Paper Testing

Cool Hand Luke on etegami postcard

Cool Hand Luke and Moby Dick on hand made post card: Japanese Knotweed

Campanula on linen post card

Last week was a busy week.  After shopping trips, airport drives, committee meetings, project days, movie night, lunch dates, and bicycle hunts things have finally slowed down enough for me to post my creations from last week!  These etegami are made on the papers I acquired last week from my shopping trip with Senior.  I bought the linen one (campanula) and the card on top (one fish) at the Yuzawaya art store, but the Japanese Knotweed card was hand made and given to me by my etegami friend Senior.

This is a good time to introduce my new pets Cool Hand Luke and Moby Dick who were given to me for my birthday this year.  They are little minnows, the Japanese name for the variety is called Akahire.  It's funny because the fishes are very hard to distinguish from one another, but one seems to be a lot more comfortable hanging out in the plant (Cool Hand Luke) while the other (Moby Dick) is hungry and always searching for food near the surface of the water.  Tough luck for M.D. because they only get fed once a week. 

xoxo

Char

My day with Elvis

Elvis' origami kite 

Elvis crafting a photo stand of rocks shells and sea glass

shell rose made by Sensei's Darling

Shoko sensei invited me to spend the day with a neat guy who is close to her heart, Elvis.  Elvis, 11, is visiting Japan from Hawaii (well, his grandparents) on his own for the summer and I found out that she has a very creative family.  After a nice lunch on Friday, we went over to Sensei's house and I finally also got to meet her Darling who makes beautiful sculptures out of sea glass and other found objects from the beach.  Elvis and I both made little photo stands, and when I got home, I drew this etegami to mail to Shoko sensei and her lovely family.

My sea glass & shell photo holder

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King of Kindness

シニアー "Senior"

Today I had a wonderful opportunity to go on a shopping and lunch date with my new friend "Senior" who is also known as the King of Kindness by some group members!  We're both in an online etegami group, and he happens to live in Yokohama which is fairly close to where I live.  We went to a store called Yuzawaya to get some etegami supplies, which he brought a 30% off coupon for us to use, and he came with all kind of presents!  I ended up purchasing various postcards, brushes, ink, and a rubber block to carve my own hankou or signature stamp.  

Below are the goodies from Senior which are priceless!

Hand made from Japanese Knotweed

Some stamps Senior carved for me.

Impromptu carving demonstration after lunch.

"し"

So, I showed up with these two etegami that I made last night.  The first one is for Senior's wife.  It says basically "To a beautiful year..." Despite today being her birthday,  I still got to meet up with him for our excursion.  He did pick up a cake from her favorite bakery on his way home <3.  The second one is for Senior, it's an image of a rubber chop saying "It looks right, but it's upside down".  Senior is also famous in our group for his stamp making.

I asked tons questions and received lots of advice about etegami, paper, other supplies, and stamp making. He even gave me an impromptu demonstration of how he makes his stamps.  I love the stylization of his letters, and the variation in thickness of the lines...  what a cool experience!

Campanula 

rubber stamp

xoxo Char

More Marks of Spring

Here are a the etegami that I made in class today.  What a wonderful time of the year.  Different kinds of flowers blooming one after another, and fresh veggies starting to make their appearances here and there.  

Class 5/9: Peapod

Class 5/9: Astilbe

Class 5/9: Carnation

In my etegami class, we all refer to our husbands as "darlings".  Shoko Sensei's darling had planted these pea pods, and harvested them for our class this morning!  The Astilbe and Carnations came from a flower shop, but the pink is so cheerful and very fresh and spring like.

xoxo Char

McNutty and Omar

Char Solo: 4/29
"The wind speaks not more sweetly to the giant oaks than to the least of all the blades of grass..."  from the Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

I've wanted a Marimo "pet" for several years and I finally got one!!!  Marimo are a green algae that grows in a ball shape and can get quite large.  My mom remembers an uncle of hers having a large marimo in a fish tank when she was just a girl.  I learned from Debbie's blog post, that the Ainu (indigenous people of Japan who now only live on Hokkaido) call them "water goblins".  These two algae balls are the perfect addition to my plant "pets".  They're pretty much hassle free and only need a weekly water change...  which is quite effortless since the water doesn't get dirty or smelly from waste (poo).  I debated for a long time what I wanted to name them, and the finally decided on Omar and McNutty after characters from a TV show called The Wire.

Omar and McNutty in their glass home at sunset.