Season's Greetings... Spring.

Here are some Etegami that I made in class a few days ago.

Kabocha

Pansy in UW colors.

Stock Flower

My Etegami Sensei bought a little Etegami Starter kit for me over the weekend.  She brought it to class  so that I can keep illustrating/painting at home.  I appreciate her thoughtfulness so much.  The dry wintery air has cracked my "C" Hankou that Sensei made for me last month, so I finished my postcards from class with a new Hankou (signature stamp) that I made today.  It's nice to have my print making tools with me and not in long term storage!

A lovely lady, Carole Marshall, from an online Etegami group that I recently joined is having an exhibition of her Etegami works at a hospital in Australia.  She invited the members of the group to join the exhibition by mailing some spring themed post cards to her.  Today I painted this camellia with my new kit for the exhibition.  It is my first Etegami I've created outside of class. :)

Camellia "Spring has arrived" 

There are signs of spring all over the place, but it's still chilly when the wind blows.  I should get started on that Kabocha soup, pronto!

xoxo
Char

Washi Crafts

Detail of the Washi paper I chose for my projects.

8 Sided box from January 19th

Table Organizer from March 1st (Rabbit Rabbit)

Acorn charm also from March 1st.

Here at Atsugi Base there is a wonderful Non Profit Organization called AESA (Atsugi Enlisted Spouse Association) that sponsors a weekly Washi Craft Class that is free to all of the attendees.  After participating in a washi class in January, I decided to become a member of AESA in support of all the wonderful ways this organization contributes to our community.

In Washi Class yesterday, we made a table organizer.  I was thinking it would be a cute organizer for people who wear make-up.  I can just imagine various brushes, pencils, liners, and eyelash curlers in it.  For me, it's more realistic that I'll be using it for my ridiculous amounts of pens and art supplies.  Oh, and these boxes are made of milk cartons!

Last night, at the monthly AESA General Meeting, the Washi Class teacher Mickey-san came to lead a special activity and we learned how to make these beautiful charms!  We had a choice to make an acorn or a shell, and I chose to make an acorn.  All you need is beautiful thread, glue, something to wrap the thread around, and some patience.  I am now proud to be a charm clad cell phone owner.

xoxo
happy community
Char

Etegami by the Sea

A sampling of some finished pieces. 

sumi

watercolors

a tissue and some turnip greens

After participating in etegami class last week I was invited to attend a different group out on town by my sensei, Shoko.  I spent a wonderful Friday afternoon with a nice group of ladies at a lovely little cafe called "Private" where we chit chatted and made Japanese folk-art.  

Our subjects were turnips, a lily, and a yellow bell pepper. 

Below are the 2 drawings I made.  

I chose to draw the turnip and the lily since I drew a green bell pepper last week.  

"The turnip's tail" 

Lily of Chigasaki

I love this style of drawing.  There are no rough drafts, and there are no such things as mistakes.  3 simple elements to make etegami are: the line, the message, and color.   The lines are full of energy and movement, however it is a slow process.  We were instructed to draw 1mm per second.  We also give up a majority of our control of the evenness and thickness of the lines by the way we hold the paintbrush. The paintbrush is held vertically with just your index finger, middle finger, and thumb grasping the end of the brush. As you draw, you keep the brush as perpendicular to the paper as possible.   There were a lot of shaky arms.  The message is written from right to left and might not have anything to do with the image you created.  The message might be a simple greeting, a poem, or just a statement on how you feel.  There really aren't rigid rules to this art-form.  Coloring is a much faster process; load up the rounded brushes* with pigment and dab away making sure to leave some white.

I finished my etegami with a little hankou (signature stamp) that Shoko sensei carved for me.  She also sent me home with some homemade madeleine cookies and a case to keep our received and unsent postcards in.  I love Japanese culture of hospitality and kindness.  It's something I'm looking forward to bringing back to the states, along with etegami.

xoxo
Char



*I'll be sure to get a shot of the 3 different brushes next time.

Cultural Arts

I've been really excited about all the art classes that are available here at the Atsugi base.  This is a sampling of the classes I've taken over the last month.  I'm really excited about continuing some of these while I'm in Japan and beyond!

SHODO

This is the art of Japanese calligraphy.   These are the practice sheets spread across my living room floor.  The characters I was practicing are SEIKOU, which means success, in honor of my husband's first full marathon later this month and some new years words like TAKO which means "kite".

IKEBANA

Ikebana is the Japanese art of flower arranging.  This arrangement was made in the MORIBANA style out of camellia, carnations, and a red branch which I don't know the name of.  

red branch detail

 CHIGIRIE

 Chigirie is the Japanese art of torn paper collage made out of WASHI paper and a rice glue.

 This festive image I made is of white and pink plum (UME) blossoms. 

 The  details above and below show the fibers of the washi paper.

ETEGAMI

"this is a pepper"

Etegami breaks down to: E = pictures and TEGAMI = letter/message.  It is a Japanese folk-art consisting of a simple hand painted drawing with a few (very few in my case) words.  My very first etegami is this bell pepper, and my second etegami creation is this yellow and orange tulip that is fully bloomed.

"spring"

I love Japan. 

xoxo

Char

Happy 2012

Here is a little pencil sketch I started yesterday in honor of the "tatsu doshi" (辰年) which is the year of the dragon.  My drawing is of a traditional Japanese dragon.  It has 3 toes vs the Chinese 5 toed and Korean 4 toed counterparts.  I think I'm going to finish him with watercolors and colored pencils.  


Stay tuned for more dragon art.  It's a little bit out of my comfort zone, but after seeing all of the dragon themed New Years greeting cards that my grandmother and aunt received I thought I'd make some artwork inspired by this year's zodiac sign.  Medieval dragons to come too!




Happy New Year!
xoxo 
Char