the title says it all. in honor of kazuo ohno, one of the founders of japanese butoh, who passed away this year at the age of 103, the kazuo ohno studio put on a dance festival in yokohama, including a live butoh performance last night.
these are some felt ball ornaments that i made a few years ago. they were very easy to make, and turned out pretty much exactly the way i imagined them (which does not always happen!).
they are solid wool balls, made by hand with the finishing step of throwing them in the dryer, which makes them firm up and become very dense with a uniform surface. sadly, i have no dryer here in japan, so i haven't made these for the last few years. after the wool ball is made (and you can use any wool for the core, a cheaper wool or a color you want to get rid of), i used needle felting to apply the motif. which is super super easy--using a felting needle to needlefelt onto a solid felt ball is a very straightforward technique!
i don't have a tutoral for these, but there is a good basic video tutorial that i referred to when i first tried making large felt balls is here, from the crunchy parent on youtube.
here are a few of my handmade felt ornaments from years back, stockings...
and candy canes! the candy canes are an especially easy project for your very first time making felt. they are wrapped around a pipe cleaner and then felted by hand. super fast, great for kids.
they are put out for people to use to make their own new years cards (in japan, sending new years cards is a very big deal, christmas cards are not). new years cards are postcards, usually featuring a design that incorporates some version of the coming year's zodiac animal (2011 is the year of the rabbit, or usagi in japanese), and some phrase celebrating the new year.
the stamps in the box in this photo include lots of bunnies and also 'happy new year' phrases. what I love is how the post office provides this public (and free) crafting activity! there are black and red stamp pads, rubber mats (dark orange in the photo), tissues and scrap paper for trying out your designs.
how is it already december? anyway, here we go! this is the train i took after work today.
i haven't tried to blog daily for quite a while now, but i was just thinking i'd like to do that again, and also show more photos from my daily life here in japan. and then i saw that nablopomo's theme for december is zeitgeist, which is perfect!
of course, i'll keep posting about crafty artsy and japanese goodies of all kinds. what about you? what kinds of posts would you like to see more of here? i'd love to hear from you in the comments.
kyoto is the fall is one of the top destinations in all of japan. this is because of the brilliant fall foliage of the momiji, or japanese maple. people go 'momiji gari' which basically means 'leaf hunting.' last night i visited Hogon-in Temple, which is a sub-temple of Tenryu-ji in Arashiyama, which was lit up for the occasion. there were also many yummy wintery street snacks that were enjoyed!
last month i brought some of my friend's sourdough starter back to japan, and since then, i've been obsessed with baking sourdough bread.
i am still learning for sure, and each loaf comes out very different. but this one from yesterday is the most pretty so far.
here's just a glimpse of the fabulous new designs added to muji's lego and paper sets this year. this is the ocean set,
the circus set,
and the zoo animals set.
here are a few of my favorites from the setouchi art festival. the first 2 are from the island of ogijima. this one is about water, and one of several scattered site installations.
this is a photo from the above website; i didn't actually see it when it was 'raining'.
the main part of the work is here, where at certain times, water is released from the pipes above, through the assortment of vessels, and only these tiles that are on the ground.
the tiles have statements of the islands' residents comments about water printed on them (in japanese and english).
the onba factory was my other favorite work from ogijima. 'onba' is a local word for stroller/baby carraige, and the elderly residents of this hilly island use small carts to carry things around. the onba factory is a cooperative activity of 5 regional artists, and includes a workspace (they take turns using it) and a cafe with an amazing veiw of the ocean. i may have forgotten to take a photo of the view since i was enjoying some really superb coffee.
it's a little hard to see in the photo, but these are photos of the local residents--with their onbas remade by the onba factory!
each one is totally unique.
i also loved these new wooden onbas for kids-ladybug (wings lift for copious storage) and fly.
these caterpiller mechanisms work when pushed, so it's like a huge bike chain making an inchworm motion.
check out the buggy logo.
seirensho is a stunning site on inushima. a former copper refinery has become an architectural installion and exhibit space. it joins the other museums on naoshima (and now teshima) islands as part of the benesse art site.
it's a beautiful use and modification of an old industrial space, with very thoughful additions of a new building, which incorporates passive heating and cooling in a completely elegant way. it remains open as a museum even after the end of the festival.
finally 'les archives du coeur' by christian boltanski, the official description is here. this is one project that i definitely wanted not to miss! this also will remain as a long term installation. this building is like a small musuem, with exterial walls of charred cedar, a tradition esthetic in the area.
the project is an archive of heartbeats; the main intallation space is a dark room, with mirrors on the walls, and one bare lightbulb. the sounds of one heartbeat (which changes) is played at a greatly amplified volumn, and the light bulb flickers along with the heartbeat.
it's very cleanly curated, with the idea of this being an archive carried throughout, including the white lab coats of all the staff. including the uniform raincoat of this woman who was in charge of organizing the outdoor waiting line. the archive part of the installation is that there are 2 sound recording studios where you can record the sound of your own heartbeat and purchase it on CD; your heartbeat is thereby added to the archive.
there's also a listening station, where you can hear heartbeats from the archive, in this little room with the window (above).
this is the view from the listing room. it's a lovely site, intentionally remote.
here are just a few of the installations from the setouchi art festival.
i liked these fish scuptures--they move!
this wonderful new book is full of teeny tiny needle felted adorableness. not only are the projects super cute, they are also unique--for example: jam jars, a watering can, iron, sewing machine and dressmaker's dummy.
these projects are super small and perfect for beginning needlefelters.
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