Asian Art Museum: Craft Warriors

Thursday APRIL 18, 2013  (5:00pm-9:00pm) 

Join me for an evening of crafting at the Asian Art Museum as I team up with a group of talented artists Emiko Oye, Ealish Wilson, Kathryn Kenworth to teach various techniques in our respective specialties to create armors and jewelry inspired by the popular Terra Cotta Warriors Exhibit!
Come see how discarded and repurposed materials can be transformed to fashion armors and other
artifacts mirroring the vision of the first Emperor of China himself!

It'll be a fun workshop evening of serious crafting, drinks, music, photo booth and inspired
creations.  Click here to RSVP and for more information:  Craft Warriors 

Asian Art Museum
April 18, 2013
5-9pm

by Megumi
inspired by Ealish Wilson 

American Craft Council: Library Card Project

Received word that my Library Card Project was featured on the American Craft Council
Website!  Hats off to American Craft Council Librarian Jessica Shaykett and Elizabeth Ryan Interactive Media Specialist for instigating this project and for their dedicated work in bringing it to life --igniting dialogue about the role of libraries, reuse and also for inspiring creativity in artists/makers. LOVE this project~

Read more about this project
INTERVIEW 

American Craft Council: Library Card Project
Gift Packaging: Tribute to Librariesby Megumi 

Library Card Inspired Dress
by Jewelry Designer and Wearable Art Maker Vanessa Waliko

LOVE IT!!  

Tribute to Old Library Cards

Being at the library for me was a sanctuary, a place not only to get your books and explore other
worlds but also a quiet place to escape.  It's the place where many creative ideas were incubated.
Only now in its absence I miss so much the card catalogs-beautifully typed, organized and displayed.  Much work and thought went into this filing system. I feel somehow a whole world having disappeared. If one could only imagine the excitement- as if I won the lottery- when I was volunteering for a school art auction project with my friend and the teacher asked if I would like to have a box of old library cards in the basement about to be tossed out. (THANK YOU Mr. Galvin! ) It was a treasure box for me.  It was meant to be in my hands to be restored, redistributed or otherwise just appreciated.  I gave them out to friends, donated a boxful to my favorite reuse center in San Francisco. Over the holidays I made little artpieces out of the old cards to put on gift boxes with high hopes they would be saved and generate the kind of emotion and nostalgia they did for me.
Here's to memories of the good old days...

Sharing my nostalgic "winning" of old library cards  with friends and
Scrap (reuse center for artists) in San Francisco 

My 2012 Holiday Tribute to the Library Card Catalog 

Japanese New Year Tradition (2013)

Happy New Year 2013!  New Years morning is something I look forward to every year. As far back as I can remember, it's been a tradition growing up celebrating the New Year (Oshogatsu in Japanese) with symbolic foods- ozoni soup (rice cake in fish broth with vegetables); kuri kinton (mashed sweet potatoes with chestnut) symbolizing gold, wealth, prosperity;  kuromame- sweet black soybeans for hard, industrious work and good health; and namasu- seasoned carrot and daikon signifying a strong foundation for family.  My mother passed away years ago but this tradition lives on through my mother in law Kyoko who is a wonderful cook.  While I've made some of the dishes in the past,  this year we cooked everything together and I am officially certified to take this on hereafter and pass it on to my children. I learned all of the dishes from the very best teacher. It's incredible to learn just how much work and hours goes into every detail.   Like gift wrapping, thought behind presentation is of value as the feelings behind the meal is expressed visually.  One of the many traditional influences passed down through the generations...

My family's  Japanese New Year Table
2013 

Memories of my Mother who brought lacquerware from Japan
that we use every New Year

My children receive "otoshidama" money envelope from their grandparents -
a Japanese New Years custom 

Making Mochi (Japanese rice cake) with my daughter
Melanie and Grandmother Kyoko 

The Gift of Handmade Inspiration

Celebrating the last days of 2012 December with a cold.  Wrapped in a blanket with some tea, I'm going through the trailers of the creative artist instructors on CreativeBug.  Their stories reveal the soul behind the craft works of the "makers" and so beautifully shot that it's not only a visual treat but like a good book, it brings you into another world, a new way way of seeing things, inviting you to take a journey into the magical world of handmade creativity.  I invite everyone to treat themselves and explore taking up a new craft in 2013-- learn to knit, sew, embroider or book bind as I plan to do.
Start with the free classes being offered for a limited time on Creativebug.com to get started.  Just a sampling.... I have a free class going on as well.

Paste Paper with Courtney Cerruti
http://www.creativebug.com/instructors/courtney-cerruti

Luminaria Candle Shades with Kelly Wilkinson
http://www.creativebug.com/instructors/kelly-wilkinson-5

Repurposed Bow with Megumi Inouye
http://www.creativebug.com/instructors/megumi-inouye

Embroidery Sampler with Rebecca Ringquist
http://www.creativebug.com/instructors/rebecca-ringquist

Kinokuniya Bookstore Demonstration/Workshop

It's no surprise that December would be a scheduled packed month for a gift wrapper and 2012 was no exception. I've not posted a blog since November!  Thank you to all - friends and family too- that came out for my Repurposed Holiday Bow Demonstration/Workshop at Kinokuniya Bookstore on Friday December 14th in San Francisco's Japantown!  I was invited as their guest artist to help launch their community building public offering series.   Great idea for bringing people together!
Had fun showing the public how to tranform scrap strips of paper (even origami and washi strips) into a holiday gift bow. The big hit for the young girls was making bows from old recycled Japanese Anime Magazines.  Save those old magazines- there is a new life for them awaiting.

SCRAP ART: Creative Reuse Exhibit

"Materials, like people, have the potential for multiple destinies..."

Megumi L.  Inouye

"I search A r T: Repurposed Gift Wrapping"

SCRAP ART: Creative Reuse Exhibit
December 1-January 9 2012

Arc Studios and Gallery

San Francisco 

(Click to view details) 

I'm not only honored but excited to share the news.  My gift wrapping artwork was selected to be a part of the "SCRAP ART: Creative Reuse" Exhibit!  I had fun converting old mailing envelopes, ledger paper, maps, recycled catalogs and file folders into wrapping bows!  I want to encourage everyone to visit the gallery and see the show as it will feature many other San Francisco Bay Area artists who repurpose materials for their art.  It's going to be an inspiring exhibition to get everyone thinking about reusing materials in a new way!  Let's show our support to the exhibition organizers SCRAP, a non profit creative reuse center in San Francisco whose existence breathes new life into old objects and reduces waste by diverting over 200 tons of materials heading to the landfill every year!   Hope to see you at the preview reception for those in town!  (A special thank you to my husband Doug who helped me with the challenging task of mounting my boxes to a frame which too was a Scrap purchase! )

Featured Works of Friends in the Exhibition 

Don't miss seeing.... 

Monica Lee's Book Cake 

Dorothy Yuki's Map Centerpiece