pottery play

My small woodblock print, green tea, is really popular in my etsy shop so I have decided I need to re-explore my fascination for Japanese ceramics (especially those from the Shigaraki area near Kyoto) and design another tea and ceramics inspired print. These close ups are from this funky calendar I have from Shigaraki covered in Japanese tea cups. I LOVE this calendar poster so much I can't bear to take it down off my kitchen wall even though it is for 2005. Some might say this shows I haven't accepted that I've left Japan yet, but I would say it just shows how much I want to keep little bits of Japan alive in me wherever I am. Anyway that's my story on the tea cup poster. I'm using it to inspire a bigger, tea themed woodblock print. This one will involve a teapot too. I haven't decided on the colours yet but am working up to it.


Best news is (for anyone who cares, I know at least Kristin will....) we have bought a new house and so are no longer spending every waking moment house-hunting. Yay! And the new house even has a studio for my printmaking! I'm soooooooo excited.

the evolution of a little box

I've been developing a little chiyogami paper box for the past week or so. It started off looking like this in its first incarnation:

Bright red covered chiyogami paper on the bottom and then textured, white Japanese paper on the top. Then my little monk woodblock print on top of that. I lightly lacquered the whole thing to protect the paper from wear and tear. But I didn't like the paleness of the lid so I started playing with it again and put some more chiyogami paper on it to lift the monk print out a bit.
I love the colours in the chiyogami I used for the new lid. And now it looks like this:

and this:I'm much happier with it now. I've also bought some plain coloured paper to experiment with more lids to work in combination with some other amazing chiyogami patterned paper I have from Japan. I bought a huge stash just before I left and then rolled it up and tucked it inside one of my large rolls of printmaking paper. And just the other day I re-discovered it again accidentally while rummaging through my paper collection. I had completely forgotten about it!

little owls and things

Owl Gocco Print by Matte Stephens

I've recently discovered the wonderful work of Matte Stephens through his etsy shop, matteart. This lovely Owl gocco print is just one of the soft, colourful pieces he has for sale. Matte's profile says he's been making a living as a painter for 12 years. Yay Matte! How fantastic that an artist can find a way to work in their field full-time.

It looks as though Matte's based in the USA. Take a look at his shop and see what you think.