end of year show

rakugaki

hanetsubo

POT CAN FLY, SO CAN YOUR DREAM

i am slowly recovering from the drink we had after the open night yesterday... xm

random reflection on a rainy sunday

Rainy Sunday. I do not mind it really. A good chance to reflect yourself, listening to the sound of rain and the birds singing from time to time. So calm and peaceful. We often take this for granted. 

Thank you for your lovely comments on my blog anniversary. Your support and encouragement have been a huge help for me to move forward. Now I am looking forward to the next stage of my journey coming ahead. So many things in my head that I would like to try this summer and coming term, which will be my final degree year. I will also be doing another event in October (click here to view the last year), and at work I was informed to curate another exhibition for one of my students (click here to view the last year), both of which I am already excited about. I don’t know how things are going to turn. I may struggle as usual, facing the difficulties, fears and doubt. I know all of these will be an essential part of journey and I will be continued to ponder in my blog. One thing for sure is that I will always be ‘who I am’. 

Three months have passed since Japan’s earthquake. People ask me how things are there now as nothing have been broadcasted over here. I hear the frustrating government move (or rather say not moving at all) and unresolved nuclear situation. People over there live life to what can be done each day, but no one really knows what could happen tomorrow. Many have asked me if I would do another ‘HELP JAPAN bird’. As you know, it was an one-off project that I desperately started at that time and took an enormous amount of time, effort and cost out of my daily life. Yet people’s voice made me realise that this could be something that links myself to my home country and the world as an artist and an individual. I am considering about redoing somehow in the future and maybe this time would aim to contribute directly to the affected area, as I am planning to visit Japan in 2012. I don’t know how exactly though. Doing smaller amounts monthly? Maybe opening Etsy? Maybe contributing half percent of my sales? I am not sure if people would be interested in this as the things are so faded now, but the point was to support continuously and not to forget. What do you think? I would like to hear your thought on this. If you could share any suggestions or advice, it would be greatly appreciated. 

Have a lovely sunday, all. xm 

P.S. 

Those who asked for a SHIN SHIN postcard, on its way to your home now.

eee by gum

Last weekend we had a friend from Japan stayed with us, so showed him around North Yorkshire from Dales to East Coast. It was a great excuse to enjoy myself revisiting all the goodies that have been created within the history and nature. Colours, shapes, lines and textures within the endless dry stone walls, village halls, ginnels to canals, weather effected barns, a field of butter cups, even tacky seaside shops... so fun to see. I say ba ba you say baaaaa. Ah, good old yorkshire life. 
(Can you spot Harry Potter's scene?)

Shame that he missed out the bed race, our biggest local event this weekend. 90 beds run up and down on the town hills and across the river. Even A59 closes for the beds!

P.S. 

Currently I am giving away SHIN SHIN one year special postcard to all. Click here for more info. Enjoy your weekend everyone! xm

SHIN SHIN 1 year!

SHIN SHIN is one year today! What a year it has been! Thank you everyone for visiting my blog. Please feel free to join me to celebrate. There will be special presents to all to follow :) 

My first ever blog post was this. I started without knowing anything about the blogging world, but just wanted to try out in order to gain my creative life that has been hidden away for a long time. Now it has become an important part of my life. What does your blog mean to you? How did you start? I took baby steps each time. Learning every time. Not sure if I was doing any good. I was also skeptical about the virtual existence itself. Are you or were you? If so, I would like to say that actually there are lots of positive aspects of blogging that could make you happy. It can even change your life, you never know? To me, there were endless things that made me happy during the first blogging year, things like these...

• Meeting artists in real through the blog connection. The moment that the skeptical virtual connection has become real. All were fabulous experience and I got so much buzz out of it. Thank you for your time Kat, Adam, Claire, Mizuyo and Moyra. (I also posted here and here)
• My work was featured by kind bloggers. Thank you Veronika, Flora, Kate and Hitomi. 
• My longing dream pottery studio has been completed! Your encouraging comments certainly helped me move forward and make things happen. Thank you!  
• I did my first ever public show! Again your support helped me through this. 
• Simply being me! This was the biggie! 
• Success in my first fundraising project! So so so many people kindly linked my project to spread the words. Honestly, without your support, this project has not been completed like it was. Also I was pleased to know people liked my creation, too. Thank you so so much!  

Your comments have always been the greatest part. I love reading every single comments and they certainly boosted me. Sadly I am not very good at replying to each comments and although I tried as often as possible, it has not been successful. So, as it’s an anniversary, I would like to give you something back. Not just one giveaway to one winner, but ‘thanks back’ to everyone. This is how I go about it. 

thanks back 1: 

I would like to hear what you think of SHIN SHIN. Any questions or suggestions? What you like about my blog? Any post particular? Or absolutely anything you want to write to me, please leave that to the comment space below. I WILL make sure this time to go back to your link and comment back. I will follow each one of you, too. (unless I am already a follower.) I remember how grateful I felt when I first got followers and comments (and I still do!) after worrying about “who cares about my blog???” It is always nice to know there are connections out there, don’t you think? Thought this might be a good return to start with. Please don’t forget to leave your link, too.

thanks back 2: 

I would like to send a special SHIN SHIN postcard with my written message to you, anywhere in the world. Images on the postcard (as you can see above) are all from my blog post and work that I made. If you would like to have one, please email me your name and full address to makikohastings@gmail.com

Of course, you can do both 1 and 2. Feel free to join or not. Totally open to you. Thank you agin for your support on SHIN SHIN. Looking forward to hearing from you. xm

dotty moment

A moment of joy when placing those dotty patterns. wonkier the better. 

Talking of which, I am really pleased to know the solo exhibition of Yayoki Kusama is coming to Tate Mordern next year.  Already excited. xm

now and then

This is me doodling all over the house wall when I was seven. The year my parents’ old bungalow was due to be demolished and rebuilt so I was allowed to doodle whatever and wherever I liked! It was a pure joy!  

This is me doodling the college wall last week, thirty odd years on. Still fun as ever! (more so as you get older??) Preparing the display for the end of year show. (click here to view the last year's one) It’s that time of the year already. Where did the year go?? xm 

SOMERSET LOVE 4/4: treasure hunt

Finding your own precious is a part of joy when visiting a new place. I look around everywhere if time allowed, local independent shops, charity shops, CAR BOOT SALE (oh yes!), streets and skips... (You know how much I love treasure hunt form this post.) Here are some gorgeous finds from Somerset. 

Old oil lamps were from school car boot sale right front of where we stayed in Farmborough. Only six cars were there with families with kids (sweet :-), nevertheless I was lucky to buy  them for just 50p! Cannot beat that! I love old jelly moulds (one of my collections :-) and a kind of nostalgic china cup & a miss matching saucer. Again all from the car boot bargain. Beautiful lines from an antique shop in Wells. Glass from a small vintage shop in Shepton Mallet. Beautiful blue letter press card from the Holburne museum. Salt glazed jug by the local artist in Radstock. All now started to settle here and there in our house. I would love to know how you would transfer into your home? Any idea and inspiration welcome! 

I love lines full stop. Simple stitches are my favourite. They are table centers and I am thinking of placing my collection of old bottle glasses with this years sweet-peas. 

Letter press is a new interest for me. Would love to lean how to do it. Does anyone do letter press? 

Currently jelly mould are holding herbs on the kitchen window sills. My aim is to make lamp shades out of them in the future. 

When I sew those glass and china cup, I already had this images in my head. I am so glad I found them. 

Remember Peter Blake’s collage that I mentioned here? Thought I would make my own collage of ‘somerset love’. This is fun and I want to do more often. 

from left top, clockwise; box label from Claire’s studio, flower petal found in Bishop’s garden (Wells), pine corns near Royal crescent (Bath), tree barks and Letter press card at the Holburn Museum of Art (Bath), illustrated parcel tape from Claire’s studio. receipt from a vintage shop (Shepton Mallet), jelly mould (Farmborough), duck feather (Farmborough), old metal caps found in the street (Keynsham), white lined stone (Cheddar)

Hope you enjoyed viewing a wee bit of my somerset love. Thanks for visiting. xm

p.s. where did May go???  

SOMERSET LOVE 3/4: time to doodle

some random miniature doodling from Somerset.

Next post is Somerset treasure hunt! Have a nice weekend all. xm

SOMERSET LOVE 2/4: meet arts and artists

Meeting artists you admire is such a exciting moment, isn’t it? It is wonderful opportunity to seek their insights and ask questions you always wondered. Visiting them in their studio would be a bonus, not just you may see the actual work process but also peek through their inspiration and all sort of fabulous stuff! 

beautifully 'weather effected' work by Claire

We are so lucky to have been able to visit Claire Loder in her studio, and it was a dream come true! Claire is an artist who makes unique ceramic faces and heads, and her work is widely recognised throughout Britain and beyond. I can still remember the excitement that I first met her at Origin last year, shortly after seeing her fascinating work in ceramic magazine. When she responded to my email, I was thrilled! 

Claire kindly shared many of her thoughts and interests, and we had a rather long chat all morning! She was also encouraging on my study and work :-) Thank you so so much Claire for giving us such a fab time! We brought one more head called ‘sitting tenant’ back home from her studio, now happily nesting in our room. Do visit her website and find ‘them’ in her mysterious mirror world. 

Thank you so so much Claire!

our new face 'sitting tenant'

We are also lucky to have visited Bath on this occasion, just in time for the current exhibition of Peter Blake at the Holburne Museum, which was also just opened after a three-year refurbishment. He is well known with Beatles’ jacket design; Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, but in this exhibition there were more of his personal collections over the years. He assembled everything together in to collages and displayed in collection boxes, from tiny beach combing with his daughter to a plastic elephant that you can get like a freebee. A total treasure hunt, and I LOVED it. 

a museum for myself by Peter Blake

The Holburne Museum is a mixture of old and new, its building itself and display too. (Collections of ceramics were hung from the ceiling, which I loved.) There was a sketch exhibition by Karen Wallis, which showing the images of during the construction in drawings. (You can peek a bit here.) Her sketches were stunning, I wish I could draw like her... Nevertheless I did do some doodling here and there in Somerset, which I will show you on the next post. Be there if you can dare. xm

SOMERSET LOVE 1/4: inspirational wander

As I mentioned before, I will be sharing my view of Somerset in next four posts. Today, I would like to share a few places that we visited during our stay. Hope you can enjoy. (you can click to view lager images)

On day one, we went to Cheddar gorge, this massive rocky hill, much due to my husbands request. It was a beautiful sunny day and many people were having picnics. We hiked right up to the top of the gorge, walking through woodland. So refreshing.

view from the top of Cheddar gorge looking cheddar reservoir 

(can you see the car on the road? My legs went to jelly)

finding 'heart' in woodland walk

bluebells and ferns. I’m thinking of next screen print or transfer...

Next day, we visited Bath, one of the most famous cities in Somerset. The sandy colour of Bath stone walls were really soothing to my eyes, whilst we are used to grayish Yorkshire stones. You can find lovely features everywhere in Bath, like these windows and balconies. I was also attracted to lines of chimneys on those terraced houses. Made me want to doodle (which will be coming soon!). 

Roman Bath is probably the most popular place to visit in general so I won’t write too much here, but it was fascinating to go back so deep into the history. I was very impressed with the underfloor heating system throughout the whole area, which was created with piles of terracotta tiles. I really wanted to have a bath in the end. What was the point of looking at them without actually enjoying them? Or is this me being Japanese? I do miss the public hot bath! Counting down to the next trip to Japan.

Somerset has many classic gardens that are open to the public. We went to Kilver Court Gardens in a village called Shepton Mallet. With a stunning backdrop by 19th century viaduct, you can enjoy the traditional English rose court-yard and massive rockery garden, where water cascades into the lakes and millpond. I am not much into rockery garden to be honest, but this scale (3.5 acre) definitely is worth viewing. I loved the ‘rose’ patterns created by those alpine plants, too. If you are garden lovers, you cannot miss it. 

We stayed at a lovely guest house called ‘school cottages’ in Farmborough, about 7 miles from Bath. They have beautiful garden and water feature that I totally enjoyed walking around, watching little ducklings following their mum (so cute!). Breakfast with fresh egg laid from chickens in thier garden, hosted by Tim the lovely owner. Well recommended. 

'children must be supervised' - well followed

Next post, I would like to share my dream visit to the artist studio. Watch this space! xm

SOMERSET LOVE: coming soon!

We just got back from Somerset for our anniversary-two-night-getaway. It’s been ages since we had a short break together. (never mind the long holiday?!) Wandered around and relaxed with no plans. Just what we needed. Plus, visiting a new place is always great to find inspirations. Somerset certainly did to me! In next four posts, I’m going to share a bit of my SOMERSET LOVE (similar to the previous travel post ‘LONDON LOVE’). Hope you enjoy Sunny South England with me. xm

HELP JAPAN donation complete & my thoughts will continue

Finally (yes, finally!) the donation from HELP JAPAN 1000 BIRDS PROJECT and HELP JAPAN Handmade Art Sale has been forwarded to Japanese Red Cross via the Japanese Embassy. We have raised £4933.20 in total. The receipt from the Japanese Embassy is below.

What a fantastic result! Without everyone of you, the project would not have achieved this so thank you very much. I’m pleased that I could be a part of help toward their recovery. Of course, YOU are the biggest part! 

My husband has been ‘camera-videoing’ some of me making birds. I thought this can be a message video for people in Japan to express our thoughts, so I edited into a short documentary film (approx. 6 mins), which I would like to share with you. (This is an English edited version. The original Japanese version can be seen in my jp blog.) I hope our wish will reach those affected by the earthquake. 

Two months has passed since the earthquake, when the whole nation shared the sadness. Somewhat ironical to see the huge difference between those who are affected directly (and secondary) continuing hardship, and those who are back to normal. Even we say ‘thinking of them’, they may not yet be ready to move forward positively. That is why we must not forget what happened to them. That is why we must continue our thoughts. I would like to continue doing whatever I can do to support them. I would like to thank you all for helping me be strong. xm