The Value of the Handmade

One of the things I love most about Japan, is the immense variety of handmade crafts that continue to be done here as well as the continued appreciation of them.  I do understand that some of these traditions are not necessarily being handed down to the younger generations.  A few of the artists that I know personally do not have children that want the family business.  Some have assistants that they have trained that will continue the craft.

A few weeks ago was the Arimatsu Shibori Matsuri (festival).  I didn't get to go last year so jumped at the chance to go with our Japanese teacher and her husband this time.  I didn't even know it was scheduled, so I'm so glad they invited us.  Shibori is a type of fabric manipulation used when dyeing fabric.  It was probably handed down from China, but Arimatsu developed it's own style and was set along the Edo trail, which was the road from the capital of Tokyo (Edo) to Kyoto.  Arimatsu has a 400 year tradition of the shibori trade.

The streets and shops were swamped with people buying discounted shibori ready made and fabric yardage.  There were food booths (of course) and craft booths where you could learn several different craft techniques.  It isn't entirely handmade any longer.  Small tools have been developed to make it a less laborous process.

I ended up buying only a handmade and hand dyed linen scarf.  It was dyed with natural ingredients, the green was rosemary, blue was indigo and pink was madder.  Here is a description of madder.  The lovely lady that I bought it from had a henna rinse in her hair.  Ken says that's a "no go" when I mentioned getting a henna rinse myself. I think the scarf is so beautiful.  It has already softened up from wearing it.  

Here are some photos of beautiful fabrics at the festival.

This display was incredibly impossible to photograph.  It was in a gym so there was that distraction, but it was stunning the way the light played off of the fabrics.  

These are coasters I made for Mari's birthday.  They are made from vintage Yukata (summer cotton kimono) fabrics that have patches and stitches and seams.  She was actually with me when I purchased the fabrics over a year ago. Because the fabrics were rustic, I decided to do Sashiko stitches in a heavier weight thread with more of a rustic, primitive feel to them.  I love how they turned out and she did too.  I've learned recently that the traditional Sashiko indigo and white colors were used because it was illegal for commoners to wear bright colors or large ornamentation during the Edo period.  That is why most of the designs are small and the colors are blue and white.  This came from a book with the history of Sashiko that another Mari gave me.  It's called The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook by Susan Briscoe.  

Recently I asked a friend from the UK to teach me how to do EPP (English Paper Piecing).  Another friend joined in and we were taught this lovely piecing technique.  

I made a coaster for myself out of my little flower.  

Since I've been talking about Sashiko, I thought you might like to see how I mended my jeans recently. I used an iron-on patch on the back and then sewed some Sashiko stitches for reinforcement.  This idea is referred to as "visible mending".  Google it and you'll see lots of ideas.  I think it would've been easier if I would have used regular fabric instead of iron on.  That was difficult to stitch through.  But, I did and I read that they will be so strong that the fabric around it will be weaker.  So, we will see how these hold up.  In the mean time, I think they look cool.  Okay, so enough about Shibori and Sashiko for now.  We've had lots of company in June and so I've taken so many sightseeing pictures as well.  Maybe that will be my next post.  Or flowers.  

Our sensei and her husband, Keiko and Akio.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit,

Karen

Documented Life Journal Update

It's been awhile since I showed you my journal pages.  I'm still going strong.  Lining them up like this makes me see a style trend.  There have been some challenges that have taken me out of my norm.  

Week 32 - Add a fortune

I only had two fortunes to work with and this one seemed the most usable. "You are admired for your impeccable tastes.  Give a gift."

Week 33 - Use your underpaper creatively

This was fun and easy.  I simply ripped my underpaper into strips and then put them back together randomly.  I used the fan from my "niece's" wedding as the tip-in. The dragonfly went well and the quote summed it up.  Now that it's October I'm pretty tired of Summer still hanging around.  It's suppose to be up to 99 on Friday.  In case you're wondering, underpaper is the paper under your projects when you are painting.  It gets the overflow of paint and stamps, etc.   

 Week 34 - Fill the page with numbers that relate to your week 

The photobooth pictures were again from the family wedding. This documented some of the fun things I did with my girl when she was visiting.  

 The back of Week 34. I just like pattern girls. 

Week 35 - Draw, sketch, paint or doodle a face  

Ugh.  What a sad, sad face it is.  But, I tried and that's okay.

Week 36 - Use black and white

I didn't think I would like this as much as I did.  I photocopied a "found relative" cabinet card since it was too thick for my book.  I even added a little lace.  I'm living on the wild side!

Week 37 - Use a white pen prominently

This was harder than I thought it would be.  I had to add some shading and wish I would've done the quote differently.  It should've had more prominence.  

Week 38 - Draw or add a feather

I did this one with a little different look than my other pages. I found the feather when shopping at Gilding the Lily in September.  I had no previous plan, but kind of love how it turned out.  

Week 39 - Use drips and splatters

I didn't love this one, but I did it!

The back side of Week 39.

WEEK 40 - Use three colors you never use.

I wasn't all that excited about this one either.  I ended up making it very simple, but I like it a lot.  I never use brown or red and rarely use orange.  It turned out to be perfect for October. 

Thanks for checking these out.  If you want to see some really amazing artists,visit these ladies.  

Hope Wallace Karney,  Rae Missigman, Roben Marie Smith to name just a few.  

Middle School Journaling

A couple of weeks ago, our Mid-High Youth Pastor asked me if I would come and talk to the teens about creative journaling.  She had given them journals at the beginning of the school year, but they needed some inspiration.  She had recently seen my Documented Life Journal and joined the Facebook group herself.  I gathered some materials and thoughts for the night and shared with them last Wednesday.  

                   

Many of them had never thought of adding creativity to their journals.  I talked to them about how to keep thoughts private.  I showed them how they could use photographs.  We talked about all the various materials that could be used.  I encouraged them to "make it their own" and not worry about what someone else does.  Some of them are good artists, some like to write, some may just write lists and some love to take pictures.  I tried to cover as many different interests as I could think of.  I even encouraged the boys who may like to draw cars, superheroes, or sports figures.  

I knew that not all of them would take to it.  It was exciting to see some of them really interested and asking questions.  You can see the big fort they built before I got there.  It was the biggest and most amazing fort I have ever seen.  You could tell they loved it.  I love teenagers.

On Track

I can't say I'm on track with many of my goals these days, but one I have continued to be consistent on is my new art journal venture.  I've told you about this project before but wanted to give you an update.  Here's the progress I've made since my last "show and tell".

 Challenge 8 - Add a flap

I used an old seed packet I found and a favorite picture of my girls.

 Challenge 9 - collage something recycled

I used pieces from download instructions from Claudine Hellmuth's little houses, 

a fruit label, part of a flour label, and magazine letters. 

 Challenge 10 - What Makes Me, Me.  Just doodled.

Challenge 11 - Put a bird on it. 

I used vintage wallpaper and book page, a deli paper birdie and scrapbook paper.

 Challenge 12 - cut up a magazine.

I cut up several fashion girls from a In-Style magazine, glued them onto a painted background.  

It prompted a scripture verse about not going along with the crowd, Romans 12:2

 Challenge 13 - Have someone else draw in your journal and make something out of it. 

My husband draws pretty well, so I asked him to draw something.  Not surprising that it was a picture of the hills and his new bicycle. 

 I wasn't sure what to do with it, so first I painted it with watercolors.

 I decided to add a deli paper overlay and thought it needed a lady watching over him.

Challenge 14- Write your name and embellish it. 

I basically copied someone else's very cool doodles of her name.

Challenge 15 - Monotone

I decided to use pink. 

 I'm not so good at this stuff, but I had fun using a stencil, punchinella, shape stamps and doodling.  

I added the scripture from Philippians 4:19 in white.  

Do you consistently keep an art journal, a prayer journal, or gratitude journal?

Documented Life

I have a new obsession.  I know, I know!  I flit from one to the other.  This time, I hope I'm sticking to it for the next year.  I've joined in with a group on Facebook called The Documented Life Project.  It is a free group, but you have to ask to be in it.  The idea came about when 5 artsy friends spent some time together and admired one of their journals.  It is a combination planner, journal and art journal.  They decided to make it into a project for everyone to participate in. Thus began the Documented Life Project.  Every Saturday the administrators post a challenge and you can choose to participate or not.

The amazing thing is to see how people interpret the challenge as well as all the helpful hints and advice that are given out.  When I joined the group I think there were approximately 355 people in it.  Now it is over 4,200 participants from all over the world.  They are all encouraging each other and giving support in their arty endeavors.

I have a thing for journals.  I buy them and then never complete them.  I have one that I have used to doodle a scripture or inspiring quote during my quiet time.  It has been an on-and-off again attempt.  I wrote in journals some when the girls were growing up.  Most of the time they were my prayers.

This project started on January 1st and is to continue throughout the year.  So far so good, I'm on track! Here are a few pictures of my journal.

We added tabs and fold-ins.  

The fold-in's are the pages where we can art journaling, they are added in using Washi tape.  

 Challenge #1 was to incorporate our front door into a page. My door doesn't photograph very well since it's in the shade.  It's too bad because it's beautiful.  I also fiddled with the photo on Photoshop making it look a little more like a sketch.  Then I actually sketched around it. 

Challenge #2 was to incorporate a selfie and our One Little Word (OLW), if we were doing that as well.  My OLW for 2014 is Choose/Choice.  I also fiddled with my photo again.

This is Challenge #3 - To use mail art.  People used junk mail and envelopes, all kinds of things.  

Can you see the mail on my page?

This is Challenge #4 where we were to write something and cover up most of it.  Well, I did it a little differently because I wanted all of the words to be visible. I loved the quote and was playing with some new art supplies. (I just realized that this is the same quote I used on Challenge 3).  I guess I really liked it a lot.  Geez!!

This was off of another participant's page.  It's called Mind-Mapping and it is a more visual way to make lists.  I kind of liked it.  Although this one wasn't quite right since some of the things were weekly and some were monthly.

I bought some fun watercolor paints with a gift card that my parents gave me for Christmas.  I have a lot to learn regarding painting, that's for sure!!

This cute lady was for Challenge 5 - Doodle a border.  

My border is really simple because I thought it looked better simple. I haven't put this into my book, yet.  I was also learning, via You Tube, how to paint backgrounds with stencils and acrylic paint.  There is so much fun stuff to learn!  

If you've always wanted to try art journaling, check out the Documented Life Project.  

"IT'S YOUR LIFE, DOCUMENT IT"

* I know I need to change my header since it's almost Valentine's and no longer Christmas.  One of these days!  ** Okay, updated with a Valentine header!!