New works in progress

Cold has returned because I walked to town on Saturday to see an exhibition. The road was congested. It is not serious, but bad enough to have aches all over, hence I can't sleep well. I stay inside, and drive to post office. I hope I will be 100% soon!

Here are images of the January orders I had made before the cold returned. The Water Girl is for a lady in New York.

Water Girl

A herd of tapirs. I made a few extra tiny babies for tapir lovers.

Ice baby and his animal helper on the left for a lovely lady. I have also made a tall one for a show. 

Ice baby

What's this? He is an aardvark. His name is Otto! He lives in London Zoo. I made him for a lovely lady who adores aardvarks.

After hollowing him out, I made his face. 

Otto

The last burst of  Christmas posting was last Friday. 

I have added a couple of porcelain spoons in my shop. The largest one and a small one. 

Porcelain spoons.

Mystery was solved!

The mystery sale was finally revealed! It was Dawn Chorus.

Dawn chorus - sold

Little ones are also in demand last week!

 Ice Baby and animal helper went to a lovely lady in the Netherlands with white rabbit.

Ice Baby and animal helper - sold

White rabbit - sold

Frida the monkey has flown to to a nice lady in the US! She likes nuts! 

Frida -sold- and Piglet

A little goat (left)  has gone to a nice lady north. : )

Little goat -sold-, Piglet and Lamb

Midori was busy packing! 

It is great to see flowers when I'm a bit tired. Agapanthus is one of my favourite summer flowers. 

There are four different species and varieties in the garden. I have grown them from seeds. 

Balloon flowers are one of Japanese summer flowers! Anytime I see them I remember Japanese hot summer evening; people in yukata (summer light kimono) with fans in hands. They are waiting for fireworks to start.  

I am a fairy godmother!

Hello everyone. Today I would like to share this photo.

Sebastian guarded by Ice baby and Rabbit girl

Yay! Perin and Kath became parents last month.  Their handsome boy, Sebastian was born! Well done, Kath! I became a fairy godmother! It has been a long wait, and I admire all mothers! Perin sent me this photo. I love it. I was overjoyed to see it. My rabbit girl and Ice baby are guarding him. I am very proud of them.

I made the Ice baby with all best wishes for him. I had a gut feeling that the baby would be a boy.  How lovely!

They must be very busy now. I wish all happiness and good health to three of you from England.  
  

Christmas creation and storm

Hello everyone. I hope you had a great Christmas. We chilled out and probably ate a few too many sweets, especially Turkish delights and chocolates! We also looked after cats for a neighbour.

I have also made several little creatures.

Ice Baby

 I made Ice baby for three children over the pond.

Mother dog

Feather

Turtle

And also made several owls. These are larger than the previous ones, You can see very sleep owls!  

Owls

The storm we had was the biggest one for some years in our area. Next morning, we saw a couple of fences came down in neighbours gardens. 

Two fences were down.

 When we walked dogs, we discovered more damage caused by the storm. 

Fences were down here ...

and there.

We won't walk near the tree.  

Lots of houses lost ridge roof tile at the corner. We were lucky not to get any damage.

Ridge roof tile fell. 

Then I received an email from a lady in Surrey that she had had no power since last Monday! It's terrible. I hope you are safe and sound.

Pearl decorated!

Ice Baby bisque-fired for Perin and Kath's new baby

Hello everyone. Today, I would like to share the photos of Perin's Ice baby, just fresh from the kiln yesterday morning. I call him Ice baby, but he is a guardian for babies and children. The story about the first Ice baby is here. He and his friend are in my shop, if you are interested in him. When Perin and his wife Kath realized that they are going to be parents, he requested me to make a special guardian for their baby, due in January. I used a new wooden spoon to make his shape because I thought it symbolizes the very beginning of the a new person and also because it is Japanese custom to use new wooden tools for something good.

Ice baby for Perin's Bub

I made him while I imagined all hope and love the baby is going to receive from their loving parents as well as extended family and friends. With each tapping sound I made with the new wooden spoon, I pushed my good wishes into Ice baby. I felt each tap made the Ice baby potent.

Because of some Skype problem, I received Perin's wishes about what symbols they like to use for decoration several weeks later. I kept the Ice baby in the fridge to prevent him drying out. They wanted birds, feathers and flowers. So I decorated the body like this.

Feather on one side

Then I thought I finished decoration and left the baby to dry in the room. But the next day I added more on the other side. By then the clay was getting a bit too dry, so I could only scratch the surface but I hope it will be enough to retain colours in grooves, after I put some glaze.  

The other side

It has been so special to make him. I hope the baby will appreciate how much his or her father and mother would look forward to the birth once the little new life has become old enough to understand.

I will do finishing on him and hopefully he will be glaze-fired next week. All my love to you, the new lucky baby!