spring+ perfect shoes
= plus by chausser






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also, beautiful faces, beautiful city and great style


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Spring + simplicity + nice details
=nooy










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I'm melting

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Because I received a package from Miho from SAKATOdesign.com.
inside the mail includes,

*hana tsuibaki
Shisedo's magazine







* Arne





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Because it's 88 degree F now in LA.
My chocolates are melting but our California poppies seem very happy.
Things are happening magically in our back yard now.




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Because "Nocturne 01 "has been sold out in my Esty.
If you are late for the prints in my Esty, don't worry! Reform school still have 6 prints available!

(The clouds in reform school.)




**want to say" Thank you!!" Thank you! Miho, and thank you friends!

Spring








I'm so impatiently waiting for spring to come.
Lovely spring collection from " nuan". ( under online store/style book)

I so SO envy my friends in Taiwan will be able to see Yoshimoto Nara's movie in the theater. Already heard lots good things about it from friends now! I want to travel with Nara too! (remember to check the trailer)

Braiding

Finally I have time to share this fun way to make scarves.

The yarn I used here is blue sky alpacas "Bulky Naturals", I used one skein.(45 yards)
The color is silver mink. ( these look very nice too)
The length of the finished product is 6'4" and the width is 2'-1/4".




First, cut the yarns to the desired length. I had 12 of 10' long yarns. 2 of them as a group and tie them together. like the photo shown below.

**( it could be 14 of 8' long yarns or 16 of 7' long yarns. you will have shorter but wider scarf.)



so you will have six group of them. Tie them to the clothes hanger.




Follow the instruction here. I quickly did some sketches here. I hope this is helpful.

I hung my hanger to my book shelf structure so I can sit on my chair. The Ikea book shelve I have happens to have the steel rod structure so I can easily adjust the height I want. I also tried to hang it to the bath room's towel hanger but then I could not adjust the height. It's a bit painful to stand for a couple hours. Also you need a clean floor space for the excess yarns. remember they are 10' long yarns!

I think I was inspired by those back strap loom which attached to wood trunk and human body. It reminds me that I can simply use my clothes hanger to finish this project.




No. 8 is the end condition. You need to always adjust the shape of the scarves. Pull them tight!! but not overly.



try to do some swatches before you did a real project. to check the texture, color and get used to the braiding patter. Also you will know what kind of the tension you need. This is the swatch I used the irregular shape yarns so you can see that it got various width.






Here is the original illustrations from the book. You will notice that actually the yarns are fixed by the nails. you also can do this way. I tried this at the very beginning . I used foam core and pins but it failed. The pins doesn't hold the yarns well. I just don't have a surface can nail on and also bigger enough for those 10' long yarns.


マフラー＆帽子全書 isbn4-8347-2081-0







I think I'm going to keep this scarf with me this time although it's almost sprint here now!! ( I always ended up not keeping/owning any of the scarves I made.)
Please feel free to ask me any questions. I may miss some details. I think you will find you own way to do it just like what I did.

Happy braiding!! friends!






* It took time to make the scarf, do all the sketches and write this post if you are going to use any of the photos or contents here you need to get the permission from me.

Nocturne







I just update my shop with these two new prints, named "nocturne".
Simply my inspirations are from the garden at night.

The first one is an imaginary portrait of bamboos. Trying to capture those quiet but strong shadows and light at night.

I'm also fascinated with those reflection on the water, the stars and the hidden lives in the garden at night. These are things I'm trying to capture in the second print.
The prints are bigger now! They are 8.5x11 inches. I hope you will like the new prints!



*** **** *


sarajo

I feel so so so lucky to meet Sarajo yesterday at the " little bird galler" in Atwater village. I LOVE her works. You should go check out her new show if you are in LA this weekend.








I almost felt that all the characters will jump out from the bag ......






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finally I will have time to post the story about braiding. I will be back on next Monday!



Publish Post

making bread

Have you tried this??
more here
& sweet one
you should try it, so much fun and they taste so good!!


***** ****


my silly sketch



here is my silly sketch of our cats fighting!! don't they look too happy??
want to share with you some good illustrators/artists from Taiwan.

* * *


yihsin wu/吳怡欣
her lovely blogs, here and here,

*
0416

i think there will be no language gap, those lovely drawings will bring you to the places you want to go!!

printing



In the middle of making new prints now. The story of braided scarves will be posted later this week.

* My last batch of later winter and early spring scarves at reform school.
* Some chunk wool scarves at the shiny squirrel.

** Bjork’s video for Wanderlust looks very interesting.

Flea market






Pictures I took from last weekend's flea market!

* More details about hand braided scarves will be posted next week.
* I like her photography. Katay de Grunwald

Have a nice weekend!

Braiding







These are hand braided scarves I made. It's such a joyful new thing to me. No tool required!! Its diagonal crisscross structure makes it super elastic and soft. I used hand painted chunky wool to braid. They have irregular shape so it formed a organic shape of it. It has not even width.

Will share more tomorrow!

I heart vintage clothing!!







See more from frecklewonder!! and her blog.

dot .dot. dot.




dottie dress from enfant terrible




firework drawing from rosemarie fiore

More Tenugui love


from Ponpindo

**kobacha/ pumpkin




**fuji


** see more here!! and a online shop here.



from RAAK ( thank you shisomama for the link!)

** jump!!

More magazine love.....

1. mogu 蘑菇手帖
(mo -gu means mushroom)

A Magazine from Taiwan. I will say it's about love of the island, people and everyday things......... The layout and the size makes it look like a notebook /diary!!??.......


issue No. 12 Old stuff


issue No.13 Utensil


This is the copy I have at home. The theme is about " kids & animals".
( whenever I open the mag. I feel that the subtropical heat and endless sunshine leak /creep out from the pages..... )








* * *

2. 銀座百點
Giza Hyakuden
It's more like LA weekly kind of magazine. It tells you all the events and stores in Giza. Never seen a real copy but love to browse their cover archive.







I also have hard time to erase this image from my mind!! keep going back to see the same image again ! I hope I will be able to find a copy here.

* * *
Also I had 3 scarves available in shiny Squirrel.

*Magazine maniac*_ I can't stop buying magazine.............


1. Theme Magazine

I haven't found a real copy in my city but I like to browse the articles from their internet archive.
I really like this interview with Chinese designer Zhang Da_ "Formed from flat"

"Chinese thinking, culturally, is two-dimensional,” explains Zhang. The O Shirt, perhaps Zhang’s most recognized piece to date, utilizes the traditional Chinese technique of flat cutting."..........

read more here.





2. Lovely daze, Issue 3: when i am alone, everything is so surreal
I just got 3 back issues from here.




3.monocle

Till now we only bought one issue, it's also very hard to find in my city. We bought our copy in MOCA store last time. It's like wall paper* graphic but with totally different contents. (with articles which you will want to read). It's lucky that we also can find lots interesting stories in their web. I bet soon this will be popular and probably will be more easily to find in the news stand.