My Etsy shop and Clare's visit.

Yesterday I had a fun day. I worked hard in the morning so that I could enjoy Clare's visit in the afternoon without any niggling feeling. Clare is friendly, upbeat and very fun to be with. Her husband, Tim, and she also participated in Artists' Open Houses last month, through which we met. She creates something unusual. Difficult to explain, so have a look at her works. Here is her website.

I gave her some of our Fifi's, the Patagonian conure, wing and tail feathers, I kept them because they are so beautiful and because I thought one day I can make something from them, but when I saw her works which have lots of stitches and sewing, I thought she could use them for her art works. They are iridescent turquoise blue and green. Fifi used to look like in the photo, but now she plucked herself, more like grey tennis ball with wings and tails (Mike's words)

 

Fifi, the Patagonian conure

There were two main objects in the meeting. First, to get to know each other better. Second, to discuss how we could approach Artists' Open Houses in an improved way in future. As I mentioned in earlier posts, they and I were only open house participants on the north side of Canterbury. We both wished to have a greater footfall. So, I was thinking to network the artists in this side of Canterbury, to attract more visitors to our area and to achieve better results.In fact, Clare was thinking very much same. I will create a space on Internet for artists could discuss and exchange their opinions and knowledge. I will be a bit busy with my day job for next couple of weeks, and probably spend evening to build my Etsy shop. But after that, I should have some spare time.  

She appeared with a bouquet of freesias. Thanks, Clare, they have nice perfume, and filled up our lounge. Mike said that he could even smell the scent with his blocked nose! He had baked an apple and lemon cake for us the evening before, and, of course, we did a tasting. We never wait! It was delicious! Light and airy. But the next day it became moist and heavier. I prefer light and airy. But I know that I am lucky to marry a man who likes baking (and eating!).

One of my quirky pendants.

'Charlene' the Monaco princess

In the evening, after Mike went to ceramic course, I continued building my Etsy shop. I started opening process last Saturday. Opening a shop takes a long time. Especially I had never done this before, although I have sold old things in ebay before. But finally my shop is open!

My shop is here.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/midoritakaki


There are still issues to be attended. There are many listing in pendant category on Etsy, so I doubt my pendants will get lots of hits in search, as they are. I had one hit from search, so far. Also, I found taking crisp sharp pictures of little things is more difficult than I had imagined. Mike used to do photography as hobby, so he helped me, but I have lots to learn before I could use his user-unfriendly Olympus camera on my own. Another thing with photographs is that pendants etc. need some kind of props to hold them up. I used my hand made mountings for sculptures as well as pebbles. But I might be able to find or make something better.

I will see what I could do to improve these matters, and will post here if I find the solutions.

Born in the year of rabbit - appendix

Who is the odd one out in this group photo? Difficult? Ok then, I will show the next photo. Ta-da!

Now, can you tell who is the odd one out? Yes! The left rabbit. 

His character started as a joke. While I was making rabbit girls, quietly I was imagining what if a real rabbit wears this rabbit suit? In my head, this character became alive. He behaved a bit like an old Disney character like Donald duck or Mickey Mouse.

Appendix I

Then, I made one. He is titled 'Born in the year of rabbit-appendix I'. He, it turned out, was my funny button. I giggled and laughed out loud alone in our dinning room late in the evening as I made him. It must have been a spooky sight! He became more and more active in my head, so I made appendix II and appendix III soon after.

Appendix II

They were on display in Open House. Our dear friend, Margarita seemed delighted to hear my explanation for these characters. She said 'Oh, I see! I was wondering why rabbits are wearing monks' frocks!'

Appendix III

 

Failure... A big one

I wanted to make three more rabbit girls for Open House. The story of rabbit girls started with my friend who was born in the year of rabbit in 1963. I developed the idea from there by making girls born in the year of rabbit in 1975, 1987 and 1999. The youngest girl went to NZ with our friends. So I wanted to make another girl for 1999 to replace her.

To complete the story, I also thought I would need to make a baby girl born in this year as a rabbit baby girl, too. One day, however, I saw two ladies walking past. One of them was expecting a baby very soon. She had glowing expression on her face. At the moment, I decided to make a mother who is carrying a baby girl who will be born in this year, the year of the rabbit.

Obviously every story needs an end, preferably a good one. Alas, this one didn't go well.

This is the image taken before firing. They were decorated, waxed and glazed at home, waiting to be fired in a kiln.

Before

And this is after firing. A couple of kilns had been a bit dodgy this autumn. My girls went into one kiln, but it didn't get up to the temperature, so they as well as the rest of its contents were moved into another kiln, which seemed to have went to too high temperature. The result was white glaze melted and became clear, and stuck on a shelf in the kiln.

After

The serets of my DoGoo were revealed.

Mudskipper with fake blond wig

What do you think about her? Is it her? Yes, she is. This DoGoo caught most visitors' attention during Open house, but only one person dared to ask me what kind of story is behind this particular DoGoo on the last day. I hesitated... I whispered her 'It is a top secret.' She gorged on. I said 'Nobody knows this story except for my husband and me.' She pointed a red dot, and asked me 'Even the buyer?' I answered 'No, I didn't tell her'. 

After some time, I ended up revealing the secret to her. She enjoyed it so much that she bursted into laughing. I can't tell you here what the story was because it is a top secret. 

Open House Last Day

Yesterday was the last day of Canterbury Festival. It coincided with the beginning of winter time. We usually gets a sort of jet lag when clocks change. We had an extra one hour before opening, so we had a pizza for lunch. Well, it was before eleven, but it would have been about noon a day before. That's our logic! 

Solar Power front

Backside is also decorated!

We had a nice day at our Open House. Art lovers visited us, and we had interesting conversation. I also heard about other open houses they had visited earlier. I only wish I could go to see them too!

A lady chose 'The sun', which I had called 'Solar Power'. Solar power sounds a bit like solar panels so official title is 'The Sun'. After firing this at stoneware temperature, I used enamel paint, layered several times to gain rich deep colours, and fired it in the oven at lower temperature again. It took me a long time to decorate. It took me even a longer time to clean the oven before firing! I am happy with how he looks. He doesn't show any hint of negativeness.

The image of him has been with me for a long time, about 10 years, I suppose. He is definitely one of my DoGoo.

Open House Day 5

'Fringe'

We had a busy day today. We had good chats with old and new friends as well as those people we met today. Talking with people invigours me. A very nice young lady bought this 'fringe' girl pendant for her sister. Every single piece is different. Each item of my face series has a nickname. I hope her sister likes the fringe girl. 

Recently I made lots of faces. After I made 'Jane', I wanted to make more faces. Once I started making, I couldn't stop. I made them into brooches and pendants.They look good on hats, scarves and bags. 

   

Canterbury Festival, Artists' Open Houses

Canterbury Festival is held every October, It has lectures, tours, concerts, dramas and all sorts of cultural events. Tickets of popular programmes are sold out quickly. 

Artists' Open Houses, which is a part of this festival, has Canterbury trail, Faversham trail, Hern Bay trail and Whitstable trail. It is open from 11am until 5pm on tree weekends, starting from 15th until 30th October.

I am, for the first time, taking a part in this event this year. So I didn't know what exactly to expect. I did google open houses events in the past, and also visited other town's open houses to check out. This is three weekends event, and our house is small but lots of animals live in it: three parrots (two Timneh grey parrots and one Patagonian conure), two dogs (whippet and whippet+(plus)) and two aging finches. When I mentioned this event to Mike, he said 'What are you going to do with our dogs? Parrots? Their noise and mess?' 

Problems.

Topaz, whippet plus, will not stop barking once she starts. She always barks at visitors. Fifi, the Patagonian conure, can scream so loud that our ears start ringing.  They live in the lounge.

Big problems.

I am barking dog, Topaz.

In the end, we moved Topaz and Pearl, non-barking whippet, out of the lounge to sleep. Topaz sleeps in the kitchen, and Pearl on the landing. On Open days, Topaz went to the car in the garage. Surprisingly she loved this set-up so much that she ignored the house door after a walk, walked to the garage door on her own. Last Sunday after we finished Open day for the day, she broke free from the back door, and dashed into the car in the garage, and waited for Mike to find her! We had thought we understood about her, but this proved we didn't know much about her, after living with her eight years! It was our unknown unknown moment.

This is Pearl.

 
For October in Canterbury, we had warm bright sunny weekends. Here are parts of my display.

The table of rabbits

My favourite face pendant

 

I couldn't stop making faces!