2010, the year of the Tiger!

In Japan, we have a custom to send new year cards to friends and acquaintances.
We call the cards, "Nengajyo."
The card is more popular than winter's greeting cards here in Japan.

Since it is a tiger's year in Chinese astrology,
we made some lovely tiger cards.
These were our best selling cards in December.


The design is letterpressed. It looks a real tiger?


They look a little bit weak...! But adorable!


Best wishes for the coming new year for you all!!

Rumi & Maki

Il Buon Tempo

2009 is coming to a close, and 2010 is just around the corner!

One of our big events in 2009 was the collaboration with an Italian publishing company,
"Il Buon Tempo."



Il Buon Tempo is a small publisher which are owned by an Italian artist,
Mr. Lucio Passerini.
He uses traditional letter press machines and publishes simple and beautiful books.

Winged Wheel exhibited his 10 art books at our stores from October 30th to November 31st.
Also, we had a talk session event with Mr.Passerini at the opening reception on Oct. 30th.
I was thrilled to hear his art works and his philosophy.





I LOVE his book, which is called, "Alcuni aforismi."
There are very unique sayings/poems on the book.



It's hard to explain these in English, but my favorite saying is like this:
"I always loose my way, but always can find my way."

mi perdo continuamente e mi trovo dovunque.

Maki, from Osaka

Osaka! 2

I would like to add 2 more photos from Osaka trip in last month.
During the business trip, of course I went to our store in Osaka.
Its store name is Winged Wheel Shinsaibashi.
Sinsaibashi is very modern and chic area in Osaka ;)

Inside the store, there are more than 1000 kinds of products specialized in cards, lettersheets, and envelopes. Customers can touch the texture of each product.

I was thrilled to watch the window display of the month because our colleagues are very creative. And they always make me surprize!
The theme is "autum night." How lovely!




Inside the store, my colleagues Maki and Yoko were chatting something.

Ah, maybe a small meeting? :)



They are in the product development division, and produce our lovely products.
Many thanks, girls!!

If you have a chance to visit Osaka, please stop by our store.
Here is our Osaka store information.
Winged Wheel Shinsaibashi (you can check our Tokyo store, too.)

Rumi, from Tokyo

Osaka!

I had an opportunity to visit Osaka as a business trip.
It takes around 2.5 hours from Tokyo by Shinkansen. (do you know? It's a super fast train.)

Then, I took a train to Matsubara city where has our plant.
(It's located on the southern part of Osaka.)
There are more than 20 kinds of envelope making machines and printing machines.

This is a very old letter press machine!


Some of our expert staff can oparate the machine.



When I visited there, he was printing some luxurious invitaions for our collaboration event with an Italian publisher.
For the event, we chose hand made cotton paper by Fabriano, which is very famous paper making company in Italy.

Although itwas just one day trip, I was so glad that I could meet with many colleagues there.
(Many thanks, Maki!)

But, the only thing I forgot was to enjoy Osaka food...!!
I forgot to eat Okonomiyaki... Too bad!

Rumi, from Tokyo

Higanbana, Lycoris flower

I found lycoris flowers on my way to the office.
Then, I realized that I had found them at the same place, just one year ago.
(Wow, one year ago! It's amazing how fast the time goes...!)

It's the season for this flower, lycoris (we say Higanbana) in Japan.
The vivid red color and their lovely petals like ribbons are so impressive.



Series #631 cards are very popular among foreign customers.
We selected Japanese flowers for the series and used traditional colors for each card. (You can find Lycoris design, too!)



I'm glad if you could feel "Japan" from the beautiful cards.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Maki, from Osaka

Autumn workshop in Omotesando

This is our new window display in our Tokyo store.
It's so adorable, right? (The squirrel is holding a letter! And you can see his favorite food, acorn.)



We had a workshop in our store yesterday.
In the workshop, participants could make their own mini correspondence sheets.
This time, all participants were ladies :)

First of all, my colleague Masako talked about the history of paper and envelope.
Then she explained about some etiquette of social stationery.
Since all participants love paper and letters, they could listen carefully about Masako's talk.
(Thanks for your kind attention, ladies!)




After that, seeing our marks & fonts sample books, every guest chose their own mark and a font with favorite one color for her correspondence sheets.
Popular marks were flowers and animals. All guests were so creative so we can't wait to see their personalized sheets.
(We will give their correspondence sheets to them after 2 weeks from now.)



This was the first time to have a workshop in Tokyo store, and we will have it in November next time. The next theme will be about making new year cards!

Our workshop will be held in Japanese, but if you live in Osaka or Tokyo, and would like to join us, please contact us anytime!

Have a lovely week!

Rumi, from Tokyo

Summer's greetings from my island

Hello everyone!
It's getting a little bit cooler day by day.
(I still want hot summer days!)

I went back to my hometown, Goto island during my summer vacation.
Everytime I visit my island, I go to Takahama beach, where is one of my favorite places.
It's really famous for water sports. (Surfing at the beach is awesome!)



I also enjoyed tasty seafood there :)
Although I couldn't stay only 5 days, I really enjoyed my vacation.

When I came back to Tokyo, I do feel that Tokyo time is soooo fast, compare to my island time. Haha!

Today, I wrote a letter to my friend. (The envelope is our series 342, stripes)
Of course, the theme is "blue ocean!"



Have a nice weekend!

Rumi, from Tokyo