My Birthday

I had a birthday last week. I did not go out of my way to do anything special on my birthday but friends, colleagues and family had other ideas. I went out to 2 lunches, many morning teas and dinner. Not bad for celebrating being a year older! I received birthday presents and some e-cards from distant family and friends. Thanks everyone!

I have been busy as usual. Only 3 more weeks till we leave on our around the world trip. I'm starting to get a bit excited now! 

I did a few batches of dyeing these last weeks. The results are getting better and better, and I don't do anything different from what I did in the past. I'm so thrilled to get rich colours and patterns from my dyed fabric. 

Below are some photos from my birthday, and dyeing results. 

Birthday dinner at Steak Ministry

A selection of art journal supplies from Mel Tan

Knitted cowl-neck and other gifts from my colleagues

Bolgatanga African market baskets from DD Kitiya

Some gorgeous gifts from Myra and Cynthia.
They know I love blue!

One of a kind birthday gifts. Rusty objects from
Geo's daily walks on her farm.

Since Jacky's Create Journal Workshop at my Treehouse Studio, I reshuffled some furniture to make more space in the Treehouse. I can now have up to 6-7 people in a workshop at the Treehouse. I recently acquired a vintage silk houry/kimono from Kazari/Ziguzagu. I have the right spot to display it in the Treehouse, the only wall space available being the wall the BORO cloth was hanging. I took the BORO cloth down and hanged the houry/kimono in its place.

It looks beautiful on the wall. The designs
on this kimono was individually woven.
Finely silk woven. It's so beautiful. 

These two chairs are now replacing the long vintage
bench that was there since I moved into the Treehouse.

Baskets are now overflowing over the bookshelves,
but I love them!

Below are some results from a couple of batches of dyes I did in the last couple of weeks. Some of them are better than others. I can use all of these in stitching projects by varying colours and textures. What I need now is time to stitch! 

Jacky called them eco-roses. Collections of dyed silks

Great result dyeing with vintage Japanese wool and eucalyptus

Cotton thread I dyed a couple of weeks ago by wrapping
it around rusty tin

A tint of yellow from wattle flowers and eucalyptus

I made this gorgeous piece of milky merino into a cowl-neck

When opened this piece I thought I wouldn't be able to
do better than this!

Only half of the leaves were removed in this piece

When I opened this bundle, I thought yes, I could!

I also got domesticated last weekend. The olive tree we have in our garden produced a lot of olives this year. I was too busy to do anything about them until last weekend when I had some free time. I started by soaking them in water for a week. Even though the olives are quite small, they are the tastiest olives I have ever tasted. 

I got all necessary ingredients and was ready to bottle
them after a week of soaking. 

Using all jars available I packed and filled the jars
with brine water and a little olive oil. 

It doesn't seem like I have been doing much stitching lately, but I always have a hand stitching project or projects nearby. I keep forgetting to photograph them. I will try to remember to do that soon.

Until next time

Nat

I Heart You & Ziguzagu Visit

I Heart YOU...!

There are many pre-loved doilies these days. I do love them and have been collecting them since I lived in the UK in the 90s. I turned some of them into hearts by adding fabric for trimming and backing. I started off using Liberty and Christmas prints, but now I use whatever fabric I am playing with at the moment. The above hearts have indigo fabric for the backing.

A day out to Ziguzagu is always enjoyable. I can easily spend all day there and not see everything. The material girl Jacky was wrapping herself in boro cloths. More boro cloths behind her too. A new shipment had just arrived from Japan this week and I haven't seen so many boro cloths in one visit before. 

More indigo cotton all over the floor. I had to leave them to the scrap bin so as not to spend too much money on indigo. After all, I was only there to get some silk for dyeing. 

More kimono silk in all those baskets. Looking at them made me happy! 

Plenty of accessories and buttons to choose from. I ran into an artist from indigofan getting some of these to use on handmade bags made from raw hide.  

Blue and White porcelain containers just arrived from Japan. Wow, I just noticed the wooden print block (middle left) that I didn't see when I was there! You know there are so much things you cannot see them all in one visit!

Jacky, Dot and myself posing in the boro corner. Look around us, we were in heaven! 

Haru was hard at work redecorating the place after the new shipment arrived. They are lovely people working there. Ziguzagu is divided into two sections. One half for Japanese textiles and the other half is for antique furniture. I got to know the guys who work in the furniture section as well. One of them told us today that he was a male stripper (he was stripping the old varnish off the furniture when he said that!). 

Hope you enjoy the tour of Ziguzagu today. 

Enjoy
Nat

Welcome to Ziguzagu: In My City

Welcome to Ziguzagu here in my City of Melbourne. Even if you only have one day to spend in Melbourne a visit to Ziguzagu is a must! Kazari is the parent company of Ziguzagu. They are 3 branches in Melbourne in the Richmond area. Ziguzagu is the warehouse where you can find vintage kimono fabric both in silk and indigo cotton, floor cushions, and bolts of silk for dyeing. The other half of the warehouse is for the restoration of Japanese antique furniture. Being a newcomer to Melbourne, I stumbled onto Ziguzagu by chance when I overheard some ladies talking about it in a gallery. I have been back there so many times since. I got to know everyone who works there in both the warehouse and Ziguzagu. They are so friendly and helpful. I love how they just leave you to roam around all day if you wish. I can easily spend 2-3 hours looking around every time I go there. I rummage through the scrap bins,  rolls of vintage kimono fabric and garments spread all over the giant warehouse. To me Ziguzagu has more Japanese kimono fabric under one roof than the whole of Japan. Of course if you are only a visitor to Japan you don't know where other treasures are hiding. I just love the way everything is displayed for easy reach. You have to be able to feel and touch them to appreciate them! 

The lovely Kate Collins is one of the ladies who works there 3 days a week including Saturday. Kate has studied textiles at RMIT so she knows a lot about Japanese fabric and textiles. Kate has also studied indigo dyeing, shibori and natural dyes. She is so generous with her textile knowledge. I have learned a lot by just talking to her. I really do believe that textile lovers are the friendliest people. We do speak the same textile language...!

The reception area of Ziguzagu. This is where the newly arrived books and knick knacks are on display. I just realized that I didn't look at the new books when I was there today. That is an excuse to go back there again soon. 

This is one of the BORO cloths hanging on the wall. There is more of a collection of BORO cloths here than anywhere else I have seen in Japan! I hope one day I will find my very own BORO cloth from one of the trip to Japan.

Jacky and Lee were searching for just the right piece. You do carry around a few rolls with you while looking. Jacky didn't actually get much this time. You are very restrained today Jacky. The fabric on display is colour coordinated in these lovely baskets as well. 

This basket is full of indigo and shibori fabric. I would have happily brought home everything in there (sigh)....!

There is quite a selection of vintage kimonos and yukatas for you to choose from. I did all my kimono shopping a few years ago. I bought a couple of hoaries which I wear often over my jeans. 

Trust Lee our stylist interior decorator spotted a set of three framed pieces of vintage indigo fabric. Before we were even halfway through our search she was already walking back to the car with them. Lee even has a wall waiting at home for them. It's handy having a clever builder as a husband.

As you enter the warehouse there is an information table on the left and on there the lovely Kate has kindly displayed the Japanese Textile Study Tour brochures for us. Thanks Kate your help is really appreciated here. BTW Kate, you look cool in that outfit. The indigoish blue scarf looks great on you! 

After a couple of hours at Ziguzagu we headed to Kazari Cafe only 5 mins drive from there. I had made a booking for Jacky, Lee and I to have a delicious Japanese lunch. We have heard that there is a new chef, Toshio Aihara with 20 years experience in Japanese cuisine, so we couldn't wait to try his food. I will have to continue about Kazari Cafe in the next post. Thanks for visiting and I would love to hear from you.

Enjoy!

Nat

Japan Shopping Expedition

When I travel I always throw in some shopping expeditions to make the trip more interesting. Shopping is part of the fun of travelling. You get to see what is available locally. If I get a chance I like to visit local markets and supermarkets as well. I enjoy seeing what the local markets have to offer. Some markets are a real treasure trove too. 

I did do a bit of homework before I went to Japan. I learned that there are markets in every city in Japan. Generally both fresh food and general markets are joined together in the same location. I went to the markets in Osaka, Kamakura, Nogoya and a few in Tokyo including Sugamo street market which the locals call the 'oldies' market, and Nippori  Textile Town in Tokyo. The markets I wish to visit next time are the shrine markets at Toji and Kitano in Kyoto on the 21st and 25th of each month.

There are lot of photos to share again in this post. I will keep the writing to a minimum. Usually pictures tell all. Enjoy and thanks again for reading my Japan journal. 

I was at the vintage kimono shop Komehyo in Nagoya. The shop was part of a market. There were all types of kimono there. I couldn't choose which one to get. I was looking for silk jacket (hoary) and not too expensive. I finally found one. 

More full length kimonos on display. It was a hard choice to make. I had to narrow my choices by price, kind of fabric, colour and the space I had left in my luggage! They were just beautiful to look at even though I couldn't bring them all back.

You would find sweet treat and knic knack shops everywhere in Japan. This one sells old fashion candy and sweets. My friends told me she used to buy them when she was at school. I'm glad they still make the old fashion sweets instead of sweets you get these days. 

A supermarket in Shiga where my friend's family shops. I spotted durian on the shelves. Durian is a famous Thai's fruit. I was surprised it is sold in Japan.

It was our last day in Osaka and Ayako and I both love markets so what better place to spend on our last day. We found nice snacks stalls and tried most of them. Having Ayako to explain what they all are helped a lot. Half of Osaka is built underground in and around train stations. It was a good thing too because it rained for most of the week I was in Osaka. 

A friendly shopkeeper in Nappori. I got chatting with him and found that he came from Isfahan, Iran. I have been to Isfahan, so we got talking and reminisced about what we remember in Isfahan.  His shop sells braid of every kind and leather supplies.

The antique sewing caddy made with cane base and fabric body and draw string. I have seen them before, but didn't know that they were used as a sewing caddy.  I love the idea so much I bought a book on how to make them. The second book is on quilts made from recycled and vintage kimonos. 

If you haven't heard of sakabukuro before this might be interesting for you. Sakabukuro is a bag used to filter out the remaining sediment of the fermented rice sake brew. The bag was first dyed with kakishibu (persimmon dye). I found a good link if you want to read further. 

My friend's mother had a bag made from sakabukuro that I fell in love with. She told me what it was and that it was hard to find these days. When I was at Arimatsu Shibori Festival one of the ladies told me she had some and would bring them the next day. I got two from her and I cut one up and made two bags from it. I will keep the other one to use as display on the wall. 

Shibori tote bags found at the "shotengai" in Nagoya. These are cotton bags and they are natural dyed. I could have easily bought one in every colour, but space in the luggage was the problem again! 

These cute little bags were as common as paper bags. They can be used for anything like tissue napkins, glasses, cosmetics, jewelry, cameras, you name it.  They are great little gifts from Japan. 

The photos below are of fabric I brought back. Some of them are new, but most of them are vintage in both cotton and silk. I'm looking forward to using them in my online workshop starting next week. 

Some silk products I found on the tour. I hope to make magic thread out of the cream and blue yarns, but first I have to wind them onto bobbins before I can ply them on my spinning wheel. A long process, but it shouldn't be too hard. 

I really enjoyed writing about my shopping expedition today. I do miss these places and wish I was walking through them again right now! I hope I haven't bored you with my ramblings. Travelling is one big book of knowledge. To think that before this trip to Japan I didn't know anything about kakishibu, the natural dye that has been used for 100's of years. I feel that there is a right time for everything. 

I'm glad to hear that you have enjoyed reading my Japan journal so far. Don't miss out my next post on natural dyes.