curiously compulsive #3

another charity shop find. 

an old & beautifully illustrated book. 

simply inspiring to me. 

xm

Material Matters

A whole scale of my lilypad installation will be taking place in the group exhibition “Material Matters” at Studio Eleven. The exhibition starts from this Saturday 25th May and will be open till 23rd June. There are some additional lilypad and rocking pebbles available at reasonable prices. If you are near by, please drop by. For more info, please click here. xm

good morning

Getting up early in the morning is a virtue… it’s a saying in Japanese (do you have one in English?) and I know that it is quite true but I am not very good at it. Nevertheless, there are some days that I suddenly wake up so early and usually stay in bed for a while to slowly start a day. This morning, instead, I woke up instantly around 5:30 as the light was so beautiful and felt ever so great. I say good morning to birds and start early work in the studio before breakfast. Hope you have a good day. xm 

clay and classic

When I work in the studio, I listen to the radio. No matter how convenient and trendy the world has gone from CD player to i pod or whatever, I think the radio is a superb gear, especially in the studio. I have tried different radio stations for the past years, including my mentor’s favourite Radio 4, but what has settled for me is Classic FM. It influences productivity significantly. Everything seems to become more fluent and I certainly become calmer. By the way, I have never been a big fan of classic music. I am a rock chick rather… it is not a joke that I chose to come to the UK because of the Beatles. Nevertheless, after over a year of listening to Classic FM, my music choice has evidently widen, which is a bonus. 

What do you listen to when you work? xm

smaller the better???

Lately I have been making lots of coffee mugs and espresso cups for orders. Espresso cups are the smallest range of my work. Even they are small, the amount of work goes into are almost the same as other pieces. They are also rather fiddly to handle… a kind of pain this is. (and I don’t even drink espresso!!) Nevertheless as long as someone wants them, I shall carry on. The last one is a bit of fun. A baby cup for my new born niece. Guess that she won’t be using it as babies and ceramics won’t go well together of course, and by the time her mum teaches her not to break it, she won’t need this type of cup! It is so not practical I know but I love making these… xm  

CLAY2DAY

Last weekend was my first show abroad, CLAY2DAY in the Netherlands. Our trip to the Netherlands was a very pleasant one. First time we tried an overnight ferry, too. Beautiful sunset at Hull lead us a sound journey to Rotterdam. Driving in the Netherlands was not too bad either. It seemed to be all ok until we saw my soaking wet stand table. Everyone else were so used to do outdoor show like this, having tarpaulin, metal clips and all those weather proof gears… Us? All I was concerned about was the amount of stuff to put in our car, so we had minimised the gear. Hence we did not have any water proof material to protect my stand from overnight rain. Agh… So we headed to a local garden centre and DIY shop to search for a temporary solution. No time for sightseeing after all. Great start! Anyway, we had managed to cover the stand and returned to the accommodation without setting up the display. 

Next morning, the sky was on our side! Set off early to prepare the stand display. I had provided a full range of work, including the last stock of HELP JAPAN birds. Second day of the show was much better footfall. Sun was shinning all day. Really enjoyed being there. And the good news… HELP JAPAN birds were sold out! Thank you so much kind Dutch people. I shall blog about the donation process in the near future. Here are some photos of my stand. 

The venue, Landgoed De Olmenhorst, is an apple orchard. Truely beautiful surrounding with a fabulous deli, shop and cafe. Everything was organic. We had potter’s meal on Saturday evening at a farm house within the site. It was magical setting with huge piles of old apple crates, art of tree display, herbs on the long table and scrumptious organic meal… honestly it was so much like ‘kinfolk’ and we had a brill time. 

We have met lovely potters during our stay. I would like to introduce some of them here. Click their names to view the website. 

Sarah Michael is the organiser of this event. Without her kind offer, I would not have managed to join this event. A big thank you to Sarah. Her work is ever so colourful and a joy to see. 

Bob & Mary Kershaw are a couple from England. They showcase their work in Europe quite frequently so their approach and advice was very informative to me. Whilst Bob throws beautiful and confident pots, Mary creates imaginative sculptures. They also produce collaborative work. 

Marcin Witkowski is a Polish potter. Bright and bold decoration on majolica was very eye catching. I loved his poppy series in particular. Like many other potters, Marcin also often travels and showcases throughout the Europe. 

Somewhat reminded me of Robin Welch’s, the Dutch potter Job Heykamp’s work appeals breathtakingly beautiful texture and colours. He came to my stand and commented it’s like a fairly tale! (I shall take it as a compliment?) Lovely smile he had. Great to meet you, Job! 

If you have visited CLAY2DAY, thank you so much for coming! If not, hope you enjoyed viewing the images. xm