Easy, peasy, Japaneasy

I definitely don’t think learning a language falls into the easy bucket.  

I mean, I moved to Australia at one(ish), so you’d think I had a head start.  Alas, my parents were a fan of assimilation, and most of my childhood was spent in the cultural abyss that was Brisbane in the 90’s.  In high school, I learnt basic Japanese for a year, long enough to know that learning a second language was not something my teenage-self was interested in*.

So the saying - easy, peasy, Japaneasy - makes no logical sense to me.  Come on; there are three different alphabets in the langauge alone.

Anyway, I digress.  Let's get back to the blog, which is actually not about learning Japanese, but about a lovely hourish spent crafting.

My friend J (we’ve known each other since our days in the cultural abyss :) found out about this gorgeous small group class from her mother, and, since it was her birthday season (season because let’s face it, December = madness), the class made a failsafe adventure to celebrate.


There I was, expecting a lonely, sterile classroom, when wonder of wonders as I made my way in: a Japanese Christmas market was on!  Having never been to the country (something I want desperately to change), I can’t vouch for its authenticity, but it certainly was kawaii*.

And not just with handmade treasures to buy, but a vibrant community of people, adults and children both, all of whom seemed to know each other, and were all having a wonderful time.  I bought some beautiful washi paper to make Christmas cards with*** and I discovered a little pocket of Melbourne I’m keen to get back to.

Japaneasy is a thriving language and cultural school in the Melbourne grid, and on this particular day, they had a huge session of craft workshops to choose from: ink art and hanko stamp carving to complex origami and paper dolls.  There were food classes (mochi making I’m particularly keen to try one day) as well, and we selected one that I hope will come in handy for the new year: Decorating your own ceramic keep cup.

Being no stranger to keep cups (I have a handful, mainly from old workspaces, that will be donated soon), this was something I was keen on having for the year ahead: perhaps a shiny new personalised number would

1. help me shake off the bad habit of forgetting to tuck one into my gym bag and
2. sit on my home office desk as a reminder to embrace creativity more in life.

The class itself was small (there were 6 of us booked in) and short (an hourish).  Our teacher supplied us with handmade clay cups, talked us through the process, and we then got to decorating using tissue transfer.

I had never come across this particular process before (a close cousin, though, are the temporary tattoos I loved as a child), and one of the hardest parts was selecting the design(s) and shape(s) to transfer.  Decision paralysis, anyone?

The paper alone was gorgeous, with lots of delicate, repeating patterns - or we could choose a more traditional picture, like cherry blossom branches or classic scenery. I decided to stick with a monochromatic theme.  I toyed with stripes or circles or clouds (all classics, I’m sure) and then decided on circles of all different sizes.

Mistake #1: Taking too long to decide what I wanted.

My grand plan was to mimic bubbles, and colour the background in a beautiful blue (our teacher had a few finished samples to show us, and I gravitated towards the painted ones) but alas, my cutting skills probably peaked in kindergarten.  

The ‘bubbles’ part of my vision took longer than ideal (I was the last one to finish) and so, being the only one left (apart from the teacher, of course, and J who waited beside me ever-so-patiently) I decided to give the painting part a miss.

As well as this, my perfectionism and impatience combined to really work against me: the process required pressing down the tissue paper with a damp sponge.  The first circle I thought went okay - but when I peeled the paper back to check, it was clear this was wishful thinking.  

So I made mistake #2: I rubbed.

Hot tip in case you ever decide to take this class (or attempt a DIY version at home!): pressing is key, not rubbing.  Doing so makes the ink bleed and the design less clear.

Circle by circle, the design slowly got finished.  I did forget about not rubbing a few times but about halfway through I convinced myself that blurry blemishes was the aesthetic I was going for until…

Mistake #3: using the wrong paper.

So, though I thought I was picking up a pre-cut blue circle from the prior class’s discard pile, it was actually a green number.  My attention span being what it is, I didn’t notice until it was too late: my monochromatic vision was destroyed.  Luckily, the colours worked well enough together that I can convince other people it was intentional.

All in all, it was a lovely hourish. I would have preferred more time to paint (I did attempt my name, but it was a harder task than I expected!) or a start-to-finish miniseries (where we got to both make the cups in session 1 and glaze them in session 3) but I’d recommend it as a fun activity for a slightly left-of-field celebration.

Followed, of course, by some eating nearby.  Ideally Japanese, to keep the the adventure on theme.

_{* adult-self, on the other hand, really wish I had started this upskilling earlier}

_{** Kawaii: noun. the culture of cuteness in Japan}

_{***I did regret it when I ran out of time (why does the 25th always creep up on you?!  Or, perhaps more accurately, why do I always bite off more than I can chew?)}