The shop must go on!

I hope you had a good weekend. Mike and I went to the Sunbury gallery to take down the exhibition yesterday. We saw Alan, Barbara and Robert. It was a bit sad that we had to say goodbye to them, as we have worked together for a while. I also met 2 year-old boy who chose one of my little rabbits. How lovely to meet him! It has been great four weeks.

When we got home about eight, we were exhausted. We adjsuted ourselves to summer time quickly and I went to bed about 10:30 (Mike 9:30). This morning, my neck was not doing well. The whiplash didn't like the drive. So I have taken a day off from studio work to rest.

Even though I have been busy with the exhibition and preparation for the Cetramic Art London, the shop must go on! It has been very busy! Thank you so much!

Here are photos of those who went to loving homes this month!

A special black cat for a special lady!

Mia -front

Mia - side

 Piglet and Lamb went to a lovely lady in the US.

A pair of whippet joined a loving whippet home in the US.

A little Polar bear went to a lovely lady.

They went to Sigapore and the US. 

Goat, Carrot and Lamb

Monkey went to a  lovely lady in the US.

Both Carrot were snapped up.

Lyra, Polar bear spirit went to a wonderful lady in the US.

Alice joined Lyra.

Commissioned whippets by a specal lady with a special whippet. 

These are the largest ones from the last firing. They went to a wonderful lady.  

A line up rabbits from the last firing. All have hopped away to all over the world; Sigapore, US and UK! Thank you so much!

So did this one. A talented painter got her for her friends.

The middle wren went to a bird lover in Scotland! 

Whippets are very popular among sighthound lovers as well as gifts.

And this rabbit went to a lovely rabbit lady's home today!

 Are you interested? I still have two rabbits in red dresses in my shop! : ) Come along!

Pockets are full of happiness!

I have received a couple of messages about the arrivals of an anteater and tapirs. I can tell that they will be truly loved! I am so happy!

This morning, I have posted Carrot and Strawberry to a lovely ceramic artist. They will be Christmas gifts for young ladies. How lovely!

Carrot and Strawberry - sold

I have also made their friends, a piglet and lambs! They will be in my shop later this month. These little colourful girls (yes, they are girls.) make me smile anytime I see them. : ) I'm ambitious to make more friends! : )

Lamb with her toy duck, Piggie with her toy black cat, and lamb with her toy rabbit. 

As a lady requested on FB a group photo, here is one! If you would like a particular one, please send me a message. I will hold her for you before hitting the shop window. : )

Cheese! 

 

Little ones are great joy

It was another busy week for me. The bell in my shop has kept ringing. I have gone to Post Office every day. It has been too cold to walk, as max. temperature has been 3- 5C, so I have driven. One day a tyre punctured in front of Post office! The air came out with shhhhhhh sound and It became as flat as a pancake! Oh no! When I gathered myself and walked in Post office, their system had just gone down! It came back after about 30 minutes. I was able to post all my works. I left the car there, walked back and contacted Mike at office. He had to walk down to 'do something; about it. He did. :D

Yesterday I had to go to the Embassy in London. I didn't feel very well, and it was so cold. I didn't want to go. But once the business was done there, I decided to go to see Egon Schiele exhibition at Courtauld gallery and to do some Christmas shopping. It was a good day after all. I will tell you about the visit later.

So it was an eventful week, but I have managed to make good progress on my little ones. Here is Mademoiselle Wren. I was going to make a simple mask, but she had a different idea.

Mademoiselle Wren

 Wednesday, I started bisque-firing. Some of them are Christmas orders and others are for the Easter!

Lower shelf

Top shelf. 

Next day, they came out safely from the kiln! This time, there are tapir, piglets, lemur, polar bear as well as the usual suspects!

I made good progress on them today. I will continue tomorrow. Ironically I tweeted a week ago that I would not work on weekends any longer this year. How little I knew! What is a weekend?

 But, I hope you have a good weekend! : )

Christmas is coming!

Hello! Christmas is coming! So early! You might say, but I have noticed signs. My shop is getting busier and busier.  Post office has a longer and longer queue. Before I see the first Christmas tree, I can tell it is coming!

Today I will share some photos of the works that have gone to loving homes recently.

As soon as I tweeted this photo, the little Lamb in blue dress was snatched away. Cuteness alert! They are really sweet! The little rabbit in a red dress is still in my shop. She has a toy rabbit in her pocket!

These three Super Moon rabbits found homes, too. They are larger cousins of my ordinary Moon rabbits.

Medium size whippet went to a lovely home in London. There are still large bronze glaze whippets and greyhounds in my shop, if you are interested! 

Water Boy flew to a lovely home in Canada. I will list his friends and Forest Girl soon.  

Water Boy

 Polar bear went to a lovely lady in US.

And this delightful pair of Surprised owls went to Scotland! 

 
There will be more to leave for new homes soon. I have also posted my work to a gallery and will deliver more to another. So I'm spending my mornings packing and posting every day. It is the time of a year, Mr Tumnus.

Before the end, I would like to share lovely photos sent to me. Angel has arrived in NZ and met another Angel.

New flock from the kiln! But they are not finished yet.

Hello, everyone. I woke up 1:30 in the morning because my feet were tight. I remember my friend, Mimi, who does Flamenco, told me that her dance teacher said that tight strings in the calf is related to shortage of liquid. So, I went down to kitchen to get some water. Soon after I returned to the bed, Mike got up. I tentatively suggested 'Shall we go to the garage to see if the kiln had cooled down?' 'Now?!?' was his reply. Despite his tone, he was ready to go, but then I thought about it again, and told him that we would wait until morning. We might trip over something.'


I woke up earlier than usual and quickly dressed, and went to the garage with Mike, who promised me he would wait until I wake up. My heart started beating a bit quicker. Everyone was safe. I had dreams that one lost an ear, and another lost his head etc. So, I was so glad to see them all alive! 

My favourite one.

With this flock, I have experimented with the relationship between texture and glaze.  I left natural cracks which appeared while forming shapes. So I glazed them thinly. But the cracks really didn't show up much. I need to do more experiments on this. 

Mary's little lamb

His bottom

This little lamb is sweetest. He is Mike's favourite. He said he likes his tuft and bottom. His body had attractive cracks, but again they were not visible. I wiped off the glaze from his nose. He will have enamel eyes.  

He is a goofy boy.

His face has right thickness of glaze.  He also has also natural cracks, but they were lost under the glaze.

The little one with a tail

This is a little one. He reminds me of Shaun. I wiped glaze from his tail to show the texture.

Tallest one with heart. He will be re-glazed and re-fired.

He is the tallest one. I carved his body to make texture. I probably scraped a bit too much glaze. He will be re-glaze and re-fired.  He will be back again!

We are going to a ceramics material shop to buy some ingredients for glazes this weekend. I caught a cold. So I will go to bed early tonight. Nigh night!

Our weekend-Lambs, asparagus, steak Iskandar and a large mushroom

Hello everyone. How was your weekend? We had a busy one as usual. Yesterday we went to see lambs in a field nearby. We took Topaz and Pearl with us. It was a mistake. Pearl seemed so excited to see sheep that we decided it would be wise not to go near them. I took a pair of binoculars, and took photographs. Two lambs were playing, jumping, running and rubbing their fat bodies on the grass. The were very adorable! Their fleece was short and tight. They looked as if they were wearing thick flannel pyjamas.

Two little lambs

A large mushroom -Dia.15cm

On the way to the field, we crossed the University campus. There was a large mushroom. It looked like a bun.
  

Our summer plants.

We also went to a garden centre. We bought three pots of flowers.

This morning, I worked on my new chameleon, and delivered one of my sculptures, 'A rabbit in a bunny suit' to a wonderful couple, Tracey and William. Their spaniel apparently liked me. I guess she could smell Pearl and Topaz on me. They loved my rabbit, so, of course, I felt great!

We had another asparagus dish at lunchtime. This time, a pasta dish. I tossed cooked pasta with asparagus spears, Parma ham, a boiled egg and Parmesan cheese. Sauce is olive oil, mustard and white wine vinegar. It was heavenly.

Our Japanese acer

We have been admiring the beautiful colour of the Japanese acer that is just outside of our kitchen window. So here is the picture to share with you!

In the afternoon, I have worked more on the chameleon. Mike did, of course, much more! 

After such a busy weekend, I had a power meal at a dinner time. I had sirloin steak Iskandar. When I was in Turkey a long time ago, I used to have this dish quite often. They eat steaks with yogurt on top. Iskandar is Turkish name for Alexander. Yes, it is named after Alexander the Great. Today, I put mushrooms on top, but yogurt at the side to dip. It is very easy to make, and quite refreshing. I found it nice in summer.