We have had a busy last few days, actually a jam packed week full of activities. Mostly, we have been working with Ishinomaki's premier event planning group: Ishikoi (which means I love Ishinomaki!). On the 26th we held a Washi Akari making workshop off the island at a newly rebuilt guest house near Ayukawa. Thirteen students made some awesome lights. Click here or on the picture above for more examples from that workshop.
Then, on the 28th we left the island again to attend an Ishikoi stamp making workshop hosted held by the guy in the picture above, Hideki Konno. I had met him before at several Ishikoi events. He turns out to be a pretty cool guy: he has a laser engraving printer that can turn any image you can draw into a rubber stamp. I made the stamp that you can see at the top of this post. The squiggly line represent the kudzu vines I use to make the lamp frames, plus the three broad leaves that grow at the end of the vines come spring.
Anyway, while our stamps were being engraved/printed we took a tour of Hideki's main business which is a cardboard company. He doesn't make the cardboard himself, but he can make just about anything out of cardboard. In the manufacturing process a lot of tiny scraps o cardboard are cut off and collected in huge garbage bags. He pays to throw them away, so I asked if we could receive some for our composting projects on Ajishima. I had visions of feeding this awesome material to our future worm farms, and for covering up the business we do in our future compost toilets. We talked about all of this and decided that we would tentatively call it the "Unko Project" (unko = poop!) because what started this whole conversation that led to me receiving the scraps was a picture he took of a little unko he made out of some wet cardboard. He pranked a bunch of people with it. I told him I wanted to use his unko to make unko and cover up some other unko. We became fast friends!
So, once we get our home compost center up and running with worms and all, I will post more about the "Unko Project." In the meantime I just want to thank Ishikoi for connecting so many people throughout and around Ishinomaki: I ♥ 石恋
Anyway, while our stamps were being engraved/printed we took a tour of Hideki's main business which is a cardboard company. He doesn't make the cardboard himself, but he can make just about anything out of cardboard. In the manufacturing process a lot of tiny scraps o cardboard are cut off and collected in huge garbage bags. He pays to throw them away, so I asked if we could receive some for our composting projects on Ajishima. I had visions of feeding this awesome material to our future worm farms, and for covering up the business we do in our future compost toilets. We talked about all of this and decided that we would tentatively call it the "Unko Project" (unko = poop!) because what started this whole conversation that led to me receiving the scraps was a picture he took of a little unko he made out of some wet cardboard. He pranked a bunch of people with it. I told him I wanted to use his unko to make unko and cover up some other unko. We became fast friends!
So, once we get our home compost center up and running with worms and all, I will post more about the "Unko Project." In the meantime I just want to thank Ishikoi for connecting so many people throughout and around Ishinomaki: I ♥ 石恋
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