One of the best things to do on a cold day in the countryside is to cook up a feast with deliciously fresh mountain vegetables.
Kyoko gave me a couple of quick cooking lessons on making tempura and shabu shabu – yum…
Looking forward to learning how to cook lots of new things while here in Japan!
What is your favourite Japanese food?
Kyoko and Adachi in the jazz studio in their home – happy times!
When travelling in rural northern Japan we stayed a few days with some very old friends of mine. I still can’t quite believe how I met them. Let me explain…
Some 15 years ago, when I arrived in this remote snowy place, I had temporary accommodation for a couple of weeks but no place to stay after that. I had a job working as an interpreter for the local government, and the colleague who sat next to me turned out to be something of a fascinating enigma. Staid government worker by day, semi-pro jazz drummer by night (and racing driver in his early years!), he had invited me to one of his live gigs after work one day, but I declined, having already made plans to meet the person whose floor I was temporarily sleeping on.
After work I headed to the station to catch my train ‘home’ but missed it by a couple of minutes, and there was not another one for an hour. Hearing smooth jazz wafting over from a nearby café like steam off coffee on a cold day, I wandered over to wait it out in 1920s America. It was the cafe where my colleague was playing.
I was stood at the bar soaking up the atmosphere when the lead singer of the jazz band took a break and came over to get a drink. Her name was Kyoko, and she was a tiny ball of energy, with crazy curly hair like no Japanese woman I had ever seen, with kind eyes and an infectious smile. We got talking and within ten minutes she said “why don’t you come and live with me and my husband (Adachi, the bass player)?” Well, I thought, why not?
And so began an incredible adventure, living rent-free with this wonderful couple, in their house with a jazz studio and cocktail bar where we would host parties for all the foreigners within 50 miles, entertain jamming sessions twice a week and I would wake up on a Sunday to the sound of the grand piano. Some fifteen years later Kyoko and Adachi are still like family to me, they still play jazz, pass beers round and open their sliding doors to new friends with an openness which is quite astounding.
Two of the most generous souls I know. I wish you could meet them.
Just look at this work – isn’t it beautiful? British designer Helen Stevens is the talented surface pattern designer and illustrator behind the Surfacephilia brand.
Helen works through layering of illustration, collage and paintings with a unusual combination of geometrics and natural forms. We are thrilled that Surfacephilia is one of our fantastic contributors for the Surface Pattern Design E-course.
Surfacephilia has recently launched a new wallpaper collection and will be selling in Liberty’s of London. Helen’s designs have an uber cool edge with a level of beautiful detailed sophistication.
You can visit the Surfacephilia website HERE and connect on Facebook and follow on Twitter@surfacephilia.
We are jumping up and down with excitement over here – Rachael Taylor and I have decided to take the plunge and invest a significant amount (many thousands of dollars) in providing our pattern students with free access to industry leading trend forecasting website Stylesight! As the industry leader, Stylesight offers “visionary content and compelling technology for style, fashion and design professionals”. We met the team at the Indigo trade show in Paris back in February, and were blown away by what the site offers.
All students on Module 3 of The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design will be offered free access to the site for a limited period of time.
This means that if you join us you will have full access to ALL the site’s incredible resources including:
Drag and drop images directly from your Stylesight Workspace, the image library or your own desktop to create shareable presentations and trend boards.
… the ‘Clip’ tool…
Click on any image, anywhere on the web, and it instantly uploads to your Stylesight Workspace. Combine Stylesight’s content, your content and web content to suit your creative needs.
And ‘Color play’…
You can watch a video overview of Stylesight’s offerings here.
This was a significant investment for us, but we truly believe in the possibilities this course offers our students, and know that this is going to give them a huge boost as they travel the path to becoming professional surface pattern designers.
There is no other online course in the world offering this alongside the in depth industry insight and design guidance and inspiration offered in The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design. This access alone is worth many times the course price. Join us!
Module 3 has just begun but we have extended M3 registration until midnight GMT on Saturday (April 21) for any latecomers to make sure as many of you as possible can take advantage of this amazing opportunity. You can squeeze in if you hurry and register here – take the leap and make this investment in your own design career!
[All images in this post courtesy of Stylesight]
There was nothing but the sound of a waterfall, the wind in the trees, and our steps on the the rock as we climbed up the forested mountainside to Yamadera, a temple built close to the sky.
The last of the winter snow hugged the temple buildings, and the sun peeped through the clouds.
Up and up and up we climbed, hundreds of steps, thousands of breaths, drinking in fresh air and carrying big smiles.
We passed ornamental stone creations adorned with paper fortunes.
We met this little fella, and stopped for a chat.
On this weekday afternoon the place was deserted, and we were left free to climb and roam, and claim this wooden platform as our own. From high up on the rocks we stared out over the valley and soaked up the silence.
I love this place.
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If you fancy an adventure of your own, why not join me for the Do What You Love e-course? Find out more and register here!
As the second designer in this series highlighting talent from The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design e-course, I am excited to introduce you to Sian Elin. Sian is a fun, creative surface pattern designer and illustrator, who has “spent a lifetime seeing the world through pattern and colour; and observing how shape and form interact.’
There is a simple, naive beauty to her work that is so charming, and she clearly knows what she’s doing with a pen! To find out more about the designer or to see more work, check out her website.
We are pleased to announce that we are running a second series of the e-course! Join us and dive into the exciting world of surface pattern design! Find out more and register here.
About 400 years ago Matsuo Basho, the father of Japanese haiku, walked the long road north to Yamagata, a beautiful snowy part of rural Japan. When there he wrote this famous poem:
Shizukasa ya · Iwa ni shimiiru · Semi no koe
Silence · Penetrating the rocks · The cry of the cicada
It is a place I spent a happy year a decade ago, skiing, stumbling over the strong dialect, making friends, laughing and presenting my on TV show! We headed back to visit old friends and take in some of the lovely countryside… I will share some snippets over the coming days, before introducing you to our new home of Kyoto. Pop back tomorrow for a glimpse into this little known area of Japan…
Today’s shared story comes from Stephanie Gray, co-owner of Creative Nectar Studio – a safe haven for self-discovery.
I am finally doing it! I am living the life of my dreams by co-owning Creative Nectar Studio and sharing the gifts of process painting with those who are seeking greater authenticity.
It all began in 1998 when I attended my first process painting workshop with Sarah Oblinger. (Process painting means painting from the inside out. The idea is not to produce an end product that will hang on your wall, but to full engage in the creative process and honor howit wants to appear on the paper.) I was nervous about going because even though the description of the workshop clearly stated “no experience necessary”. I was still scared to look foolish. I had never taken an art class of any kind and I was sure my painting would be the worst. But something was stirred deep inside me at the possibility of it all. I had to try. Something shifted for me during that weekend workshop. The process had already begun working on me in very subtle ways.
There was something about the combination of Sarah’s soothing yet powerful questions she would ask when I became stuck in my painting and the magic of the creative process, that stayed with me weeks after I had left the workshop. I guess I really knew then that the process work would be with me for the rest of my life.
In less than a year I was helping Sarah with the studio prep work for her weekly classes and in turn I was able to paint at an affordable rate. Shortly after that a studio was built in the basement of my house and Sarah was holding weekly classes there. I discovered painting 2 to 3 times a week was knocking things loose for me and I was on my way to really getting to know myself. I also realized painting was providing me powerful tools I could take into my life away from painting. Although the studio in my basement was only open for a year, it was during that time.
I met my now business partner Jenny Hahn. She had been painting in the classes and her journey was knocking things loose for her too. She was unlearning what she was taught in art school and discovering how it felt to be spontaneous within the creative process.
Because the painting was in fact transforming me and the way I wanted to live my life, I ended up moving to California and sadly leaving the studio behind. I stayed in California a year but had to return home to Mission Kansas because it was becoming clear my father was very ill. That was the beginning of a very dark time for me. Within a 6 year period I lost my father to cancer, my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and in the middle of helping care for her my fiance left me. I was lost. Painting had fallen away because I was taking care of my mother, working full time and grieving the loss of my father and my partner. It seemed I didn’t have time to do anything else.
But at some point it became too much for me and I knew the thing that would help me most was to paint. Luckily, Jenny had a studio in her attic and she was offering classes. It was wonderful to reconnect with her and to paint with others again. I worked through my grief with paint and because we didn’t comment on each other’s paintings during a workshop, I felt free to paint whatever wanted to appear. Some images were sad and some were really dark but having the freedom to express them in a safe environment allowed things to shift over time and I painted through the grief. Jenny and I decided to facilitate a few Saturday workshops together in her attic and I think it was then that we started realizing how powerful this work was and that we needed to share it with as many people as possible.
Things didn’t happen overnight. We both had fulltime jobs and I still had a mother that needed lots of care. But 4 years and more life challenges later, we were both ready to take the leap of faith and do whatever it took to make the dream we had for Creative Nectar Studio a reality. Once I knew what I was supposed to do with my life, the old ways of being and moving through the world no longer worked for me, So I quit my job of almost 10 years. It helped that Jenny had done the same only a few months before me. I had a retirement fund I cashed in and , although i was very scared, I felt alive for perhaps the first time in my life. It’s been a year now that the studio has been open. Things are really starting to happen and although it can still get a bit scary at times, I know this is exactly what I am supposed to be doing with my life. Now days you can catch me telling anyone who will listen that if you have something inside you begging to be born and know it will set your heart on fire, you must do it. I have been supported in ways I could not have imagined after taking that first step. There can be challenges along the way. You must be prepared for some things and relationships to fall away as you grow into who you always knew you could be. But, the payoff of expressing your true self in the world is far too big to ignore.
“When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds: Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great, and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and your discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.” – Patanjali
To find out more about Stephanie visit her website or connect on Facebook or via Twitter @Creative_Nectar.
[Images courtesy of Stephanie Gray]
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Want to get closer to doing what you love? Why not join the transformational Do What You Love e-course, to identify your passion and make it a greater part of your everyday life? Find out more and register here.
We are thrilled to announce that one of our talented e-course students has been selected for the highly anticipated ‘Print & Pattern Kids’ book. A huge congratulations goes to Susan Lloyd!
We think Susan’s work is beautiful, contemporary & fresh. Rachael and I are like proud mamas!
Susan says, “I studied printed Textile Design at Loughborough University. After graduation I lived and worked in New York designing prints for the fashion, home and stationery markets, selling designs internationally.”
“I have exhibited at various trade fairs including Surtex, Printsource and Indigo.”
“I find inspiration in everything from fashion to nature to mid century design, vintage textiles and contemporary Illustration. I love to hand draw all the elements for my designs first before enhancing them within Photoshop and Illustrator.”
“I have a wishlist of companies I would love to collaborate with. I am currently building new ranges for my portfolio and building a brand new website for showcasing my designs”.
Susan now designs prints under the studio name ‘The Print Tree’, if you would like to get in touch with Susan you can email her at: [email protected]. You can also follow Susan on twitter @theprinttree.
Bonnie Christine (Image via Going Home to Roost)
Over the next few weeks and months I am going to share highlights of particular designers emerging from The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design course. Rachael Taylor and I have been absolutely thrilled by the quality of work, and are excited to see the class participants’ design careers unfold.
For the first in this series, I am thrilled to share the gorgeous work of Bonnie Christine. Bonnie’s work is fun, fresh, stunningly girly, and completely unique and personal to her.
Bonnie says, “I love to weave parts of my life into each pattern, with each one you see you will have seen a little piece of my life and heart. There’s something so meaningful in the way we decide to color our worlds.”
So inspiring! If you want to see more of her work you can check out her beautifully designed website or her stunning and quirky blog!
Inspired? Why not join us for The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design!
Class begins very soon… find out more and register here