Crafted By Hand with my witch-crafted hand

Some of you might have seen the image of my finger on my facebook (personal one only, and I’ll avoid showing it here to the public!) I had an occupational injury at work on Friday and ended up in A&E in an almost fainted state. My “flesh” was half fallen off my finger tip after trapping it in between the hinge side of fire door! (yes, those heavy ones!) Fortunately (dispite the unfortunate trauma!) without breaking the bone or finger nail, my finger tip was stitched back together into one piece. Hence it was a wee bit of a struggle with last minute of preparation including packing and loading with my poorly finger, but we went off to the show in Masham with my kind hub’s support. 

Crafted By Hand was a great turn out. The town hall was heaving from the opening till the end. Lots of great work and nice people. We really had a good time. I had good sale both my new work and stock, as well as HELP JAPAN birds. Thank you so much for those who came along and left me lovely comments. Here are some images from my stall. 

porcelain hangings are out now ready for Christmas 

(I was intrigued by the hall’s gorgeous wall paper behind)

new porcelain rocking pebbles

these vases are mazekoze’s new face

ugly ducklings waiting for a new home

new hanetsubo ‘flying jugs’ went flying well today

how about wee bit of buttons?

I’ve met so many talented artists too. Here are some lovely people and work that I’d like to share. 

Fabulous printmaker Helen Peyton was demonstrating printing using this handsome 1800 Victorian press. How awesome is that? 

My fellow artist Emma Fountain displayed her skillful of needle felt work. The scale of her work is just amazing. I’ve bought a gorgeous felt accessory to treat myself. 

Very stylish etched glasses were by Andy Poplar from vinegar & brown paper. Absolutely wicked combination of typography and glass shape was just so wow! We’ve got a lab glass for this year’s sloe gin. 

Have you missed today? A few more fairs are coming up next month, so stay tuned for more info. xm 

Crafted By Hand - this Sunday!

Crafted By Hand is on this Sunday 28th October at Masham Town Hall. (The direction is here) I’m delighted to have a stall among with these great artists! All series of my work and print will be there, as well as the last stock of HELP JAPAN items with a special discount. So don’t miss this chance! 

If you would like an invite posted, please email me your name and address.

Looking forward to seeing you.xm 

weekend ahead

For the last couple days I haven’t been well enough to go to work, not much of physical moving involved, hence a wee bit of delay on my studio work, too. Looking at the things came out of the kiln, I thought I would take some photos to cheer me up so that I can look forward to the day I can work on decorating these porcelain lilypads. Hopefully soon. Hope you have a good weekend. xm

Creative Masham

Lately I have been featured in Creative Masham blog with a bit of sneak shot of my studio. You can view from here. Simple and short - nicely done. (thank you Josie!) 

They are organising the forthcoming event, Crafted By Hand, where I will be holding a stall. According to what it said in the blog, they will serve tea and cakes, which I think is unmissable! All sounds good so far, I just have to catch up with the preparation for Sunday 28th! (the image is from Masham by the way) xm 

HULL

I am currently working toward several forthcoming events and shows, including Studio Eleven in Hull. I have never been to Hull before but liked the way they are developing the water front into a cultural hub. Images are near the gallery, which used be a fruit market. xm 

a little red bird told me...

A little red bird told me that 20’s is a new beginning, and it certainly was for me after an unsound teenage era and discovering myself in the UK. Also said, 30’s is a new 20’s and it certainly was for me, even passing some rough times, it has been a brilliant journey. So, does life start at 40? (your thoughts & experience welcome!)

i can still happily fool myself

Looking back my mother at the age and all those friends who have got children, I feel like I am not mature enough to be a big 40. But all I can say is LIFE IS GOOD. GREAT in fact! Look forward to what’s coming along. 

mini maki (3) and the best mother in the world

Thank you everyone for the lovely birthday wishes via FB and elsewhere. Not that I am a big fan of celebration stuff, though it is always nice to hear from friends and family. 

There was another celebration this week. Graduation ceremony! I've finally received BA. My goodness, I never thought that I would make this day, after having failed to go to University when I was 18. You know it’s never too late to learn and we are always learning. This is a big fact. 

I've also received a special award! (with Ed, my hero tutor)

So many people helped me be here and be who I am today, and I am so grateful for that. Thank you so much for your support. Hope I can share more journeys with you from now on, too. Have a great week everyone! xm

a sense of place

Last week I took ‘a sense of place’ photography workshop by Kat Sloma. Kat lives in Oregon, USA, but thanks to the blogging network, I actually met her in York two years ago (posted here) whilst she was visiting from Italy where she was living at the time for her work assignment. Having a totally different career, Kat’s passion toward photography did not stop her moving forward and today she has been successfully running a number of photography courses. I simply admire her energy as a person. I also love her aesthetics. (look out for her beautiful photography here) When I found the news that Kat was coming to UK to run a workshop (and in Hebden Bridge!!), how could I resist? Of course not! So I went with my NIKON. 

This workshop was particularly set for photographing of places. It was carefully coordinated to work on different criteria, but what I found interesting the most was her approach to photographing places. It is about personal connection to the places, how we experience it and capture it, and reflection of self and place. Not to show off to people, not to convince others to go (though you may feel so as a result!), nothing like travel or documentary photograph. I liked that. As we went off to practice in the afternoon out in the woods at Hardcastle Crags, I simply followed my heart. Just feel & shoot. It was rather wet walk but lovely to feel Autumn is on its way. Hope some of Kat’s tips are seen in the result?

If you are interested in Kat's online courses, click here for the details. 

Why not photograph your sense of place? xm