Judging from the howling dismay f2tE every time I suggest how I might write to various Japanese adults of my acquaintance, my rudimentary (as in rude) US manners are really terrible in a Japanese setting. But even I knew I had to come up with something special to send back with JDftY3. But I'm a) cheap, b) didn't know what they'd like and c) aware of space issues.
Necklace with hollow glass bead and sterling bail, strung on kumi cord. Materials: glass, silver, cotton. Lampwork, metalwork, stringing (i.e. pendant) and braiding, by artist. 2010–2011.
I happen to find handmade gifts cool, even if I don't like the particular thing, and my attitude with this was, at least it's small and doesn't take up much room. Also, it is a blend of US and Japanese craft [1] which I thought was cool. And it incorporated three media (my sewing machine is on the fritz, so I sort of didn't get the little Japanese inspired drawstring bag done).
Excepting the saworski crystal, I made all the mini-hollows, too;) Some of them are earlier than 2010, I'm guessing.
Japanese Daughter said she thought her mother would like the colors, but, you know, Japanese politeness. The vessel was the only really decent large floral I'd made since the accident. Kumi takes time; I even attempted working metal. It didn't come out well, but... Hopefully all that came through, even across the cultural divide.
For those of you more interested in technical details: the kumi is some hand-painted cotton floss that I tried to dress for my beloved twisted diamonds pattern (which didn't work out either, c'est la vie). The silver is that more-or-less fried/not-quite-reticulation thing that I do to shiny, smooth sheet, half-assedly riveted together. The bead I was able to make large in part by sticking two or three shorts on the end of a 1/8" mandrel (i.e. puntile) and melting together, which gave me enough of a mass to be able to make such a large bead. There's a bit of frit and thompson enamel. Some of the floral canes—the blue— might have had the transparent center cased with opaque thing I've been playing with, but I couldn't swear to it.
[1]There is famous lampwork from all over the world—warring states beads from China, plus of course Italian glass, and Japanese lampworkers produce some absolutely gorgeous obijime-type glass beads, but the modern glassbead making movement got its start, or at least renaissance in the US, and the type of floral I do is very distinctively in the tradition of Fairbanks and Orr.
Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.
