Thursday 31 May 2007

Full of curiosity

At the gallery opening, the Little People had lots of other adventures (captured by Jim). They found a huge birds nest made of porcelain (by Shannon). They kept looking at that nest for a long time. I guess that bowl made them calm.













Next, they faced a dangerous situation.The smallest Little Person was nearly bitten by a crocky! "Watch out!!!"














It's up to you to decide what happened to the smallest Little Person...I think the crocky just wanted to sniff them!














Next, they had an interesting situation.
"What's happening with her.........?"
"Not sure........?"

The Little People are a bit obsessed by playing with things that are hanging. They kept saying, "How can I get that??" I don't know if they ended up reaching it.

Next, the Little People Dad started on his own journey. The rest of the family said, "Where are you going Dad!!!??? Dad didn't have an answer.......!


They had so many interesting experiences in a short amount of time, even before their sleepover with Jim began! (Jim's sleepover adventures coming soon...)

Sunday 27 May 2007

It was just in time!!!

Recently we took some Little People to the Craft Queensland opening called Queensland New Design. The Little People had know idea why so many people were standing and chatting and drinking in the same room. They could only stand where they were put. Because of their size, someone who didn't notice them nearly stepped on them. But luckily someone spotted them and said, "Stop! Something's down there!!"



Finally they became safe and also they understood about the happening in the room. Perhaps they are still cranky with us. Sorry!! That was a big night for them. It wasn't just a night out, it was their first gallery opening and sleep over with someone they didn't know. In Japan we have saying about kids. "If you love your children, send them on a journey." Let the Little People's journeys begin!
Thanks to Jim for taking the photos.

Wednesday 23 May 2007

A New Beginning

Thanks for visiting Sandwich Mountain! We’ve re-posted the original adventures of the Little People below (just to keep it all neat and tidy), and we’ll be documenting their ongoing adventures in this blog. Meanwhile, here's a peak at the latest Little's, fresh out of the kiln....

Tuesday 22 May 2007

More Play

Kenji and I were talking earlier this year about wanting to become a little more playful with our work. It’s so easy to take it all too seriously. It all becomes about meeting deadlines and rushing things through kilns, and all the other million things we have to do to keep afloat, that sometimes you can forget about the importance of just playing with a material and playing with ideas. So we decided that this year we would try to make sure we get a bit more play in there, a bit of experimentation, without it having to be FOR anything other than our own indulgence. Often this is where the best new ideas come from anyway. This Little People Project has become an outcome of that discussion.

We worry a little that we are too easily amused, as we roll about laughing at a miniature porcelain figure trapped under a slab of butter (see below), but it’s surprising the number of offshoot ideas we have had as a result of these (seemingly frivolous and immature) exercises, and the number of interesting conversations that have arisen about perception and interpretation and scale and everyday objects. This week we took them to our local supermarket. Things got a bit hairy in the dairy aisle, but after a panadol and a quick lie down he was feeling much better.


Originally posted by Mel on Feffakookan 29/04/07

Sandwich Mountain

Recently I saw our little people at the coffee shop in the middle of the day! It's so funny - as soon as Mel put them down, the coffee shop became a huge landscape. It was surprising! Our little people in an everyday setting, suddenly made something really normal become really unusual! It's a human wonderland!

Sandwiches became huge mountains. Instead of eating them, I think they wanted to climb them! Thanks for letting us play at the coffee shop Jacqui!

Originally posted by Kenji at kamenendo 21/04/07

Little People

As I've said before, I love doing hand building. But I've also always wanted to try slip casting. So recently I made these figures to see how the slip casting would go - and they came out quite well! Mel and I decided to experiment with them....and she made them look cool!! (see below) It's amazing how different each one is. You can imagine they each have some kind of interesting story - and there is a loveliness about them. Actually, I like watching people's reaction when they look at my work. I can see the difference and similarity between them through their reactions, and a little bit of their stories. It's really interesting! I'm going to keep updating the Little People's Little Project....so stay tuned!

Originally posted by Kenji on Kamenendo 11/04/07

Change the colour of your day!

When I was a kid there was a commercial on TV for a very yummy chocolate covered bar of honeycomb that just melted in your mouth. The commercial started off in black and white, grey and drab, but when the hip young things in seriously bad 80s outfits, with dubious dance moves and even worse hairstyles bit into the chocolate bar, everything turned bright and colourful, life was good…"change the colour of your day" was the catchy jingle they sang. When Kenji’s little folk (pictured above, about 5cm tall) came out of the kiln, this commercial from the eighties started playing in my head (a little worrying) and I was overcome by an incredible urge to change the colour of THEIR day. Kenji was very obliging so I whisked them away, pulled out my pile of decal scraps and dressed em up! They now sit next to my computer, and freak me out a little bit! They just seem so totally confused in a blank robotic kind of way. We have a few adventures in store for them however….so stay tuned!

Originally posted by Mel on Feffakookan 4/05/07