Also, hi 💛. I wanted to see if blondes really do have more fun ... 🙈🙈😘
I love getting creative with my hairstyles too! Updating my hair always makes me feel fresh. It's almost summer and I wanted to go lighter 🌞 but I love experimenting with all sorts of colors and lengths.
Let me know what you think of my hair update by telling me in my messages!!! Write to me 😘 I love hearing from you and I have so many new fun surprises to show you. Let's see how creative we can get together ... 🥰❤️
I used to fantasize about being a book conservator. I loved the idea of bringing books back to life and repairing them.
But now, I just like to make books for fun. It's been a while since I've made books!
I got so consumed by the process the other day, I forgot to take pics until this moment! I was constructing a book cover for a journal. This is what it looks like before I attach the paper to it. Is this what you imagined the inside of a book cover looks like? Would you be interested in deconstructing a book together? 😚
It's been a little busy over here, but I'm still finding time to craft whenever I get a chance. I moved into a new studio so I'm still adjusting but excited to make even more crafts together!
Have you ever made a book before? It's one of my favorite types of crafting. Here I am working on some bookbinding...
It's some of my favorite things as charms hung on a bow of rope! I made 2 versions, this version is a "noren" (a Japanese style curtain or divider). The black parts I used to paint in are painted with pine soot, which is the burnt carbon from pine wood.
On another version, I turned it into a handmade hanten (winter coat)! I'm gonna share that next :-)
In order for the indigo dye to stay on the fabric, it needs to be "oxidized" in between each dip. This means the indigo needs to be exposed to air and adhere to oxygen molecules to breathe the blue into it. Indigo first appears green when it comes out of the vat, but then it changes to blue as it gets exposed to more oxygen.
After each dip, I allow the fabric to oxidize for the same amount of time I put it in the vat for. So let's say I dip it for 4 minutes, then I also need to leave it out in the air for 4 minutes before putting it back in to achieve a deeper shade of indigo.
Here is the fabric up close and drying on the stretchers. The rice paste is still on, and I will soon show you what it looks like when it gets washed off! 💙
Once the rice paste is applied and dried, it gets stretched out with bamboo called "Shinshi". The Shinshi keeps the fabric stretched so when the fabric goes into the dye vat, the rice paste does not stick to itself. If the wet rice paste sticks on to itself, the design will get ruined!
After about 3 dips in the vat, the fabric needs to rest and the rice paste needs to dry. It can only get so hydrated before it starts to fall off. I needed to do about 4 more dips to achieve an even darker shade of indigo, so I hung the fabric to rest before working on the next layer.
This is a printing technique called “Katazome”. Using handmade rice paste, and printing through a hand cut stencil and allowing the rice paste to dry, I am able to dip the fabric in indigo dye and keep the printed parts white. It acts as a resist and creates so many design possibilities! Think of it as screen printing but with rice paste.
This process is extremely labor intensive and a true labor of love. The rice paste is created by a 1:1 ratio of rice flour and rice bran, and steamed for 2 hours, then mixed to form a smooth peanut butter like consistency.
Cutting the stencil is also tedious! It took me a couple of full days to cut the whole thing.
It’s all worth it in the end when I get to the final stage. 💙
It's been so gloomy in LA lately, and gloomy weather usually makes me so nostalgic. Today I am missing Japan. It was an honor for me last fall to apprentice under and Indigo master. I will go into further detail about what I learned and did in upcoming posts, but here are some snippets. I learned how to make a fermented indigo vat, rice paste printing, and shibori dyeing. I miss it so much, that experience really fueled my passion for the craft of indigo dyeing. It's a huge reason why I want to get better at my craft. 🩵💙🩵💙
It’s a collage of cut paper of one of ny favorite mascots, the Milky girl aka Peko chan from the Fujiya candy company! It’s my favorite candy and she’s so cute. I used washi paper, it’s lightweight and strong and perfect for kites.
This kite flies really well. The long tail and paper on the sides gives it good balance :-)
I can’t even believe how quickly time is flying. Summer is approaching so soon! My poppies already have gone to seed! 😭 Here is what it looks like to harvest the poppy seeds, it’s so cool, it comes out of the pod by shaking it :-) I want to bake with them!
Working outside is my favorite way to work 💖 So much gardening to do! After gardening, I went to the nursery today. I think I want to get the ginkgo plant and I bet I could make some cool prints with those. The Japanese red maple is on my wishlist. ❤️ I’ve wanted that tree for sooo long! The deep red leaves are so beautiful.
Indigo paper I handmade and dyed using hemp a while ago 💙
Even though it’s just paper, I feel so precious about it. But I think it’s time for me to finally use it… what should it be? I’m thinking of making a book perhaps. 📖
This is a type of dye style called “shibori” — it means “under tension” in Japanese. It’s a style I learned from reading books. The fabric gets tied or sewn in a certain way to make designs, then gets dyed, and the threads get removed to reveal the design underneath!
Watch this space to see the design I made :-) This is the piece after it’s been dyed seven times in indigo.
I will wear my favorite clothes until they turn to dust. My favorite pair of jeans had a hole in them and I patched it up with some indigo fabric. I’m very inspired by the Boro fabrics of Japan and how they patch their textiles as an act of preservation and care.
It’s easy to do - I only needed a scrap piece of fabric, needle, thread, and a darning hoop. There’s no rhyme or reason to any type of stitching it’s pretty free flowing. I love how meditative it is!
I think it also adds a lot of charm and character to the textile. I can’t wait to keep wearing these pants forever 💙
Here is some cotton I dyed to show the range of indigo. It starts off as a really light blue, and to get to the more darker shades, I have to increase the number of dips I do along with the length of time. Indigo is a cumulative dye! It takes up to 12 five minute dips to achieve that midnight blue.
Some indigo leaves I dried over the weekend after I harvested them. Some have more pigment in them than the others, I need to give them more nitrogen! The leaves turning from green to blue never ceases to amaze me.
I am going to try and do 4 big harvests this year. I need to collect as much indigo as I can to make indigo dye this fall!
I found this gorgeous creature at the beach today! It’s called a “by-the-wind Sailor” or a “Velella”
They were everywhere on the shore! So beautiful. I think it’s a type of jellyfish. 🪼 and a really gorgeous shade of indigo! It really inspired me to want to make a kite that looks like it. :-) 🪁
I’m going to show you how to make a super easy, quick, cost effective (both environmental costs & economic costs) seedling pot! 🌱
These seedling pots are my favorite because they are biodegradable and durable. I used to make these when I was little using newspaper. However, newspaper is a lot harder to come by these days (thanks technology!) plus it contains inks and sometimes harsh chemicals which aren’t good for the soil. So now, you can make these using brown kraft paper, which is a pretty common material used in packing for our online deliveries. Plus, it’s a carbon rich source! Plants love it.
I used some packing material I found in one of my deliveries. I found a couple scraps of 2x4 wood and taped it together to make a square. Then I got my packing material, folded it in half, and cut it to 18” lengthwise. I wrapped the paper around the piece of wood leaving a 2” overhang. The 2” overhang gets tucked in, like wrapping a present. I slide the paper off, then simply fold the paper in on itself, creating an upper lip. Finally, I fill it with soil and put a couple of seedlings inside!
I started way too many basil seeds, so I’m making more pots to give away to friends to spread the love 💚 I love making pesto!
What I love about these pots is how durable and biodegradable they are. These pots can be sowed directly into the ground because as the paper gets wet, it will help the roots to penetrate through the paper and grow. And the material will decompose and become part of the soil. 🤎💚
Turned some art I didn’t like into envelopes. I like seeing something get turned into a new thing and being repurposed! Before you throw something away, why not give it new life by turning it into something else?
I like having these handmade envelopes on hand in case I need to write a thank you note or anything! ✉️ These handmade envelopes feel so special. Maybe I’ll made a video about how to make these? 🩵
Did you know that 1 tablespoon of soil has more organisms in it than there are people on earth?
For some reason, this fact always pops into my head whenever I put my hands in dirt. It feels magical to think about what’s in the palm of my hands ✨
Today I transplanted some of my lettuce and basil seedlings. Some of them I lost to grasshoppers 😭 (they are my garden enemies…always eating my plants). In addition to growing dye plants, I am trying to grow more organic produce as well :-) It feels really cool to grow food!
I mixed some of the worm castings into their new pots and homes! It feels good to amend the soil with my home made fertilizer made with help from worms and compost. Circular life ♻️
Another fun fact: An earthworm can digest its own weight in soil every 24 hours. 50% of the earth's soil passes through earthworms guts each year. Thank you worms!!! 🪱
Also, check out how big some of my indigo has gotten since my last post! 💙
Are you a sentimental freak like me? Do you like perserving the ethereal?
Well, then I highly recommend you get into flower pressing! It’s a very simple craft to do. Simply put your flower (make sure it’s not toooooo thick) in between a sheet of paper and some boards. You can use a stack of heavy books. Anything that is flat and heavy. Make sure the flowers go in between paper though—you don’t want it to stick to the surface of your boards or books.
I usually set and forget it. It takes about 3 days to reach flatness. I like adding flowers when I write letters to friends or to decorate things. Endless possibilities! Sometimes it’s just fun to see what you end up with :-) from 3D to 2D!
To make my drawing medium I used in the drawing below, I used a combination of deer horn glue and pine soot.
The deer horn glue has a gelatinous consistency and needs to be watered down with hot water. I use a 1:1 ratio of hot water to glue. Then I get the pine soot (comes in a powdered form, very similar to charcoal) and add a teaspoon of that to my pestle and mortar. I mix it up and get rid of all the clumps. Then I dab a little bit onto a smaller plate and use that to draw with.
