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.

Tokyo Disneyland

The Mississippi from The Western River Railroad at TKY Disneyland

The Mark Twain Riverboat

The Pacific Ocean lies between me in Japan and my family in America including my 8 year old stepson Sawyer, and my 4 year old nephew Owen (and a three year old niece, Maddie, but this post isn't about her).  This week I had the wonderful opportunity to go on a trip to Tokyo Disneyland, and while I enjoyed this special day of being a big kid, I couldn't help but to think of my little kiddos the whole time.  I think the boys are just at the right age, O almost 5 and S just turning 8, where they would really enjoy the park.  I took a lot of photographs with them in mind, and look forward to going with them to the most fun place on earth in the future.  I drew these 2 Etegami to mail to the boys late last night.  O is a train fanatic, and S who loves everything will probably get a big kick out of a boat named after Mark Twain. Part of Etegami is sending a heartfelt, sincere message, and in this day and age of e-mails and skype (which I'm very much grateful for) I hope they feel the love I'm sending them through the postal service :).

xoxo

Char

Spring Study

This morning I had a lovely breakfast of milk and tea with buttered toast with some homemade marmalade that my Etegami Sensei, Shoko, made and gave to me at our last class on Wednesday.  I decided to commemorate my morning meal and drew an Etegami to send to her as a "thank you".    

Char Solo: Toast, butter, marmalade

 Not being happy with my weird looking toast*, I went on to make a postcard for my mom in a subject matter that I'm more familiar drawing; a violet.  My mom and I share the fascination for plants growing out of seemingly impossible spaces such as cracks in the pavement.  When she was a little girl, she found a violet plant growing in an unusual place, and she pulled it up to replant it at home.  Whenever I see a violet I think of my mom as a little girl, and violets are in full bloom around here. The violet Etegami still doesn't have a caption, but I was thinking of something along the lines of "a lovely reminder..." or "sweetly reminded of you".  I'm sure I'll know once all my supplies are put away!!!

Char Solo: Violet

Below are the 2 Etegami that I made in class this week.  The first one is a weed that grows almost completely hidden in the grass.  I actually chose to draw this over the violet on Wednesday!  I'm glad I did, because I ended up revisiting the whole violet idea today.  The weed "suzume no yari" (I don't know the English name) is drawn on a thin paper that is used for calligraphy and I'll use it as stationery for a letter.  The second one from class is an oversized postcard with a camellia, this too has no caption yet, but I'll think of one eventually!

Class 4/ll:
"It's okay to be tastefully understated."

Class 4/11: Caption-less Camellia

*Here is a very beautiful example of baked goods by an Etegami artist who I admire Dosanko Debbie.  Debbie also just posted a thorough explanation of the Etegami art form on her blog.  I hope everyone checks out both posts.  

XOXO

Char!