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Showing posts with label Minotaur. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Minotaur. Show all posts

Friday, 13 September 2013

Another amazing day

Hello everyone. It has been another amazing day for me. Yesterday a wonderful customer in Australia reviewed my shop. He said,
This amazing artwork is on our wall now - taking pride of place. It's cheeky, funny, witty and has so many people commenting on it, when they come into our house. Thanks for all your inspiration and hard work. May people rush to buy your artworks ...
Needless to say, I was most delighted. But I didn't quite realize that it would come true. This afternoon, I had a message from the Sidney Cooper gallery that a little rabbit and a large chameleon were sold. How nice! Then within one hour, another message came. The large rabbit and the small chameleon were also sold. Now there was only one rabbit left; they wanted me to bring more work to them! How wonderful! I soon thought of the customer's review. Wow, it became true! I took several works to the gallery after they closed. Now the glass cabinet is full again. Some works have never been for sale. One is the Minotaur which you see in my banner. I love his face and colours. The glazes look mysterious and beautiful. He looks great in the cabinet. Also the third chameleon is in the cabinet. I have promised ladies on twitter that if current chameleons are sold, I will make more, so I will start on them next week. I started working on a commissioned mask. That is going well, too. 

Today I share some of my other works with you. I have two rabbit sculptures. White rabbits are symbolic animals in Japan. You would see them everywhere on almost everything in Japan. These two are, however, a bit different. Topaz, our nervous dog, is very scared of fireworks and thunders. Once either starts, she shakes like a leaf. She become restless, and has tried to hide inside the laundry machine. She is too big for that! Even after it stops, she pricks her ears up, and listens. Nothing. But she still listens. She is waiting for next bang.That was the idea came from.

Waiting for Next bang I

  
Waiting for next bang II

  
Together on a shelf


Then some of you remember this cat. Another cat was broken on the way to assessment, so he is a sole survivor. I assembled in four layers. The brown sections are reduction fired stoneware grey clay.  

Close-up of Equilibrium - cat 

This is how they are set up.

The cat is in the middle. 

Last, let me share this incredible story with you. Late this afternoon, Mochaccino, our very old owl finch drowned. He is my office mascot. I turned back from the chair and saw a soaked and motionless Mochaccino in the water. His head was half under the water. I don't know how long he was in his water dish, but about one hour before, I saw him preening. He had a stroke some months ago. He lost the power of flight then. After that his one side of the body became paralysed. At the arrival of autumn, he became weaker. We thought he would not make Christmas. He is about 100 years old if he were a human. 

I wrapped him in soft Kleenex, and warmed him up in the hand, and used a hair dryer gently to dry him a bit. Then I prepared a hot water bottle, and placed a towel and him on top of it on our bed. He showed slight movement. I kept him warm, and changed the water bottle before it gets cold. After five hours, when I went to check the water bottle, he shot out from the towel from fear, I think. I was shocked and overjoyed at the same time. I shouted that he came back to life to Mike and the world via twitter. It's a miracle.

He is still very weak. He is now sleeping on the warm bottle in a polystyrene box, which has very good insulation. I will swap the water bottle with a heat pad when I go to sleep. May Mochaccino survive tonight.     

Thursday, 21 June 2012

I am going to be a student again this autumn!

Hello, everyone! It has been a long time since my last post. Lots of things happened to me since then. Last Wednesday, Mike and I went on a day trip to Lille in France. The main purpose was to visit Palais des Beaux Arts de Lille. We enjoyed our time there. But I couldn't come home on that day. I finally came home next day, about 25 hours later than initially planned.

Since then, I have had to catch up with two days' work, to fill several forms, to write up a couple of proposals and to make a portfolio of my ceramics work and in the meantime I kept an eye on new developments in Euroland. Yesterday I went to an interview for a part-time MA course in Fine and Applied Arts in Canterbury Christ Church University where Mike and I had done ceramics with Kent Adult Education for the last three years.

Interview was an enjoyable. I was offered a place. So, I am going to be a student again next autumn. It's awesome! There are lots of things I would like to explore. I feel excited by just thinking about them.

My favourite piece
In the interview, I was asked which piece is my favourite. I pointed at this piece. Yes, this is the one you can see on my banner. Bob, the interviewer said that he likes it too.


 

Wednesday, 30 November 2011

Bushbaby, monster in the woods, faun and minotaur

Hello everyone. We had a flop on the Christmas sale. Oh well. We did post-analysis, and forgot about it.

Meet my Bushbaby. He looks so funny. If somebody could brighten up my dark autumn days it must be him! I made him on the spur of the moment as usual. When I saw his face, I knew that he is the kind of character I like to make. Funny, off-beat and some presence. When you look at him, you can't help smiling.

Bushbaby

I intend to keep him as my companion. He took a windowsill position in our bedroom.
Chunky from side

This glaze mix took a lot of tests and time. I liked it a lot, but the results were not consistent. For example, these below are also same glaze mix, and they all look different. Monster is lighter and faun is darker coloured than the Bushbaby. Of course, Minotaur on the banner is also same glaze mix.
Little monster in the woods
Because of the inconsistency, I may not use it again.
Faun

Minotaur

We are bushbabies too! Can we go to your bedroom? ( No!)