back to clay

Been a bit relaxed (or slacked more like) since the show. Enough of break, so I went back to the studio last night. Then what's next? I sprained my wrist somehow on the wheel. Stupid me. Cannot even be a bad joke, a potter spraining your arm on a potter’s wheel!  (obvious reason not to call myself a potter..) It was difficult to do any normal things today with my silly arm. (sigh) Oh well, hope it will fix soon.

July tomorrow? Honestly? xm

usual spot

hope you had a good day. xm 

the most amazing gift ever!

Oh my goodness!  Jiminy cricket!!  Merlin's beard!!!

The words are not enough to express how surprised I was and how excited I was! Yesterday I received the most amazing gift from our friends Kristian and Jenni. 

We’ve known Kristian for many years now through karate training and have shared so much laughter and joy together. Some months ago, he got married to his charming partner Jenni, so I gave a pair of my Hanetsubo gold goblets to this young couple as a small gift. They popped over to our house yesterday bringing their thank you gift for the return. How sweet of them! And guess what they brought? 

A book of my blog! Featuring a whole year of my writings and images up to the recent blog anniversary, with carefully considered layout and everything! How awesome is that? They thought it would be a shame my blog to be stuck only in the internet so put them together into this beautiful book. What a generous idea and I absolutely LOVE it. As I looked through the pages, all those memories that I recalled have turned into a big smile on my face. 

Not just that! At the end of the book, there are wonderful messages from my blog friends! Apparently Kristian had E-malied to them and has collected those kind messages. What a stunning thought and gesture! All the effort Kristian and Jenni have put into this book made it so precious to me. Of course my husband and I did not know any of this until yesterday. You can imagine how much we were surprised! Honestly, I was s p e e c h l e s s ! 

Thank you so much for your beautiful words, my blog friends Kat, Varonika, Mary, Julie, Flora, Suzanne, Onneke, Wini, Tika, Concetta, Claire and Paula! 

A beautiful card from Kristian and Jenni

Thank YOU sooooooooooooooo much Kristian and Jenni! I am so pleased to have such wonderful friends. xm

about me?

Two years of foundation degree has completed. The final year of BA will start in September. Following that change, I only meant to ‘tweak’ a bit of my profile section (on the right), but after a few attempts, I deleted them all. Writing about yourself is hard. Some people write a lot. Some do none. Some do a little and leave the readers to wonder the rest. What is your profile like? I mean, what do people want to know about me? Or do they in fact? 

Anyway I've decided to write about me randomly here and then I may ‘tweak’ a bit later if I fancy. 

i was born and lived in Japan until the age of 24. 

i speak English with Yorkshire accent. (apparently)

i am under 5ft.

i used to drink lots of milk believing to get taller.

i still drink lots of milk but not with the same reason. 

i love bunnies. (not to eat or shoot)

i don’t do chocolates nor cats. (sorry no offense)

i roller skate well.

i like the smell of cut grass. 

i suffer from a hey fever. 

i am good at making a mess.

i agree with the fact of the three most stressful things in your life; moving house, marriage and divorce, all through experience. 

i chill in a very hot bath. 

i don't bite my nails but often bite my tongue when i sneeze. (literally)

i think my husband is ACE, so is the person who introduced the car boot sale.

i think of drawing but end up doodling. 

the little things in life easily make me happy. 

it’s good to be a geek. 

i know Julie’s dates and walnuts cake is THE best. 

some of the students in my workshop call me MAC, which is ok but i prefer maki.

i would like to engage with you.

i wanted to be a stuntman (or lady precisely) of superhero program. 

i have a thing with quite a lot of things. 

i feel ok. that is important.  

i can cook the perfect rice. (or i think i can)

i do not have green fingers. 

i am ticklish.

i dream.

... me and ceramics? xm

saltaire

I just love the whole space, not just the main art sections in the mill, which is A MUST by the way. xm

smile maker of the week #3

A gorgeous gift arrived from Norway yesterday.

A colourful set of illustrated cards by Line Katrin Moe. Smile maker of the week! (you can peek my smile maker #1 and #2) 

She kindly sent them to me in return for my SHIN SHIN card. That is sooooooooo sweet. Thank you very much Line Katrin. Find out more about her work here. xm

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