Woven Shibori

I've tried to weave Woven Shibori for first time.  I was amazed at the idea of this weave.  I love traditional Japanese shibori fabric.  But I never thought you could weave the tread to resist dye into fabric.  I was very curious if this method or anything similar is known in Japan.  I asked the director at Shibori museum when I visited Kyoto, and he told me that there was similar method called "Taiten Shibori" which actually is mentioned in Catharine Ellis's "Woven Shibori" book.

How the fabric is folded after gathering the fabric is really interesting .  It reminded me of paper folding in a way.  The folds come to 2 sides of the fabric and I used different colors to dye it, and here it is.  It's very interesting looking.  I loved it!

So I realized it is very different from Japanese fabric Shibori technique.  You can use the thread to resist dye, but I found it more interesting to use the thread to make pattern for folding.

I made pillow cases with the fabric I weaved and dyed.  I love how the mathematical shibori pattern becomes organic after dying.  

Colors of spring.....  It seems like spring has already arrived, but it's cold today.

New Year in Japanese style

Happy New Year!

We celebrate New Year in Japanese style every year.  I've been doing it since I came to the US with my husband.  It became tradition to our family now.  We like the calmness of Japanese New Year.  I work in the kitchen practically all day on the New Year's Eve.  But I must do this.  It's like a renewal of my will to spend time and effort as much as needed to make something nice, to develop skills to make something that makes loved ones happy, to be creative, and so on.  

So it's a ritual that I have to go through every year.

Therefore, I couldn't leave my American husband and American daughter until the New Years day is over to visit my parents in Yokohama.  It's a kind of funny that I couldn't make it to have New Year day in Japan because I had to do Japanese New Year in East TN.

But I was able to catch the trail of Japanese New Year in Kyoto.

I wasn't expecting this, but those New Year arrangements are supposed to be displayed until 7th.  So I saw lots of beautiful arrangements.  My mother was surprised how sophisticated the arrangements in Kyoto were.  The style is different from Tokyo.

Kyoto is such a popular place and I almost feel ashamed to visit.  But I must admit that it's so beautiful.  Well, if you only saw the beautiful pictures of the traditional looking Kyoto and visit there, you will be surprised at how modern Kyoto is.  Less crowded than Tokyo, but still pretty crowded.  Some temples are too crowded to feel the tranquility, some are too busy with street vendors.  

But you can find the calmness somewhere.  A corner in a shrine, back street, temples that are far form the main part of the city, etc.

One of the biggest reason that I love visiting Kyoto is that everything is tasty there.  The restaurants in the station building, tiny noodle shop in the back street, vendors in a market, not to mention fancy traditional restaurants.

It is obvious that food are made with a great care.  It probably take long time and good ingredients to even make a broth for the base.  

It must be the culture and tradition in the old city.  I admire that so much.

My interest in Kyoto grew once I started to study Fiber Art.  I always loved Kimono fabric, but now I am interested in how they are made.  

I visited Shibori museum and Museum of Traditional Crafts.  I just love the craftsmanship that goes into the beautiful works.  The skill is unbelievable.  

But sadly, they are endangered.  Those products cost so much because of the intensive labor yet those traditional crafts are not part of modern westernized life.  So only handful of people can afford it.  It doesn't bring enough money to the craftsman to sustain their living.  Young people are not attracted to be one of them.

I've heard about that everywhere I went.  Even taxi driver was mentioning that.  It is sad but it is true. I wouldn't pay thousands of dollars for Kimono even it's beautiful because I don't need it.

Kyoto amazed me with its desire to create tasteful and beautiful things, and the skills and the amount of time that go behind the things they produce.  I always wished that I had born in the past to be a craftsman, but it's still going on there.  That makes me feel so happy.

Yet Kyoto left me feeling sad.  The tradition and skill is rapidly disappearing.

But I was inspired by it.  I will continue learn and incorporate the inspirations into my creation.

So visiting Kyoto was reassurance of my New Year hope.   I will try making this year meaningful.

Sleeping Beauty Ballet Craft Class (How to make a tissue flower)

When I was still back in North, I had a chance to teach a class for young ballerinas.  Not a dance class. A craft class.  I worked as a costumer, so a little craft is my cup of tea.
The summer ballet camps for young children usually include arts and craft class since they need a break from dancing.  But lots of times it is just to color the printed out ballerina pictures or putting stickers on the paper dolls.  I wanted to teach something about ballet along with the crafts they enjoy.  So I made the session into Ballet Craft Class.
I would tell the stories of the ballet.  Everybody, especially young children know the stories of Sleeping Beauty or Cinderella.  But what they know is usually Disney version or fairy tale version.  The story lines for the ballets are a little different.  I would bring in the pictures of stages, and describe how the stories go act to act.
I had realized how messy the gluing with preschoolers can get, I was always thinking about something that doesn't require glue.  The little dancers are so anxious to try on the headpieces or wings that they just finished and some end up with very sticky hair or leotards.  I needed to avoid that.
For the ballet Sleeping Beauty, I picked a rose for Act 1's climax, Rose adagio.  I made these flowers as a preschooler and I know it's not messy!  I can talk about very important part of the ballet, too.  The principal dancer has to be on her toe while the 4 prices give her rose one by one.  It's extremely difficult position to sustain.  It's so beautiful though.

Here is how to make the flower:

Now all the little ballerina has a rose.

Wrapping the little cakes

I baked brownies because my daughter was going on a small trip with her friend's family.  I wanted to give them something to eat on the road.  

If it was for us to bring along, I'd just put them in a tupperware.  But that's not cute nor inviting.  

When I bake, I do everything from scratch and spend good amount of time, so I want to make sure that will be eaten.  Therefore, I'd like to present the goods more nicely.

Recently when I brought mini cakes to friend's house, I used a basket form farmer's market.  Whoever picked the bluish green for the basket has a great sense in colors.  Colors of fruits stand out so well against the green.  My mini cakes had red and purple form raspberries and blackberries, I thought it was great box to use.

I wrapped the whole thing with wax paper and a ribbon.  It was ready to be a little gift.  

I like show what's inside.  Because it feels more casual.  It's not a fancy present so it shouldn't be so pretentious.

I wished if I had the box.  That could be thrown away easily and nice looking.  But farmers usually recycle them, so I rarely get to have them.  

I wanted to put the brownies in a open box so it's easy to grab and also visible.  But I wanted the brownies individually wrapped, so if they don't eat some of them, they still keep.  And the box has to be something disposable do they don't need to worry about returning it to me.

So I decided to make a basket with a brown paper bag.  I wrapped the brownies with wax paper and cooking string.  It's not too fancy but more inviting than plastic wrap.

This is how: