Month: June 2017

Since I started hosting Sashiko workshops, I often hear the word of “Slow Living Lifestyle” from the people I met. The goal of my activities regarding Sashiko is simply to introduce Sashiko. I do not intend to advocate the importance of Slow Living Lifestyle throughout introducing Sashiko to the world. I just simply want to pass this beautiful handcraft culture to the next generation. However, I realize, in the result, I enjoy the Slow Living Lifestyle with Sashiko, by following the Sashiko tradition.

Regardless of my intention, since I am sharing the slow living lifestyle, I would like to learn about what Slow Lifestyle is.

I was longing to be the capitalist.

The world focuses on its speed. How fast you can reach the goal gets validated. The result is more valuable than the process.

In my 20’s, I wanted to be the capitalist. I wanted to invest my asset to the organization to make the world better. Innovation and Productivity were the keywords I focused on. I studied Business in the college. I worked hard without sparing the effort and time to require the necessary skill and asset to achieve my goal.

After several life-changing experiences, I end up with being a stay-at-home father to look after my daughter. Regardless of my shame to not to work, I couldn’t get a job because of my immigrant status. It was the only way to keep the family together, so I changed my mindset.

When you suffer from the fact of not getting any money coming in, you may focus on not spending money on things.

That’s how I started enjoying the home-making with DIY concepts. In addition to the regular house-making chores like cooking, cleaning, and laundry, I build the furniture, I repair things like auto, small appliances and such. It is completely the other side of being the capitalist. I am the labor. However, I enjoyed it a lot.

Instead of paying $138 to Toyota Dealer for headlight restoration, I could purchase a kit of DIY for #20 and complete it within a few hours. Some people say it is a waste of energy and professionals do better jobs. Some people like me may say that the I enjoy not only the result by my hands but also the process of learning the new things. I am not trying to make the argument of who is right or wrong. I would like to just share the other view of happiness in life.

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This life changing term reminds me that I was raised in the culture of “upcycle,” in Sashiko family.

Enjoying the Slow Living Lifestyle with Sashiko

I also start questioning if the human future with focusing on innovation and speed would provide us the happiness. The race will never end. Do human really need to leave part of a human who is not as productive and speedy as the rest of us?

Honestly speaking, I do not intend to advocate the Slow Living Lifestyle against to the current speedy life style. I enjoy the IT innovation and receive the benefit from mass-production. I don’t think I can go back to primitive lifestyle.

However, I would like to introduce the beauty of Slow Living Lifestyle throughout introducing what I can do, Sashiko.

We used to have Slow Living Lifestyle everywhere in the world. Boro wouldn’t be created if the mass-production benefited people 200 years ago. Throughout my life-work of introducing Sashiko, I will try my best to make a research on the Slow Living Lifestyle with Sashiko. Moreover, I would like to share the enjoyment with the Slow Licing Lifestyle with Sashiko.

The topic will continue. Come visit our website again.

A friend of mine asked me an interesting question regarding Sashiko. “What is the difference between learning Sashiko from professionals and teaching it to oneself?” Since my life was always surrounded by Sashiko, I wouldn’t come up with this good question by myself. I would like to share my opinion why learning sashiko from professionals is important.

Sashiko is simple, yet so many possibilities.

Sashiko is based on very simple Japanese style running stitching technique. It seems to be very simple, and in fact, the core technique is very simple. After taking a 3-hour long workshop for basic stitching, you would learn the core of Sashiko stitching mainly focusing on how to use Sashiko thimble and needles. In addition, here and there, if the one who graduated from one workshop would like to re-learn the Sashiko, joining another workshop to refresh the understanding would be a good idea. However, that’s about all. There is no need to spend a fortune of money to learn Sashiko like the other traditional art. If you want to earn some money, sites like 겜블시티 슬롯 might be worth your visit.

After learning the core techniques, it is up to you to expand your project.

Since the Sashiko is not yet systematic tradition, Sashiko professionals even do not know the whole history and technique of Sashiko. We, as Sashiko artists, are still in the process of learning Sashiko from different regions. There are so many more possibilities in Sashiko history and its future. Sashiko and Boro always surprise us when we find new culture art pieces like “Boro from the ground.”

*We define “professional” by “doing Sashiko for compensation.” We used to call us simply Sashiko practitioners. However, the artist we respected told us we should refer as Sashiko professionals since we receive money from customers.  

Then, why do you learn Sashiko from professions?

Join one of our Workshop. You will see Why Learning Sashiko would be a good idea.

The reason is the speed of Sashiko stitching you can learn from us. In order to make many Sashiko project, stitching one stitch by one stitch will not be good enough. We would need to make 10 to 30 stitches by one pushing. It is difficult to explain in the text. I upload some video to explain better. And the best way to learn how to use thimble and needle to speed up your stitching is to learn it by professionals in the hands-on workshops, face to face.

Take a look at this photo.

It is an example of workshop materials I offer in our Sashiko workshops. The fabric size is about the US Letter size. I have a question for you.

“How many hours would you need to make this pattern stitched?”

In order to keep Sashiko business alive in the market, we would need to complete the Sashiko within an hour. We cannot spend more than 3 hours on this stitching when we make the product. Otherwise, one Sashiko piece becomes $100 of worth and even more like $10,000 if the piece is big. When a person do Sashiko stitch by stitch, it would take more than 3 hours for sure. By learning how to use the thimble and needle, when you learned it and got used to the tequnique, you would be able to finish this pattern within 3 hours. The faster you can stitch, the more project you can enjoy. The more project you enjoy, the better your Sashiko stitching will be. In order to have the beautiful result in Sashiko, the even stitches are the key. By doing more Sashiko project, you would have more even stitches.

In summary, by learning Sashiko from professionals, you would learn how to make Sashiko stitching much faster, and in result, it will be much better stitching.

Although I have other small reasons why learning Sashiko from professional is beneficial, the main reason is the speed based on the technique how to use thimble and needle. I plan to upload more videos regarding Sashiko stitching, but the best and the most efficient way is to participate the workshop. You would get the follow-up support from me after meeting me in the workshop as well.

We have Sashiko workshop coming up on 6/24 and 6/25 in 2017, in West Village, NYC, the lower manhattan. I hope to meet anyone who is interested in Sashiko. I will show you, in person, how to do Sashiko and you will see why learning Sashiko professionals is beneficial. We will not disappoint you with the 3 hours/ $135 fee.