I kinda like this.

I was thrilled when I found out "Gizmo Swoops" got the Peoples Choice Award for the Most Whimisical at the 2016 Salvation Army Fundraiser in May. Here is the blurb I wrote up about how he came together.

Gizmo Swoops

Salvation Army Transformed Treasure-2016

I saw bird feet in a candle holder, a body in the wine bottle cage and his face in the base of a chaffing dish. The corkscrew “wings” are attached so that they would still flap. His face can be turned and tilted at different quizzical angles. His tea ball heart hangs from his head and will spin in his chest when the piece is rotated. It is also a bit of a challenge to use the reflection in his chest to get the tea ball heart set with the exact center hole on the pin tip. He was so fun to create and I wanted movement in the piece to invite “hands on” play to animate him.

I am terrible at this website stuff so I thought I should just KISS it. 

Here is my new studio, started in August 2015,  moved in January 2016. Small, but I love it.

I promised myself to post once a quarter. It has been three and I am now looking at the last two months of 2012. It has been a busy year because I had to return to my day job, but I still managed to have a show at Snow City Cafe in July and do three Saturday Markets. I will post some pictures from that soon. As for what is next,  I will be doing two craft shows this winter, the Rabbit Creek Craft bazzar on Saturday, November 3 and UAA Craft Show Saturday, December 1.

This is a piece I sold at the Snow City Cafe show this pas July called "Bass Menagerie"

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I love my regular email address, jtmiyash@ak.net, because it had ak(Alaska) in it. But GCI is having issues with changing the junk mail filter and now my account is permanently stuffed with junk mail and I cannot send, recieve or forward any mail. So please use this address jtmiyash@gmail.com, while I markup all the hundreds of business cards I have with the old one. C'est la vie, live by technology,...die by technology.

Cards and digital prints of my original gyotaku prints will be available for sale at the Anchorage Museum shop by the end of February.  Yea!

Time for renewal, the dragon's flamboyant vitality will influence this year. Make the most of it! Spent Chinese New Year at home in Hawaii with my parents and siblings. The first time in a long time we have all been home together. Good to be home.

It was really nice to work on sculpture again. I love playing with stuff and using power tools. Because books are so flat I wanted to have more dimension in the piece and the illusion of a deeper space. Some parts are almost there. I haven't decided which way is up, but I guess that's just like everything else in life somedays.

We are on the verge of September and I am already really late for berry picking. It has been a very good summer for fish, two kings, tons of reds, and the silvers are here with promises of more still to come. Ann brought me a monster snapper, a kelp greenling, a little halibut, and Eric brought me a starry flounder. Printing season is coming to an end, fall is almost upon us. Time to shift gears.........

Just had a fabulously sunny Memorial Day holiday weekend 8). Summer is officially here!! My computer blew up a few days ago and I have just about literally lost my mind. " Don't it always seem to go,...you don't know what you've got till its gone..........."

Anyway I am gearing up for the Anchorage Museum's summer Art potpourri craft / artist show and Saturday Market.

Hope to see you out there!