Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Kawaii Corner - Inarco Frog Planter

Kawaii Corner - Inarco Frog Planter, kawaii, made in Japan, Japanese ceramics, vintage Japanese ceramics, vintage Japanese collectables, vintage frog planter, vintage Inarco frog planter, vintage planter, hand painted vintage ceramic frog planter

Hi Friends! It's been awhile since I shared a fun, lovable "kawaii" (Japanese concept of cute, particularly cute animals) vintage collectable. This big-eyed, smiling happy frog, with its proper salutational hat-tipping gesture, was manufactured and hand-painted by the Inarco Company in Japan some fifty or sixty years ago. It has been hanging around our house for quite some time, and although it gets carefully shifted from one place to another, it never ceases to put a smile on the faces of whomever it meets.

Kawaii Corner - Inarco Frog Planter, kawaii, made in Japan, Japanese ceramics, vintage Japanese ceramics, vintage Japanese collectables, vintage frog planter, vintage Inarco frog planter, vintage planter, hand painted vintage ceramic frog planter

Although pipe smoking has been long out of fashion, our aquatic companion is, even in our modern times, considered to be very smartly dressed in a pink waistcoat, accessorized with a jaunty yellow straw hat and black bow tie.

Kawaii Corner - Inarco Frog Planter, kawaii, made in Japan, Japanese ceramics, vintage Japanese ceramics, vintage Japanese collectables, vintage frog planter, vintage Inarco frog planter, vintage planter, hand painted vintage ceramic frog planter

From those lovable big protruding eyes...

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to those slap-happy webbed feet...

Kawaii Corner - Inarco Frog Planter, kawaii, made in Japan, Japanese ceramics, vintage Japanese ceramics, vintage Japanese collectables, vintage frog planter, vintage Inarco frog planter, vintage planter, hand painted vintage ceramic frog planter

the cuteness factor, or "kawaii", is irresistible. I'm sure we will be delighting in our frog friend's imaginary antics for many more years to come.

Kawaii Corner - Inarco Frog Planter, kawaii, made in Japan, Japanese ceramics, vintage Japanese ceramics, vintage Japanese collectables, vintage frog planter, vintage Inarco frog planter, vintage planter, hand painted vintage ceramic frog planter

Thanks for being here. See you again soon on Kawaii Corner!


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Sunday, April 16, 2017

Hand Ink-Stamped Easter Eggs

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Hi Friends! I spent some time this weekend making ink stamped Easter eggs. The front cover of this month's Martha Stewart Living magazine features some perfectly hand ink-stamped eggs. Also featured in this issue are simple, fun polka dot eggs made with paint and daubers, and beautiful decoupaged eggs using paper doilies. 

The ink-stamped eggs looked interesting, I thought. I have a boat load of scrap-booking supplies, including various colored inks and cute stamps like the bird pictured here, so it was an easy choice.

My eggs are not perfect, but it was a relaxing, enjoyable, quiet activity.

hand stamped Easter eggs, martha stewart craft idea, Easter crafts, Easter eggs, vintage Betty Crocker cookbook, Georges Briard serving dish, quince, spring crafts, teatime with hand stamped Easter eggs

hand stamped Easter eggs, martha stewart craft idea, Easter crafts, Easter eggs, vintage Betty Crocker cookbook, Georges Briard serving dish, quince, spring crafts, teatime with hand stamped Easter eggs

Thanks for looking!


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Thursday, April 13, 2017

Spring Art Show - Hypnos Somnambulate

collage, handcut collage, sculptural collage, floral collage, antique frame

The dark wintry gray days in this cloud-covered valley are nearly over. With the appearance of crocuses, daffodils and muscari in the garden, and cherry, plum and magnolia blossoms bursting forth all over our town, we are in the midst of rejoicing at the end of an unusually cold wet winter.

Not only is it still cold and dark, but the grayness that prevails day after day and month after month here in the Northwest, is taxing on the mind and on the creative spirit. It's as if the haze in the atmosphere becomes a metaphor for fuzzy thinking and mental obscurity. Attempting to stay awake past five p.m. and finding the initiative to accomplish a series of expressive tasks often becomes a major undertaking. The one thing that motivated me over these past several weeks though, was knowing the opportunity to feature a piece of my artwork at The New Zone's 'Zone 4 All Community Showcase' was at hand, and I had better get busy.

Sculptural art forms are fascinating, especially when experienced first hand. I still fondly remember the first time I experienced this kind of work by a famous master - the graceful ballet dancers of Edgar Degas, at a retrospective of his work at the Art Institute of Chicago. And more recently, here in Eugene, the University of Oregon's Museum of Art exhibited a male nude sculpture by Auguste Rodin that must have been about 10 feet tall!

Besides viewing sculpture in person, I also enjoy taking a tour through vintage art history books, looking for images to use in collage. The image I cut from the book in the upper left hand corner in the above picture, 'The Art of Classical Greece', is a bronze head of Hypnos, the god of sleep. Being a bird lover, the fact that there are wings on at least one side of his head intrigued me. 

Although Hypnos is a classical Greek god, this particular sculptural piece is a Roman copy, found at Civitella d'Arna in Italy, dating to about the fourth century BC. Apparently, three dimensional representations of Hypnos are unusual. Hypnos is often portrayed with poppies and sleep inducing herbs, so I decided it was appropriate to reunite Hynos with a bouquet of poppies. According to Google Arts & Culture, "Hypnos' wings allowed him to move swiftly over land and sea, and to fan the foreheads of the weary until they fell asleep."

The antique swiveling frame is itself a work of art. The glass was missing when I purchased it at the charity shop, but it was easily replaced by a local frame store, Vistra Framing & Gallery, for a minimal cost. The frame appears to be handmade from wood that has been painted brown with gold highlights added. It is a bit warped, but it does stand upright without wobbling. We'll just say it's skewed condition adds a certain vintage charm to the work!

Once the weather warms up, I plan on painting our living room (white, of course!) and will display my collage on the piano there, along with some vintage hardback books, and a few Japanese ceramic figurines. Now, if it would just stop raining!



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