Monday 20 December 2010

Atelier Twine's 4th Exhibition - report

Atelier Twine's 4th yarn exhibition


Hopped on a (a very fast) train to Osaka for the weekend and after a slow start on Hangover Sunday went to see Atelier Twine's yarn exhibition and sales.


This was their 4th yearly exhibition and they have been selling yarn designed for handknitters and handweavers for about as many years. They have many new yarn mixes of varying fibres including wool, cotton, cashmere and angora and some fancy sparkly and boucle yarns all for very reasonable prices. They don't have a lot of photos on their website, but they send out samples of all of their yarns and have an English speaking member of staff.


They also had some beautiful small items made from their yarn and yarn photos taken by Robert Banas on display.


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That last one is of their dog, Ito-chan, who is a Pug x Shiba. How cute and yet ugly at the same time.



Wednesday 3 November 2010

Arts and Craft market @ Crysta Nagahori, Osaka

Arts and Craft market @ Crysta Nagahori, Osaka

There is a small arts and craft market held every month in the underground shopping mall, Crysta Nagahori, that runs between Yotsubashi and Nagahoribashi underground station.

Place: Event square "Taki no hiroba"(滝の広場), Crysta Nagahori, Osaka

Dates:  November 13th/14th, 2010
December 4th/5th, 2010
 
January 15th/16th, 2011
February 5th/6th, 2011
March 5th/6th, 2011
 
Time: 11am ~ 6pm

Access: Yotsubashi station, Shinsaibashi station, Nagahoribashi station

Creators market @ Port Messe, Nagoya, Aichi-ken

Creators market @ Port Messe, Nagoya, Aichi-ken
 11th (Sat) and 12th (Sun) of December 2010

Place: Port Messe, Nagoya, Aichi-ken

Time:  11th (Sat) and 12th (Sun) of December 2010, 11am~6pm

Access: Kinjofuto (金城ふ頭) station, 30 mins on the Aonami line from Nagoya city

Entry: Advance tickets -  600yen for 1 day, 1000yen for both days 
(can be bought from Circle K in Aichi, Gifu, Nagano and Shizuoka, machines in Sunkus and Loppi in Lawson)
Tickets on the day - 600yen


I've never been to this event before, but there's gonna be around 3000 creators, both professional and amateur alike, from all over Japan coming together at Port Messe in Nagoya to show off their creations in booths and on the catwalk, sell their creations and give demonstrations and workshops.

Just looking at the list of booths is enough to make you wanna go! This is MASSIVE.

Tuesday 2 November 2010

Scarf sales and knitting/spinning workshops @ Cafe Na, Harajuku, Tokyo

Scarf sales and knitting/spinning workshops 

Miquraffreshia of octopi fame (just check out her flickr page for masses of gorgeous and wild creations) is selling scarves at Cafe Na, Harajuku.
She will also be offering knitting and workshops and will be joined by Emmaruri and Nosonoso.


3rd (Wednesday) and 4th (Thursday) of November 2010
3pm~9pm 
 
Cafe Na
東京都渋谷区神宮前1-8-5 メナー神宮前3F 
As it is a cafe please order 1 drink when visiting.

Finger spinning workshop with Emmaruri
Learn to spin yarn using only disposable chopsticks and your very own fingers! Emmaruri prepares such colourful and beautiful batts that you really ought to try this at least once. You'll come home with a stick full of unique yarn.

Time: Anytime between 5pm~8pm. 
Fee: 1000yen (no reservation required)
Time required: About an hour
 

Sunday 31 October 2010

MAKE: Tokyo Meeting 06 (20th - 21st November 2010)

Make: Tokyo Meeting will be held for 2 days on the 20th/21st  of November 2010 at the Tokyo institute of Technology Oookayama (大岡山)campus.

  • Date:November 20th (Sat), November 21st (Sun) 2010
  • Place: Tokyo Institute of Technology - Oookayama campus(東京都目黒区大岡山2-12-1)
  • Access:1min walk from Oookayama (大岡山)station on the Tokyu Oimachi and Meguro line.
  • Entry: Free
  • Organisers: O'reilly Japan
  • Joint organisers: Tokyo Institute of Technology, Information design department - Tama Art University

This is the 6th Tokyo meeting of MAKE and is a gathering of various creators who come to show off their (mostly) electronic creations. There is usually a lot to see and experience are there will be some crafters too including the Techno craft club.

Here's some photos of when I went last year. Hopefully this year will be just as fun.
A DIY planetarium.

Inside the planetarium. This was a big hit with kids.

Cross-stitch designer Makoto Ozu

I tried on the Techno craft club's items. It wasn't until after I noticed the "don't touch" sign. Sorry guys!

An electronic lego machine that opens and closes a velcro wallet endlessly. It's a 2chan joke apparently.

A glowing...thing.

Reiko and I made K-Shock watches with Makoto Ozu.

Wednesday 27 October 2010

Atelier Twine's yarn exhibition and sales @ Sakai, Osaka

Atelier Twine's 4th exhibition 2010

5th November - 9th November 2010
Pangea cafe, Sakai, Osaka (nearest station Sakai 堺)
5th-7th: 12pm ~ 6pm
8th, 9th: 3pm ~ 7pm

Last year's exhibition, what will this year's be like?



Banana cake and a milkshake out on the veranda watching the sunset.

Not only will Atelier Twine be selling yarn but there will be original knitting patterns and kits, small crafted items by various creators and yarn postcards by American photographer Robert Banas.

Atelier Twine is a family business who produce yarn for knitting and weaving at very reasonable prices. One member of the family, Seiko, can speak English as she has studied abroad in the UK and will be happy to talk to you.
The food and views at Pangea cafe are also wonderful, and it's enough to make a whole day of it. I will be there on Saturday the 6th perhaps taking my spinning wheel along with me. If you have any questions about transport etc. please email me!

Designtide Tokyo @ Isetan department store, Shinjuku, Tokyo

Piggy Bank Collection (by designers)
Exhibition and sales
27th October - 9th November 2010
Shinjuku Isetan (伊勢丹) on the 5th floor.

This exhibition is a collaboration between Isetan (department store) and Designtide. A great long list of designers (both international and Japanese) have designed unique piggy banks with a range of media including felt and knitting. If you're in the area pop in a have a look!
You can take a look at Miqurafresshia's and 203gow's delicious creations.

Thursday 21 October 2010

Spinners' Market Vol.2 in Tokyo

On a Friday evening after work, I packed up a bag full of unspun batts, fibres and yarn and rode on the Hikari Superexpress Shinkansen to Tokyo. No matter how many times I ride the Shinkansen, I never lose the excitement and thrill of riding a highspeed train. It helps that I like trains in the first place, but when a train can make a 4 hour bus journey into a 1.5 hour train journey, it's something to get excited about (just me?). But as time=money, so do you pay for this luxurious transportation; a single ticket will cost you more than a return bus. Which I why I usually choose the bus, but since the highway was under construction that Friday resulting in delays of at least an hour, I forked out for the Shink.

I spent a night enjoying the bright lights of the city and got to bed around 2am, only to wake up and get moving at around 7am. Time to sell everything I had brought, because there was no way I wanted to lugg it all the way home too.

The Spinner's Market, organised by Reiko, was to be held at the same place as the one in May - an open air rental space in Nippori. However, one thing was depressingly different from May; the weather. Tokyo was forecast for light rain all day, but after consulting all the sellers it was decided to go ahead with the aid of a car, a tent, poles, a bench and multiple plastic sheets.

Are you camping here?

Car boot sale anyone?

Princess Reiko spent the entire time in the heart of the tent, carefully laying out our items.

Spinners on tour.

 The sellers:

imokuri batts

Reikomono (レイコモノ) - handspun yarn, dyed tops, fleece, batts

emmaruri's BABY - workshop: spinning with disposable chopsticks

S39Z(sawako)(ENITEN) - handspun yarn, batts, handmade items

KTea (that's me) - speciality fibres (milk protein, soy, recycled plastic), batts, handspun yarn

hao - Japanese craft magazine


To our delight, some gracious customers were already queuing up before we had even got the last blue sheet up (Reiko had made a lot of effort in advertising beforehand) and I sold almost half of my batts within the first 15 minutes. The rain kept coming and we fought to keep water out of the centre of the tent with mixed success. Many passer-bys came to check out our wares but one can't help but think we could have been so much more successful, and drier, if we had chosen Sunday over Saturday.
But even so it was lots of fun and most of the sellers ended up with lighter baggage to take home. I on the other hand somehow managed to have heavier baggage than when I had started, but at least it was happy baggage.
All that was left of mine was 3 batts and 3 skeins of yarn.

And this is what I ended up buying :D Imokuri batt (top left) S39Z batt (top right), Reiko batts (bottom), Reiko dyed tops and a pompom alpaca strap from Sawako. Emmaruri also gave me some Herdwick tops.
The next day I went on a stamp rally trip around Nippori and found a lot of SPINNUTS magazines in a used book shop.

There is ongoing discussion as to if, when and where the next Spinner's Market will be held, but I'll let you know when there are definites!