Tom's Tools At Totnes Market

Not a single Friday passes that I don't wander over to Tom's stall to see what unusual and interesting items appear. Since I've ever had an interest in working with natural fibres, I have appreciated the traditional tools that help shape these fibres. At sorazora we focus on natural fibres that can be spun, dyed, woven, knitted and knotted etc, but I always find time at home to experiment with fibres that can be cut, carved, heated, shaped and so on.

 With so many old tools sitting idle in sheds, why do we continue to buy cheap modern tools that aren't made quite how they used to be? I wouldn't like to suggest that all cheap imported modern tools aren't up for the job, just that my personal preference is for much older tools that have already proved themselves and have plenty of life left...

...This is where Tom comes in.

 Each Friday (weather permitting) Tom Widdicombe can be found with a wide selection of quality used hand tools. The tools vary greatly in their age, origin and the craft discipline in which they are used. The one constant between them all is that they are built to last as long as they are cared for (as all tools should be). The other common link between them all is that any of them could be yours to take home and bring back to life.

 Tom is primarilary an organic farmer in Dartmoor, but his passion for tools became his hobby and a weekly opportunity to meet other craftsmen. If you have any unloved quality hand tools from yesteryear and fancy helping Tom reintroduce them to working sheds, he can be contacted by the email address tomwid909@gmail.com

Or alternatively, you can pop over to Totnes market on a Friday to check out all the stalls and have a friendly chat with Tom in person.

Tom has a great website covering many areas of organic farming as well as his passion for tools. Please follow the link below to learn more:

http://www.tomwiddicombe.com/tom-s-tools/

Natural fibres, Natural dyes and Original designs http://www.sorazora.com/

Green Glass Tokyo

Latest Upload

These are the four latest glass pendants to be uploaded into the Green Glass gallery of our Tokyo Craft selection.

Crafted from borosilicate glass and hung from a natural fibre cord, each pendant is unique.

To view these and other pendants crafted by Masaya Kuribayashi, please follow the link below to the gallery page.

https://sorazora.com/product-category/accessories/jewellery/green-glass/

Natural fibres, Natural dyes and Original designs http://www.sorazora.com/

Green Glass Tokyo

New Pendants From GREEN GLASS TOKYO

The four pendants above are our latest selection to be uploaded in to our Tokyo Craft section. Here you can find individually crafted pendants by not only Green Glass, but also Neo Glass, Stone Dance and Atslan.

These pendants have all been crafted with coloured and clear borosilicate glass. Masaya Kuribayashi from Green Glass uses a variety of techniques to fuse and blend the colours.

Perhaps the most delicate is the technique called inside-out which requires coloured glass applied to the outside of a clear tube before being inverted and formed into a pendant. The pendant below is a classic example of this technique.

I have the pleasure of creating the cords from which they hang. Sometimes I will use macrame to build up a cord from a number of threads or I will twist threads in the traditional manner to produce an even cord. The threads I use range from Himalayan nettle, hemp, linen to bamboo and all are beeswax coated before working. Toggle closures are all hand carved from either wood, bone or horn.

To view these and many other pendants from our four selected artists, please follow the link below to our Tokyo Craft page from where you can choose to visit one of the artist's galleries.

https://sorazora.com/product-category/accessories/jewellery/green-glass/

Natural fibres, Natural dyes and Original designs http://www.sorazora.com/

Wild Heart Gathering 2012

Last weekend saw our final outing at a UK festival. The festival season has now come to an end for us as the days grow shorter and nights colder. The weather could have been kinder, but Saturday was clear, bright and warm.

This was our second time to participate in one of Wild Heart's gatherings and first at this location. Situated on farmland tucked in a valley between rolling hills just south of Lewes in East Sussex, Wild Heart Gathering was a fairly small affair offering workshops and music.

It was a good chance to meet up with old friends and make new.

Susie Ro sang on Saturday with the guys from Avalon Roots and again with her own material on the Sunday.

Pictured above is Wayne from Wayne's Woods. If you need a hand carved wooden spoon, any advice about spoon carving or would even like to carve your own spoon, He is the man for you.

I had the pleasure of joining one of his workshops at this year's Green Gathering in Wales and was pleased to catch up with him over the weekend.

The photo above shows the spoon's progression from a blank through the various stages to the finished article. Below are just a sample of Wayne's handy work available to buy at events and festivals. Sadly, Wayne doesn't currently have a website, but I will include a link if/when a website is created. For further information about Wayne's products or events he will be attending, please feel free to contact him via his email address.

wayneswoods@gmx.com

Due to the timing of this festival, it is rather chilly if away from one of the many camp fires and the valley seems to be frequently windy. Weather aside, it is a small friendly festival in a beautiful location. I believe it was the first time for this location to be used an am unsure if next year will also be there. The official website doesn't give too much away as it tries to keep the location secret!

For more information about Wild Heart Gathering, please follow the link below to their website.

http://www.wildheartgathering.com/

 Natural fibres, Natural dyes and Original designs http://www.sorazora.com/

Neo Glass Pendants

 We are delighted to introduce the glasswork of Masaya Nouga (the sole artisan behind Neo Glass) through Sorazora.

Masaya creates delicate pendants of varying styles all with the influence of nature. Through blending and shaping borosilicate glass with the heat from a gas powered torch, he creates individual handcrafted pendants, vases, candle holders, pipes, paper weights and shot glasses. It is his intricate pendants that we are delighted to make available through our Tokyo Craft section of our online store.   

Each glass pendant is paired up with an organic cord made from either wax coated hemp or nettle that has been twisted or knotted and finished off with an ironwood toggle.

The photos above and below show the first selection to be uploaded. For more information about each pendant and plenty more photos, please follow the links below to Neo Glass' product page.

https://sorazora.com/product-category/accessories/jewellery/neo-glass/

Natural fibres, Natural dyes and Original designs http://www.sorazora.com/

New Stone Dance Pendants

Today's new product upload are eight new pendants crafted by Stone Dance.

 Using shaped and polished gemstones and a traditional macrame technique to encase some of them, the pendants above are Mexican Amber, Sunstone, Moonstone and Turquoise. Those below have been crafted from Malachite & Crystal, Petrified Wood, Fluorite and another using Mexican Amber.

For more information about these and more beautiful pendants from Stone Dance, please follow the link below:

https://sorazora.com/product-category/accessories/jewellery/stone-dance/

Natural fibres, Natural dyes and Original designs http://www.sorazora.com/

A Traditional English Woodturner

Today's blog entry is an opportunity for me to introduce you to some beautiful household items crafted in South Devon from British trees.

Mark Weston-Lewis took over Woodturners Cottage in 2006 and currently produces in excess of 1000 handcrafted woodturnings each year in addition to a number of commissioned sculptures in timber or stone for outdoor spaces. Woodturners Cottage and its workshop has been a woodturnery and fine furniture establishment since the 1930's. Mark's dedication and skill are keeping this tradition alive and very well with his blend of traditional and contemporary designs lovingly finished off to a very high standard. 

 He sells most of his work in galleries throughout Devon and Cornwall plus a number of craft fairs in South West England. It was through Greenwich Market that we had the pleasure of meeting Mark and seeing his work. He can be found at the market at least a couple of weekends a month and hopefully more often in the future. The logistics of being based in South Devon and exhibiting his work in person at Greenwich Market is a balancing act, especially when he has production to slot into his busy schedule.

All timbers used are from sustainable sources and 98% are native British trees felled in the Dartmoor and South Devon area. For every 20 pieces made, a young tree is planted.

Finishes applied are either beeswax and vegetable oil which can be wiped clean and occasionally revived with a fresh coating of vegetable oil or six coats of finishing oil which dries to a hard surface that can be wiped clean. Both are food safe. A few decorative pieces are just beeswaxed and polished.

Commissions for woodturning projects or garden sculptures in timber or stone are welcomed. If you wish to view a fine selection of Mark's work and meet the artist in person, then a trip to Greenwich Market should be on your list of things to do. Due to the amount of time required for production, Mark can't guarantee to be exhibiting in Greenwich every weekend. Please feel free to contact Mark about his work or dates exhibiting on the following phone number.

Tel : 01548 830405

Mobile : 0779 2803299

Natural fibres, Natural dyes and Original designs http://www.sorazora.com/

John Lynch's Landscapes

From all the artists exhibiting their work at Greenwich Market, there are two particular artists whose work really impresses me. Charles Borrell, whose work was featured in a blog dated Aug 3rd, and John Lynch.

I wish to use this blog entry to introduce you to John's work. The first piece of his work that I ever saw was a very atmospheric landscape. The style was very loose and appeared to be made up of a combination of calculated and swift brush strokes, resulting in a British countryside view over fields, copses and fences. Naturally, that painting has long been sold and no doubt found itself a worthy wallspace within a private collection. I didn't, at that time, have the opportunity to ask John about the location of the painting's scene, but in my mind it symbolised the Great British countryside.

All of the paintings that I have seen of Johns have a common theme of what I can only best describe as a relationship between that which lies above and below the horizon. English weather is moody at best and it is this fact which I find captured so perfectly.

John throws himself at not only British landscapes, but also London cityscapes and seascapes featuring stranded boats on mudflats at lowtide. These are all scenes that I have grown up amongst and are for me distinctly English. I think it is fair to say that the reality of these scapes are taken for granted, but when confronted with a large acrylic on canvas, John's work brings out not only my appreciation of his skill, but also my new found appreciation of England's horizons. If I were ever to set up home abroad, I truly believe one of John's paintings would have to come too. A way of taking a piece of England with me.

A sample of John's work is contained within his webpage, also through which he can be contacted. If you are interested in his work, I can recommend nothing better than getting down to Greenwich Market on a weekend and viewing the paintings first hand, this would also give you the pleasure of meeting the artist in person. To view his webpage, please click here!

Natural fibres, Natural dyes and Original designs http://www.sorazora.com/

Green Glasss Tokyo

Today's product upload brings another three glass pendants crafted by Green Glass Tokyo.

Each pendant has been produced purely from coloured glass and attached to a fully adjustable ornate macrame cord. These cords are made from naturally dyed and undyed hemp often with a strong wax coated rayon core.

These are the latest three necklaces to be added to the selection available through Sorazora. More will be added in due course, so please do keep checking. All future uploads of the collaboration between Green Glass Tokyo and Atslan will be announced within these blog pages and also on Twitter. If you aren't already following Sorazora on Twitter, please follow the Twitter link on our homepage which can be found through the link below.

Natural fibres, Natural dyes and Original designs http://www.sorazora.com/

Green Glasss Tokyo

Today's product upload are these three necklaces. The pendants are crafted by Masaya Kuribayashi of Green Glass Tokyo and the macrame hemp cords have made by Nathan Schreiber of Atslan.

Each pendant has been produced purely from coloured glass and attached to a fully adjustable ornate macrame cord. These cords are made from naturally dyed and undyed hemp often with a strong wax coated rayon core.

These are the latest three necklaces to be added to the selection available through Sorazora. More will be added in due course, so please do keep checking. All future uploads of the collaboration between Green Glass Tokyo and Atslan will be announced within these blog pages and also on Twitter. If you aren't already following Sorazora on Twitter, please follow the Twitter link on our homepage which can be found through the link below.

Natural fibres, Natural dyes and Original designs http://www.sorazora.com/

Hitoshi Machida's Planet Magic

Today's blog is dedicated to introducing a Japanese photographer to the UK. Hitoshi Machida has travelled widely and will continue to do so in search of beautiful scenery to photograph. His work is not just limited to scenery as he also enjoys working with portraits. Entitled Planet Magic, his collection of images take us to places that most of us can only dream about.

Countries of particular interest to Hitoshi are India, Madagascar and the Seychelles. A theme of pure nature runs through all of his work providing us with amazing timeless images that one would never grow tired from viewing.

Hitoshi's website showcases his skill at capturing nature at its most beautiful and is easy to navigate for non-Japanese as much of it is in English. To view the website, please visit www.planet-magic.jp

Hitoshi Machida has enjoyed exhibitions in Japan, including a photo exhibition at the Embassy for Madagascar, but has yet to exhibit here in the UK. All enquiries regarding his work are welcome via email to machida-hitoshi@u01.gate01.com

Natural fibres, Natural dyes and Original designs http://www.sorazora.com/

5 New Tokyo Green Glass Pendants

Today's new product upload is a set of 5 glass pendants attached to ornate macrame cords. For more information on these items, click here!

These are the first 5 of a new batch of 21 kindly sent by Masaya Kuribayashi from his glass workshop located in Shibuya, Tokyo. The pendants were crafted from a few different techniques including Neutral, Inside-out and Uchu.

Each pendant has been attached to a macrame cord using a variety of dyed and undyed natural fibres. These include hemp, nettle, flax and cotton. Each cord has been crafted with loving care by Atslan.

Manihiki (Inside-out series)

Lana'i (Neutral series)

Sapienza (Inside-out series)

Alofi (Glass bead series)

Alamagan (Uchu serires)

Link to information on Green Glass Tokyo

Link to information on Atslan

Natural fibres, Natural dyes and Original designs http://www.sorazora.com/

Green Glasss Tokyo

When we started Sorazora in the UK at the beginning of 2009, we were delighted to showcase the glass work of Masaya Kuribayashi. Based in Shibuya, Tokyo, Masaya sells his work in person throughout many festivals and events under the name Green Glass Tokyo. His work is also available in a shop called Sakae (link in Japanese only!) in the coastal city Kamakura.

Sorazora is providing, not only a showcase for his work in the UK, but also the first outside of Japan. We had a great response from customers concerning Masaya's glass pendants and have just recieved a new batch which I will craft onto macrame cords and slowly uploaded in the run up to Christmas. To view his previous work in our online store, please follow this link.

There are four different techniques used in our new batch and I shall try my hardest to explain the differences. First there is the classic "Inside Out" technique, where coloured glass is applied to a clear glass tube before being inverted to leave the coloured detail set within the pendant. This technique has been used in three different sized pendants.

Inside Out, Large

Inside Out, Medium

Inside Out, Small

Umi

Umi means sea in Japanese and with this style, each pendant has captured the powerful beauty of ocean waves. This is my personal favourite of his different techniques.

Uchu

Uchu means cosmos and is the name of his technique that creates three dimensional visions of space and its deep expanse. You will see that I have already started to string the pendants using a combination of undyed hemp and rayon. I will also be using naturally dyed hemp, flax and even nettle for some of the pendants.

Neutral

This technique focuses on layering the glass at the back of the pendant to form a blend of pastel shades in a organic pattern.

From Sorazora, we'd like to thank our good friend for providing us with a further selection of his work and also congratulate him on his upcoming marriage in November. Depending on our work schedule here in the UK, we are not sure if it will be one or both of us that will get to join him on his special day. If I know him well, it will definitely be a great party held in the mountains of Chichibu in Saitama prefecture.

Natural fibres, Natural dyes and Original designs http://www.sorazora.com/