Candleholder fish

Here is my first object using the pinch pot technique.

ABC Animals - X-Ray fish...Pesce cardellino

The word X-Ray fish may recall the image of some terrifying creature living in the darkness of the abysses. It's actually a tiny fellow living in the Amazon and having the characteristic of being a little bit transparent...to the point that you can see through it.
In Italian its nickname is Pesce Cardellino, as its colours recall those of the Goldfinch.

ABC Animals - Frogs and Toads

The frog prince meets the golden toad...
One is not a real frog, the other one is a real toad...but it sadly looks like it's now extinct.

We all grew up knowing that the frog prince regained its human shape after being kissed by a lovely princess. But in the original version of the story - as collected by the Grimm brothers - the frog becomes a prince after being thrown against a wall by a princess who was loathing it.

When it meets the golden toad maybe a new story could start?

ABC Animals - Complete!

This week I finally completed the animals alphabet, or at least the English side of it with its 26 letters.
I'm quite happy about it and I will keep on working on some new fellows, so that also the Italian side will be ready.
I have now scanned the originals and made the first prints, ready to be mounted on wood and soon ready for purchase on my Etsy shop.
I wish scanning and printing was a straightforward task. I found myself fighting with technology for quite a few hours...and as a result of it even a yellow kangaroo came out from the printer.

Making raku pottery

Here are my first two raku pieces. The process of raku pottery is really fascinating and the surprise element at the end of the second fire is quite strong. I'm very happy with the results and look forward to experiment more.

ABC Animals - Vicuna

When I had to think about an animal starting with letter "V" I bumped into the vicuna / vigogna.
So far my representation of vicuna was just in a form of some kind of a soft wool and I honestly never thought about the animal it came from.
It turns out it's a graceful animal with gentle eyes living in the South American Andes.