Kyoto Backstreets: My Adventures in Ancient Craftsmanship in Japan
I just got back from the back alleys of Kyoto where I met wonderful people and got a chance to take an inside look on some of the best and most ancient craftsmanship the world has to offer.
- A family-run dye workshop that does all the hand dying for Issey Miyake. They use natural root vegetables, charcoal, coffee, and various indigenous plants, layering color on pre-worn and original fabrics to varied effect. He also employs ancient fabric cutting techniques mixing new technology with the ancient craft used for centuries. We sweat and fanned ourselves in a Kyoto workshop tucked away in one of the many back roads of Kyoto among rows of wood and clay houses. His daughter presided over boiling blue dye and his son’s voice could be heard from the back room. He told us his wife was also an artist. The reed thin, passionate, and kindly man took treated us as though we were the most important people in the world. We sipped iced coffee and poured over his portfolio books of sketches, fabric samples, ink drawings as the fan whirred offering us moments of cool air before oscillating around the room again. (In America, this would never happen. The person would be so protective of his work fearing imitation.)
- A young cobbler trained in ancient techniques with a store and workshop in a leafy residential neighborhood. He hand stitches an updated version of the Geta shoe (the thong slippers Geisha wear with socks, usually made of wood with blocks at the heel and toe to raise the height). His are a layering of visible structural materials on leather. I bought a pair he had in the workshop already. He makes only 30 pair a month because of the time it takes to cut the leather, to dye it with vegetable dyes, and to hand stitch the shoe.
- Tale of the Genji scrolls by Yamaguchi (a story originally written by a woman, Murasaki Shikibu 1000 A.D.)
I love Japan. I can’t stop thinking about it. It’s like a love affair you can’t forget and you are sure you will be right back. Well, maybe I won’t be right back – instead I’m headed to the Normandy coast and then probably London waiting for my next project to start. But I’ll be back. More on Japan later.
0 CommentsTenisha Anderson, Qlix Founder Talks Obama
I’ve been back from my studies in London for about 6 months now (returned to the good ole U S of A in November 2007) and I’m torn between whether I miss London or not and whether I am happy to be back in Chicago or not. Thus my life story…indecisive as hell. Living in London for the past in year and a half was interesting to say the least. Coming back to “The Chi” was once welcomed with open arms, but has now (after 6 months) as posed a challenge…I get bored very easily.t
However, right now in the American economy…I have done what very few immediate university graduates are able to accomplish and that is not only snag a job, but a job in the industry in which I received my degree. What a feat and something that I am extremely proud of and excited about.
Nevertheless, my excitement at the present time does not continuously lie within the joy of my jobs, as interesting as they may be (i.e. working in the advertising department for mags Maxim and Blender and freelancing as international editor for Papierdoll magazine), but my overt exuberance is towards the constant battle between Clinton and Obama for the Democrat nomination (pure entertainment) and the US Presidential election in November. For the first time in my 31 years of existence, I can honestly say that I feel like there is a candidate who is for all of us and not just pulling interest from those in my parents and grandparents generations. That I’m not choosing a candidate just because he/she is a democrat, but because I believe in this individual’s mantra to bring change and unity to this country.
History is being made, and to think at one time one would have thought hell would have to freeze over before seeing a woman or a person of color running for the highest office in the free land.
1 CommentTrailer: Women are Heroes
The Women Are Heroes project from Belgian ‘artivist’ JR and Médecins Sans Frontières (doctors without borders)
0 CommentsLiterary Frauds: Telling the real from the fake
Love and Consequences, another literary fraud? – How could Ms. Seltzer of Campbell Hall Episcopal Day School’s gang-banging story come off as so authentic that she would not only fool her respected agent, her reputable publisher –but also put blinding stars in the eyes of the editorial team that created the ridiculous (pre-revelation) feature story in the New York Times showing her in her Oregon kitchen in her post gang banging life? I can imagine the excitement in the photographer’s face as he tells her, ‘here, hold this red bandanna up to your (white suburban upper middle class) face’ for this gritty shot? Was Ms. Seltzer book deal and subsequent flurry of press the result of true and exceptional literary merit – that raw, honest, searing but yet lyrical truth telling, the tender unexpected revelations and intricacies of language that we all hunger for – or was it the shiny patina of sensationalism and buzz?
1 CommentTeen Girls Dominate Online, 2008
Research shows..the cyberpioneers of the moment are digitally effusive teenage girls….
Girls eclipse boys when it comes to building or working on Web sites for other people and creating profiles on social networking sites (70 percent of girls 15 to 17 have one, versus 57 percent of boys 15 to 17). Video posting was the sole area in which boys outdid girls: boys are almost twice as likely as girls to post video files.
…The “girls rule” trend in content creation has been percolating for a few years — a Pew study published in 2005 also found that teenage girls were the primary content creators — but the gender gap for blogging, in particular, has widened.
…even though girls surpass boys as Web content creators, the imbalance among adults in the computer industry remains. Women hold about 27 percent of jobs in computer and mathematical occupations, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In American high schools, girls comprised fewer than 15 percent of students who took the AP computer science exam in 2006, and there was a 70 percent decline in the number of incoming undergraduate women choosing to major in computer science from 2000 to 2005, according to the National Center for Women & Information Technology.
Scholars who study computer science say there are several reasons for the dearth of women: introductory courses are often uninspiring; it is difficult to shake existing stereotypes about men excelling in the sciences; and there are few female role models. It is possible that the girls who produce glitters today will develop an interest in the rigorous science behind computing, but some scholars are reluctant to draw that conclusion.
“We can hope that this translates, but so far the gap has remained,” said Jane Margolis, an author of “Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing” (MIT Press, 2002). While pleased that girls are mastering programs like Paint Shop Pro, Ms. Margolis emphasized the profound distinction between using existing software and a desire to invent new technology.
..The girls are much more into putting something up and getting responses.”
via New York Times 2008
0 CommentsWinner: Sustainable Bags from Ethiopia
Before What Women Make, I had a Webby nominated site called girlonthestreet.com. There was no blog software back in 1999 when I started it and I hand coded the entire site in HTML myself every time I wanted to update it. I thought I’d resurrect that site after going to work in advertising from 2004-2006 but I realized I’d changed a lot since then and Girl on the street gave way to What Women Make. In the interim before I discovered that, I rebuilt Girl on the street in 2007 for $3,000, an all flash site which was a complete waste (but very pretty). When it launched, I was asked to do a trend report for a jewelry site where I could give away a pair of earrings. I decided to look for the most creative entrepreneurial, high-quality ideas in design. It was hard to find people at first, I must admit but Makeda’s bags were a blend of two cultures – Ethiopian textiles (supporting craftsmanship in her native country) and fine Italian leather. Not only were they beautiful, but it was a business close to her heart. Unfortunately, she had to stop the project and go back to work but I’m confident she’ll find a way to have a creative business again one day. Here she is in her own words:
I was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in the 70s to a mother who was a flight attendant for Ethiopian Airlines and a father who was a record producer and entrepreneur. I emigrated to the United States in the 80′s and lived in Washington, DC, where there’s a thriving Ethiopian community, before moving to NYC in late 1998.
I worked in corporate media for a number of years, where I enjoyed my role and responsibility as web producer, writer, and television field producer. But I was eager and itching to find a new creative outlet, away from my Midtown office. So I started sketching and a lot of ideas emerged for a handbag line. Coincidentally, my mother has a wonderful sense of style and her closet happened to be full of vintage bags from the 70′s and 80′s.
I went to Ethiopia a year ago to visit my father and I was blown away by the textiles that I saw in the market and knew that I wanted to someday incorporate these textiles into a handbag.
In the fall of 2007, I finalized the four samples that I wanted to debut and began the process of launching Makeda Collection NYC in Brooklyn – a unique line combining colorful, patterned textiles from Ethiopia with leather. My inspiration was iconic, beautiful Africa. The creative process was unlike anything I had experienced in the corporate world and knew that I wanted to pursue it as a business venture. Interestingly, during my research into the leather industry, I discovered the environmental impacts of the leather tanning process, so I decided that my line would only use vegetable tanned leather and organic cotton. As a treehugger and a longtime pescetarian, it’s important for me to be environmentally-responsible. So I have made a commitment to use a green supply chain and services to reduce the company’s carbon footprint.
Additionally, I want consumers to be aware of the social and environmental challenges facing Africa. One of these challenges is access to clean water. In Ethiopia, 76 percent of the population doesn’t have access to clean water. In order to support the numerous charities that operate in Africa, I am planning to launch an e-commerce store where a percentage of the bag’s proceeds will go to various charities like Charity: Water and The Ethiopian Children’s Fund. I believe that consumers can have a direct role in helping to improve the lives of many with their purchasing power.
I debuted my Fall 2008 collection in February at Platform 2 New York, a ready-to-wear and accessories trade show. At this time, the bags are not sold in stores yet. My goal is to start manufacturing a limited quantity in Ethiopia. I’m fortunate to make it this far, especially with the support of family and friends. And I welcome the challenges in the future.
3 CommentsArt vs. Marketing
I used to think if I pursued art, it would be like spitting in the ocean. Who would care? Who would hear me? I told my 25 year old self, if you attach yourself to brands and big business, play not by the rules of making money, but in acknowledgment of them, you can get a word in edgewise. If you make art you’ll be like that hippy dancing in the crowd at a Phish concert with her eyes closed. (for me that’s a bad thing). You’ll be in your own art universe. And starving. It seemed to me: make your contribution quantifiable, make it count, make it consumable, make it tangible.
But that was then. Now everyone’s selling to one another.
‘Buy me’
‘No buy me’
‘Buy me!’
It’s another form of taking turns talking. It seems pointless. All this clever stealth marketing is zapping creativity from the creative population. Everybody has an agenda.
How can anybody even see?
I went onto a Paris hipster site tonight someone sent me to learn more about the FIAC art fair going on here this weekend. On the site, famous Paris personalities listed their favorite spots here. Of course an actress listed a regular movie theater that will be debuting her movie and another woman talked about a store that carried her clothes. Give me a break.
When I hosted a panel of marketers at a conference last year, I carefully planned out questions that would probe the evolution of online marketing but my guests got up and one by one plugged their brands, products, and websites. At one point, one of the panelists hijacked the whole thing by standing up in the middle of the thing to click through a powerpoint of his companies services! Something I explicitly told him not to do. It was the Jerry Springer of Marketing Panels. Each one, especially the young guns, got up to outshout the other.
Sometimes what used to excite me about the entrepreneurial spirit of the creative class is starting to look like the spit of a thousand jaded and corporate-ized cool kids sinking into the ocean. They are turning into the monsters they were running from.
No matter what you do for $$$, if you commit yourself to art, your art, as few people as there might be who see it, you can rest assured that you are actually saying something that is not related to a consumable, profitable, interchangeable, extinguishable, questionable, suspicious, depleting thing. It’s something actual. Something human. something flawed and living. Something that means something, even if it means something to 5 people or 2 or just you.
I’m not being idealistic. We have to make money. We have to produce food and machinery and fashion and ipods and shoes and beverages and hand soap. I just think we need to do have some separation again of church and state. The French seem to still be able to do both but that capacity is diminishing. The production of free time that we’ve nurtured seems to be actually just the production of more work time. If you want to discuss this, I’ve formed a What Women Make group on LinkedIn. Look it up and ask to join.
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