blog re-start

This blog has been inactive for like two and a half years. During that time, we have been concentrating our efforts mostly towards Japan as we are both Japanese and that seemed like the thing to do at the time. However, it has become clear that our work is better received more outside Japan, so it seems only natural that we should have a blog that can be read by people outside Japan. The previous posts of this blog were more like us just playing around. I made the image and Kao who was learning English at the time wrote some text in English to go along with the image.

I'm not sure what to write to re-start this blog, so I'll just write the most recent thing that comes to mind.



We have been doing the Mumbreeze shop at Etsy for almost half a year now. It's coming along slowly but surely. People seem very receptive to our paper mache figures. We are now trying a different coat of finish with these. Until now, we've been spraying them with a finish coat. Usually, this is enough to protect a painted surface on flat artwork, but because the figures are 3 dimensional and are handled right on the surface, just spraying a coat of finish didn't seem quite enough. With these new ones, we are painting them with acrylic varnish. It does give it a more shinier appearance, but they feel much less delicate than before, so a little rough handling or dust won't damage the painted surface.



This is one of the bicycle figures we've been making. This is also coated with acrylic varnish though it's less obvious in this picture.

It makes me feel good that these figures are now more "archival". I've been thinking of making more variety of different figures which could be put together to make a sort of a diorama. We will be offering them at our Etsy shop as we make them, so you can collect and make your own diorama as well. If you have any suggestions for a new kind of figure, please let us know. We will do our best to try and make them.