Snow Day at Kenroku-en Garden

Snow Day

The weather gods were kind to me on my recent trip to Kanazawa, Japan this past December. The week before I arrived, Kanazawa was suffering from wet, icy weather.  But while I was there, it was clear and sunny.  But on my last day on my visit to Kenroku-en Garden, one of the Three Great Gardens of Japan, it snowed, providing a breath-taking and wondrous landscape!

Evelyn Claude Accessories: Paper accessories using ancient Japanese Maki-e technique

I stopped by the NYC Gift market week to attend the ribbon cutting and launch for  Evélyn Claude in the US.  The collection of beautiful feather-light, eco-friendly and water resistant paper accessories are crafted using Kin-Maki-E, a thousand year old Japanese process that involves paper that is dusted with gold powder and lacquered.  The designer, Evelyn Teploff-Mugii is a native New Yorker who resides in Kanazawa, Japan where the technique originated.  Evelyn uses her background in graphic design and her love of photography to create her designs. Evelyn incorporates modern touches such as using photographs and silk screening instead of the traditional way of handpainting and glue.  The designs are a wonderful melding of ancient and new artistic methods and uses.  The pieces are also unique because when the sheets are spinning, the digital cutting is done randomly!  My favorite is the "Puzzle" piece where the earrings are cut out from the bracelet, and the pendant is made up of several pieces that fit into each other.

 

Designer Evelyn Teploff-Mugii and Kenji Yoshii (President of Cooperative Association for Promotion of Kanazawa Kaga Mki-e)

From L to R, Marian Goldberg, Evelyn Teploff-Mugii, Kenji Yoshi, Takashi Arai

 

Designer Evelyn and I holding one of her "Puzzle" pieces.

Pins

Precision cut by computer in Japan.

Evelyn also has a line of luxury paper products.  Check out these beautiful bookmarks!

I love these paper stickers that you can stick on your phone. Unfortunately, not available yet in the US.  But Evelyn tells me soon!

Paper Sticker demonstration

The lovely result!