In the studio in November.

The kiln started this morning. A few hours later than expected. One of Tiny baby tapirs fell and got an ear injury!  He was rushed in to A&E, but got in the kiln just before ten.

I have been busy working for the bisque firing for last three weeks. This is the last bisque firing for Christmas orders. I hope you will find what you are waiting for if you have placed orders.

Kiln shelfie - Lower shelf has tapirs for waiting lists as well as orders. A few should have a debut in my Etsy shop. Lots of whippets in various sizes, polar bears a little birds.

Middle shelf has porcelain spoons for tea leaves and parts for sculptures and four salamander brooches on commission. 

The top shelf has vessels on commission, rabbits, whippets and a spoon! 

I would love to fire more often, but I try to be eco friendly and patient. So I will try to fill it when deadlines are not looming. Here are some photos of work in progress before they were bisque fired. 

Tapirs come in three sizes.  

But whippets come in various sizes! 

In the UK, There is a TV program about competition for throwing pots. Here is mine. I seldom do, unless I have orders. A porcelain bowl.   

After drying enough, turning the bottom. I hate post with rough bottom.  

I might do the second turning, if the bottom is a bit soft. 

They have become bone dry for bisque firing. 

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!
  

My new test piece Yunomi

Hello everyone. I took several photos of my test piece, yunomi (Japanese tea cup), this afternoon. I really like it. I was inspired by Carolyn's demo and Japanese calligraphy, which I used to do.

Here are a 360 degree show for you. : )  (A shame about the reflection of the Georgian style windows. )

Test piece-1

I like this swish!

 We are glaze-firing tomorrow, and I have another test piece in it. I hope it will come out as bright as this one!

Oh, today my Canon EOS was delivered. Mike recommended the model for beginners ( the cheapest one!); there are more than enough functions for my use, he said. I hope I can shoot the better photos of my work with it. I haven't really looked at it yet because I have been busy with glazing today. I will let Mike read the instruction, and explain it to me. Hahaha. ( I can hear some unfamiliar beeping from downstairs. I bet he is playing with it right now!)

Goat mask, 'Out of sorts III' and pots fresh from the kiln

Hello everyone. Mike went back to work. I started my work at 8:30 as usual. The holiday is over, back to business. I have been reading Sexual Personae by Camille Paglia. The book has 672 pages and it is on 'three day loan'. I have renewed it once, but I can't help wondering how many times I have to renew it before I finish it. The content is interesting, and it's something I have done in sociology a long time ago at Tokyo. I would like to read her latest book, Glittering images, but I am not likely to find it easily even though I have access to two libraries from two universities.

Here are some photos of my latest work from the kilns. Mike liked this goat mask. So do I. It is as big as a young child't head. Bisque and before firing.

Goat wall mask

Next is 'Out of sorts III'. It is rare for me to use so many colours on one figure. I did it in the flow of the 'Waiting for the next bang'. I am satisfied. I am still vaguely contemplating how to finish 'Out of sorts I' and 'Out of sorts II'. The inspiration will come, one day.

Out of sorts III

Out of sorts III

This time, I have some pots to show you, too. This is my little sample dish. Like lots of my sample dishes, it became gorgeous! lol  I used my own pine ash glaze and shino from a forgotten miserable bucket in the studio. It was too thick ( like mayonnaise). I diluted it with water first, and then used my finger to wipe the thick glaze on the dish. I am going to use this forgotten shino for several pots Mike and I made. I just hope they will come out as good as this!

Shino and pine ash glaze - reduction

This bowl is our collaboration. Mike threw it and I designed and painted the rabbit. I have made this rabbit motif before . It is one of my most favourite ones. This time, the rabbit is a bit slimmer than the one on the cup below.

A rabbit bowl - semi porcelain

A chubby rabbit cup

Mother's loving parcel arrived.

Hi, everyone. I am typing this on a dinning chair in my office cum studio. My, so called, executive chair is occupied by Pearl. I accepted my junior position and she rules my office!

This is MY chair.

Today a parcel arrived from Japan. My mother sent me two different green tea and rice crackers. The rice crackers have soy sauce based taste with strong leek flavour. The packet says that they were hand baked with leek sauce. I opened one packet (In Japan humidity is very high, so each cracker is packed individually.) and gave 10% to Mike and ate the rest. We both loved it. I asked Mother to send us more of them!

Green tea and rice crackers

I drink green tea everyday. I always love the taste and fragrance of green tea. But I treat them more or less like medicine, since I read that they are antioxidant. The article I read said that the effect was seen at the back of the eyes of drinkers even 24 hours later. I have tried several pre-packed green tea in UK, but they taste stale to me. So I usually ask anyone visiting us from Japan to bring one or two packets for me. At tea time in the morning, I make a cup of strong green tea. That's my routine.

After dinner, I went back to work. Mike turned his cups those he had thrown over the weekend. We use a kick wheel to turn pots because it is easier to centre them and also it is more therapeutic than a electric wheel. But after a while we get a very tired leg, which we put our weight! 

Mike's cups. 'Before' and 'After'

  

My boss, Pearl, is not pleased to be disturbed whilst sleeping.

My little mug for a serious coffee lover.

Hello everyone. it has been another sunny day, and this is not so usual for this time of the year in Canterbury. I remember well that there were snow on spring equinox in some years, and once even in early April.


This morning, I was a bit busy with my work. There was a coup in Mali at about five o'clock in the morning, and I had to keep an eye on the situation over there. So, forget the Budget, focus on Mali now. This surprised me. I was not even sure where Mali was exactly until this morning!

Here is my newest little mug. It is for a strong coffee, like espresso. It would easily take double espresso. I like how green glaze looks on the body. It changed to metallic silver colour in parts.

A small mug for a coffee lover.

Beautiful silver cloured apppeared on green glaze.

We have experimented with these two glazes over last several months. I like this one best.

Mike baked a walnut honey loaf last Sunday. Baking is his hobby. I have had a slice every morning since with a black coffee. The mug would have been perfect for the table at such breakfast. I would list it for sale soon. Watch this space.  

Throwing, carrot cake, rugby, new rabbit mug, throwing again and ebay in this order!

Plinths

Hello everyone! How are you? This morning, soon after breakfast, I threw a couple of pots. They might look like cat bowls, but they aren't. They are plinths for my figure that I made two weeks ago. I want to enter the work in a competition, and thought it would look nice on a plinth. Since the figure was sent to be bisque fired, I threw two pieces, just in case.


In the meantime, Mike was baking a carrot cake. This time with carrots in it. Haha-ha

He put some cooking oil

A bag of carrots

let's go, whisker!

I usually pinch walnuts while he bakes. So he prepared more than necessary.

Ready to go into the oven

Last night four items were sold on ebay. One of them was my little rabbit mug. So, I made a new one. Well, Mike had already made a mug with stoneware grey clay. So I carved a small rabbit and attached her onto the handle. Cute! Isn't she? This one is an ordinary size mug cup. We will glaze with our new white glaze.  I will update when it is finished.

Adult size! mug

New rabbit mug

Oh, yes! Yummy!

Disappearing fast !

We had the lovely carrot cake and tea after that. Then rugby time! We both are avid rugger fans! Our ebay this evenig went well, and we sold two more. We will sleep in happiness. Night night,

My new pots

Hello everyone! How was your week? It has been a tiring busy week for me. Very glad to see the weekend.Here are some pictures of my new pots. One mug and one yunomi. 

Pretty handle!

Medium size mug

Yunomi ladies' size

A shame about the reflection of fabric on green glaze.

Yunomi- green glaze came through.

The yunomi her friend bought.

This week's new pots and easy chicken casserole - I only make easy ones, but, belive me, they are yummy!

Hi everyone! We have had another cold day. The snow hasn't completely melted around us yet. I keep dog walks to minimum. When it is as cold as this, we really look forward to a hot meal after a hard working day. Don't you? Here is my very easy chicken casserole. Meat falls off from bones. Very tender and yummy! After eating all meats and vegetables, we will have soup for a lunch. You need to remove the fat on the top before warming up.

• Heat a large pan.
• Place chicken (thighs, drumsticks etc) skin side down in the pan.
• Peel and cut vegetables into chunks (carrots, potatoes, swedes, onions, mushrooms), and add them on top of the meat.
• Cook them on a gentle heat for about three hours. Add any wine you have got into the pot. (1-2 TBS)
• Season and enjoy.

 

Midori's very simple casserole

Vase inspired by volcano

I made this vase in 2010. I had kept them unglazed for a long time. When I got it glazed, I didn't like the way the glaze behaved, so I got it fired two more times. Finally it became something I expected. The lines on the pot are atrractive and dynamic. I imagine flowers look great in this vase. I can't wait to pick some flowers from the garden in spring!

Volcano vase

Here is Mike's new cup. It is lovely! We really like this combination of glazes. There are more of his cups coming up later. He did some experiment on one of them. We hope it will come out pretty!

Mike's beautiful cup

This little white bowl is our glaze sample. It looks like icing sugar! This glaze usually crackles on any clay containing frits. We used to use German smooth white stoneware with this glaze. It was a perfect match. But the price for Greman clay quadrupled; I had to source another clay locally. So I bought specially this smooth clay to try last summer. It takes us a bit of practise to throw this clay well, but we will get there. I intend to make a rabbit mug, and use this white glaze for it. Watch this space!

Glaze Sample

Mike is making a cake for our parrots and our polenta muffins, right now. The casserole is on the hob. I can smell it. I am getting hungry. See you tomorrow!