Mimi, the consultant and who is in a bunny suit?

Hello everyone. We had a summer day here in Canterbury. During my quick dog walks, those neighbours pottering around kept telling me how warm it is today. Lovely! Another half-sleeve day before autumn. This morning, I had been busy packing and shipping our ceramics. I had the first Japanese customer living in UK. How wonderful! I haven't used polite Japanese expression for a long time, so I might have sounded a bit too square. Do you know Japanese language has very complicated polite expressions, like a maze. There were four methods to express politeness. They say this is the most difficult thing for the students of Japanese language to master. I am not surprised.

Recently, I started making my own thank you cards. They go with my ceramics in the packages. I found making cards so enjoyable that I started designing a different one for each ceramics! I have already made six. It's a bit like a hobby. I told this and sent a photo of one of the first designs to my old trusty friend, Mimi. She suggested that I should develop them to products and offer them at my Etsy shop, and she thinks they would sell well! Wow, I felt every single artist needs a friend like Mimi. I filed her suggestion into my 'Be creative!' file. Just like everything I make, the problem I face is that they are handmade and can't make in numbers. But I will definitely consider her ideas. She was a full of confidence. I finally found my business consultant!

Rabbit in a bunny suit

One of my 'Rabbit in a bunny suit' was sold this weekend, so I replaced it with 'Baby in a bunny suit' on my Etsy. This is my sweetest and roundest one I have ever made. I don't know what possessed me, but it might be the effect of the full moon!

A Baby in a bunny suit on Etsy

  

Commissioned work and a birthday present for Mimi

Hello, everyone! Today I made a prototype for commissioned works, a pair of small delicate detailed pieces. I love to work for commissioned works because it gives me challenges. I always learn something I didn't know by making something new. It is also thrilling to create something I have never made, or even better, something which doesn't exist in the world yet.

The process is quite long. I gather technical data such as the shrinkage of clay, the suitability of glaze to particular clay, glaze tests. Then I will sketch. Once I am happy with basic design, I will make a prototype. This prototype goes through every process to the end., that is, bisque-firing, decorating, glaze-firing, enamelling, enamel-firing, and assembling if required. I will watch the prototype very carefully at each stage to search for any possible flaws. Then if it goes well, it means technical side is fine. I will show the finished prototype to a client. If she is happy with it, I will make final pieces. If not, I will go back to a design process to adjust design. When a client is happy with it, I will make final pieces, and will go through whole process again. It would take about five to eight weeks to finish. I hope this one goes well. Once the pieces are delivered in late September, I will show you the photo of them.

Yesterday was Mimi's, my friend in Japan, birthday. I asked another friend and her if they want a mascot from the Olympics before we went to see wrestling.  Mimi wanted Wenlock. So, I bought him and posted him next day so that she could receive the packet before her birthday.

Wenlock with two gold medals that I made from royal mail 1st class stamp sheet! : )

Did you notice something on Wenlock? Yes, he has got two gold medals!! I made them. Mike and I went to see female wrestling, in which two Japanese won golds. All Japanese were elated on that day. Mimi twittered that she spotted us on TV from Japan. So That's why Wenlock won two gold medals. It's our memory of the day. I also included an Olympic ticket for wrestling and a special Olympic London travel card to share our excitement with her.

She went to Hakone, a famous hot spring, on her birthday. She said she was too excited in a swimming pool, and cracked her toe! Poor Mimi. I hope Wenlock comforts her a bit. By the way, my other friend decliend my offer to send her a mascot. She said 'They look spooky!'. Umm, I understand. But if she saw the cute bottom of Wenlock, she might have changed her mind. He has a pointed pyramid shaped bottom. Uh? I could almost hear someone saying,' It's spooky!'.    

Our first experience of wrestling - the Olympics 2012

Hello everyone. Today I have spent about seven hours decorating and glazing my ceramic sculpture in the garage. It's dark and a bit chilly (yes, English garage can be chilly even in mid-summer!) I bent down at awkward angle and got back aches. It was totally outside of 'health and safety' guidelines. I should improve working conditions, as I spend several hours in the garage every weekend. We will fire the kiln tomorrow morning, and will be able to open it on Monday. I hope they all will go well. There is one tricky one, a large chameleon with dodgy legs. My fingers are crossed for him!

Here I am going to report our second Olympic experience at eXcel.  Last Wednesday, we went to see women's free style wrestling. We chose this event because I knew Japanese women won gold medals in previous Olympics, and they have been very dominant.

We started our day with good news. One of the packets I sent Monday the week before was finally delivered. The Olympics seemed to have caused the delay, as the packet was for east London. We were so glad to hear the news!

We took our train and changed to Dockland light railway at Stratford International. We have never used DLR before. After about 11 minutes, we finally arrived at Custom house. There we found a half of Irish population! Green, green and green. Irish people at all ages in green clothes. Mike told me that there would be Irish boxer's match.  

eXcel entrance

Excel is huge. We were told to go to venue 10. We passed taekwondo, table tennis and boxing. We finally reached wrestling. Most Irish disappeared into boxing venue. Most Japanese went into wrestling.  

Japanese supporters and Irish supporters

We had good seats. The fourth row in front of ring A. There are three rings in the venue. In front of Mike, there was an American man who told us that the first two rows were occupied by the family of an American wrestler and that he bought a bundle of tickets.

Mike started having sandwiches as soon as he settled down. (We had already had sushi lunch in the train before we got here) I took photos and decided to do some warming up. I was a just spectator, but I was getting into the sport! As soon as the matches started, I gave the camera to Mike, and totally absorbed in them.

Happy Mike eating sandwiches.

I had never seen wrestling before even on TV. So imagine my surprise when I saw the rings were literally rings. They were round. They looked also so small. I remember my father watching pro-wrestling on TV when I was child. I remember very well that the ring was square and ropes around it.

There were three matches on three rings simultaneously. We watched one in front of us, at ring A, unless, of course, Japanese was fighting somewhere else. Here is Japanese wrestler, Obara. She was quick.

Japanese wrestler, Obara.

Obara's supporters. 

 There were two categories on that day. 48kg and 63 kg. Obara was in 48kg, and Icho was in 63 kg. Icho was super quick. Her fight was beautiful. There was no waste in her movement. I soon became her fan.

This fight was against Canadian. Both Japanese supporters and Canadian supporters were very loud. The whole place became so noisy. There was a young female Canadian supporter behind us. She had incredibly loud voice, not dissimilar to a foghorn! 

Kaori Icho, gold medalist in Athens and Beijing 

 Both Japanese went to quarter finals. Yeah!  From quarterfinals all fights were held in the ring B.

Obara pinning down Senegal woman. 

Icho against Swedish 

 Now both girls were in Semifinal. I was on the edge of the seat. The Russian guy near us kept begin given warnings from attendants because he didn't sit down, instead he had been on foot. That was a bit distracting.

Obara. if she wins, she would go to final....

  Obara won! I made as much as noise I could, but not much. lol

Icho at semi. She is steady and very quick. 

 Icho also won, too. My girls both went to finals! I was so happy. We would have to go back to see finals on TV.

Icho after her victory. 

There is nothing much around eXcel, so we went back to Stratford straight way. We had coffee and cakes with WiFi at Westfield. Then I found the message from my friend, Mimi, in Japan, in twitter. She said ' I spotted Mike and you on TV at Icho's match!'. I burst into laughing. I told Mike about her message. He also laughed, too.  Mimi was determined to find us on TV as soon as I told her we bought tickets. She really found us! I hope she enjoyed watching the match, too!

After a bit of shopping (I found very nice Middle Eastern confectionery), we headed back home. Here is the view from Stratford International. You can see the Olympic village where athletes stay.

Austrian flags on Olympic village. 

Stratford station

 
Once we were back home, we watched finals. Both Japanese girls won gold! What a day! I was ecstatic! Then, we checked our appearance on TV on streaming. Yes, we spotted Mike eating sandwiches and  me doing stretching before the matches at an introductory part. We were in the camera line, so we repeatedly appeared here and there. So funny! There was no one in front of my seat for the most of the time. So from the camera angle, Mike's face was clearly on TV.  He looked handsome and young.  So did I. We both looked 10 years younger!

Decorating figures, Rugy matches, and Mimi's agony

Hello everyone! Have you had a good day? I had a cheerful one again! I started decorating one of my two figures late morning, In the meantime, Mike was baking a cake for our parrots and walnut cookies for us. He then carried on preparing a lunch. Yes, he is wonderful. He is such a good husband. He even went to a super before that, I should add. I am not particularly passionate about any of these things. I only do when they have to be done.

Art Deco lady

Over Hawaiian Pizza lunch, we watched a rugby match, Scotland against Italy, but it wasn't very good. I stayed until we had desert and coffee, but went back to decorating until the next match which should be the best of today. 

I was using underglaze and oxide to decorate her. I need a good day light. I was wondering if I would have enough time to decorate her after the rugby. I pressed on for a while, and realised my eyes need a rest, so I went down to watch TV with Mike. It was a decider, Wales against France. Very physical match. I am usually very animated during rugby matches, although I am quiet and still for tennis or other sports. I constantly mimic BBC person, and crticise the strategy even though I don't grasp all rules! and sing songs at the end. If there is haka at the beggning I may even join! I like battles, and rugby is as close as modern sport can get. Mike seems to be able to block me out completely. He watches it very quietly. 

I was watching a stadium full of fans, and felt how powerful sports really are. People love sports so much. Then I remember Japanese old artist said on twitter that arts are stronger than money. I wondered if sports are stronger than arts? I am art person, so I tend to think arts are more powerful, but when I saw these fans, I felt sports are more powerful in general. What do you think?

After the match (Wales won Six Nations. Congratulations!), I returned to my 'studio' where Mochachino, my last finch, lives. I did as much as this ( see photo below). I also waxed hair and a part of face. The brown patch is wax. the colour of the lips and cloth look pink, but it should become red (I hope it won't be burnt out in the kiln!). I will finish details tomorrow in daylight Thankfully, Six Nations is over, so I can concentrate on ceramics tomorrow.

  
I wrote about Mimi, my old friend in Japan, at the caption of the photo of almond croissant, yesterday. She kept sending me messages on twitter. She said 'The almond croissant looks yummy!, I want one!','I saw the caption of the photo! I want one!!!' Hahaha. Mimi, I assure you that it is worth coming over from Japan to taste this organic Almond Croissant! I don't like sweets much, and I usually feel sick after eating a small portion. But I have eaten three, yes three almond croissants within 24 hours. Mike said, that's unheard of. Wanna try?

Birthday cards!

Card from Mimi

Thank you, Mimi!

My old friend Mimi sent me a birthday card from Japan. It is so sweet. She always sent me really cute cards. She said, when she saw this card in a shop, she knew it must be the one for this year, as she knew that I was making lots of rabbits.

Group photo

I got one from mike's brother, too. Another sweet one. So you wonder what kind of card did I get from Mike?

Silence

Ehem, he decided to make one for me, a special one for his dearest wife. He was doodling in the bed last night. Sketches? Wanna see?

Mike said this is a chameleon.

He said this is a frog.

His parrot was much better. It looked like one. The deadline for submission was extended to the end of next Sunday because he said he would need practices. So, I will report on this when he gives me the final one.

In the past I have made several handmade 'cards' for him. My favourite one was for his birthday in 2004. I made from petals, leaves and stalks in the garden on our white floor tiles, while he was out shopping. I also gave him a wreath to wear!

On Mike's birthday in 2004

in 2009, I painted the scenery of Oare marsh in Japanese ink. One day Pearl the whippet found it and literally chewed it up, and swallowed it ... tears.

ZZZ...Japanese ink was yummy....

I was happily turning the creamer that I threw yesterday during my lunch break with the melody and tempo of Blondie's 'Dreaming', .... when I thought I almost finished, the bottom part sank. Ah-oh. The clay was too soft for turning. Mike's bowls turned out to be too thick. So all went back to a clay bucket. We will soon need a bigger one, at this rate.