Blog - Page 25 of 32 - Studio Deanna

Hoooked Zpagetti Review – Throw Rug Serendipity

Update: 2023 – This rug was a fun workhorse of a piece that I continued to use daily until we needed to move again. At which time I did let it go. 10/10 would Hoooked Zpagetti again. Do they even still make it?

Update: May 2015 – I have been using this rug daily since I made it and have washed it several times in the washing machine using cold water. It needs to then be laid flat and air dried. Still looks great and has held up well.

Hoooked Zpagetti is big, fun t-shirt material yarn that gave my biggest crochet hook some much needed exercise. I needed a new throw rug and I couldn’t find what I wanted in stores. When I saw Zpagetti at the Japan Hobby Show I knew I’d found my rug!

With one skein of their light blue Zpagetti and 5 hours of Shonan-Shinjuku Line train time ahead of me, I started on my rug.

Without a pattern. Just an oval silhouette idea and 120 meters to get it done.

Working on the train is very cathartic for me. No one is asking for me to make them dinner, nor is the laundry screaming to get done and it helps me focus on my task at hand. Very few people bother me and only the very, very brave will ever ask what I’m doing.

Starting from the center of the skein, the t-shirt yarn did perform exactly as I expected, very comfortable on my hands and heavy. The yarn was quite twisted in the beginning and had to do some spin my piece once in a while but the twisting became less as used more and more. There were at least 4 knots in my 120meter/131yard skein with one end that needed to be tied.

The next day I finished the last 20% and came out a yarn chicken winner with only 1 meter of zpagetti yarn left! Final rug size is 29″ x 21″ (74cm x 53) exactly the size needed for the space I want to throw it. This serendipitous project became very economical in that it came out the perfect size and I don’t have any leftover yardage to store.

Now if life could take a lesson from this crochet project and go as wonderfully, smoothly each day for all of us!

More photos available on Instagram: StudioDeanna

Uniquely Dyed Textile Art by Fujisaki Hitoko

Now showing through Sunday, April 13, 2014, Fujisaki Hitoko’s uniquely dyed textile art works are at the AC Gallery in Ginza, Tokyo. I found Fujisaki-san to be very personable, amazingly talented, and her show to be worth the trip to Ginza.

These beautiful earth tones from the palest of sakura pinks to the rich terra-cotta reds are all obtained naturally using dirt. Yes, really, she uses dirt to delicately dye textiles of all kinds.

A fun fiber she weaves in one of her looms is coffee filters. They take the colors beautifully as you can see in this traditional geta, titled Spring. Her amazing dyed textiles are constructed into bags, jewelry and more.

Stop by AC Gallery in Ginza to see her work soon! Show ends Sunday.

Japanese Ceramic Art Appreciation – John Dix

This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend a ceramic workshop with John Dix at Shiro Oni Studios in Gunma Prefecture here in Japan. John Dix has been living here in Japan for the past 20 years studying and perfecting his Japanese ceramic techniques so I was excited to learn about another creative medium from an expert.

The last time I played with clay was to create an ashtray in 3rd grade art class so I haven’t understood what is so great about the uniquely raw, highly coveted, highly priced traditional Japanese ceramics. Now I do!

Using 100% Japanese clays and traditional Japanese wood firing techniques in an oven he built, John Dix explained how the glaze on the fired ceramic pieces is naturally occurring during the firing and not an addition ‘painted’ on as I did to the ashtray in 3rd grade. Much of the color and glaze patterning is really completely up to chance. His oven is completely filled with finished cups and other vessels and is only fired up 3 or 4 times each year. That’s a lot left to chance! 3 – 4 months worth of work at a time is fired and wood needs to be added at approximately 15 minute intervals 24 hours a day until the firing is completed.

We watched him create few smaller pieces.

Starting with a bottomless bowl and the side sliced open, he showed how a huge sushi platter is created.

Then explained what would most likely happen during the firing…

My first ceramic vessel using the “pinch pot” technique.

My friend, Lori, was more creative in the shaping of her pinch pot.

A cup created from using two pieces of clay and scoring the edges for a tight fit.

Design Fail: I attempt to get fancy by pressing a Sakura Doily into a cup to create an interesting design within. Clearly this was beyond my skill so instead I rolled the cup into a tube and sliced off round pieces which I made into buttons to hopefully use with my crochet designs.

The firing for our pieces will be during Golden Week, at the beginning of May. So check back in May to see the fiery results!

Stitch Swap Score!

De-Clutter. Stash Down. De-Stash. Organizing. Which ever you do to remove the old, unwanted items from your studio, you know it feels great when you’ve unloaded those extras.

Our local stitch groups held a really, really free Stitch Swap to help each other with a bit of spring cleaning. Some members are moving back to their home country so we all had a good selection and a great opportunity to try out new yarns and supplies.

I was able to unload several books and a big, bunch of extra crochet hooks I had laying around. We all tell ourselves that we won’t pick anything up but seriously, I know better. I always have a running list of items I’d like to purchase on my next trip to my local craft store so if the item was already on my list, then it was ok to pick up. Plus, I only brought a small backpack to ensure I didn’t have room for much more than I brought :)

So how did I do? Weight-wise I came out ahead, I took heavier items and returned with much smaller lighter-weight items.

Just last week I was wondering how weird I would look to pick up one of each color of embroidery floss from the huge bank of DMC & Lucien drawers of floss colors. I’ve saved myself the embarrassment by picking up a big messy, ball of floss.

After an hour of organizing I am now the proud owner a huge rainbow of floss colors!

A piece of leather and buttons in just the right colors to enhance my art book ideas.

Sparkly Star felt and plain felt for a SuperStar Sewer project.

Purple. I just can’t resist Purple.

Embroidery Floss neatly organized for storage or my next project:

Sakura Cherry Blossom Doily – 桜ドイリー

Found this lovely free Cherry Blossom doily or coaster pattern through Crochet a Little‘s fb page, March 11, 2014 posting. Chi-sa-ko, is the original designer of this great little free charted crochet pattern.

Perfect timing for Ohanami, cherry blossom viewing season here in Japan and around the northern hemisphere. Chi-sa-ko states in the pattern she used approx 4g of Aprico thread in the Salmon Pink colorway. A Hamanaka crochet hook size 3 will provide a finished size of approx 11cm across.

Warning: As easy as it looks to crochet, there is one stitch (or stitch combination) that I have never seen before and my search throughout the internet did not bring anything to light. Nor did my Encyclopedia of Crochet by Donna Kooler. A bit difficult to search when one doesn’t know the name of the stitch. It’s a Decrease3DoubleCrochets(dc3tog US) with a DoubleCrochet(dc US) on top so it looks like a vertical stitch combination. I’ve included a short instruction video for those who have not seen that stitch combination before either:

I grabbed the first Sakura appropriate lace thread in my stash which happened to be a Daruma brand #20 thread and a size 2 hook to make mine right away. Once I figured out how to do the unique stitch combination I finished 2 in super quick time and

attached one to a felt backing to create a coaster. Now that I know I can complete it so easily, I’m curious to see how it will look in the recommended Aprico thread, which Chi-sa-ko states means “Sunny Day” in Italian. Off to my favorite yarn store to find it!

You can check out an entire year’s worth of floral-themed doilies that were designed by Chi-sa-ko. It looks like each month there will be a new one released.

Mamebon 豆本 – Mini Art Book

Finished my first mini Art Book! A nice little mamebon, which means bean-sized book in Japanese. At a small 6cm x 6cm when closed you can see how it compares to a 100yen coin:

It opens to a length of 16cm…

The mini modern map piece measures 10cm in diameter with the hand-embroidered old sailing ship about 5cm in height.

The back cover:

Thank you for looking!

Migration? Navigation? – Embroidery & Fabric Art Book

This time I’ve chosen a modern map as a base for my latest Art Book, juxtaposing it with an old world theme titled, “The World is Flat.” *Update: The more pieces I complete in this project the more it speaks to me, whispering that this is not a good title. Words such as, migration, or navigation feel like a better fit this project that covers the movement of people and animals around the world.*

Using a map of western Mexico that includes a bit of Baja California and the ocean for variety,

I’ve hand embroidered an old world, Aztec-style design of a compass rose onto the map in deep turquoise, gold and lapis blue colors.

The best part of this project is I’ve been able to use materials already in my studio stash! A thick upholstery fabric for the book body, coordinating threads, maps and glue mediums. Over the years I’ve collected a large stack of beautiful maps and feel like I’ve finally found a use worthy of them.

A Chain Stitch Spine.

The book cover includes a pocket to hold the map edge, for a pen, or other navigational tools.

It all folds up into a neat roll approx 25cm x 11cm using a bit of natural string and strategically placed buttons to wind it closed for safe keeping.