Joji Cranes

It's been quite a while since I visited one of my favourite boutiques tucked away in a small arcade, I have little motivation to leave the house these days but as soon as I do get some I'll be heading on over to get myself some lovely quirky jewellery that's relatively cheap too! They have on say some of these lovely paper Crane necklaces hanging on silver chains from Joji.

These lovely cranes are handmade with love and care by Joji in Melbourne using (Yuzen) paper, the miniature cranes are neatly folded and tucked with precision that would put a plastic surgeon to shame, using traditional Japanese techniques, the cranes are then dipped in resin and strung along Sterling silver chains. They are available in two sizes, shorter chains for smaller cranes and the big beasties are on longer necklaces.

The crane is 7cm (2.75 Inches) from wing tip to wing tip, this makes the broach approximately 3.5cm (1.37 Inches) high and 3.5cm wide (perfect for a statement on your lapel or favourite shirt).

Each of these lovely cranes is unique and individual with the effect of patterned paper being different for each due to the folding and the pieces used, the process of preserving each of these Joji origami pieces is also unexpected, they prefer to cover their pieces in resin rather than lacquer. Lacquer is also used to secure the brooch pins on the backs of their crane brooches as seen on their Etsy store here. Unlike lacquer, resin is very durable and can be worn without fear of wear and tear ruining them and the coating can thwart off sweat, they can even be worn regularly by children though it is not advised to wear it in the shower, lake, pool or ocean. While they are sealed with resin, there is the possibility of it still seeping through.

 

The names Chiyogami and Yuzen are now used interchangeably to describe beautiful traditional Japanese papers. Yuzen papers originate from the Kyoto textile industry and have elaborate gold details in their patterns while the Chiyogami papers (translated to mean 'thousand generations paper') originate in the Edo period of Japanese history (1603-1868) and are wood-block printed papers. Each piece of paper is made from kozo and sulphate and has a silk-screened base layer with the pattern hand-printed above in multiple layers. Each colour visible on the paper is a separate layer of printing and drying which makes these beautiful papers very labour intensive.

Lenko: 2010 Animal Sweater Collective

I was really excited when I first saw these. On a holiday wander and meander with friends through the city of Melbourne and popping into any store we fancied, we chanced upon Lenko in the Cathedral Arcade. We had meant to check out the vintage sellers and op-shop-poachers Retrostar, I loved their range of soft sweatshirt jumpers.My favourites were they toucan in a bright green and the lemur jumper with a dark burnt red/ maroon. I like the sort of trial and variation on the patterns of the animal designs, the rough sewn patterns and the button eyes. The previous range of jumpers couldn't hold a candle to all the colour that was available. 

When sorting through the piles of jumpers I even saw a purple unicorn, the only possibly a trial design they tested out before settling on the bright blue mane of the unicorn. I was heart-broken when the sold out and have tried to scour the Internet and eBay for anyone who was willing to part with their fantastic jumper and have not had any luck at all. 

I will not give up easily however, and I will own a lovely jumper from Lenko. My friends I promise you this. Lenko also stocks a range of lo-fi toy cameras by Superheadz, they source clothing and accessories from Lazy Oaf all the way from the UK and have lovely vintagesque stationary as well as brooches of lady gaga in plastic. Last time I checked they still had them, I hope they still do- they were really cool!