Japan Vacation: Miyuki Seed Bead Factory

I emailed Miyuki seed beads back in the winter when it looked like Japan was finally a viable vacation. Gaku has been a wonderful contact and host while we were visiting the site. He picked me up from the train station and took me to the factory where I toured the majority of the seed bead making process. I wasn't allowed to see how they cut the glass tubes, but getting to see the majority of the process was really exciting. 

There were large bins of seed beads all around me, and their storage facility for eventual shipping of these beads was at least three stories high.  I wanted to bury my hands in the bins of beads.

Gaku provided me with some beautiful Miyuki promo materials (second picture) and that evening I had a fun conversation about how I might one day need to start ordering seed beads by the bin. That'll be the day!

Gaku then offered to drive me to the Miyuki gallery which houses the "bead factory" bead shop on the main floor in Fukuyama.  Above is my pile of beads (photo accidentally deleted). I'm always on the lookout for faceted seed beads since I'm finding them harder and harder to get my hands on.  I'm also really excited about the 15/0 Precision seed beads.  From what I can tell, they're like little tiny delicas. Swoon.

Thank you so much to Gaku and Miyuki for their hospitality (and Gaku for driving me around!) I had such a great experience, and as usual,  I'll always be promoting their seed beads since I've been using them in my work for at least 15 years.  I remember when delica colors were limited. 

I almost want to go back for more, I passed the Fukuyama station today and I held back. I have lots of beads. 

I haven't done much beading on this trip, our train rides have been fairly short, I have been doing some reading and a bit of knitting. 

Japan Vacation: Kyoto

Beautiful little shrines everywhere.

This was my hotel for 3 nights, great deal and a helpful staff.

Ice cream! I got the shaved ice strawberry thing.

Golden Pavilion. It's amazing!

I hit so many shrines walking back through Kyoto from the Golden Pavilion.

Such wonderful silks are woven here.

Weaving silk, probably about 100+ ends per inch.

Winding silk off of the silkworm cocoons.

Kimono fashion show.

Writing and birding at the Imperial Palace park.

Kyoto's traditional food.

Nino Castle (it has nightingale floors that chirp when walked on to alarm you that someone is in the building).

Nijo Castle gardens.

Must take your shoes off!

Imperial Palace

I just loved this painting with the bull, kitty and mouse.

Sento Gardens in the Imperial Palace compound, definitely worth seeing. (Better than the Imperial Palace tour.)

Waterfall over a single stone.

All of the rocks behind me were brought in by hand.

Shrine to a Japanese poet.

Praying mantis with red eyes!

Breakfast to-go heading out of Kyoto to Hiroshima.

Train station.

A Kyoto Morning

I really liked Tokyo, but I took a walk alone around Kyoto this morning with my coffee. The cleanliness, the views and the faint scent of incense here and there is wonderful.
People don't crowd each other, and everyone is SO polite.
I always kind of thought that the scenes in Japanese art history were more of a stylistic view of nature. But the trees are truly bent and twisty with the knowledge of thousands of years. Clouds roll in and out of the mountains.
It's wonderful here.

Japan Vacation: Tokyo

After a 13 hour flight and a nap I woke up ridiculous early in Japan and started exploring. 

(Do not feed the fish, Koi, or for that matter anything in any park)

A short walk from our hotel was this sculpture.  Dubbed the "golden poo" by locals.

I was really excited bout food here and after this particular meal, both of us were messed up (gory details if you ask me in person, but thanks Jenny Scroggins for the tip about carrying your own tissue for public bathrooms!)

This is all water behind us with these crazy beautiful huge water plants taking over the water part of the park.

Balcony outside one of the temples.

This picture is completely Lynne Bruning fault. Sewer covers with great detail abound.

So I had breakfast, no coffee. But in Tokyo there's vending drink machines on at least every corner. I was surprised to get a hot drink from vending, like really hot,  hard to hold in your hand. The ones with screw tops are the cold ones.

This doesn't even begin to explain the hub of anime, stores and tech that we were overwhelmed with, seriously, so much tech, dvd, comic, slots & pincho, lights....we were just looking for a coffee shop!

I then headed for the green space on my Google maps. The Gardens of the Imperial Palace. So many fruit trees! Walking up what's left of the original palace, it's a very similar feeling to the fort at St. Augustine in Florida....

This is part of the gardens, but there were a number of birds....definitely a heron, and a few questionables.  Japan bookstore bird book? Done and done.  For myself, I couldn't find a defining Sailor Moon manga...I'm a bit embarrassed to ask she trolling the teeny bopper section! I'll be looking into it, the only new Sailor Moon Crystal hype in print was fan fiction.

Umbrellas are a thing, so is bicycling!  The bikes are amazing here, so is the gear. But the classy umbrella holder... <3

This is the train station, also pretty much a mall. It's hard to focus getting through!

And trains abroad are....easier and cleaner and classier, I wish I had bullet trains in the US.

Rice fields from the train, it was going too fast to get the egrets. ..

On to Kyoto!

Artist Residency in the Porcupine Mountains: Part 3

My second week at the Porkies began quite rainy and overcast.

You couldn't see Lake of the Clouds, because, well, it as in a cloud, so I hiked down to the lake:

Lake Superior was quite tumultuous.

But there was still lots to see, especially close-up.

This scenic outlook...still foggy.

I loved the way the fog was sitting in the forest.

Preque Isle was not foggy, definitely easy to hike and see lots!

Lake Superior Sunrise.

Lake of the Clouds later in the week once it cleared up.

As I was packing up to head home, it was still dark and tripped over this little guy.  I took it as nature making sure to see me off!

Artist Residency at the Porcupine Mountains: Part 2

I'm just posting some photos in chronological order at this point....

Bear den program (that's a black bear skull).

Tapestry Weaving progress.

Black bear eating leftovers at Konteka.

Trappers Falls

It was rainy yesterday so I took the opportunity to go to Calumet. I love the Paige Ward Gallery there. Paige invited me to show my work....we'll see what I can do after we get back from Japan.

Lake Superior sunset last night.

Front side of my weaving (you can start to see the transparencies)

Back side this morning... 3.75 inches done.

My shelf of insect repellent...the middle one has the DEET...and it actually works!

Artist Residency at the Porcupine Mountains: Part 1

I arrived to the Porcupine Mountains on Monday evening after about a 10 hour drive from East Lansing.   Sherrie and Carol showed me around the cabin (mostly Sherrie, Carol is the composting toilet guru).  I have plenty of room to work and live, a back porch looking out toward the stream behind "Dan's Cabin" which includes a wood burning stove, gas lanterns and a camp stove/oven. 

I have hiked two trails so far, on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Tuesday I stayed in the woods and Wednesday I found a beautiful spot on Lake Superior.   I have been struggling with mosquitoes attacking me (despite layers of bug spray). The girl at the Outpost swears by a citronella lotion so I'm going to try that today.

I had a hard time leaving the cabin today.  I am moving along really well on the tapestry that I started and it's hard to pull away!  I packed my notes from the class that I took from Rebecca Mezoff at the MLH Workshops in 2012 on gradation techniques in tapestry and I.m utilizing a number of the techniques.  I'm working from the back so you can't see much at this point. I'm almost to two inches (this piece is 13 inches wide), another few inches and I may be able to get an image of what the front is starting to look like!

Please bear with me on my updates for the next month or so, I'm learning to use my tablet for the bulk of my posting since I will not be taking a laptop to Japan. I'm trying to make - do with smaller devices. So far my phone is better, but it's because I'm slow - learning what I can and can't do on this thing.