Uh...It's not meant to be a tea pot...

I went to the ceramic studio to pick up my work.

About two weeks ago, a day before the day I had to draw the pattern, I had gone to the libraly to refer a ceramic work book and even purchased a flower-pattern book at a book shop to get an idea. Then I sketched the designs in my mind on a paper. Such an earnest student I am!

As I hadn't been sartisfied with the blur pattern which had come out on the last work, I carefully painted the patterns many times to get them clear.
Dispite of that...the photo is the result. It wasn't because that I didn't painted them good enough times but that's how they come out always.
The glay & blue one with a spout is a sauce jug and the red & white one is a flower pot.

When I showed them to my Mum at home, she said
"This one (with the spout) can be used as a tea pot if there is a good lid"
And the very next moment she said so, she pushed a tea strainer into it and put a plastic lid from the cream caramel which she had just eaten.
"Will you drink a cup of tea?"
"Mum, I'm saying it's not a tea pot. Yeah... I'll have the tea though"

The other face of Tokyo

Did you know there are some places in Tokyo where you can enjoy nature?

These photos are the edge of Tokyo called Ome.

I took my mum there to see the plum park in bloom. There were also many plum farms around the park.

The things you can enjoy in this Ome area;

*Museums such as "Kimono museum", where you can see

the old imperial formal gown, and"comb and hair-pin museum".

*Temples and shrines. Some of them are venerable.

*Mountain track along the stream with crystal clear water.

*Flower gardens for all the seasons except the mid-winter.

In the next village;

*The limestone cave called "Nippara Sho-nyu-do"

*Okutama lake

*Hot springs

It takes about 1.5h from the city of Tokyo by the express train with no extra charge so I recommend visiting there at the weekends as a day trip.

My mum and I stayed at a public accommodation though.

P.S. Sorry! All the links are only available in Japanese

Japanese traditional art "Tsumami Kanzashi"

We, four-OL's group, have attended two trial craft art lessons so far.
We made it every-month event. This time was my turn to find a good lesson.
I happened to find this Japanese traditional handmaid ornamental hairpin lesson which organized by Shinjuku-word city council.
The hairpin called "Tsumami kanzashi" in Japanese. "Kanzashi" means hairpin and "Tsumami" means to pinch. So we made the ornament by pinching a very small, 2cm x 2cm squar, piece of silk cloth with a tweezer. You can see all the materials to make a small ornament of crane in the first photo.
After you pinched the silk cloth you put the small pieces on the spreaded glue as you can see in the the second photo. Wait for a while until the silk absorb some glue. Then place all the small pieces on the cardboard-mount to make the crane shape or the butterfly shape which you can see in the third photo.









The last photo is the professional work!! Aren't they very beautiful? This kind of big-fringe-ornament hairpin is only wore by "Maiko", the young Geisha up to 16 years old, or at coming-up-age celebration. So I really really wanted to wear the big-fringe-ornament one for my coming-up-age celebration and actually got one.
My mum was carelessly leave the precious haipin on the floor when she helped me to get dressed kimono. And the very last moment we finished dressing she stepped on the hairpin(!!) and broke it. I was soooo shocked. I looked bad mood in all the photos I took in a photo studio for the celebration.
My broken one wasn't that expensive but this type of handmaid hairpin cost about 20,000 yen ($165).

They came out like this

Does anyone remember I made the shape of the ramen bowl and the plate and had been waiting for them to be fired?
I went to the studio to pick up my first work.
You can see how they came out in the photo..
Mmmm....Not satisfied.
I wanted to have the red mark brighter and clearer. The glaze was mixed with the paint because I didn't paint the pattern enough times and the paint was thin.
It looks like a kiss mark which wasn't what I wanted.
Let's forget about the unsatisfying work. My friend and I got started on the next work.
She is making a pair of bowls for her friends, newly-married couple.
I'm making a sauce jug and a flower pot. The basic shape is the same but one has a spout and the other has a drain hole.
Playing with clay is really fun!

Happy New Smile 07!

This picture is the new-year-postcard I sent for 2007. I picked it up from some illustrator's website. What do you think of it? Bad taste? Funny? Anyway it have some impact, doesn't it? The zodiac-sign-animal for the year 2007 is boar.
I sent this postcard to some of my close friends who understand my sense of fun but I wasn't brave enough to send it to friends who will just think it's bad taste...I sent just a pretty boar postcard to them.

Japanese people send greeting cards for New Year instead of Christmas. I used to draw the zodiac-sign-animal of the year by myself taking weeks, when I had more free time, but I recently just pick up one good picture from internet and print it. 30 postcards were ready just in a couple of days.

Hope coming new year is very very happy one for everyone!!

Boro-Ichi

Went to "Boro-Ichi" in Setagaya with my mum. "Boro" means rag and "Ichi" means market.　The market is held only 4days a year on 15th and 16th in Dce. and Jan. It has very long history started about 430 years ago and identified as intangible cultural heritage. The history started as a Japanese-Kimono rag market but there are so many different stalls nowadays selling interesting things such as antiques, ocarinas (musical instrument), autique cameras, re-make outfit made with Kimono silk, cutlery, vegetables, sweets, old records, mirrors, incense and even Pokemon trading cards for children!

Photo 1: Wooden kitchenware stall sold rice mortars and pestles to make rice cake
Photo 2: Antique wooden dools
Photo 3: The wooden carving to decorate household altar (We call it "Kamidana"). Wow! The price is from 5,800yen to 130,000yen.

The photos 1 & 3 are the things that we know ordinaly Japanese used to have at home but have no idea where to buy nowadays...

Many interesting things to see but nothing to buy...

The market was the place for old people to come to FEEL nostalgia and for young people to come to SEE something rare.

Who made this Ramen bowl?

Today was the pottery class as I mentioned a week ago.
I have to tell you all who see the photo of my works that this is my FIRST time...
I started to make it without having a clear image what I was going to make.
At first I wanted to make a small bowl maybe like a deeper cereal bowl for Japanese miso soup or rice. I was too concentrate on making it thinner and the surface even and next time I noticed it became like a big Chinese noodle bowl... Oh, my gosh! It's too late. I had to have a big Chinese noodle bowl which I didn't want to. I gave up re-making it and made another small plate for Chinese pork dumpling instead to go with the bowl, with the remaining mud.
Even though I made something I wasn't really going to make, the pottery was really fun.
We are going back to the pottery class next week again to colour them.

After the class we had a meal at a Chinese restaurant. Then decided to have a cup of tea and cake at my friend's house. We went to a cake shop, which has a tea room as well, on the way to her house. I found the notice saying "Now we have hot wine - the price(500yen)includes the glass, you can take the wine glass back home".(You see the wine in the photo of the cakes) The glass was simple and nice one so we wanted to have it but also wanted have the cake and the wine at her home not in the tea room. So we walked back her house carrying the glasses with the wine in our hands.
We must have been looked like alcoholics :)