Glasses designed by architects.

Glasses designed by architects.

Wednesday, 29 July 2009

建築家がデザインしためがね。
Japan's top 11 architects designed glasses collaborating with Jin's Global Standard, a Japanese eyewear brand. They are all really cool designs and here are about half of them I picked out of eleven.
The top two are my favourites, the first one "Doodle" was designed by Sosuke Fujimoto, and the second by Kumiko Inui, "glasses that are unique and anonymous".

"Macarons" by Jun Aoki.
"Kurobuchi Megane (Black frame glasses)" by Junya Ishigami."Freehand Glasses" by Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA.And last but not least, "Beige Glasses" by Kazuyo Sejima of SANAA.

You can see all of the eleven designs here.
Which one is your favourite?

Comments: 14

Japanese Masking Tape.

Japanese Masking Tape.

Monday, 20 July 2009

Masking tapes are fun!! And this book マスキングテープの本 - "A book of Masking Tapes" is a wonderful source for the creative ideas for them. The fabric of the skirt you see in the second picture was designed by mina perhonen, originally inspired by masking tapes!! Isn't it terrific!? The third picture is the three little girls of Minagawa san - the designer of mina perhonen. It's amazing how much you can do with these tapes. But the best thing is that you can take them off easily so that helps you to be even more creative! You can also see some other ideas introduced here at Hello Sandwich.

Well, I am not really a good craft person so am a bit embarassed but here are somethings I've done with the masking tapes.The first one, obviously inspired by theat skirt, quickly made a decorated envelope using a plane envelope from MUJI.Also a plane hard-cover book from MUJI. This could be a good one for making your own picture book or maybe a zine?And this, well not much use as a card after all, but could be applied for the gift wrapping perhaps?Just some (untidy) peta-peta sticky tapes on the wall.
AND NOW YOU CAN BUY SOME MASKING TAPES FROM MY SHOP!!!! yay! I've been working on this online shop to sell Japanese goodies for some time now, it's still a bit wonky but will try to make it better so please pay a visit if you have time. I will be adding LOTS more new stuff in the next 10 days or so, i will let you know when they're up.

Oh this is also something I want to recommend, an acrylic tape dispenser. Perfect for the masking tapes!

Comments: 8

Kyo Uchiwa

Kyo Uchiwa

Friday, 17 July 2009

All images are from http://www.kyo-aiba.jp/

京うちわ。
"Uchiwa" is a paper fan which is one of the symbolic items of Japanese summer, it's part of our culture. We are often given them for free on the streets these days, the ones that have advertisements on them. But I'm talking about a different type of Uchiwa now - Kyoto style Uchiwa.

Kyo Uchiwa Aiba is the oldest paper fan maker in Japan that has 300 years of history. They do make Uchiwas for daily use, but they make Uchiwas more for decorative and artistic purposes. It's really amazing how Uchiwas can be such beautiful pieces of artwork, they are just superb!

The caption for the first image from Kyo Uchiwa Aiba's website was "Uchiwa gift as substitute for a flower bouquet". Well I've told you how horrible our summer is already, keeping fresh flower at home can be a difficult thing at this time of year. How wounderful would it be to receive a gift like this in summer! Well it'll be much more expensive than sending fresh flowers, but if you want to really please someone I think Kyo Uchiwa would be a perfect gift choice!

Kyo Uchiwa Aiba (Japanese Only)
More about Uchiwa here in English

Comments: 6

KAORU by Atelier Kaoru

KAORU by Atelier Kaoru

Sunday, 12 July 2009

Atelier Kaoru is my favourite jewelry brand from Kyoto. The Kyoto-born designer Kaoru san's designs are inspired by daily seen objects mostly of nature. She handmades the most delicate and beautiful jewelries! I've been a huge fan of her designs though in the past few years she's become quite popular and the price has gone up so I haven't been able to get any new ones for a long time, but those what you see in the above pictures are my KAORU Collection.

The bottom images are from her website (you need to be patient to see this web..), it has very unique atmosphere don't you think? Oh i want that necklace in the last image!

Comments: 10

Noda Horo : All Purpose All-time favourite enamel kitchen goods

Noda Horo : All Purpose All-time favourite enamel kitchen goods

Monday, 18 May 2009

My Noda Horo Collection (so far).
This is my favourite new book by Mrs Noda who married Mr Noda of "NODA HORO" the company who's been producing excellent enamel kitchen goods for over 70 years in Japan.
"Horo" (=enamel) kitchen goods would have been seen a lot in anyone's kitchen in my grandmother's time in Japan but when the modern technology made its appearance, people started to replace them to plastics and other things. Good on NODA HORO to have kept making them to this day, people are starting to realise the goodnesses of horo; long lasting, doesn't produce environmental toxins, keeps food fresh for long and away from germs, strong for salt and acid (good for long-term keeping eg jams and pickles), heat efficient and so on! But the best thing I'd say is that you can heat the container directly on the stove after taking it out from the fridge straight away! (I've ordered this for stocking/reheating dashi. would be good for soups too.)

Their "White Series" is just great!

一生つきあいたい万能キッチン道具「野田琺瑯」の本。 (MARBLE BOOKS) (link to amazon japan)

Comments: 15

Bag? Phone? Art?

Bag? Phone? Art?

Friday, 15 May 2009

Well it's a phone and is called “Hand Bag for Space Travel”!

To my surprise, YAYOI KUSAMA designed mobile phones and they will be on sale this summer! Not that I can imagine myself using one, but I am quite interested to see the actual products!

And this one is called
"Dots Obsession, Full Happiness with Dots.


"iida and the avant-garde artist Yayoi Kusama have teamed up to transform the mobile phone into a “work of art” that captures both the imagination of art and the wonder of life." (from iida)

This is what I'm using now,


and this is what I was using before.


Check out some more > au design project

Comments: 4

INDEN-YA: Deer Skin meets Lacquer

INDEN-YA: Deer Skin meets Lacquer

Wednesday, 22 April 2009

Just learned about the INDEN-YA "印傳屋" -the Japanese craftsmanship, who has been making beautiful leather crafts in Japan for over 400 years. What's so unique about it is they developed their original technique for applying lacquer to deer skin to form patterns like these above images they introduce in their webpage. The website is full of interesting information on the craftsmanship, although it's only in Japanese language it's worth a visit! It has lots of great images with great graphic designs and the website is really well done. There is an English introduction page so it should help!

Comments: 2