New Atslan Pendants

Betel Nut & Buffalo Leather Pendants

Betel nut is the common name although strictly speaking they are areca nuts from a tropical Asian palm and not from the Asian evergreen climbing plant called betel. Its soft woodlike texture makes it fairly easy to carve and provides a beautifully unique pattern each time. Areca nut is often wrapped in betel leaf and chewed in many Asian and Oceanic countries as a stimulant.

The cord for the pendant shown above has been created from six strands of beeswax coated hemp which have been twisted tightly in the traditional manner. For this style of cord I use many types of natural fibre ranging from linen, hemp, nettle, cotton to bamboo. The toggle has been carved from the Nepalese hardwood Saz, a large sub-himalayan tree found up to an altitude of 1200m, although I often use Ipe (Brazilian hardwood).

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

Betel Nut Mushrooms

The photo above shows the materials used for the mushroom pendants. Betel nuts are of course the main component twinned with either Ipe (Brazilian hardwood) or Saz (Nepalese Hardwood).

Also shown is cork and a section of a UK vine.

Betel nut is the common name although strictly speaking they are areca nuts from a tropical Asian palm and not from the Asian evergreen climbing plant called betel. Its soft woodlike texture makes it fairly easy to carve and provides a beautifully unique pattern each time. Areca nut is often wrapped in betel leaf and chewed in many asian and Oceanic countries as a stimulant.

The cord for the pendant shown above has been created from six strands of beeswax coated linen which have been twisted tightly in the traditional manner. For this style of cord I use many types of natural fibre ranging from linen, hemp, nettle, cotton to bamboo. The toggle has been carved from the Nepalese hardwood Saz, a large sub-himalayan tree found up to an altitude of 1200m.

The photo below shows the use of the cork and vine.

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/

Mayor's Thames Festival 2012

The 8th and 9th of September saw the Mayor's Thames Festival come alive again for another year. This annual event takes place all along the South bank of the river Thames from Tower Bridge up to the London Eye.

It was our fourth year to join the festival and our third year in the More London area which hosts many performing artists in the amphitheater cut into the walkway. The weather was perfect throughout the entire duration giving us all perhaps one last taste of summer.

The festival seemed smaller this year as the large grassed area near Tower Bridge had been given over to spectators of the paralympics where they could watch sports live on a large screen.

Those who have seen our stall before will note from the above photo that we used a smaller stall than usual. Our regular stall is too deep to be accommodated along the walkway, but we managed to show almost all of our usual products.

 The Mayor's Thames Festival always finishes with a spectacular, if not rather late, fireworks display further up the river. This year was no exception, but for those of us near Tower Bridge, we were treated to an additional short display of fireworks marking the end of the London's paralympic games.

For more information about this annual event, please follow the link below to the official website:

www.thamesfestival.org

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