Thursday, May 30, 2019

Ikanbari, and roses


Last Saturday our local church women's group (Relief Society) held a get-together with lunch, fellowshipping, and a choice of craft to learn.  I met some nice ladies and learned a new-ish to me craft: Ikanbari.  It was F.U.N. fun.  I love washi paper, and baskets, and so this could get dangerous over time.

Our teacher graciously prepared each basket ahead of time by covering it with shoji (screen) paper as a base.  I'm sure that took her a long time!  Then we set out ripping our paper and glueing it in place with rice paste, to cover our baskets.


I loved this one:



Incidentally, when I bought my paper, they carefully packaged it up (complete with a handle).  So nice.


A little spot of red is nice in any room.


It's actually winter themed - maybe I will use this at Christmastime, not sure.


And a couple weeks ago I joined a field trip to the Kyu Furukawa Rose Festival.  It was a hot day, but a good one and I'm so glad I went.  It's hard sometimes to break the ice, but in a transient (for us foreigners) setting like Tokyo, it's just so good to meet some potential buddies and foster that "we're in this together" feeling.










And when the fun is over, there's real life, with chores.  But here, the chores are minimal because everything is minimal!  I guess there are perks to being in a temporary serviced apartment;).



These shirts will spend some time drying in the dual-use bathroom!


Tomorrow I am off to the Yokohama "Quilt Time" Festival (ok, Japan is starting to feel like an OK place to be!) - I will post about that next week!

x
Cynthia

10 comments:

  1. Wow, pretty bowl! Miss you friend!

    ReplyDelete
  2. That garden and those roses are gorgeous. I'm so glad to hear you are getting yourself out there!
    Your craft bowl is really nice. I love washi tape, I didn't realize they make paper. really neat.
    Looking forward to hearing about the quilt festival - yay yay yay!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. That bowl is beautiful. It's good to see you are making lots of new friends. Hugs

    ReplyDelete
  4. I am sooo happy to see this post. I wondered if you were there yet...great post...thank you

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh that looks like fun! SO happy to hear you are settling in. Can't wait to hear about the quilt festival!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I have never heard of the craft and it makes a beautiful piece in the end. Fun to learn something new and be able to succeed at it.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Your basket is beautiful, Cynthia. What is the base of it made of, as in, how did she make them? I'm guessing papier mache? And did you put some kind of seal on it?
    How interesting to have a multi-use bathroom! Who knew they were even a thing?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nancy, the base is a light, open weave basket! She paper mache-d the white paper onto the basket.

      Delete
  8. What a nice basket! Always fun to learn something new! I am a foreigner in Greece and I became a member of the Mediterranean Garden Society, which was founded by an English couple. Most of the members are foreign. We have lovely excursions and we foster this we-are-in-it-together feeling and have a lot of fun!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thank you for sharing your creative inspiration—I can’t wait to see what you do next! Pestie Coupon Code

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for visiting! I love reading your comments. As time allows I email replies, if your email is included in your user profile.