Making Time

2006 is dog year in Japan. Japan is big on dogs anyway, but the fact that it is the year of the dog, only heightens this. Since I’m planning on selling in Japan, I think it might be wise to try to make some dogs. Let me say firstly, I LOVE dogs (let me tell you about the time i was involved in a large scale rescue of street dogs in Taiwan with this amazing young woman). So this is not all conniving market research. OK, it is conniving!

I feel like monkeys, bunnies, and kitties are a focus, and see very few dogs in crafting. Maybe I haven’t been looking for it up until now?
I found this brilliant book called “Mame Wanko”. (pub 2001)

Japanese language point: Mame means ‘bean’ and wanko is a cute name for a dog (not an epithet as it may sound in English!) Inu is the Japanese word for dog, and wan-wan is the sound they make. Ko is ‘child’ so that is why ‘wanko’ is a cute name for a dog!

Mamegurumi まめぐるみ may sound familiar. You may have heard of Amigurumi あみぐるみ (stuffed animals made from crochet or knitting) and Nuigurumi ぬいぐうみ (stuffed animals made from fabric). Mamegurumi means “Stuffed animal as small as a bean or smaller“(!) Bah! You can add this to your mini-festish list.

The patterns are relatively simple, the instructions are in line drawings, not photos. I like photo-instructions, alas. The beginning of the book shows them posing with dogs bowls, dog baskets. All very small. The dogs are around 6cm ’small’ it says. Among the materials, these dogs use 3-5mm thick viscose, and 1cm thick mohair for the shaggier dogs.

Drawn from real dogs

These are not only recognisable breeds, they are modeled after dogs the author knows.

I really like realistic looking stuffed animals, and I think that is also why this book appeals to me. I love the old Steiff bears and bunnies* which look like they are based on the actual animal. I started a few animals based on my photos and sketches, but for some reason, I’ve fallen into making anthropomorphosized (phew) toy animals. They have heads, long legs, and proportions of a doll. (Except for the walrus, since you can’t really do that with a Walrus (^_^) )

Need more Mamegurumi?

• This page shows dogs a crafter made next to a 500 Yen coin, which is a little over 2cm wide, or 1 inch.
• This crafter posed her pups outside in the flowies. I love to see them outside, drawfed by leaves.
• This page shows more related books, and images from magazine articles!
• Oh! I did a search in english, and see that Looby Lu did one in ‘04; Maitreya at Craftlog did one; and another one in velvet
  Crafting Japanese shows another book on mamewanko which came out in 2002.
• (opening a can of worms here, have to get offline asap…)
• There’s a more images from the book on FLickr. Like Wisecraft’s.
• ok! Enough of research, must get offline!
• OK Just ONE more link to the generous Crafty McGee, who shares lots of pages from the other book on mamewanko.

footnote: Steiff is great but 8000+USD? check out this doozy wow!

Last Friday, I did my first Illustration Friday: Simple. I didn’t realize I was a week behind until after the fact. Alas. Here’s my second Illustration Friday picture.

It is of Levi Fuller, a very talented singer/songwriter, and he just happens to be singing his “Wedding Song” he wrote for my friend. He performed this at a show the night before their wedding. The birds are from a photo I took in Prague when I travelled there ‘all by my elf’ as my niece says. On the cover of his upcoming album, he has birds, so this reminded me of him. Plug for Levi: He puts out a song quarterly from various musicians in Seattle called “Ball of Wax“. It’s v good!

This was done in Photoshop, and I used a bunch of different methods to get this effect. The main thing is to adjust brightness and contrast in order to balance the image first; then posterize down to two colors, then use the Stamp filter. I tried using the stamp filter alone, but it comes out looking like an old photocopy. And if you have it too dark it loses the details. In the end, I kept him really big so it looked ‘louder’.

This is style, and I’m Elsa Klench. Reporting on the design worlds of fashion, beauty and decorating.

(At 12 yrs old, I felt like the only one who cultishly watched and video-taped Style with Elsa Klench every weekend on CNN.) Anywho! I’m trying to develop my aesthetic here, and I want to start taking notes about style, and development of my own aesthetic. I’m trying to figure out what belongs in there, and what doesn’t. I’ll post pics of products I buy, or pics from books/magazines, etc.

Today’s Style File: Giving into the cute.

Before coming to Japan I would not have purchased a mushroom lamp. I would not have planned to decorate my kitchen ‘a la Decole’. And I would not have bought Peko-chan candy just for beauty of the containers. (Em.. there’s *only* five in all).

But I find myself these days, giving into the cute. There is something perfectly attractive about it. It is built for the consumerist culture here in Japan, where leisure time is spent shopping offering acres of new trends and models and types of everything you want.

When I first arrived, Ronan gave me Chip and Dale slippers: I said they were looking up at me and mocking me, I dramatically refused to wear them. I was only going to shop at the solid-coloured grey and beige MUJI (where even the stuffed animals have no faces).

But now, I find myself unable to resist the cute. I think I had gone in to look at this mushroom lamp about 5-6 times before I bought it. I sent Himself a text message: “Do you think you could live with a mushroom lamp?” He suspiciously texted back “I guess so…” By that time I was already on my way home with the lamp.

So I’m going to try and keep it contained in my dream Decole kitchen. I promised I would not do anything ‘cute’ in the bedroom. But then I found this little Decole ring-toss game. Which quite handily holds my hair bobbins.

Ancient Japanese Cuteness

In essay on Cute Culture in Eye Magazine a few years ago, the writer deftly made the relationship between the ubiquitously cute mascots and ancient Japanese culture. If you can get your hands on the magazine:

From Eye Magazine: Issue 44 | Cute culture
In an essay full of cute things to look at, Miki Kato explains how the Japanese mania for cute mascots is rooted in traditional aesthetics associated with Japanese art and nature

Kawaii, the Japanese term roughly translated as ‘cute’ has an etymological history tracing it back to helpless, and pitiful. If you think of the pigeon-toed walk you see many Japanese women affect… I heard they walk this way because it looks ‘kawaii’ and attractive. It also makes it incredibly awkward to walk (helpless). This affectation is a remainder from when women minced about in kimonos; shuffling with small steps, and toes pointed in (to keep the kimono from opening.)

So there are roots in ancient culture of the cuteness.

As well, everything seems to have a spirit or character. I laughed when I saw Ronan had bought a futon beater with the face of a panda bear. Why does everything seem to have a face or a character? Just about every shop and service which seems to have it’s own cartoon character. The firestation has a cartoon monkey mascot painted on the doors. For a westerner, it might make one doubt their seriousness. But not so here. Everything needs a mascot. (I’ll get some pics of this asap!)

You’ll notice everyone has a selection of identity-bearing cute mascots on their keitai (mobile phones). These mascots and characters apparently have roots in Shinto (I need to read up more about this).

So I’m fascinated by the Japanese cuteness too, and sort of swept away in it. I’m not about to go mincing and shuffling about, but I think after all, it is an important part of the culture, and I should try and understand it better.

I must go shopping soon to do some cultural research.

I learned a new Japanese word today: minimini (written in Romaji, or roman-letters). Ah… the fetish of the tiny.

Molly Chicken said she planned on making a one-inch bear, and then saw someone making 1cm bears at Totona-mei There will always be someone tinier than you.

When I was little, I loved miniature things. I was always surprised, at antique and teddy bear shows, that the smaller they were the more expensive they were. There was a size to where it was more difficult to make, and then, more expensive, and then, more covetable. Ooo… Those miniature teddy bears (google search).

In the US, Georgie: miniature teddy bear artist offers a free pattern, and hints and tips for making the minimini of your dreams.

The Japanese minimini: miniature bears

There’s a big thing in Japan for teddy-bear making. I was surprised to see so many supplies and books for traditional western-style teddy bear making. It seemed so “eighties”…But these Japanese-style bears are something different, with their proportions, etc. Very particularly Japanese. Great fusion of western craft and asian style.

The Japanese style mini bears are tiny, their eyes are along their jawline, and their heads are huge, with tiny arms and legs. Pictures of small bears for sale at Zakka-Minimini show these kinds of bears holding small props, or seated on miniature furniture. (Tangent: also check out felt-covered house-boxes.)

I’ve tried making a small bear like this, but the proportions came out much longer, the head much smaller. I seem to have a style that I can’t shake.

The famous Anano bears are sold on Japanese Yahoo for 300-800 USD (I saw this in a comment at Wee Wonderfuls)

Charms - the shop there shows lots of sold out ones. I wonder how much these went for?

Honeydrops - miniature teddy bears link in gallery.

I found lots of links by searching for combinations of:

• minimini あみぐるみ (amigurumi-  crocheted)
• minimini ぬいぐるみ (nuigurumi- sewn)

Then I got kinda lost in the miniature madness of it all!

Craftivism: “based on the idea that activism + craft = craftivism. That each time you participate in crafting you are making a difference, whether it’s fighting against useless materialism or making items for charity or something betwixt and between.

I’d like to believe that, but part of me knows that *someone is making the yarn*. And another part of me knows that making nice things is filling up the world with more stuff. It’s a moral quandry.

My Moral Quandry with Making Things

I did fine art, and focused mainly on sculpture. I am quite far removed from my studio practice at this point. I had a problem with making more “things”; the work got smaller and smaller. I had issues with storage, so the work incorporated boxes. And I had issues with making more things, so I started using only found objects. And the work got smaller and smaller, until finally, it disappeared. One of the last things I made consisted of a small googly eye on the head of a pin. It was laughing at me. And then it just stopped. I didn’t see the sense in it.

Of course, I have residual urges to ‘make’ and find I always must be ‘making’ something. Right now, making crafts in semi-traditional forms is fufilling that drive to make, though, I don’t *quite* understand the origin of the urge.

At least do no harm

I’m inspired by the concept of “craftivism”, though I’m intially skeptical. How can making things, make a difference? A great example is at microRevolt “logo knits - a project and protest against sweatshop labour”, where the artist Cat Mazza is suggesting we can make a difference by co-opting logos, and hand-making them. Check out the cool “knitpro” which converts images into knitting patterns:

Stitch size [grid proportions in knitPro ]
Needlepoint, Cross Stitch, Crochet (1:1)
Knit Portrait (5:7)
Knit Landscape (7:5)

The links section at Microrevolt is great, it’s got links to alterative, political and subversive crafts, and anti-sweatshop sites. The blog is a reBlog: re-posting links she finds on other people’s blogs, giving credit to source. Excellent links, and frequent thoughtful posts collected there. (The reBlog concept is from Eyebeam.org, where Cat Mazza was guest reBlogger).

That blog is where I found Anti-factory. The clothes at anti-factory are incredibly beautiful; recycled, repurposed, and full anti-factory. it makes me want to hack my entire wardrobe up. of course, that would result in a pile of fabric scraps, and not these gorgeous clothes.

I didn’t think this needs a pattern. But you need a meter long peice of fabric, (width about 26cm, with about 1cm each side for sewing), a length of elastic, and a fabric marker. I also made a handle about 2cm wide, and 15cm long. If you haven’t seen these, they have an opening at the top (you push the bags in); and an elasticated opening at the bottom (you pull the bags out.)

In Ireland, we have the plastic bag tax, and dutifully, we use sturdy life-long bags. Gone are the days of plastic-bag pile up. But here in Japan, they give you a ridiculous amount of plastic bags! It drives me batty. I knew we needed one of those long ‘plastic bag dispensers’. It was urgent. We were drowning in plastic bags.
The only fabric I had long enough was a length of brown. So I sewed it up into a tube, and put some elastic at the bottom. When I realized: it looked like a gigantic POO! A big long brown tube which looks like poo is not going to be attractive in the kitchen.

Ronan suggested that it should be a log- and we had only to draw some bark on it. The white fabric marker it makes it look cartoony.

I think it was when I finished this, that I realized I was going to have a Decole kitchen, come hell or highwater.

NB: After I made The Log, I found the pale yellow one on bottom right of picture, at the 100円 shop. Alas! I use that one for smaller bags.

Crafting Japanese? What does it mean? Whipup has links to the main resources on the web for crafting japanese.

Every new generation in the west has re-discovered East Asian culture. And every new Japanese generation has re-interpreted Western culture since the Meiji era when Japan first ‘opened’ up to the West. With the internet, it’s easier to share and get materials from other countries like Japan. (Albeit at a price… 49USD for some common Japanese sketchbooks at a chic-chic shop in NYC ’salvorkiosk’? Eek!)

So it’s hard for me to tell if there is a zeigeist going on, or if I am just caught up in my own generation’s version of re-discovering Japan. Esp. since I’m in the thick of studying Japanese and settling myself in Japan for a little while.

When I first heard the phrase “crafting japanese”, it brought to mind (and too google’s search) images of origami, calligraphy, kokeshi dolls… traditional japanese crafts. More frequently, it is a phrase used in the crafty blog world to mean contemporary Japanese crafts, which overwhelmingly have roots in Western culture or crafts.

Many of the Japanese books and periodicals I drool over are filled with images of a Japanese-interpreted western culture. You can see many images from these books at Craftlog’s Crafting Japanese list, a great resource. Baked goods are often featured in these magazines with recipes- most people don’t own ovens here. Images of rooms, with wooden floors or carpeting; high beds with mattresses and quilts. Rather than tatami rooms, futons and kabutons you’d see in Japan more commonly.

“American country” is a popular theme. I often see Raggedy-Ann and Andy dolls in American folksy patterns, presented as ‘american country’ dolls. French culture, or the suggestion of French culture is also popular. Think tins with French words on them or red cross-stitch with French words on linen. If I were to do one of these patterns out of a Japanese book, am I crafting Japanese, or crafting French?

It’s a cultural moment of reverb and feedback: giving and taking; back and forth. There is an obvious fascination with Japanese products and materials. And in these products and materials you can see Western culture and reinterpreted for Japanese culture. The next thing to see would be Japanese people getting ga-ga for a western version of Japanese culture, but I don’t know that the West has that to offer?

NB: Pages above from Couturier by Felissimo That magazine is more like a catalogue of kits you can buy. But it’s full of inspiring images, and does have a few patterns at the front; and it’s not soo expensive- about 1/3 price of other mooks (periodical books).

I started on this project with grand delusions. Instead of buying nice printed fabric, and sewing a simple hem, and putting up some curtains… I had to try a totally dastardly project: appliqué! And I am truly bad at hand-sewing. As you can see by the shoddy combination of running stitches and appliqué stitch.

My inspiration was from a mook that I got. “idees 2005 vol. 2″. (I have Vol 1, and Vol 3 comes out this april ^__^) I’ve seen this image in a few places, of a small handbag with a little red-riding hood type girl, and a mushroom button-type thing. This is from Flickr posted by Olivita_P
The ISBN and more pics from this book at Crafting Japanese.

So I thought it would be a good design for the kitchen curtains.

And this was the early beginnings.

I was going to have four trees, and mushrooms all over the place. And then I was going to try for the girl. But now, I think it’s going to be one tree and about 7 mushrooms! And probably no girl! This is where I am now, only the left hand panel. That’s OK right?

I wish I would just do things the EASY way. I could have hand-painted these onto the fabric. It would have been loads easier.Actumally, I didn’t even know how to do appliqué until I started on the mushrooms. In this pic, I’m using the card-board, iron and sew technique. It drives me mental to do ‘work’ that no one will see. I have to develop my sense of discipline, or craft-honour. Craft do-jo!

I wanted to join the drawing club at Illustration Friday. I think it might help get me back into drawing!

This is a simple moment of bliss. A drawing of my friend and her son. I did it today from a photo dated in 2001.

This is cool! a monkey-along! “A Monkey Made.”

There is a photo with a whole heck of alot of stuffed monkeys, and a great list of free patterns to the right in sidebar.

I crocheted a monkey last month after being inspired at Monkey Mountain. His joints aren’t exactly articulated, but he has cute buttons at the joints and can make lots of fun gestures. I’d like to make another that had real joints, or was poseable. I think it requires some specialist equipment… hehehe, another trip to the craft shop!

This is モリ Mori! He’s just crying out for a red fez.