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Thank you everyone for the really lovely comments about the letterpress cards and the Japan trip! I wish that I could reply to everyone's comments so that people know that they're appreciated but time just slips away so quickly. I hate to think how many hours of the day I spend writing emails!
I wanted to write a blog post about the Japan trip but I really don't know what to say! It really was a fantastic experience, and very inspiring. I found I was more inspired by modern Japanese design (like what you'd find in craft books etc) than the traditional designs of washi paper and kimomos. The traditional designs have heavily influence my work in the past but maybe I'm moving on from that now. But anyway, the modern/cute/crafty stuff has inspired me so much that I've gone ahead and completely redesigned my website!
I've been obsessively working on it solidly for the last few days and am SO glad it's finally up. The redesign was much overdue!
Oh by the way - for Japan, I highly recommend Retro Mummy's guide to crafty shopping in Tokyo. I unfortunately forgot to print off her list before I left and subsequently didn't get to all the places on there - but it's a must have for anyone who plans to go!
Oh and if anyone wants to see our happy snaps of the trip, you can see them here. I uploaded them to Pete's flickr account because I wanted to keep mine just "crafty". Anyway they're not awesome photos, more just happy snaps, but good to have anyway :)
Wow. what an amazing, exhausting experience. 2 weeks in a crazy, diverse country with sooo much to see, and not enough time to see it all. Throw some 30 degree+ humid weather and you end up with a very exhausted and somewhat overwhelmed Lara.
I'll need some more time to digest the whole experience but in a nutshell it was great - everything I hoped. I'll write some more thoughts later.
But of course, I'll leave you with some photos of what we all really want to see - the craft loot!
initial crafty puchases - fabric, trim, stamps, paper, purse handles and kit, minature pegs + spools, 'handmade zakka' book
further crafty puchases - cutesy japanese fabric, crafty books, cram cream tape, Shinzi Katoh cafe mug, cute little 'vault' storage stack
Some great comments on the 'craftiquette' post - thanks for that! seems like everyone is fairly unanimous on the subject, which was to be expected.
Having a busy busy week tying off loose ends before we jet set off at the end of the week (!), but have squeezed in a bit of lampshade making. i know i promised to make a photo tutorial about how to make these, but I didn't have time to stop and take photos this time. Plus, we're getting a new camera in Japan which should hopefully take MUCH better shots! So next time, I promise :)
A custom lamp order of matching poppies and raindrops fabric :)
an Auntie Cookie fabric lamp for Shannon to take to the market! Her fabric works really well in this context!! And the black on white print provides great contrast when the lamp is on :)
Wow thank you so much for the lovely comments on my last post! Some fantastic suggestions of places we should visit in Japan - I don't think there'll be any shortage of things to do! We're going in August for two weeks and are staying & traveling with a friend who lives in Tokyo - perfect!
I haven't been a very good blogger lately it seems - quite a while between posts and most of them have just been fabric updates. But some cool new interesting stuff is coming up which I'll post about in the next few days. Meanwhile, there's some more fabric up in the shop today. This is the second last run before my printer takes a break, and then I go away. So no more until September or so. But that's fine - I don't want to oversaturate the market or anything ;)
All available here.
Have a great weekend :)
