Discontinued Items

We received a notice from Japan that there are some discontinued TENUGUI items. ”Discontinued” means that they've stopped making it, so once they run out of stock, we can’t order these again.

Theatre

City (cloudy day)


They are two of our favourites, so we'll try to restock one last time but we might not be able to do that. We currently have 2 Theatre (+1 Theatre lampshade) and 2 City (cloudy day) left in our stock, so if they are on your wish list, be quick!

New item: swallow and hydrangea

My most favourite flower is hydrangea. When I was little, it wasn’t my favourite because it’s a flower of the rainy season in Japan. I didn’t like my rain boots sticking around my thighs and making red marks. I also didn’t like wet socks and I didn’t like my brand new notebook getting wet in my bag. But when I did an emergency teacher job in Ballarat, one of the teachers gave me a hydrangea from her garden for a farewell – I was there for a month, and it was really beautiful. Ever since then, it became my favourite. One Aussie lady taught me the beauty of this flower.

See the product

New colours and patterns for CHAIR Zabuton

We have new colours and patterns for our CHAIR Zabuton. It's great, colourful and comfy Christmas gift for the home, work, the kids, friends and family. Great for everyone!

http://www.nunoandstitch.com.au/zabuton

Nico's 1st Birthday

Yesterday was such a wonderful day for us! It was our special boy's 1st birthday. We had a breakfast celebration at home and sang "happy birthday" at 8.20am sharp, which was the time Nico was born. We invited Paul's parents, his sister and Nico's little cousin, Luca. We prepared all the food and room decorations the night before. Nico's smashing cake was pancake stacks with yoghurt and cream.

we prepared everything the night before

Nico enjoyed balloons in his cot in the morning!

musical band TENUGUI became a bunting!

I used this origami (click!) from nuno and stitch to make a high chair bunting...

Pancake "cake" and Musical band washi tape cake bunting!

Nico smashed the cake!

After his morning sleep we went to Melbourne aquarium. We were thinking to take Nico to either the zoo or aquarium, but we're glad that we chose the aquarium. Nico loved seeing the lovely coloured fish, and big sharks and stingrays. First we put him in his pram, but soon he started to march around himself.

They loved the huge tank!

I almost cried when I saw him enjoying himself!

Nico is also really enjoying the new toys he got from his grandparents and aunties. Our present for him is not a toy this year. We have a weekend party tomorrow so we asked our photographer friend to come and take photos. He won't remember his first birthday himself, so we wanted all these special memories to be captured by a professional photographer. I can't wait to share the photos here!

He loves all the toys he got

Today has been a very busy day preparing food and some other stuff for tomorrow's party. I thought I wouldn't have time for this blog...but oh well, I made it!

With love,
Allie

My favourite things- Musical Band TENUGUI‏

"Yonagado"TENUGUI (musical band blue) $24.20

When I saw this TENUGUI, it gave me some inspiration for Nico's first birthday theme.
It's "Animal Party!". When he was a kid, Paul always thought that dogs were boys and cats were girls... Do you agree? Paul does look like a doggie sometimes and he thinks I look like a cat. Our Nico is a boy, but somehow he doesn't look like a dog. He's more like a monkey. So this animal theme will match with this animal family.

When I order TENUGUI from Japan and see it in real life,
I always think that they are much nicer than they looked in the photos!

This musical band TENUGUI also looked much better in real life and I really wanted to use this for Nico's birthday...but how?? Well, I'll show you everything after his birthday. It's a little secret for now.

ONGAKUTAI Washi tape (blue) $4.95

There is washi tape in the same print too! This will be Nico's signature washi tape.




Our little monkey boy will be 1 tomorrow.

It has been really wonderful to be his mummy for 1 year. He gave us lots of smiles and happiness. We sometimes can't believe how lucky we are. He still wakes up 3 times at night and sometimes I struggle to get up in the cold and dark, but I'm so happy that I can do something for him. He's such a great boy. Thank you Nico for choosing us as your parents;-)

With love,
Allie

KOKESHI doll

 

 

Kokeshi dolls are originally from the Tohoku region of Northern Japan. They are made from wood and are painted one by one by Kokeshi artists. All the face expressions and floral patterns on their body differ, depending on the area they are made.

Kokeshi doll TENUGUI (green) $24.20

They were popular as girls' toys when they were originally made but now are more popular for collectors. Their expressions are subtle, but somehow make you feel comfortable and happy! Enjoy our KOKESHI items at your home.

Check out our KOKESHI doll collection here!

Spring is here!

Spring is here!

Check out our new yellow lace TENUGUI .

We've also made yellow lace CHAIR Zabuton .

These are great for brightening your interior decoration, sewing something new or just about anything!


I hope this lovely TENUGUI will inspire you;)


With love,

Allie

Attractive tenugui world -local TENUGUI

I bought this lovely TENUGUI when I went to Nara with Paul in 2011 and it is one of my "takaramono" (treasures). I love Nara’s TOKAE lantern festival held in August and wanted to take Paul there. During this festival, the town of Nara is lit up with lovely lanterns.

Pretty much everyone who is walking around the town will dress up in summer Kimono, called yukata, during this festival. To get into the atomosphere ourselves, we booked this yukata rental place. She sells antique kimono and her modern mix sense is really gorgeous. I picked a yukata and she chose all the other small parts, including obi (kimono sash) to match and put it on me. I really loved it!

 

 

We had a great time in Nara visiting my favourite temples like Todaiji Nigatsudo and Hase dera. We really loved riding bicycles around the Nara machi area too.

For our memory of this trip, we got this TOKAE TENUGUI. Although I keep this in my drawer now, I used to put this TENUGUI in my glass top coffee table and I really enjoyed it. (Unfortunately I don’t have the coffee table anymore.)

TENUGUI is something you can get at many tourist spots in Japan. Each place has their own original TENUGUI. It’s thin, light and easy to carry… Some people collect all the different local TENUGUI. Last time when we went to Japan, we saw this TENUGUI (twitter) at Hamarikyu-garden kiosk and I nearly bought it!



If you have any plans to go to Japan, I recommend that you check all these local TENUGUI.  Maybe you can become a TENUGUI collector!



With love

Allie

The attractive TENUGUI world –TENUGUI history

For the last two weeks on Fridays, I wrote about how I got interested in TENUGUI and my TENUGUI making experience in Japan. Today I will write about TENUGUI history. Some of this information is also on my website at nuno and stitch, but I think it's so fascinating that I wanted to share it here too, as well as a little about my own history with TENUGUI.

image from Wikipedia

The history of TENUGUI dates back almost 1300 years. They used to be made from hemp or silk and were mainly used for religious rituals. Back then, Japan imported cotton from China, making it an even more luxurious commodity than silk. About 400 years ago Japanese people started to cultivate their own cotton. Cotton kimono and cotton TENUGUI became very popular. In those days, many people used TENUGUI when going to the public baths, to cover their head from dust, or as a sweat towel.

 

image from Wikipedia

As TENUGUI became more popular, people started to care more about the designs too. There was a TENUGUI design competition called "Tenugui- Awase" and a special dyeing technique called "Chusen" was developed to create colourful TENUGUI.

 

When I grew up, my family used TENUGUI just as hand towels. They were usually a pretty plain mameshibori (navy dots) pattern or had newspaper or insurance company names on them. (Those companies often used TENUGUI as a novelty). But now TENUGUI have changed to become something much more attractive. There are so many colours and designs! Some of them are so artistic that you can just put them on your wall for decoration.

 

image from Wikipedia

TENUGUI have been much loved by Japanese people for a long time. It’s handy. It dries quickly and it’s hygienic. It's very versatile and easy to store. The more you use it, the softer it gets. You can also enjoy the changing colours after washing it.  It would be lovely if they are loved by people in Australia too!

 

With love,

Allie

Hello! Musubi-Tie-Pin

I've been waiting for this time for so long – the time I can introduce these cute bow ties to you! These colourful bow ties are not just cute, but help people in need and are valuable in many ways.

→　shop now!

Only one in the world

These bow ties are made with the offcuts of TENUGUI, so when I order these from Japan, I cannot really choose the patterns. If I order 10, I will get 10 different bow ties. Once each one is sold, I can never get the same one again. That makes these more special and unique!

Helping others 

People with disabilities, who work in a welfare office in Tokyo, sew these bow ties one by one. If you look at these closely, you’ll see the beautiful sewing and craftsmanship. In making these, they can also develop and diversify their skills, enabling them to make a wider range of products.

Admiring Japanese tradition and craftsman’s skills

A part of the money from this project also goes to the "Ancient craftsman foundation”, which helps training in craftsmanship in Japan. In purchasing this product, you are also helping to ensure that traditional Japanese craftsmanship is handed down to the next generation. 

 This bow tie comes with a clip, so you can put them on pretty much everything and anything. You can also swap this clip with another pin or your hair pin too. If you get one of these, all of your family can use it, not just as a bow tie, but also as a hair accessory or a brooch!

I hope you like it:)

With love,

Allie

The attractive TENUGUI world - CHUSEN

Last week on Friday, I wrote about how I became interested in TENUGUI. This week, I’d like to share my TENUGUI making experience in Japan:-)

When I started to learn about TENUGUI, I was of course also interested in how TENUGUI were made. Originally I had thought they were machine printed like other fabrics, handkerchieves and those sorts of things, but was surprised to learn that they were hand dyed. 

measure out each TENUGUI and put a dye-resistant paster on each section

I found a TENUGUI making workshop in Tokyo, so I booked it and went there with my old university friend. Our instructor of the day was a young girl. I didn’t ask her background, but I was pretty impressed that a young Japanese girl was succeeding in the traditional Japanese TENUGUI making method of “CHUSEN”. (or maybe she was brought up with it…) 

make a guard with special paste around each pattern to prevent the dye from flowing into other areas

At the start, we watched a short video about TENUGUI making. More typical looking old craftsmen were showing their work and techniques. I could see how experienced they were and how much pride they took in their work. We have a word to describe a well-trained craftsman in Japan - it’s “shokunin”. When Paul and I were once talking about the word “craftsman”, we found that we had quite different images for the meaning, but then I found that the right translation for ‘shokunin’ is not really ‘craftsman’.  I came across this explanation:

pour the dye using special pot called "Yakan" or "Dohin"

The Japanese word shokunin is defined by both Japanese and Japanese-English dictionaries as ‘craftsman’ or ‘artisan,’ but such a literal description does not fully express the deeper meaning. The Japanese apprentice is taught that shokunin means not only having technical skills, but also implies an attitude and social consciousness… The shokunin has a social obligation to work his/her best for the general welfare of the people. This obligation is both spiritual and material, in that no matter what it is, the shokunin’s responsibility is to fulfill the requirement.

— Toshio Odate

 I realise now that the people I saw in the short video were not just ‘craftsman’, but ‘shokunin’. 

our instructor was a young girl!

After watching the video, we experienced each process of TENUGUI making. We started by putting a dye-resistant paste on each cloth over a mould of the design, making a guard with another special paste around each pattern, pouring the dye using special pot and washing off the dye-resistant paste. (Please see how TENUGUI are made here)

washing off the dye-resistant paste

When the instructor was showing us how to do it, it looked quite easy, but when I experienced it, I found it quite difficult. Especially when putting the dye-resistant paste on the cloth, if you are not pressing a wooden spatula onto a cloth evenly, some parts get more paste and that can change the result. Pouring dye is also tricky - when you want to express a lovely gradation in the colour, you have to hold two pots in each hand and pour two different dyes at the same time. 

this MANGA explains how to make CHUSEN TENUGUI A typical Japanese way of learning!

Temperature, humidity, and the timing of when the ‘shokunin’ stops pouring their dye, all these small things can make a difference in each TENUGUI. That’s why each TENUGUI is unique!

soft line of CHUSEN TENUGUI

These days when I receive TENUGUI products from Japan, now I appreciate the different aspects a lot more - in the colour gradation, bleeding and soft lines of each TENUGUI, I can feel the shokunin’s pride there. 

the colour bleeding is also its charm

If you find a very cheap TENUGUI, it might not be made by this traditional Chusen method. I have often seen TENUGUI at a 100 yen shop (like a dollar shop!) in Japan. If you kinda like the pattern and want to use it without worrying about how to care for it, this can be okay. 

the colour gradation

But if you want to get a traditional TENUGUI, make sure you check the back of it. The back of machine printed TENUGUI is plain, but for CHUSEN TENUGUI, you cannot really tell which is the front or back, because the both sides are dyed. This is another difference between Chusen and other dying methods, like screen printing - all these details make me appreciate TENUGUI and the work of the shokunin masters more and more.

this is NOT CHUSEN

Do you want to learn a little bit more about TENUGUI? I will write about the history of TENUGUI next week! 

With love Allie

The attractive TENUGUI world -how I got interested in TENUGUI

 

OK, so I’m often talking about TENUGUI here and there, but you might be wondering..."What is TENUGUI?"

For the next few weeks on Fridays, I'm going to share my story and knowledge about TENUGUI. At the start, I will write about how I became attracted to the world of TENUGUI.

When I was younger, I had received a couple of TENUGUI as gifts. I grew up in Japan, so obviously I knew how to use them...in traditional way. Yes, it's a hand towel used for wiping! But the ones I got from my friends were a bit too nice for that, so I didn't know what to do and just kept them in my drawers for years.

One day, I got an idea to make a bag using one of those TENUGUI. After Nico was born, I started to carry a big bag that could fit all his baby goodies inside, but I realised that I didn't need to carry this big bag all the time. When I got out from the car to get some stuff from shops, we didn't need all the baby stuff, so I wanted to leave the big bag in the car and just take my wallet and mobile. I needed a small bag for that purpose, so I made this. 

I always really liked this print and thought it would make a lovely bag. Although the pattern was great, the material for this particular TENUGUI was extra soft gauze, so it became a bit weak to hold heavy things - I can still use this for other purposes though!

Now I know a bit more about TENUGUI, so if I'm making another bag, I'll put a liner inside and make the handle part with stronger materials. The great thing was that I realised that using TENUGUI as a fabric is pretty unique and interesting. There are so many fabrics if you go to Lincraft or Spotlight, but sometimes it's difficult to find a lovely, unique pattern.

This is how I initially became interested in TENUGUI. But I discovered its real charm when I went to Japan and experienced the TENUGUI-making process.

Next week, I will write about my TENUGUI-making experience. Stay tuned!

Have a lovely weekend. xxx

With love
Allie