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!