Powell Street Festival July 31 - August 1!

It's that time of year again, yaaay!

I'll be in Vancouver's newly renovated Oppenheimer Park, for the 34th annual Powell Street Festival. Come on down for lots of great Japanese food and a schedule packed with amazing entertainment! Lots of music, dancing and taiko (Japanese drumming), both traditional and contemporary. Complete schedule of both days can be found by clicking here.

I'll be in great company as usual, among the many wonderful artisans selling accessories, glass, pottery, soap and lots more. For the list of sellers and a complete programme of the festival week-end, click here.

News...

Finally, photos of some pieces I've been working on! I'll have some of these at Powell Street in Vancouver, as well as at Montreal's Matsuri Japon on August 14th in the Old Port. Other new stuff as well, including these long 'n skinny pendants and earrings, plus a different sushi platter that I'll keep as a surprise... (^_^)

Marché la Récré outdoor market

I'll be at the Marché la Récré outdoor market in Montreal's Mile End this coming Saturday, July 17th. It's the first time a weekly event of this sort is being planned, where you'll be able to find artisan-made creations, vintage treasures and great eats all in the same schoolyard, under the summer sun!

It'll be happening every Saturday in the schoolyard of Ecole Lambert-Closse, corner of St-Urbain and Bernard, from 10am to 5pm. I'll be there tomorrow for sure and might make it back for some other dates as well! Lots of goooood stuff to be found, see a partial list of the sellers here.

Vancouver...
I'll be heading back to the Powell Street Festival in Vancouver in a couple of weeks, July 31st & August 1st. Looking forward to being back in the newly refurbished Oppenheimer Park and seeing all my Vancouver friends and family!

For the occasion, I decided to make a new fancy tamago maki, or egg roll (hee hee!) sushi! Click to see more detail. Other new pieces in the makes as well!

My growing obsession: glass lampwork beads

There are certain artisans and crafters I've admired online, and it's always a bit of a thrill to meet them in person at a craft show or event. Over the last couple years, I've become more and more interested - obsessed even - with glass lampwork beads; the whole process and technique and the finished product absolutely fascinate me. Although I enjoy working in polymer clay, the end result in bead form is less sturdy and long-lasting than a properly annealed glass bead.

On Etsy I discovered an artist named Ikuyo, who makes the most breathtakingly lovely beads; I love the colours she uses, the shapes of her beads and her trademark murrini (glass cane slices) in her bead designs. She also sells on ebay, under the username "ikuyoglassart".

My sister Nancy bought several beads from Ikuyo, including this pair that was in my list of faves, that she had sent to me as a gift - is that a sweetie of a sister, or what?
Here are some of my favourites of Ikuyo's sold beads on Etsy:


In Ikuyo's Etsy shop you can see that she lives in Coquitlam, BC, which is the suburb of Vancouver where my brother, Mike, and his family live. I contacted her before going to Vancouver at the end of July, to find out if her beads were available in any Coquitlam or Vancouver shops. Unfortunately not, but funnily enough, she lives around the corner from my brother and is good friends with his next-door neighbour! Small world. So she generously invited my sister Nancy and me to her studio in her home, to see how she makes her magical beads. We were so excited!

My crafty niece, Mariko, also came along, since she was as curious as we were to see how Ikuyo creates all that loveliness. Above you can see Ikuyo using the flame to make a bead. Since I'll be taking some lampworking classes (finally!) this fall, I was also interested to see how her studio is set up and what kind of ventilation I would eventually need. Not quite sure how I could pull that off in our little apartment, but I'll worry about that later.

Here is Ikuyo with her giddy fans/groupies. My brother Ron has said several times that Japanese women (or nikkei women, which are those of Japanese descent living or born outside Japan) are all the same height - it just might be true. Mariko is lucky enough to have some of her mom's Scottish genes and has surpassed the 5'2" ceiling.


Ikuyo let us look through her stash of finished beads and to our delight, we were able to purchase some, and she gave us many as gifts. So generous of her! Look at all my lovely beads! We stayed there a really long time, rummaging, oohing and aahhing. Sistah Nancy alleges I elbowed her out of the way when I spotted a bead I wanted. Although I can safely say I did NOT use my elbow, I don't totally deny trying to dominate the bead-foraging space...

Another wonderful glass artist...
At the Powell Street Festival, where Nancy and I were crafty vendors, we have also ogled the gorgeousness of Minori Takagi's beads. You can see them in all their intricate splendour here.


In 2007 at the Powell St. Fest I fondled her beads. In 2008, I returned to see her, only to fondle her beads once more. But earlier this month, August 2009, I had decided before I even got to the festival, that I was going to not only fondle every one of her beads, but make a purchase. I bought not one, but the TWO lovelies you see here. I love wearing them. And fondling them.

This fall...

Along with some jewellery classes on wax casting and basic metal working, I'll be taking a lampworking class or two in the coming months. I'll let you know how it goes. Either I'll embarrass myself and set my hair on fire, or I'll fall in love with lampworking and become even more obsessed.

Either way, yikes.

Vancouver's Powell Street Festival 2009

Every time I go to Vancouver, British Columbia, I think "Hmmm, I'd be happy to stay here..." I totally understand why two of my brothers have been living there for 30+ years. It is a beautiful city - the perfect blend of urban living in the most gorgeous setting, with greenery, mountains and the coast. Sigh... the coast...

Who in the world would want to leave this? AND the support for crafters, artisans and all things handmade is incredible. I kind of think we might end up living there one day... one day. Above is a shot of our kayaking trip around Gabriola Island - it was such a great day! I'll write about that another time.

This is my third time selling at the Powell Street Festival, our nation's biggest Japanese Canadian festival. It was on August 1st and 2nd, and while eastern Canada was living through a cool and rainy summer, Vancouver had gotten our hot and steamy weather. My brother Mike wouldn't let anyone in his house use the oven for over a month because it was too hot!

The festival days were great though, and people came out as always, to taste some delish Japanese food, watch some traditional and non-traditional Japanese entertainment and happily for us, do some shopping. Above are some of the artisans' tents; you can see how dry the grass is from lack of rain. My sister Nancy, who was also a vendor again this year, and I shared the corner white tent in the left of the photo - lots of traffic!

Here I am, behind my table, preparing someone's purchase, and below, you can see Nancy in action. She made some snazzy baby bibs to go with the adorable booties she did so well with last year; she also had some gorgeous scarves and tote bags, along with her lovely pearl jewellery.


Another shot of our tent...

And the entertainment... here's a duo from Okinawa, Japan, amazing costumes!

Kenny Endo's ensemble, from Hawai'i, with special guest Kaoru Watanabe of New York. A mind-blowing set!

Last year I had photos of little dogs in their finest festival wear. This year, this man came to my table and I had to take a picture. I had a good snicker, but I know if my cats would let me, I'd probably try this with them too. With Chibi and Ebi tho, not a CHANCE!

Final thing of note at this year's Powell Street Festival. Festivals are fun, right? The worst thing that could happen is a little sunburn, right?

Well, at Japanese festivals, people parade around hauling an omikoshi, or a portable Shinto shrine (supposed to carry some form of deity), and it's essentially a mini-building on huge pillars or beams. Festival goers line up under the beams to cart the omikoshi around and sometimes people stand on the shrine to challenge the carriers and shout out a rhythm or pace. My husband, Jean-François, volunteered his services this year - you can see him on the far right with the wide-open mouth, enthusiastically doing the peace sign.

J-F was quite a bit taller than most of the other omikoshi carriers, so he had to either bend forward a little, which was hard on his back, or bear much of the weight when he was standing up a bit straighter. He came back to see me and Nancy at our craft tables, his white t-shirt red with blood on his right shoulder. He had to go and see the medic, and altho he was embarrassed (had to happen to the tall white guy!), it was indeed, an impressive and rather icky wound. The top layer of skin was completely worn off!

Ewww! Owww! He had a hard time showering and sleeping for the next several nights, but it healed well. A memorable festival wound.

Back from the wild wild west...

I'm back home from my working holiday, and it was great. Got to see my two brothers and their families in British Columbia; my sister who lives in Alberta (the province just east of BC) totally shocked me by showing up with her gang! So nice to be with my family.

Embarassingly enough with my family as witness, this was the most badly organized I have ever been for any craft sales event, and I realize now it was my own fear that made me procrastinate so ridiculously. And although it was shameful to be so ill-prepared with them all watching, thank goodness I had so many helpers at my disposal! I had people gluing and glazing and cutting and punching holes and making knots. I wouldn't blame them if they combined forces to be my main competitor at a future craft show.

Surprisingly, my poor organization was rewarded with surpassed expectations in sales, contacts and positive feedback. Vancouver's Powell Street Festival is the largest Japanese Canadian festival in Canada, and I was absoultely amazed at the number of people who attended. And the food - the food was soooo good! I think it's the super-fresh salmon that really did it for me; I ate sockeye every chance I had! No salmon photos, but here's one of the takoyaki stand; takoyaki is a popular snack at Japanese festivals, or matsuri: little dough balls with chunks of octopus inside - delish! This was particularly impressive for numbers of takoyaki they were churning out!

Here is the omikoshi - a portable shrine that is hoisted above the shoulders of gutsy festival goers, who are encouraged and yelled at to keep going by the crowd and by the people standing on the shrine, making it even heavier...

We were kept pretty busy at my table, in a high-traffic area with lots of shoppers. Can you see me back there at my table ?

Here I am! I think I went to washroom once on the first day. My display was a little flat with everything laid out on one level on the table. I couldn't bring my display stands with me in my luggage, so I had to make do. Turned out alright though, and sales were great ☺

And here I am with my ichiban and most patient craft assistant, Jean-François.

I'll stop here and pick up again where I left off. From Vancouver, we went onto Nanaimo and then to Seattle....