Learning to create
I was a hyperactive five year old in contrast to her stoic calmness but the moment she told me to notice in which hands she held the knitting needles and to pay attention to how she wrapped the yarn around the wooden points I was hooked.
My love for handmade clothing and accessories starts with a book purchased at our local Japanese supermarket. In the beginning of this book were pictures sent in by readers showing scenes they had created for their Japanese Barbie dolls. They had used ordinary household items and transformed them into amazing miniatures; an egg carton cut up and made into hats, an old milk carton papered and made into a closet! Miniature jewelry made out of miscellaneous buttons and plates made out of bottle caps. It was so much more inspiring than going to the toy store and buying the snap off one color plastic accessories for American Barbies. My mother gave me fabric from the end of dresses or old curtains and helped me to sew one of a kind garment for my dolls and wire to bend into doll sized hangers.
Nowadays I love taking broken and discarded jewelry or clothes and turning them into something new. I’ve continued knitting and my collection of yarn is prolific in two countries.
My love for handmade clothing and accessories starts with a book purchased at our local Japanese supermarket. In the beginning of this book were pictures sent in by readers showing scenes they had created for their Japanese Barbie dolls. They had used ordinary household items and transformed them into amazing miniatures; an egg carton cut up and made into hats, an old milk carton papered and made into a closet! Miniature jewelry made out of miscellaneous buttons and plates made out of bottle caps. It was so much more inspiring than going to the toy store and buying the snap off one color plastic accessories for American Barbies. My mother gave me fabric from the end of dresses or old curtains and helped me to sew one of a kind garment for my dolls and wire to bend into doll sized hangers.
Nowadays I love taking broken and discarded jewelry or clothes and turning them into something new. I’ve continued knitting and my collection of yarn is prolific in two countries.
