Did you know Angels chat inside the kiln?

Hello everyone! I have just loaded the kiln. Phew!

Mike helped me to carry the shelf to the kiln room, the garage, this evening. 

I have been slowly working to prepare for the firing over the last three days. I am eager and relatively quick to make, but after that I suddenly become hesitant. I usually paint porcelain slip and underglaze before bisque-firing. I tend to undo and try another things/colours. Suddenly productivity and efficiency go low and I get frustrated.

For the last three days, the kiln shelf had remained 75% empty. Anytime I saw it I felt a bit of pressure.

The shelf had remained same for last 3 days!

So, I am feeling a relief now. Inside the kiln, Angels seem to be having a chat. These shots remind me of commuter trains in Tokyo! :D

I have heard that we are going to be fired! Really?

Will it be hot?  I guess so! 

I have made a pair of hands for a commissioned work and they are also in the kiln now.

I need to get a few admin job done as I haven't done much last few days. So that's tomorrow's job! 

*****

In the meantime, our dogs, Topaz and Pearl are completely crazy about squirrels stealing our hazel nuts from the garden. Topaz, especially, seems to be possessed by the squirrels! She watches the garden without eating her food. This morning, I gave her a halo, sellotape one! 

Topaz with a halo

   Pumpkin lost her last tail feather. She became a quail!

Quail style Pumpkin

Does anybody like glazing?

I woke up with more good news. The imp has arrived in Norway. That was quick. The lovely Ellen said it took her 5 minutes to unpack him! I make sure that every piece is well wrapped. : )

Now he lives in Ellen's office with Hippocrates. 

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I have spent Tuesday and Wednesday glazing. It is sad to see how few pieces you can glaze in two days! No wonder there aren't many millionaires among glazing ceramic artists! :D Well, except for Grayson Perry, of course.

Dipping rabbits in a glaze bucket was quick. Then cleaning and tidying up pinholes, eyes, the rims and so on will take literally hours. This is Tuesday's work.

Waiting for glaze-firing

Then yesterday, these tiny fiddly things took me a day. The most time consuming ones to glaze are the little chickens! I should be charging a fortune for them, but, of course, I can't! Ladies and gentlemen, if the little ones are priced higher than large ones in my shop, there are good reasons.

This little fellow is also on the shelf, if you look carefully. I have used underglazes. The difficulty of underglazes is if I mix colours by myself, I don't know exactly what colours they would be until they are fired. I have seen shocking results before! it was so shocking that Mike banned me from using one particular colour ever! (... blue) I hope he will be a lovely brownish grey.   

Anteater is being fired right now.

The garden is full of blue flowers.

Balloon flowers

Agapanthus with a cat mess protection net! 

 The studio dog convinced me that she is the descendant of Ammonites! 

Herald and bendy Topaz

The weather has been so lovely here in Canterbury. I keep saying to myself that it won't last, but yesterday, I finally got my summer clothes out and put winter clothes away. I hope I won't regret it too soon.

I am having a great time on Facebook. I met wonderful people. I still can't figure out how I should operate on it; except for posting and reading other people's posts. I apparently sent a friend request to someone I don't know, and I didn't know that I did until the lady kindly accepted it. Imagine my surprise! This was caused by me fiddling with FB on the tablet. At this moment, I am still observing other people. I post everyday about my ceramics, except for yesterday when I was too sleepy to keep awake. If you are on FB, please join me at: https://www.facebook.com/MidoriTakaki.Sculpture

The preparation for the art fair is going well. As this is my first art fair, I am trying to imagine what we would need to take with us. But I try not to get too worried about it. There is a high street near the venue, so if we need something, we can still get it on that day, I hope.

I have shared this photo on twitter recently; it has been well received. He is Herald.

Herald -  34 cm

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Topaz, the bendy dog, is still bendy. :D She somehow reminds me of a reptile. She lies like this in the middle of  busy traffic. We have to walk around her.

In the garden, she stretches more. To protect Pumpkin, our queen chicken, Topaz has to be tied up to the laundry post!
 

'They think Pumpkin is greater than us!'

Flow? In the zone? It's madness!

What a weekend! Saturday was our wedding anniversary. We wanted to visit London to celebrate, but direct trains were not running due to track repairs after the flooding. So we went for an anniversary dinner on Friday evening at our favourite restaurant. We also thought we would visit somewhere local, a gallery or a quaint town.

But I ended up working in my studio for about 10 hours! How unromantic! How un-anniversary-like! Not only did Mike put up with it, but also he gave me a box of champagne truffles and a bouquet of red roses. I always told young female art students to find a man like him!

The round box is mine, and he bought himself the cat one!

Rose

I had tried to build the body of this boy. The first one failed. And I had to coil-build it in the afternoon.  I am not very keen on coiling because it is a bit repetitive!  In the end, I was very happy with the result.

About eight hours work!

Next day, Sunday, I was planning to do a half day of creating and to go out for the celebration. But, yes you guessed right, I had spent another 10 hours in the studio. Once I started I found it difficult to stop. It's a bit madness! I felt I must carry on and have to finish! Mike says it is a bit obsessive, but I really feel it is slight madness coming from inside me!  

Over the weekend, I had worked for 10 hours each day and slept 10 hours each night. I did everything else in four hours! I didn't even take dogs for a walk once! Mike did grocery, cooked, shampooed dogs, vacuumed and did laundry! Thank you, Mike! 

I made the body for the round face finally. I had been puzzled what she really was.  I thought she wanted to be a rabbit girl. I haven't made one for two years. So I have tried.

But today, on Monday, when I came back from a dog walk, the voice told me that she shouldn't be a rabbit girl. Uh-oh! Why didn't she tell me yesterday? I severed the head without hesitation, and recycled the body. There is no point ignoring the voice because I ended up obeying it anyway. And I think that is a part of creating!
 

This poor head was severed, and body-less again! !

In the meantime, dogs have been miserable because they smell like shampoo! But Topaz, the studio dog decided to help me while I work today. She wears T-shirts. Her red blanket sticks to her T-shirts as if it were velcroed. She walks with red blanket on her back everywhere. We call her red anteater! 

If you look carefully at the photo she is using my foot as a pillow. And I have to go around to work on my figures. Still she is such a lovable dog. I enjoy her company! 

There is a nice pillow here.

 

    

In the studio

Hello everyone.  The bisque-firing was successful. I became so nervous to carry the storm head from the garage, aka the kiln room, to inside. I held my breath. That exhausted me!

Storm

One of the strands of hair seems a bit loose! I am hoping it will be fixed with glaze.

All others were intact, luckily.

These three whippets are commissioned. They came through fine, too. 

Today, I built a torso for a young faun. I somehow built a well-built mature man's figure, which would be more suitable for a rugby player than a young faun. With a thick chest and six pack!" What was I thinking? I had to shave most muscle and to pat it to rounder shape.

After shave - front

I changed square shoulders and bottom round. I had to shave off kilos of muscles! Mike suggested that I should start from a scratch, and/or make a new head for the torso. Not a nice suggestion when I don't have too much time at hand.

After shave - backside

After reshaping it, I added a goat tail. Then suddenly he looks like a faun! Sorry no photo today. 

*****

  

Do you remember that I made a trio of little animals over Christmas holiday? They finally finished. They were quickly snapped up within hours of their debut. So nobody has seen them together. Here is the photo.

Little lamb, goat and bunny

 And the last but not the least! Today's Pearl. It was windy today! She was happy to have a coat on. 

 And bendy Topaz.

A long day in the studio.

Hello everyone. Mike took a day off to do some gardening today. There was a quiet day on my Etsy shop front, so I have worked in my little studio for about 8 hours.

I have finished this piece this morning. He is a strange boy! He appeared, and had quietly demanded something, which I didn't know until yesterday. Now he looks happy. Don't you think?

Studio dog, Topaz was lying in an awkward position again. She was looking at the garden from the glass door on the right side. 

Topaz, studio dog.

Mike was going to stake a pole for raspberry patch. 

Last night I made these little ones. They are shields. :D

Oh, first in the morning, Mike baked a lemon almond cake. I wanted to have it so much yesterday. Yes, it was delicious! And there will be some for tomorrow! 

Mike's lemon almond cake

  I am chilling with music right now. After this, shower, and then to a bed.  I could sleep for 10 hours!

Work in progress and beach walk

Hello everyone. It was a wonderfully warm day for early March. 17C, which is 64F. We went to the beach with our dogs late morning. But to start with I will share a couple of photos from my studio, with you.

Large round bird body

 Friday, I made this bird body. I made it in two parts and joined them .

Top

Last night I made these three whippets. They are the last commissioned whippets until July. They will be Bronze-gold.

The last two bronze gold whippets are gone now.  A larger one is almost gold-bronze.

Whippet - sold

The lady who bought the another bronze-gold pair sent me a wonderful message. She has brindle lurchers, and my little whippets look like them. She said people think that she would have them commissioned. How lovely!

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Our beach walk

Suddenly Whitstable is the centre of the universe.

We usually go to beach before 10 on the first warm days of the year because people would drive down from London and North Kent later, and it would be crowded. But today, we were a bit late, and the road to Whitstable was already jammed. So we went to Seasalter, the next beach along from Whitstable.

Seasalter

It was peaceful. We walked along the beach until we were tired. By the time we were leaving, there were more cars parked, and more people were coming.


Topaz and her shadow.

They found a lots of smelly things!

And one dog ate something bad, dead shellfish, we think, and the other didn't. 

You can tell from their ears which ate bad shellfish. 

We have collected pretty stones and a tiny shell. 

Each has its own story to tell.

Midori made a friend with a swan

Hello everyone. I have lots to share with you, but today I will write about the swan I met in the weekend. We walked to Westgate garden on Saturday.

Our girls have been sulking a bit because I had been busy in my small studio.

Why should I get up?

I will make myself art!

 So when my back started aching, we thought we will go for a good walk.

Let's go! 

We walked all over and found the places we had never been. How exciting! But it was not that exciting when Pearl decided she saw a cat. She made such commotion; Mike had to carry her...

Shame of the family! :D

We walked more and more, and went to Westgate garden.

Late afternoon sun

 If you watch Bargain Hunt on BBC, this is the place they often film at the end of the program.

The child is not related to us. :D

 Then there was a swan. I called him and cooed him. He came!

He didn't stop. He got out of the water and started walking toward me. I was already very close, in arm's reach with beak to nose. I was a bit worried. When I waved my hand, he wagged his big tail. I know that is friendly gesture. But as I didn't have anything to give him, I said good bye to him, and decided to return with some food next day!

He came closer and stood up!

Next day, Sunday, we went back to visit him after eating a cake, Mike bought for himself, but I ate sponge part!

The river was still very full and there was still flood in some areas.

The swan was there. Current was fast, and he struggled to follow me, but I found a place I could feed him ... organic chicken pellets! 

What are they?

 If they are good for chickens, I thought they are good for swans, too!  But when I showed him, I could see some disappointment on his pretty face. : (

I left some on the wood, then he started eating them! Yeah! A passer-by told me that they have to dunk them to eat. And that's what he did. I was so happy!

I prefer bread...