Tokyo Project 04

Tokyo Project 01

Today I begin posting a series of photographs taken during my time living in Tokyo between 2001-2007.

As I walked around the city I was endlessly inspired by the many day-to-day things I encountered. I don’t find I have the same experience living in Los Angeles. That’s somewhat due to the driving culture here (I no longer walk from place to place) but of course predominantly it comes down to the difference in society.

The things I found and shot in Tokyo were not what one would immediately think of being ‘typically Japanese’, however there is a certain underlying subtlety and aesthetic in the functional that I have yet to discover here in L.A.. When I first arrived in Tokyo I became paralyzed by the abundance of visual stimulation. After a while though, I couldn’t stop taking photos! A few years later, I was seeing on a different level again, and the subjects I photographed were a little less usual.

With a desire to rediscover my observations once again, here begins ‘Tokyo Project’.

+81 jinbei

Take a look at +81. Keiko made this really lovely tiny jinbei for her new born daughter using some space-to-think fabric. It makes me so happy to see this fabric being so beautifully used. I can’t wait to see it being worn … more pictures to come!

Chair

A couple of weeks ago I found this chair at the Rose Bowl flea market. It’s Danish and made of Walnut. When I bought it, it had a hideous covered seat – dirty pale pink with a faded floral pattern from the ’80’s I suspect. This got me excited … it meant I could reupholster the seat myself, with some of my fabric!

This is the first time I’ve upholstered something. I replaced the old layers of rotting fabric, disintegrating foam, wadding, old staples and masking tape and covered it with one of my space-to-think geometric fabrics.

I’m pleased :-)

Kaleidoscope

Evening shadows

Blooming spoons.

Quick design submission, based on spoons and flowers. Last day to vote on www.spoonflower.com

Mosaic stickers

Tenugui

I’m immersed in thoughts of Japan …all this talk about furoshiki, dreaming of friends in Tokyo while I sleep, and wishing I was there right now for a week of Tokyo summer with my husband on his business trip … I miss it. Still.

It’s been almost two years since we left and seems like a lifetime ago. I must get back there some time, before it just becomes a figment of my imagination!

While we were living in Tokyo I fell in love with tenugui – a short length of printed cotton 33cm x 90cm. The name ‘tenugui’ indicates ‘that for wiping hands’, however it was originally used as a towel when taking a bath, or for covering the head like a scarf. Similar to the versatile furoshiki, tenugui can be used in multiple ways – used to wipe your brow on a humid day, as a kitchen towel, for wrapping, given as a gift, tied as a bandana, used as a handkerchief, or even ripped up into bandages (the edges are left unfinished). Tenugui are still used in everyday life in Japan – on the heads or around the necks of workmen, or in festivals, given as thank you gifts or handed out as promotional pieces for businesses. The uses are endless.

The printed patterns on tenugui immediately seduced me and were the main inspiration behind my initial interest in printed textiles. I’ve always loved the everyday object, the random or not so random array of overlooked details that surround us. When Japans Edo Period (1603-1868) saw the development of popular culture, fine designs based on features of everyday life were created in abundance. Graphic designs depict useful objects, kitchen tools, animals, even grains of rice! Some are simply geometric patterns.

Recently new, more cost effective digital techniques are being used for printing tenugui, but the traditional form of printing tenugui still remains, requiring skilled workmanship. The traditional technique results in a design that beautifully carries through the fabric, so the design appears on both sides.

I collected many tenugui while I was living in Japan. I couldn’t resist them! And of course now is the season for tenugui; during the hot and humid days and summer festivals, you can find different designs in abundance!

Here I’d like to share a few Tenugui that I particularly like from my collection. Some I use regularly, some are kept unused.

Soon, to follow on, I’ll post some material from my experience on a course in Tokyo
printing some tenugui in the traditional way.

Stuff

Morning!

Usual morning; made breakfast, made a lunch box, got us all dressed and out of the house, did the school run, had my coffee, now at last it’s 9:30 and I’m sitting at my desk.

Too many things in my head. Deep breath. One at a time.

Before I know it at 2:30 ‘my’ day will be over and I’ll go through the same routine again, in reverse, without the coffee and replacing the ‘sitting at my desk’ with food-shopping, hoovering, washing or some other domestic obligation.

I have realised I’m not some ‘wonder mum’, as some Mums appear to be. I struggle with this balance of being creative and productive and wanting to be there for my family, everyday.