Wooden...

Here are my little guys that I drew. They are my hug bear and my bunny that was the start of the hug rings that I make in silver.

Now, I have them on my phone!

Well, on my phone maple wooden case to be exact.

The company who makes this case is Hacoa.  They produce and designs wooden stationary goods, house-wear,  and kitchen-wear. 
Their new product is the iphone case. It comes in walnut, maple and rosewood. 
This is what it looks like in rosewood. 

I like the idea that the things you use everyday is made out of wood, because it will start to age over time, and would have a certain sheen and have deeper color.

I am anctious to to also see jewelry age as well. 
Hacoa and ileava are doing a collaboration, combining wood and sterling silver.

This is the bangle that is my favorite.

Like the wood, silver jewelry also looks better when people start to wear it everyday and gets used a little bit.

We are taking orders if you are interested in the bangles and I will share places where they are available, soon.
As for the phone cases, please go to this site for orders.
They can print names and logos for additional costs.

( sorry,it is in Japanese text only)

http://www.lobjet-d.com/
I might cheat and wax my phone case today~
and see how that turns out.

working late

Winter seems to be just around the corner.

Temperature is dropping day by day and the sun is setting earlier.

Right around when the sun starts to set, my new companion starts to wake up.

It's a flower that opens up only at night.

My grandfather brought it to the studio one night when I was coming back late.

It is amazing how strong the scent is! These tiny little flowers can really fill the whole room.

It's starting to be a competition who can stay up longer.

the feather pin

The feather pin is one of the well liked pieces from ileava.  For both men and women.

This time I made it into a brooch!

The original feather has one point to pin down.  It's good as a lapel pin, or even on your hat.


But a customer wanted a type that will hold her scarves at the front so, the brooch type was better. 
I hope she can get a lot of use of it! It is getting colder everyday now.

all of a sudden

it's October~!!


September just flew by it seems!

Most of the time I was making pieces for a jewelry event which was at a department store in Tokyo, Shibuya. The event was for two weeks.  These events are always an exciting time for me, I am there everyday and I could see what designs people are more drawn to and what their concerns are when picking   jewelry pieces for themselves. I get a lot of feed back, and it's always great when customers find pieces they really like.

Being in Shibuya was great. There are so many people in that part of the city. I saw the latest trends just watching the people as they pass through the department store. There are constantly something new going on. 

This is a building that is being built that will house the metro station, shopping area, restaurants, a theatre, parking garage and on top of it all will be office buildings.
It was fun to see the progress everyday.


Now, I am starting to plan the next jewelry event that will be taking place towards the end of the month in Kobe.

doodle

I was just drawing one. 
and it led to another and another one....

I really only had just one drink.


can you tell which one I started drawing first?

Summer Ornament

" fu-rin"

This was a gift to me from someone who I am now friends with. At the time, I was living in LA and missed all the little subtle things about Japan. So, the friends who were visiting from Japan brought me back this wind chime.  It is something that you put out, in the summertime. People enjoy the sound of the breeze in the humid summer days.

This handmade "fu-rin" has a sound that is not too loud and cheerful. I later learned that the unique sound is made from the jagged edge of the rim.

I really like the watermelon design, too. 

Very summery, and a very common motif for summer here.

Very green, black lines, and a perfect sphere.

Other summer things to look forward to are firework festivals, summer festivals in any city, people wearing yukata, shaved ice is something I want to eat now! .....

Yes, summer is really here!

from my mother

Recently I had a tradshow, in Tokyo, and was busy putting jewelry together and also, making up some new displays.

I decided that this time, I needed to take what is in my head and put it on paper so people can see.
There is a little world where I see my hug bear live, and that is the world where my jewelry comes from.

So, for this I used the traditional japanese calligraphy brushes and ink, and watercolor.
This is a set that I have had since I was about 5.  They used to have a face of a cat on each color. I remember it was a challenge when I was small to use enough water for them, but not to have the colors spill over to the next block.

Also, for larger surfaces I used another set of watercolors that used to belong to my mother. It must have been in elementary school when she started using them, because on the cloth bag that my grandmother sewed for her, my mothers name is stitched. 

Using my mother pallet with already mixed color was like a time capsule. I always thought that someone forgot to clean the pallet,  but the colors now could be used just by adding water. If you think about it, because I've never used this before, the last person who used it may be my mother.  I tried to use some of the remaining paint, some blues where used in the background and there was a good green I used in the forest.
Who knows when she used it last?

It was funny to know that things like color could be preserved.

Oh almost forgot. This is how it turned out. There is a total of 6 boxes that I made!