Minerva the cat, Ice age child, Miranda's curse and Peter

Hello everyone. Recently it has been cool, about 10-12C (50-53F)  max. in Canterbury. Our heater is full on, and I am wearing winter clothes again. What's wrong with England this year?

 I am thrilled to tell you that I was featured along with multi-talented artist, Joanne May, in a wonderful blog, Mrs Black's This n That, today. She loves fairy tales and vintage fashion. Her blog is full of beautiful images and lovely stories. Please do visit her blog. Minerva, the black cat always welcome you!

Yesterday I have finished marvelous, The mind in the cave, and started another book, Prehistoric art, by Randall White. What a pleasure to read them! I have studied social anthropology for my MA. So it is almost natural for me to chose prehistoric art as the subject of my first essay for my current MA course in Art.

So, I am reading between 100-200 pages a day this week. One problem is that I suffer a poor circulation. After a chapter I get up and walk around the house to pat our sleepy dogs or go to the garden to briefly keep Pumpkin the chicken company. Due to work, I usually stay online for most of the day, but I shut off PC to concentrate on essay preparation, as soon as I finish my day work about lunch time.

Yesterday evening, Mike and I went to the studio to leave a couple of my works in a kiln to be fired; they are too large for our small kiln. We have collected my test pieces, too. Here are some photos I took today.

The charm of masks is that they look different with various light/shadow and angles.

 I took the photo above with natural light coming from below. Light comes from right in the photo below. They look very different!

Light from below

Light from left

This little chap looks same from any angles! I was thinking that he is a bit like a child in the Ice age, especially  as I made him just after I saw the Ice Age Art exhibition. He looks adorable! Nobody could believe that he started a life as a test piece for textures!

He keeps a child safe from harms.

 Now he also got a role to play. As soon as I saw him after firing, I felt that he keeps a child safe from harm. So that's he does!

Test went well. : )

I liked him so much that I made his friend two days ago when I realized that there would be space in a kiln. I hope his friend was safely fired. We will find out tomorrow morning. 

And here is Miranda's curse 'Garrulous'. I will touch up her colours in some parts, and she will get fired again. At this moment, she looks like this. 

Miranda's curse 'Garrulous'

'Miranda lives in a white porcelain house in a dark woods. Villagers live near the woods go to Miranda when there are some wishes or curses to be made. The most common order is from husbands whose wives never stop talking about nothing, the medallion to stop her talking. Miranda makes this and tells a husband to go home and to hang it over the back door in the house. Then when wife starts talking about nothing, her tongue will knot and she can't talk until next morning. Husbands are happy, because they love their wives so they don't want divorce, but can't stand her talking any more.' 

Miranda's curse 'Garrulous'

'The most popular curse from wives is against drinking husbands. There are also wishes, too.

Medallions are not free. Miranda takes a kitten and/or puppy for them. Nobody knows what will happen to them, and nobody has ever seen them again.'

There is more details in this story, but I haven't got time to write it here. I may be able to do once I finish all my must-do things!    

Spooky shadow!

      

Test pieces before firing and Pearl's joy.

Hello everyone. I have finally attended a class this week; it was my first in this term, I also had a tutorial before that. Due to exhaustion, I left the class early. Angela was showing us her very new works, a film and paintings. Her first ever film was very good. I hope she will publish it soon.

Today our class are supposed to be in the Saatchi gallery in London. Last night, I was checking their  website just in case I might feel better and be able to go, and then realized that all exhibitions are closed today. So I rang Tony who told me that there are only four students were interested. I asked him to ring a lecturer and I rang two, and asked one of them to ring the fourth. The lecturer couldn't be reached, but Tony left a message. So, I guess it was cancelled. Believe it or not, this type of thing is not surprising to me or the other students. Artists are not necessarily equipped with organizing skills, even if they are in teaching positions.

I am reading a wonderful book, The mind in the cave, by David Lewis-Williams. I picked it as my essay material, but it is so entertaining. It is not easy to write something complex and abstract for non-exert readers, but he does it brilliantly. If you enjoyed Ice Age Art exhibition at the British Museum, I highly recommend it.

Mike has thrown more bowls for the lovely lady in U.S.A. He is taking a great care on each bowl. They look good.

I have not gone to the studio for a week. Jane told me it is still like a battlefield. I have a couple of things to get fired as they are too large for our own kiln, but I don't want to leave them in a frantic place, so I will wait.

A week ago, I left some test pieces to be fired. I haven't seen them yet.

A test piece with a face

This part is actual testing part!

 Do you remember this one? I added a face to this snowman shaped piece. It looks more fun!

And these two are a test piece for an idea and colours.

Miranda's curse and Peter

 I also did some finishing on this piece. I made her a long time ago, and finally decided to finish it. I will glaze her lower body.

Millet sprays as ear decoration.

Am I starting a new Japanese calligraphy? Nope, I smashed a bottle of black iron oxide!

Today Pearl had great joy with a packet of Japanese snacks my mother sent me.

Every crumb I can find is mine!