30 April 2011

NEW HOME WANTED for HELP JAPAN birds!!

This post is now information only. All birds happily found their new homes to fly next week. Thank you so much for your quick responce. (updated at 22:15)
Unfortunately, (or fortunately for some?) I had to decline some pending payments from on line orders for HELP JAPAN 1000 Birds earlier today as it passed the noticed deadline. Without completing this I cannot proceed my donation project forward. This cancelation made 4 birds available again. I have decided to look for two new homes for two pairs of birds. 
£7.00 for a pair of birds with extra P&P charge
If you would like to order, please email me your name and full postal address to makikohastings@gmail.com as soon as possible so that I can send you paypal invoice. Once you received the invoice, please complete the payment soon for the same reason as above. 
First comes first for two kind people. Hope someone can help this project to complete! Thank you so much xm

24 April 2011

HELP JAPAN Handmade Art Sale - result

The fair on Saturday was fantastic turn out. Beautiful sunshine brought us lots of visitors. Many came after seeing the newspaper article, too. I met lots of wonderful visitors from the local areas and beyond, including those who shared the deep thoughts to Japan by having lived there before and studying their languages. 
The last batch of birds had gone within 2 hours. My original fear at the beginning of this project of not being able to sell them all had unexpectedly gone out of the windows. Many gave us encouraging feedback to the project and art sale, which was very supportive to myself and people in Japan. We also sold 106 pieces of my work in total. I am grateful to have received many positive feedback to my work. And must not forget, a big thank you to my husband running a wonderful children’s workshop making origami Easter Bunny! All in all we had such a wonderful day. Here are some images from the stall. 
Including kind donations, we raised £1188 from the stall (including bird sale on the day). This will be added to the sales from HELP JAPAN 1000 BIRDS PROJECT and will be sending to Japanese Red Cross via the Japanese Embassy. When I have done all of the process, I will inform you once again here to share the outcome. 


Thank you so much everyone for your support. xm
Missed out the bird? You may get a last chance!
Some birds still left at newly opened gallery & deli, The Pantry, in North Yorkshire. I am not sure if they could do oversea postal service, but if you like to contact them, please email: thepantrylockton@aol.com 

This is a polite and urgent reminder for those who placed on line order and pending the payment. Please do check your Email and complete the payment, so that the project can move forward and the donation into the action. Due to the unexpected situation of rapid 1000 birds sales, I’m afraid I have set a deadline as 30th April 18:00 (in UK time). I could only think this is fare. Hope you would understand. 

16 April 2011

HELP JAPAN Handmade Art Sale

What are you up to on this Easter break? Why not visiting Knaresborough, our beautiful historic town in North Yorkshire? This coming Saturday 23rd April, there will be Knaresborough Easter Fayre. Why not have a look around the stalls at the market place, children’s entertainment at 11th century Castle, take a walk by the river, pop around our local deli and cafe and much more. 
At Knaresborough Easter Fayre, I will be holding a stall (only Saturdayto raise money for Japan Earthquake Appeal. I will be selling my ceramic work, brooches, prints, postcards, stationaries and many more and all proceeds will go to the appeal. There will also be the last stock of birds from HELP JAPAN 1000 BIRDS PROJECT, which is currently running worldwide from this blog. Everything on the stall are handmade. This will be the one off chance for you to get my work at the very special price and YOU will be helping Japan! 

Have got kids? Why not come and join the ‘Making Your Easter Bunny’ origami workshop, which will be held by my husband (the origami master!)? It’s going to be fun! This activity is free, but voluntary donations are welcome to ‘Easter Bunny Donation Box’ at the stall. Every little does help and can make a difference.


The direction to Knaresborough and more information about the fayre, please click here
Looking forward to seeing you there! xm

11 April 2011

MUST NOT FORGET

One month has passed since Japan’s Earthquake. It is ironically amazing how quickly the news has disappeared from TV. Life goes on around me. As if there were nothing happened. Being a Japanese living in a foreign country has put me in a strange position that I have never felt. 
The truth is that Japan’s recovery has only just begun. They have a long way to go. Still tons of worries and uncertainties. Their future path is unclear. My parents say they still have shakes every hour. I hear someone I know who works for Tokyo Electric Power, has not been back home since. I hear those who evacuated 20km from Fukushima Power Plant were told that they would not be able to return home for at least a year. I hear it takes decade to clean the radioactivity. I hear about contaminated vegetables and water. I hear Red Cross has not been able to divert the donation for the use as there are too many affected areas. I hear there are not enough land to build temporary housings for people who have lost their homes. I hear lots of things. None of them seem to be enlightening the hope. 
April is supposed to be the month of new start in Japan. Children enter schools. New class mates. New uniform. Graduates start new work. It is supposed to be exciting time of year. But this year, it turned out to be a different story. Many have lost work and schools to go to. Lost friends and families to celebrate together. Many of those school children who survived from the Tsunami in Minami Sanriku (the town that was completely wiped off) for school being on higher ground, have lost their parents and homes at lower ground in front of their eyes. I cannot even begin to imagine how their life from now are going to be...
Yet, they are a humble nation. Fighting for the recovery. Trying to reach out to a tiny hope they can possibly have. 

Must not forget. What they are going through. 
Must not forget. Our continuous prayers. 
Must not forget. This is why I am doing what I am doing now. 

Here is NY times link that you could see in English. I feel the importance of not forgetting those images. I hope you would share the prayers for Japan from now on too. 
My current project HELP JAPAN 1000 BIRDS PROJECT is to encourage people in Japan. I could have not done it myself but with YOUR support I have managed to foresee the hope. Thank you so much for your contribution. Crazy busy two weeks have passed since it started. My birds are still an on going process (sorry for being slow but almost the last batch!) so I only sent out 380 birds. For that, we have raised £1550. Up until yesterday, I have received 713 birds orders in total! This is absolutely amazing! 1000 birds were supposed to be a long term goal, but it may not be? Thank you so so so much for your support. We are certainly cheering the nation. I will send the donation together with the proceeds from the forth-coming fair. I will keep you posted the details. 
By the way, this is SHIN SHIN 100th Post! I would like to say a big thank you for everyone who visited me here. Your feedback and suggestion to my blog are more than welcome! xm

6 April 2011

BCTF

What a week it has been! Before I knew it, spring has come, summer time has started and British Craft Trade Fair has been and gone! It’s been crazy busy but all in good cause. 
Before I share about BCTF, I just wanted to say a huge thank you for everyone, for your support on HELP JAPAN 1000 Birds Project. Thank you so much for spreading the word. It all started with the first batch of 100 birds on Sunday before and since it opened I had received enormous orders from all over the world! My first batch of 100 birds has immediately gone on the day one, so I was actually back-logged with orders. Thank you for being patient with me and the process being slow. I have been working sock off since, making more birds and catching up with mid-night administration. I am doing this in my spear time in between my work and degree study, so I could physically built certain amount at night, then it takes a week to complete. I don’t send you a payment request until I have actual stock here, so please do not panic if you haven’t received it yet. I am checking email orders and log in everyday. So far, I have received over 100 on line orders including from affected country Japan, and nearly 300 birds have already flown to new homes. Of course more to fly, just waiting in a kiln in my studio. I am on 600th birds at the moment. (They could be yours soon :) I will post more details of the donation on next post, so please do pop back. 
me glazing more birds, making more birds, talking to more birds than to my husband lately....
If you are local or wondering what you can do during the Easter holiday, why not visiting us in a beautiful historic town in North Yorkshire? My birds will be available directly from Knaresborough Easter Fayre on Saturday 23rd April.
More details will be posted soon so please stay tuned. 

Right, back to BCTF. I have missed out showing the preparation process, so here it was. Making display boxes was fun! I used all recycled and found items to put them together. Soldered my logo and a bit of DIY. Combined with my screen prints of Rakugaki on the back drop. Hope you like them. 
A series of Hanetsubo gold and Rakugaki went on the display. The show went very lively and I have met many nice people. (Very nice meeting you Adam, Catherine and Corinne!) I have also received some positive feedback from galleries luckily so must follow up with them. Hopefully a chance for some orders? Fingers crossed! 
Good news! Those Hanetsubo and Rakugaki will be showcasing on the opening exhibition at Rapture Galley from 15th April. The gallery will be holding some batch of my birds too! How exciting! More news to follow so see you here again soon. xm