Studio should be sacred place

Studio should be sacred place.

But not our one.

It is polluted and degraded. 

The spirit doesn't descend into it any longer. 

I can't hear the voice of clay there.

Artists have to communicate with what they make. 

Garrulous woman taints the place.

Hello everyone. I have spent five hours in the studio alone today. I made so much progress! I have finely tuned the expression of the mask. I have also made his left ear similar to the right one. Well, ear model is Mike, and his right and left ears are quite different. Left one looks squashed (he said he sleeps on the left side!). 

This is him.

In progress

Yes, it's him! When I decided to sell my original mask, 'Answer was in the box', I decided that I will make a larger one. The original one went to a very good home of a fantastic lady in U.S.. So I am very happy. But he had a part of me, my soul. I had to make him again. Incidentally the piece was the tutor's favourite, and he suggested that I should make a real face mask. Instead I made a mask for a giant!

He has had several pair of eyes and different noses, but I am happy with him now. Tomorrow I will coat him with white slip. 

  

Original 'Answer was in the box'

Energy flows from lovely customers

Hello everyone. I have stayed home due to the second bout of cold. Mike felt also bad; he has worked from home this afternoon. We were warm and cosy in different rooms. 

I have had lovely feedback from several customers recently. The sweetest email came from an American lady, whose husband bought a couple of my ceramics as a gift for their anniversary. She said;

I have a little schnorkie (schnauzer x yorkshire terrier mix) and your rabbit completely reminds me of her, she has her spirit >^.^< I also wanted to tell you what a lovely experience it has been peeking into your world via your blog ^p^ Thank-you for infusing such spirit into your creations, keep up the absolutely stellar work!

Then her lovely husband left me a wonderful feedback:

 My wife loved this (part of our 4 year anniversary gift). It reminds her of our dog. She carries it around with her! lol Thank you so much.

I really appreciate their comments. I know that he is well loved and taken care of! They also show how nice the couple really are. Mike said before that someone who buys my ceramics are so friendly and wonderful. It's true. I am always grateful of the energy they give me back by emails, comments and feedback.

Little Schnorkie : )

Thank you so much!

Scraping clay on my knees

Hello everyone. Finally the freezing land of England was blessed with spring air. The temperature went up 8 C, and the sun has returned. It is still 8c, but what the difference the little bit of warmth and the sun make!

I have spent four hours each in the studio on Friday and Saturday.

What am I doing without shoes? 

You seldom see me kneeling down on the floor! This position made all my body aches afterwards. I was so physically tired that I went to bed to read a book at seven yesterday, and slept at a half past nine.  So what was I making?

A big head

It is a big wall mask. Bob, the art critique tutor suggested that I should make a real face size mask. Instead, I decided to make a much larger one! I have two weeks I could use the studio by myself before undergraduates come back. So I am trying to make anything large during this period.

Mike took these photos just when I was starting yesterday, Of course, I forgot to take photos before we came home.




  

Pompeii exhibition at The British Museum on a snowy April day

Hello everyone. We went to London to see the Pompeii exhibition at the British Museum today. In the morning, it was snowing heavily for a short time. If we hadn't had dogs (then we hadn't booked the dog walker, our lovely Theresa), we would have postponed the visit. But off we went with snowflakes falling.

As soon as we arrived the station, there was announcement; our train was cancelled due to a problem with the doors. We took the next slow train and changed at Ashford to the next fast train. It was literally freezing waiting for the train to come on the platform.

So when we arrived at St Pancras, it was about noon. We went to our favourite Le Pain Quotidien, and had a lunch there. Because of Eurostar, St Pancars station is very international; there are lots of European visitors. A young family sat next to us. They took a long time to decide what to eat. French mummy looked into a mini dictionary. She discreetly pointed to our bowls of Tuscan soup, and asked her two children if they would like to have soup like ours. That made me smile because in France I often look around what locals are having and look up in my little menu dictionary, too. The father wanted to take a photo of two children, then the daughter immediately protested 'Pourquoi?' It was a good entertainment to me. After soup, I had a cheesecake and espresso, Mike had chocolate bombe and espresso. He is a chocoholic but even he struggled with it because it was 'serious chocolate fix' (his own words).

Lunching at Le Pain Quotidien

In the station, there was an old piano, and one young man, apparently in the middle of his travel, was playing it and singing at the same time. How lovely!

A piano man

Outside was not that lovely, however  It was snowing and freezing. Our bus didn't come for a quite some time. So I took photos of freezing London in April. 

All buses came except for our  no. 59

 

St Pancras and King's cross stations

We were so glad to get on our bus. We got off the nearest bus stop to the British Museum, but somehow walked unnecessarily long to get there in snow. : (

Snowy park in April

By the time we arrived, the snow was heavy, and my head was covered by snow. Mike suggested that I should shake like a dog. I did!

British Museum in the snow in April

Once inside, we soon found that today's tickets for Ice Age exhibition were sold out, but we could see Pompeii still at 3:50. We bought them and decided to look around permanent exhibition until the time. 

I was telling Mike a funny story about witch's house in the train, so somehow I keep seeing displays, which seem related to witches!

Those legs and the tail!

This reminds me of my work, 'Witch with no name'.

A part of furniture, it says.

Wall relief from Central America

They remind me of my rabbit girls!

 I am also drawn to animal objects, as always.

A replica of an ancient polar bear sculpture

Golden Lama

Turtle pot from Central America

A chubby dog pot from Central America

Rabbit quartz from Central America

When the time drew near to 3:50, we went to queue up.

It's a long queue.

We could get in 10 minutes after. We saw the exhibition in detail. One of the saddest things to see was a dog who died in agony. Archaeologists found a void near the front door in a house. They cast it with plaster, and they were surprised at what it was. It was a guard dog. She was upside down and apparently suffering. She died from extreme heat after eruption of Mount Vesuvius. The archaeologists also found the mosaic of the black dog on the floor intact in the same house. That made me feel sadder.

There are also a family; two parents and two children, found in another house. That made us think what the life is.

We left the British Museum to catch our train. This time we took the shortest route to the bus stop and our bus came quickly.

Mike bought four almond croissants and espresso at Le Pain Quotidien before getting our train.
   

Mike buying almonds croissants. 

We are thinking to go back to see Ice Age exhibition soon. I juts hope it will be much warmer next time.

Books, cracks and ducks

Hello everyone. Have you had lovely Easter? I caught a bad cold, and had been in the sick bed for three and a half days. Shame, but three mornings from Good Friday to Easter Sunday, we had had snow. So I guess I didn't miss too much fun. When I felt a bit better, I started reading. One was Grayson Perry by Jacky Klein. It mainly consists of Perry's candid comments on his work with the photographs of the works. What always strikes me when I read the interviews or listen to him on video is his honesty and candidness. His down-to-earth approach and common sense make me almost feel that transvestite is ordinary thing after a while. But I know it isn't. That's his spell. I read this book for my essay. Transvestite still is one of the things I don't understand.    

Another book I almost finished was From The Beast to the Blonde by Marina Warner. Folklore and myth have been my interests since I was child. The reason I chose sociology for my BA in Tokyo was that I wanted to read them in the context of the society and culture, in which the stories were told and retold. My ceramic works have been inspired by folklore and myths. My favourite theme is metamorphosis. This books analyses European folklore and fairy tales, which were based on the former initially. It is engaging and entertaining read.

So I have enjoyed reading lately. Nowadays I only read when I am in a sick bed. I usually don't have a chunk of time to enjoy reading voluminous books. So once a while catching cold is not all a bad thing.

Yesterday, I returned to the studio to start my new work. After two hours, I was too tired to carry on. Today I had another two hours there again. I have to build up my strength again. 

From side

from top

The parts of sculptures I have shown you before became dry; I loaded them in a kiln in the studio yesterday. I also made more of them in grey clay. They are drying on a shelf right now. While I was making one of them before Easter, Navy, the sweet curious student asked me 'Are the cracks meant to be there?' Yes, Navy. They are meant to be there. I felt all other undergraduates in the room had some collective sigh of relief. 

I love cracks. They make my world move. Cracks are thunders from the sky or earthquakes on the earth in my own world. I hope I could show what they would become as sculptures. Then they will understand all meaning of cracks I am making. As they are the final year students, they may not be able to see the final pieces.     

Ducks sleep under the dormant tree. 

The duck in the park are usually busy making nests and bullying each other at this time of the year. But not this year. They slept away even though I walked past behind them. Sleeping duckies.