with chocolate pieces!

Test piece thrown by Midori 

Mint ice cream with chocolate chips !

This would also make a nice salad bowl. I need a better picture!

Thrown by Mike and decorated by Midori

Inside. A reduction fired bowl

 

A message from a lovely customer and reduction firing

Hello everyone. How was your day? I went in the studio 8:50 for reduction firing and came home at five. The day flew by! But, first I want to share my joy of reading a message from a lady who bought a little rabbit I made. She wrote; 

"Really reminds me of this little mouse I made as a child but dropped it and broke it, I suppose the rabbit can be his replacement! ( and I can assure you I won't be dropping it again )

Really lovely, I love it, Thanks a lot!"

This made my heart warm. I know the rabbit will be loved. I feel so happy for him and the lady. I feel as if I were the mother who sends her child to the big world for the first time.

The little rabbit

One of the reasons why Etsy and other similar shops are popular is because artists and makers can connect with customers via what we create by hand with love. It is true that we put our love and joy into what we create. I do. So I get worried if my work has traveled safely, or whether they will be loved in their new homes. I also give them nicknames even though it would make me more difficult to part with them. That's why you feel warmth when you touch handmade work, be it art or craft. That's why they are still popular in this digital age.

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I have taken a photo of the packed kiln with my nexus, so the quality of image is poor, but here it is.

A nicely packed gas kiln. 

During reduction firing, I have to record temperature and other details every 15 minutes, so there isn't much time to do anything much, but in the afternoon, I did some glazing of this chap, 'Waiting for the next bang II'.

 

Waiting for the next bang II'

    It was a productive day. I hope yours was too!
 

New porcelain cup from the kiln

Hello everyone. This morning, when Mike brought a breakfast tray to the bed, he told me that our glaze firing was successful and that he had brought all work into the house. After breakfast, I went down to see them. Yes, they are pretty. A couple of them need re-firing due to pin holes (there are tiny places not covered by glaze). But the results are quite good.

I have one to show you here today. This is a porcelain cup with sgraffito.

My new porcelain cup

The left flower should have had a blue centre, but it became too dark. Despite it, I still like this cup. The little character on the left (image below) is my signature that I use for ceramics. You often see it at the back of my work.

The other side.

I will be doing reduction firing tomorrow. I will be in the studio at nine, and will log the firing details every 15 minutes until about four in the afternoon. Mike took a day off to cover me so that our dogs will be walked. It will be a long (and cold! 3C max.) day.  I'm ready for it!