When I asked my kid what he wanted to be for Halloween this year, he spontaneously yelled out “Venus flytrap!” I was surprised, especially since he had become reluctant to wear homemade costumes since starting elementary school. Neither of us could pinpoint where that idea came from. We hadn’t seen or done anything with Venus …
Make your own giant Venus flytrap costume and stuffy Read More »
For Halloween this year, my kid wants to be a Venus flytrap. So, I decided to be a house fly using materials at home to make the costume. I wanted the wings and eyes to look something like the real thing, so I researched house fly anatomy and sketched out the shape and patterns of …
Shibori combines two of my craft loves: origami and fabric dyeing. You fold and press fabric like origami, create resist patterns with boards, clamps, string and/or rubber bands, and then dye the package. When you unfold and release the fabric, you get interesting patterns unique to each dye job. Shibori (しぼり) is the Japanese term …
Shibori: awesome and easy home dyeing techniques Read More »
Indigo dyeing (藍染, lán rǎn), is a plant-based fabric dyeing process used for the past 5,000 years in Asia and Africa. The leaves of the indigofera tinctoria legume shrub are soaked, fermented and alkalinized to create a dye that oxidizes on fabric to its namesake deep blue. Indigo has special meaning for my maternal Hakka …
Indigo dyeing: bringing a beautiful ancient craft home Read More »
Owls are a good luck symbol in Taiwan. I had the amazing good fortune that my Auntie knows Teacher Zhang of the Saisiyat aboriginal tribe, and she happened to be at her shop the afternoon we stopped by Nanzhuang town in the mountains of Miaoli, my mother’s ancestral home. I saw her handmade owls at …
Making Saisiyat 賽夏 aboriginal good luck owls in Nanzhuang, Miaoli, Taiwan Read More »
The last 4 years have been the longest and probably most challenging adventure for me yet: becoming a parent and raising a toddler while working full time and building a career. Parenting has been an intense collection of some of my highest highs and lowest lows, and lots of hamster wheeling in between. My favorite …
Adventures in parenting: homemade giant bubbles! Read More »
I am typing in my very own sitting room verandah in this small city’s only fancy hotel, the Orion Tabora. Outside are the intermingling sounds of people speaking Swahili at their bar, Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing” (for the third time in the last hour), a man singing prayer at the nearest mosque, frogs, crickets, turtles …
