" - Winnie the Pooh
Painting ceramics
I'm not an artist. I can learn how to copy things, but I've never considered myself terribly creative. That's not to say that I don't have original thoughts...I'm just not terribly creative at representing them most days.
I've talked about Arita before, too. I've wanted to go back and see what the ceramic shops offered when it's not flooded with people for Golden Week.
That said, I talked to Mrs. K about wanting to head up there and she said she'd love to come with me. We started up there about 10am, parked at the Daiso (100円 shop) and started walking.
We started down the main street toward the train station. There were surprisingly few shops along that road, now that it wasn't covered in tents. Nevertheless, I found a few small gifts and a new pincushion in one at the corner.
Then we went back down the road toward the main entry. That proved to hold a wealth of shops that we never touched during Golden Week. Most of them are pretty small and very crowded with similar items, even from shop to shop. What amused us most was seeing the same item in multiple shops - as we went down the road it got more and more expensive.
The first biggish shop that we came across, we were greeted downstairs and invited up to a second floor gallery of sorts. This had the nicer pieces that were sold singly instead of the large groups of what I now assume were 'seconds' (not that I can find anything wrong with any of them). We noticed a bucket on the corner of one of the tables that had bare ceramics in it and inquired about painting. She managed to tell us that she allowed customers to paint them and showed us prices. Have I mentioned yet that we had both kids with us? Yeah, they loved running around the gallery while we tried to drink coffee. We didn't stay to paint.
When we got to the end of that street, we turned back for lunch. After tuna pizza (yeah...don't ask), we headed back out with our map and started looking for the 'rest' of the stores in the town. We walked for what seemed like forever before we ended up in another cluster of them. This was after reassurance from several shop owners that we were on the right path. Turns out there are a LOT of shops once you walk past empty stores to the 'rest' of town and we could barely scrape the surface before it was almost dinner time and we were ready to go home.
The next weekend, the husbands watched the kids and we journeyed to Arita solo. Our first stop was the little shop. We painted - I a mug, Mrs. K a tea cup. My first side ended with a pretty abysmal looking (in my opinion) cat, but I am pleased with the second side. The owner gave me a cup for inspiration and I sort of copied the design. It's not identical, but it looks cool. The cup's a gift - the person that gets it will now know the story behind it. Mrs. K painted these cool wavy flowers/grains on hers - I was impressed.
There was some discussion about how to get the cups after they were fired. The owner offered to send them to us and we insisted we'd come back. It's only 45 minutes from Isahaya, after all. She wanted my number, convinced I spoke better Japanese - HA! I managed to get her to tell me that they'd be ready in September - just so I knew when to expect the call.
We wandered more through the part of town that we got too tired for before. We found many more interesting shops. We see many that look more like galleries and they're always closed on Sunday. Hopefully we can catch a week day when they're open. I saw the plate I passed by back in May, but it was MUCH larger and about 10x the price so I left it there. Hopefully I can track it down again in November (when they have another festival with great bargains and less crowd).
I got the call a couple of weeks ago that the cups were ready. Not quite September, but pretty close. We were very busy and didn't manage to get back there until today.
The cups look neat. They shrink quite a bit (I think the owner said 10%, but it looks like more). We decided we needed to try it again.
This time I started with some Maple leaf looking things on a tea cup. I decided to get elaborate on the next side, but I won't spoil the surprise. Yeah, this one's a gift, too. Mrs. K did butterflies and another cup that I didn't get as much chance to look at as I was tied up in what turned out to be a very time consuming second side. I managed to get that she'll have more plates available in October. Why I want those is yet another secret - mean, aren't I? We also noticed how relaxing it was to sit there with cups, paint, coffee and quiet. It's an amazing experience.
We wandered more through the further parts of town. I found a contender for the plate that goes home - just in case I don't find the blue sakura again. Of course, I'll have to remember which shop it was at and hope they're open. We stopped for cake at a little shop - delicious. There, we flipped through a book on the various painters in Arita. I commented on how silly it was to pay 2500円 for a book with horrible maps that was just a big ad for smaller galleries. Of course, now I want the book so I can track down some of those galleries, despite the bad maps. The book inspired us to new locations, though, so off driving we went.
This time, we ended up at a large gallery that had many artists' wares and many steps of grandeur. They even had Royal Doulton stuff there. The gallery had something we'd wished for whilst we painted in more blue, too - a painting table and *colors*. We may have to do some painting there, now. The colors enticed us to sway from our loyal place.
Finally, we gave up and headed home, despite seeing many new, exciting looking shops on our way. I don't know that we'll ever see all, or even most of this town, but we're going to really try. Worst part, to me, is that we've done all of this and haven't even touched the pottery town in Nagasaki Prefect. Who knows what we'd uncover there.
Oh, and since we have to go back to pick up these cups, we'll probably paint again. Chrys wants a coffee cup - seems his current favorite has developed a crack. I know he'll break it someday, but I'll do it anyway and enjoy every minute. Anyone else? Choices are coffee cup, tea cup (Japanese, no handle) and sometimes plates - slightly more variety if we end up at the color place, I think. I promise nothing of quality, not even specific designs, but it'll be one of a kind and full of love and guaranteed to make me relax.
I've talked about Arita before, too. I've wanted to go back and see what the ceramic shops offered when it's not flooded with people for Golden Week.
That said, I talked to Mrs. K about wanting to head up there and she said she'd love to come with me. We started up there about 10am, parked at the Daiso (100円 shop) and started walking.
We started down the main street toward the train station. There were surprisingly few shops along that road, now that it wasn't covered in tents. Nevertheless, I found a few small gifts and a new pincushion in one at the corner.
Then we went back down the road toward the main entry. That proved to hold a wealth of shops that we never touched during Golden Week. Most of them are pretty small and very crowded with similar items, even from shop to shop. What amused us most was seeing the same item in multiple shops - as we went down the road it got more and more expensive.
The first biggish shop that we came across, we were greeted downstairs and invited up to a second floor gallery of sorts. This had the nicer pieces that were sold singly instead of the large groups of what I now assume were 'seconds' (not that I can find anything wrong with any of them). We noticed a bucket on the corner of one of the tables that had bare ceramics in it and inquired about painting. She managed to tell us that she allowed customers to paint them and showed us prices. Have I mentioned yet that we had both kids with us? Yeah, they loved running around the gallery while we tried to drink coffee. We didn't stay to paint.
When we got to the end of that street, we turned back for lunch. After tuna pizza (yeah...don't ask), we headed back out with our map and started looking for the 'rest' of the stores in the town. We walked for what seemed like forever before we ended up in another cluster of them. This was after reassurance from several shop owners that we were on the right path. Turns out there are a LOT of shops once you walk past empty stores to the 'rest' of town and we could barely scrape the surface before it was almost dinner time and we were ready to go home.
The next weekend, the husbands watched the kids and we journeyed to Arita solo. Our first stop was the little shop. We painted - I a mug, Mrs. K a tea cup. My first side ended with a pretty abysmal looking (in my opinion) cat, but I am pleased with the second side. The owner gave me a cup for inspiration and I sort of copied the design. It's not identical, but it looks cool. The cup's a gift - the person that gets it will now know the story behind it. Mrs. K painted these cool wavy flowers/grains on hers - I was impressed.
There was some discussion about how to get the cups after they were fired. The owner offered to send them to us and we insisted we'd come back. It's only 45 minutes from Isahaya, after all. She wanted my number, convinced I spoke better Japanese - HA! I managed to get her to tell me that they'd be ready in September - just so I knew when to expect the call.
We wandered more through the part of town that we got too tired for before. We found many more interesting shops. We see many that look more like galleries and they're always closed on Sunday. Hopefully we can catch a week day when they're open. I saw the plate I passed by back in May, but it was MUCH larger and about 10x the price so I left it there. Hopefully I can track it down again in November (when they have another festival with great bargains and less crowd).
I got the call a couple of weeks ago that the cups were ready. Not quite September, but pretty close. We were very busy and didn't manage to get back there until today.
The cups look neat. They shrink quite a bit (I think the owner said 10%, but it looks like more). We decided we needed to try it again.
This time I started with some Maple leaf looking things on a tea cup. I decided to get elaborate on the next side, but I won't spoil the surprise. Yeah, this one's a gift, too. Mrs. K did butterflies and another cup that I didn't get as much chance to look at as I was tied up in what turned out to be a very time consuming second side. I managed to get that she'll have more plates available in October. Why I want those is yet another secret - mean, aren't I? We also noticed how relaxing it was to sit there with cups, paint, coffee and quiet. It's an amazing experience.
We wandered more through the further parts of town. I found a contender for the plate that goes home - just in case I don't find the blue sakura again. Of course, I'll have to remember which shop it was at and hope they're open. We stopped for cake at a little shop - delicious. There, we flipped through a book on the various painters in Arita. I commented on how silly it was to pay 2500円 for a book with horrible maps that was just a big ad for smaller galleries. Of course, now I want the book so I can track down some of those galleries, despite the bad maps. The book inspired us to new locations, though, so off driving we went.
This time, we ended up at a large gallery that had many artists' wares and many steps of grandeur. They even had Royal Doulton stuff there. The gallery had something we'd wished for whilst we painted in more blue, too - a painting table and *colors*. We may have to do some painting there, now. The colors enticed us to sway from our loyal place.
Finally, we gave up and headed home, despite seeing many new, exciting looking shops on our way. I don't know that we'll ever see all, or even most of this town, but we're going to really try. Worst part, to me, is that we've done all of this and haven't even touched the pottery town in Nagasaki Prefect. Who knows what we'd uncover there.
Oh, and since we have to go back to pick up these cups, we'll probably paint again. Chrys wants a coffee cup - seems his current favorite has developed a crack. I know he'll break it someday, but I'll do it anyway and enjoy every minute. Anyone else? Choices are coffee cup, tea cup (Japanese, no handle) and sometimes plates - slightly more variety if we end up at the color place, I think. I promise nothing of quality, not even specific designs, but it'll be one of a kind and full of love and guaranteed to make me relax.
posted by Wynnie | 03:11
1 Comments:
My favorite class in high school, bar none, was ceramics. I did it for all four semesters I was there and my parents still have lots of the various gifts it engendered. If you like it I bet you could find a class at your local arts center when you get back. I'll wax enthusiastic about it at the drop of a hat!
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