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! 

Last and current glaze-firings

We have had some sunny bright days, but with a chilly wind! This is ideal  weather to use solar power for firing the kiln. Another glaze firing was done today. Luckily the last glaze-firing was successful, so I had only a few to be re-fired, which is nice for a change!

All whippets came out lovely! They are beautiful!

Bronze-gold glaze whippets

The first time in a year or so, I have made these beautiful crackle whippets. This time, I used semi-porcelain clay. They are large for my whippets.

Clear crackle whippets - large

I hope you can see beautiful crackles. 

This one was a surprise. I was aiming at dark blond or very light brown hair. The other boy's hair also became dark brown, not patchy, though!  

I am planning to do another glaze-fire in a week time or so. There are lots of things to do in the studio as well as running my little shop, which takes about three hours every day.

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Last weekend, I took a rest from ceramics. I did a big tidy up in my office. I have loads of boxes and packing materials. I did some clearing out and made space for them. A tidy up always makes me feel good! I should do it more often!

We also went to the Blean woods with our dogs, Topaz and Pearl.

Is somebody in this?

After this, it's another world. 

Old rotten stump

Our garden is full of flowers. 

Cherry and apple

Oriental poppy

Mike's Easter holiday has begun today. We are planning to visit the zoo again.  If today's firing has gone well, we might pop out soon! (We will only know the result tomorrow morning.)

The lower shelf

Top shelf with the head! 

My painting table, spring flowers and Pearl met a tiger!

Hello everyone. It is so nice to finish all my work before dark on a Friday! I have glazed and loaded the kiln full, and even had a tidy up of my studio space! Ah, lovely!

The last three days, I have concentrated on glazing and painting bisque-fired figures. This has somehow made me hungry for high calorie food. I am a bit concerned if I am going to be a piglet at this rate!

I have three tables for my ceramics. One is for making, another is for painting bisques; they are in my studio. The third one is for packing  in my office.

My painting table has had these ones. A view of my painting table - yesterday.

Rolling heads!

The hair of this boy might become blotchy because I didn't mix enough colour at one go. I was making the colour under artificial light at night, so I couldn't tell the nuance of the shades. I guess he would need at least a second firing.

They will be in my Etsy shop, if they come out fine. 

This is how the heads were held.

This afternoon, I started loading the kiln.

The lower shelf

The top shelf

I hope they will come out fine. The kiln will be opened on Sunday morning.

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In our garden, there are so many flowers at this moment. I can finally enjoy them this weekend. We will put the garden furniture out.

Oriental poppies -very early!

Lily-flowered tulips. 

Our eating cherry have lots of flowers! But birds will have most fruits! :D

This afternoon, I took Pearl the whippet for an ordinary walk around four blocks. At the farthest end, we were chased by a tom cat! Pearl became bonkers, and started barking at him. The cat made himself large by arching and putting all fur spread, and chased us! I ran away as I dragged Pearl who was ready to fight. Then when I looked back, the cat was behind us, still chasing us! And when I hurriedly crossed the road, he came to the closest corner of the other side, and did a wee! I picked up Pearl and held her as if she were a child (heavy and cumbersome with those long legs) and whispered her 'Don't make a mistake. That's not a cat, it is a tiger!' 

Bluebells near us

 Have a great weekend!

New critters from the kiln!

Hello everyone. The extreme weather seems to have stopped for now. Spring flowers have started in our garden. They cheer me up so much!

Lately, I kept seeing referrals from My Owl Barn site to my shop. So I investigated it. Look what I found!
My Owl Barn

How wonderful! My owls are featured there! This site is for owl lovers. There are loads of owl goods, art and everything owly. There are also other animals shown together. If you are looking for a gift for owl lovers, this is the place, you should browse!

I have been busy working until late this week. In mornings after desk work, I packed and posted work with Topaz. In afternoons, more desk work and then studio work until nine at night. Today is the first day I finished at eight! I aim to finish work before nine this year, but I haven't done well so far.

Monday morning, I opened the kiln. There are lots of rabbits and owls as well as other things.

New rabbits from the kiln.

I use same white glaze for all rabbits at each firing. But each time it looks different. This time, it looks like Japanese traditional white glaze. Last time it was very white like milk. Intriguing.

Owls, rabbits, baby otter and farm animals!

 Thankfully, both heads and the large owl have survived, too.

After firing

Most go to firing again. As this owl mysteriously appeared on that night Mike was away, I had no plan how to glaze him. He will go to the second firing like this. I am carefully listening to what he says, and going very slowly.

Crying owl

In the garden spring has come albeit very wet.

Anemone

Primrose

Pumpkin was going to attack flowers!

 She soon scratched flowers with her big foot, so I had to run to stop her! She doesn't appreciate flowers.

Crocus

And our first daffodils this year! 

Spring has come!

Chameleon left Canterbury

Hello everyone. It has been a lovely weather here. The best part is low humidity. In Japan where I am from, summer is dreadfully humid and sticky. Even so, the house becomes too hot with windows closed for parrots and dogs, so I decided to stay at home in the afternoon.

In the morning, I popped in the studio to start the kiln, then went to post office to send the chameleon to a wonderful lady in Australia.

Smiley chameleon

 She came out of the kiln last Friday.

On Sunday I enameled her eyes and fired her again. 

She is flying to Australia.

Yesterday I also showered parrots. They love showers, and I used to shower them frequently until I became student. They enjoyed so much that I will shower them again next weekend. We also washed cage grates in the garden, as well.

Wet Beaper. He is good at whistling and mimicking microwave

Then we found more and more chores to do! I finally turned up the rims of my summer trousers I bought in March! I had thought there wouldn't be any occasion for them this year until recently. I don't like sewing much. I only do, when I have to. It took me about two hours to turn them up. Next time, I would buy narrower trousers! 

We had late lunch in the garden. We cooked tempura from vegetables from the garden. The most delicious one is runner beans, Succulent and tender. 

Runner beans

Fruits are ripening, too. Most cherries were eaten by wood pigeons, but we covered some branches. We should be able to harvest about 20.  

Our fist cherry

We have lots of raspberries. They are Pumpkin's favourite. She jumps from the ground and harvest some by herself. When she lands, there is heavy thud. It's funny! She is a heavy chicken!  ('How rude to call me a heavy chicken!')

Our first this year

Crocosmia is in buds

Lavender is in bloom.

Afternoon in the studio and Paeony

Hello everyone. It has been warm lately. But we still keep our winter jackets at hand. The temperature was only 14 C ( 57 F) on Monday.  I went to the studio yesterday and today. As undergraduates finished their term, I am the only one using it. Jane was there to look after the studio. She has been busy with blitz cleaning, laundry and recycling clay. There are load of jobs there!

I made this fellow for a lovely lady in Australia. I said 'fellow', but it is 'she'. She has delicate appearance, typical of a lady chameleon! I used to make loads of them, but now I make them on commission. But after making her, I feel like making more. They have such characters. It's a joy to make them.  
 

A lady chameleon

Yesterday in the studio I threw four pots. I have already discarded one. I felt guilty to put it into the now-empty-recycling bin, just after Jane recycled all clay; I know she hates this job. But I must be ruthless which to fire.

This one was thrown and altered before I turned it. With hindsight, I should have turned it before altering.  I will remember this for the next time.  

These two are vases. Left one was altered, and the small one was finished. They are going to be reduction fired with shino glaze. 

Vases. The blue thing is my cup :   )

I threw these two today. I am not sure whether to keep them. I am making larger pieces (for me, that is) about 1.2 kg -1.4 kg of clay. They are fruit bowl size.

Does ceramics studio sound cool to you? But this is the reality. Look at this! Jane is so lovely. She looks so happy putting laundry out. Actually she has just said 'You are going to put the photos on your blog, aren't you?'  To that I replied 'Yes! ' : ) We are really lucky to have her in the studio. She is known as 'a nice lady in ceramics' among MA art students. She makes her ceramic rock sculptures. I describe them as 'thinking rocks'. Her rocks appear in deep thoughts.  

Jane at work

Last, I want to share the paeonies, Sarah Bernhardt, which I cut on Sunday. They are still beautiful. The scent is delicate and elegant. I love them. They also don't need any care except for staking, although they chose where they grow (a sunny and uncrowded place). My mother loves them, and she had some in the garden. I remember my childhood and hot Japanese summers whenever I see paeony. 

'Sarah Bernhardt'