“JDftY” —whom we called Yu-chan—was our second Japanese daughter. It's been too many years since I made and photographed this piece to be able to explain all the iconography: the orange in the toe is, of course, a traditional gift, dating back to when oranges were scarce, expensive wintertime treats: my spouse's family still likes to give them out. But I couldn't say, at this remove, what the pink box at the heel represents—just a little generic wrapped gift? Something more important...?

Christmas stocking. Photographed Jun 2009; made, no doubt, (mostly)in Dec 08

Given the candy-cane, perhaps it's a reference to this earlier work. This particular stocking is in an extremely loose style, and probably one of the most playful I made: on the one hand, it's messy, with threads dangling everywhere, and casually stitched down; on the other, cords are very popular linear elements in Japanese embroidery, so I threaded one through this design; and of course, the color scheme reflects the owner's fondness for yellow (the green and purple were my idea, of course...)

It's also the only one in which I attempted to spell out the recipient's name in both English and Japanese, and as you see, I had a pretty tough time of it: note the green weirdness in the letter U. It's sort of cool looking, but if I recall correctly, not at all something I was aiming for.

Usually what happens with these things is that I get the stocking part made by christmas, and finally, just before Japanese Daughter heads for home, I get off my ass and attach the cord, tassels and bells. This one might have been completed by Christmas, since the braid and tassel were completed ahead of time...but I kinda doubt it, since I didn't photograph it until just before Yu-chan left!

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