Busy busy busy...

After nearly a month of no classes, this week has been quite busy with them!  Monday's Ikebana class was followed by two consecutive days of etegami classes.

The two below are etegami that I made in Chigasaki on Tuesday.  The pink hydrangea says "tsuyu", the word for the "rainy season", which we are just about to enter.

6/12 Hydrangea

The broad bean card says "fudemame" which is a term for someone who writes letters a lot.  The word "mame" means bean also.

6/12 Broad Beans

Yesterday in class, one of the students Mrs. Ito who is 82 years old!!! brought all the other class members these shirt shaped pocket sized tissue covers that her friend had made.  They're made of recycled kimono fabrics.

Pocket sized tissue holder

Today in class, we used a broken chopstick dipped in sumi to draw our etegami.

broken chopstick

I decided to make an etegami of a different tissue holder, to send as a thank you to Mrs. Ito.  The card says "I like this fancy pattern".  Mrs. Ito, though widowed at 55, is still in love and very respectful to her darling. She also likes to accessorize herself and always has a fancy broach, ring, or necklace to show us.  She is active despite her arthritis, along with witty, interesting and open minded despite her age.  Mrs. Ito is a fun lady to know. I feel very grateful to have met her and to be taking a class with her!

6/13 Tissue holder drawn with chopstick

 The second chopstick drawing from class today is this japanese pumpkin or "kabocha".  The words "AMAI" means "sweet".  I love kabocha, it can be eaten so many ways but my favorite are: grilled, pan fried with a warm vinaigrette, tempura, soup, or simmered Japanese style.

6/13 Kabocha drawn with chopstick

 The second activity from class today was to make some splatter post cards.  This was a lot of fun, and as you see I made 4 of them.  I had to stop myself from starting more.

6/13 "AME" - rain 

6/13 "NATSU" - summer 

6/13 "MIZUTAMA" - polka dots

6/13 more splatter 

xoxo

Char

weekend etegami

Houkou Utsugi

Yamabuki

Dokudami

 The problem with painting similar things, is that you might get the subjects in your images confused... and that is exactly what happened to me this weekend.  I drew 3 white flowers from my grandmother's yard, and 2 were pretty similar, especially once they were painted.

The first etegami is of a flower called HOUKOU UTSUGI.  It looks almost like a hibiscus, has four thin crinkled petals, is the size of a ping pong ball, and is very fragrant.  The message says "hello".

The second flower etegami is of another 4 petalled white flower called YAMABUKI.  This flower isn't fragrant, but is similar in size to the first one.  When I was writing the caption, I mistook it flower for the first one and I wrote "You wouldn't know the fragrance just by looking at this...".  Indeed.  I'll just mail it to my mom, and hopefully she'll like it despite the mistake!

The third flower is called DOKUDAMI.  It has a cute little flower about the size of a quarter ($0.25).  The striking thing about this flower is the reddish purple splotches on and around the rim of the leaves.   This plant does not smell good what so ever, but lasts a long time after it's been cut and will not stink up your home.  The message says "Summer has arrived".

Teacup on recycled paper: not so much nijimi

Teacup on higher nijimi iron on: but it doesn't have as much as I like

Teacup on etegami postcard: lots of nijimi, A+

Willow ikebana on postcard with border: again, lots of nijimi A+

These last four postcards were tests on new paper!  New paper again?  Yes, I went on another shopping trip this weekend, this time with my aunt to an art store called Sekaido in Tachikawa.  I was a little disappointed in the lack of nijimi (bleed) in the recycled paper card, and the iron-on because they were labeled as having nijimi.  The iron on tea cup says "tea time".  This might just inspire me to get into paper making on my own... but for now, I'll use up the post cards that I have. Stay tuned!

xoxo
Char

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

Add caption

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