This adorable little kokeshi doll is by Linda Kentie of Oranda Kitsuke. Several years ago, she was creating these precious little gifts for facebook friends whenever their birthdays rolled around. I’ve been meaning to share mine for years, and I finally remembered to do so! She did a wonderful job of re-recreating my first-ever kimono outfit. She also knows how much I love all things cephalopod and included the sweet little pink octopus on my head! I love this art so much. <3
Category: Art Gallery
Art Gallery – Memento Mori
This is a very special piece. My friend Olga K, an incredibly talented and creative illustrator, decided to draw something inspired by my kimono obsession, but with plenty of room for experimentation and personal expression. I love this piece so much, all the depth and colour of it, and how Olga put her own personal twist on the outfit while still keeping a very clear stylistic connection to traditional kimono and Japanese arts. Every time I look at it, I notice new details that I hadn’t seen previously.
It may not be typical kimono artwork, but I think it’s all the more special because of that.
Art Gallery – Sherlock Fan Artwork
This is a bit of a departure from my usual content in this section. Typically, the Art Gallery posts are reserved for traditional art or art I’ve received of myself in kimono and you’ve probably noticed this is neither 😉
One thing you may not know about me is that I am a huge fan of Sherlock, the BBC’s modern Sherlock Holmes remake. A while ago, a fan group I’m in arranged a challenge to re-imagine the main characters in a different time or cultural setting, so I did both. I had fun trying to keep the general feel and colour scheme of their clothing without making it feel overly anachronistic. And of course John Watson’s Sig Sauer P226R has been replaced with a set of swords.
And yes, that is my tumblr URL along the side. Feel free to follow me, but it’s a very incoherent blend of personal posts, fandom things, cute animals, and food posts. Nothing remotely like this blog.
Art Gallery – Vintage Woodblock Prints
A few years ago on my birthday, I went to dinner with my folks and some family friends. I had a wonderful time, the food was delicious, and I got some lovely gifts.
Leslie is the daughter of my father’s godmother. Bear with me, I know this is starting to sound like the beginning of an urban legend, but it is well and truly relevant. My grandmother and I share a birthday, and I believe inherited a lot of my fascination with the Japanese aesthetic from her. Her apartment was so tastefully furnished and had a lot of beautiful Japanese antiques and art pieces. I think they had a profound impact on me when I was a young girl, more so than I realized until recently. Kay, Leslie’s mother, was my grandmother’s dear friend when they were young, and was my father’s godmother. Leslie is family, even though not related by blood.
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Kay purchased these beautiful woodblock prints while travelling in Japan with my grandmother many years ago. As far as I can tell, they were carefully lifted from a hand-bound book, each one has holes along one end of the page. The labels on the backs of the frames credit them to Utagawa Kunisada and date them to the mid-1800s. I have been unable to find other copies of these two prints anywhere on the internet so I can’t back the veracity of the claims, but they seem reasonable.
Imagine my shock when Leslie passed these on to me for my birthday, knowing how touched I would be, and how much I would appreciate them. All the gifts I got were incredibly thoughtful and I appreciated them all, but I was well and truly flabbergasted by these two simple but beautiful prints, due to the way they tied so many facets of the relationship between Leslie, her mother, my grandmother, and myself together so beautifully.
Art Gallery – Beautiful traditional-style digital artwork
I paid more for this (in Gaia Online game currency) than I generally would for a commission, but Lutherum‘s style and skill level were absolutely perfect for what I had in mind. He did an incredible job of replicating all the details of the outfit, especially considering how ornate and fussy this particular kimono is. He was also already familiar with proper kimono and kitsuke, so I didn’t have to explain details or anything, which was nice. I also really love how the artist merged his own personal style with a more traditional sumi-e painting style, and sort of desaturated the colours to give the piece a more cohesive feel.
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Blogroll
Bebe Taian
CHOKO Blog- Just Another Kimono Blog
- KaranKoron Dori
- Kimono & Coffee
- Kimono and Kitsuke
- Kimono Daisuki
- Kimono Life
- Kimono no Kokoro
- KimonoTEKA
- Red Delilah's Kimono Ai
- SAKE, KIMONO, and TABI
- Salon De Happiness
- Shakunetsu no Kimono
- Silk & Bones
- SiRe's Kimono Blog
- Strawberry Kimono
- Tansu Flowers
- The Kimono Lady
- YokoDana Blog
Japanese Culture
Vendors
Art Gallery – Memento Mori
This is a very special piece. My friend Olga K, an incredibly talented and creative illustrator, decided to draw something inspired by my kimono obsession, but with plenty of room for experimentation and personal expression. I love this piece so much, all the depth and colour of it, and how Olga put her own personal twist on the outfit while still keeping a very clear stylistic connection to traditional kimono and Japanese arts. Every time I look at it, I notice new details that I hadn’t seen previously.
It may not be typical kimono artwork, but I think it’s all the more special because of that.
Art Gallery – Sherlock Fan Artwork
This is a bit of a departure from my usual content in this section. Typically, the Art Gallery posts are reserved for traditional art or art I’ve received of myself in kimono and you’ve probably noticed this is neither 😉
One thing you may not know about me is that I am a huge fan of Sherlock, the BBC’s modern Sherlock Holmes remake. A while ago, a fan group I’m in arranged a challenge to re-imagine the main characters in a different time or cultural setting, so I did both. I had fun trying to keep the general feel and colour scheme of their clothing without making it feel overly anachronistic. And of course John Watson’s Sig Sauer P226R has been replaced with a set of swords.
And yes, that is my tumblr URL along the side. Feel free to follow me, but it’s a very incoherent blend of personal posts, fandom things, cute animals, and food posts. Nothing remotely like this blog.
Art Gallery – Vintage Woodblock Prints
A few years ago on my birthday, I went to dinner with my folks and some family friends. I had a wonderful time, the food was delicious, and I got some lovely gifts.
Leslie is the daughter of my father’s godmother. Bear with me, I know this is starting to sound like the beginning of an urban legend, but it is well and truly relevant. My grandmother and I share a birthday, and I believe inherited a lot of my fascination with the Japanese aesthetic from her. Her apartment was so tastefully furnished and had a lot of beautiful Japanese antiques and art pieces. I think they had a profound impact on me when I was a young girl, more so than I realized until recently. Kay, Leslie’s mother, was my grandmother’s dear friend when they were young, and was my father’s godmother. Leslie is family, even though not related by blood.
Kay purchased these beautiful woodblock prints while travelling in Japan with my grandmother many years ago. As far as I can tell, they were carefully lifted from a hand-bound book, each one has holes along one end of the page. The labels on the backs of the frames credit them to Utagawa Kunisada and date them to the mid-1800s. I have been unable to find other copies of these two prints anywhere on the internet so I can’t back the veracity of the claims, but they seem reasonable.
Imagine my shock when Leslie passed these on to me for my birthday, knowing how touched I would be, and how much I would appreciate them. All the gifts I got were incredibly thoughtful and I appreciated them all, but I was well and truly flabbergasted by these two simple but beautiful prints, due to the way they tied so many facets of the relationship between Leslie, her mother, my grandmother, and myself together so beautifully.
Art Gallery – Beautiful traditional-style digital artwork
I paid more for this (in Gaia Online game currency) than I generally would for a commission, but Lutherum‘s style and skill level were absolutely perfect for what I had in mind. He did an incredible job of replicating all the details of the outfit, especially considering how ornate and fussy this particular kimono is. He was also already familiar with proper kimono and kitsuke, so I didn’t have to explain details or anything, which was nice. I also really love how the artist merged his own personal style with a more traditional sumi-e painting style, and sort of desaturated the colours to give the piece a more cohesive feel.
-
-
-
Blogroll
- Bebe Taian
- CHOKO Blog
- Just Another Kimono Blog
- KaranKoron Dori
- Kimono & Coffee
- Kimono and Kitsuke
- Kimono Daisuki
- Kimono Life
- Kimono no Kokoro
- KimonoTEKA
- Red Delilah's Kimono Ai
- SAKE, KIMONO, and TABI
- Salon De Happiness
- Shakunetsu no Kimono
- Silk & Bones
- SiRe's Kimono Blog
- Strawberry Kimono
- Tansu Flowers
- The Kimono Lady
- YokoDana Blog
Japanese Culture
Vendors
Gion Kobu