Justin and my love for ACROS continues, as we followed up on the saki-ori and Agano pottery exhibits with a trip to the Yanagawa Sagemon embroidered ball exhibition. I don't really know what the story with these is, and Google has not availed me of further information. Basically, they're springtime decorations. Why? I don't know, except that they're cute.
No, your eyes do not deceive you. That price tag reads 315,000 yen. That's $3,150 in dollars. Handmade cute does not come cheap.
In addition to the traditional ball shape, you also have lots of funny animals, such as the bathtowel-head octopus:
the Sistine Chapel ceiling shrimp:
and the uncomfortable husband who hates pretending to look at things while I take pictures but whose mother is always disappointed when he disappears from the blog:
Also a chicken.
(That one's for my brother-in-law Ryan.)Since we didn't stand an embroidered ball's chance in... a place inhospitable to embroidery? - of purchasing the top-notch goods for ourselves, we thought it would be a good idea to take on the DIY Sagemon rabbit display. For a mere five bucks we could take home a bunny of our very own. How cute - how kawaii, as they love to say here.
Cut out the parts:
Sew a little pouch for the body:
Sort out body fabric in preferred color order.
Get overruled by Japanese attendants and glue fabric on in their preferred order to appease them:
Apply gold trim:
Add face:
Fail spectacularly at adding ears, necessitating rescue by aforementioned attendants:
(Full disclosure: actually, I needed intervention on basically every step listed here except the cutting out. I sure can cut. If I remembered my preschool teacher's name, I'd send her a thank-you note.)As far as I could tell, the pink shading on the ears was just blush. Maybe it was special sagemon dye with a special sagemon applicator, but really, I think it was just blush.
Add a cotton tail:
And recoil in horror at the realization of what you have wrought upon the world. I mean, look at this rabbit. Is he not the incarnation of pure evil?
I WILL EAT YOUR SOUL.We call him Mr. Bun, because when we suggested that name to him, he let us live. Mr. Bun exists at the tragic intersection of unadulterated rage and abject powerlessness. He hates everyone and wishes to destroy everything, yet he is crippled by the realization that he is a styrofoam rabbit without limbs or a mouth. He can neither execute his own vile schemes nor recruit minions to carry out his will. Mostly, he just sits on the pantry shelf next to the peanut butter, exuding impotent loathing and hoping perhaps to fall on somebody and cause them to burn themselves on the microwave. It's not nuclear armageddon, but at this point Mr. Bun has to take what he can get.
It must be a very entertaining place, inside your head :)
ReplyDeleteSo, for realz?? $3000 for a ball?? Please tell me that was at least an outlier and not the average price of those things. Otherwise I think I've found a new career.
$3,000 is for the whole mobile, which has maybe five strings of seven or eight balls each. I didn't count exactly. You could buy less-complex individual embroidered balls for $15, but I think the difference was that they were like the rabbit - glued fabric - instead of all by hand.
ReplyDeleteI should mention that by the time we got there, day six of a seven day show, almost all of the mobiles had been sold at what I presume was a comparable price. (You could tell because they replaced the price tag with a sold tag). So for all that it's outrageous, it also actually moves.
Ryan is in California right now moving his Grandma back here to CBus! But I would like to offer you a "heh heh... very nice, Nana" on his behalf for the chicken picture.
ReplyDeleteJackie
Thanks for the additional info! So, I guess I won't quit my day job *just* yet, but good to know about these alternate career options :)
ReplyDeleteJessica Johnson: future ball-maker.