Reading in English and Ojimi

I enjoy reading and always have a book in progress, in English, of course. There aren’t many options for reading in English in Hokkaido.  Here, I can’t even read the directions on the bag of rice.

I brought a couple of paperback books from the US to read on the plane.  I finished the Nancy Grace mystery on the trip, then finished the book about Abe Lincoln after getting here.

The University Library has a room for newspaper reading and one of the many available papers is in English.

I recently discovered my iPod has the iBooks app and I am able to download books. You can purchase books, or (if you are cheap, like I am) you can get the free books.  There are a lot of the classics (available for free), that either I read a long time ago or have meant to read.  There are also a lot of newly published authors available for free. Each iPod page is about one fifth of a regular book page, so you have to turn a lot of pages, but I won’t complain.  They are books in English.

Ojimi

Here is a photo of the designer/teacher of this piece, with her finished Ojimi at the Lousiville National Seminar. The piece is stitched on 32 count antique white Belfast linen, with three black silk threads (Soie Perlee, Soie 100/3, and Soie de Paris) and #5 Japanese gold,0023 gold thread, and Krienik gold couching thread.

Carolyn Standing Webb

This blackwork piece is modeled after the Japanese carved ojimi beads. I should have taken better notes in the class, but here’s what I remember about it. Kimonos did not have pockets, so women had little carved containers that hung off their sashes to hold their stuff. Silk cording held the container together and had a large carved bead at the end.  The ojimi was a smaller bead between the container and the end bead that kept the container closed. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong about this.

I have completed stitching the seven blackwork beads and still need to stitch the tassels on both ends as well as the cording (more couching!) between the beads. If I work on it for more than a minute or two, I might be able to finish it.