9.28.2008

Shisa Dogs


The Freeman Family joined us on Saturday morning for shisa dog-making up at Sachi's Antiques in Nago. For 2500 yen, you can make your very own clay shisa if you have a group of 4; if you bring a group of 6, it is only 2000 yen per dog! You may choose to make your shisa sitting or standing, and you may choose yellow, red, or white clay.

There are two basic molds that Sachi's husband makes prior to you showing up. The one on the right is "sitting" and the one on the left is "standing." Everyone in our group made a "sitting" dog.
The first thing you do is cover your model with clay.
Next, you add ears and a tail.
Then eyebrows,
claws,
and decorations...
I think we were all quite proud of our finished products!

Since we had to wait 2 hours before we could return to pick up the dogs (Sachi's husband was not happy with us wanting to take them with us later that same day--he would have preferred we waited until Tuesday to pick them up so as to ensure not damaging wet clay figures on the drive back to Chatan...), we ate at "Pizza & Sky" for lunch. It is really close--about a 5 minute drive.
The trip up to Sachi's Antiques is about 75 minutes long--even if you take the expressway--so if you bring the kiddoes, you are in for a very long day...I don't recommend you bring them!
You will need to call ahead 24 hours in advance to reserve a spot, so when you call her, make sure to let Sachi know what color clay your would like to use! I didn't articulate that very well over the phone--we had asked for red, but when we got there, yellow was already set out. Despite the change, they still turned out super!

3 comments:

CJF said...

Now that is cool! We'll have to do that before we leave. We really liked the pizza place. The drive up there was a bit difficult because at that time we had our fat blue car.

MeleFamily said...

i never even knew about that place looks like a ton of fun!!!

APartyStudio said...

That is awesome you got to make a shishi dog- plus, they all came out great!!!! That is a great memento!