Setouchi International Art Festival 2

Konnichiwa, it's Maki from Osaka.
I wrote about "Setouchi International Art Festival" last month on this blog,
and I will write a little bit more about the festival.

The festival has some art projects, and one of my favorite projects is "Old house project".
You can find a lot of old houses which are decorated by artists in Setouchi area.

In Teshima island, I found an old unique house which a fisherman was used to live.


China plates are wrapped with colorful furoshiki (Japanese wrapping cloth).


I really loved this lamp, it's very Japanese style and washi is used as material.



Can you see the lovely patterns of washi paper?
I couldn't help taking a photo!

Although this old kitchen is not used for a long time, it has changed into the fun art.


Hope you can enjoy my photo :)

Maki

Our unique and cozy factory

Hi there! It's Rumi from Tokyo.
Hope you enjoy the lovely season :)

Since our parent company's headquarters and factory is in Osaka, I sometimes visit there.
It's always fun to go there to see some machines, and also I look forward to seeing our colleagues.
(Many thanks, Maki for your support!)


There are more than 50 special machines for our original cards and envelopes.



Although we have only 8 staff members in our Tokyo office, more than 120 people are working at the Osaka office/factory. So the enviromnet is so different from my office!


One of my favorite places in the factory is staff cafeteria. (food is yummy!) Also, I love the big painting there. Can you see?



In the painting, it says "connect the world!" And there are some international people at one big table, and having lunch together. It always makes me smile :)
Sometimes I have a coffee there looking at the picture. It is the most relaxing time.

(making scene of the painting) pretty big, right?


I will show you more about our factory next time.

Happy Halloween!!

New series! #710

Have you checked our paper of the month club, September?

If not, please check it out :) paper of the month club

Now we are preparing to introduce our new series #710 as one of the standard series on our website. And we have introduced the series in advance in the paper of the month club(September) as limited assort pack version.


The theme of the series is "landscape." For this fun series, we have designed the unique landscape freely beyond time and space.

assorted pack of 6 cards and 6 envelopes ($15)


6 designs- snow mountain, dinosaurs, ocean, amusement park, city night view, moon landing
Which one is your favorite?

We have printed the designs with 2 color letterpress and 1 color offset printing on thick cotton paper (300gsm).

We accept orders by October 1, so don't miss this opportunity! :)

"House of Light" in Japan

Hi world! I'm Maki from Osaka :)

Since I'd love to introduce some cool places in Japan, this time I will write about one of my favorite places, Echigo-Tumari.

Before the hot summer ends, I went to Echigo-Tumari, Niigata prefecture. (It takes about 3 hours by air plane and car from Osaka.)

The area is famous for contemporary arts, and there are about 200 kinds of arts in the area. One of my purposes was to see the famous art, "House of Light" by James Turrell.



"House of Light" is a beautiful house, which we can stay and can feel and touch the art directly. (It's the only art in the world, and I stayed there for one night! Yay!)

Inside the house, I spend fabulous time! By lying down on the Japanese tatami mat, and I saw amazing sunset. At night, as the rooftop windows open, lots of stars appear just in front of me.... (Woo, I wanted to stay more!!)



For other arts of James Turrell, there are some in Nao Shima (Nao Island) and The 21st century museum in Kanazawa.

I also found this fun art which was created by a Cameroonian artist. I love these cheerful colors!


Have a lovely week!

Maki from Osaka

Adorable personalized seals♥

Have you checked our adorable personalized seals? They are limited items since they are introduced at our "personalized stationery of the month, July." Ending soon!

You can choose monogram or creature designs.
I personally love creature seals :) So lovely!



I am going to order ocean designs, which are fish, turtle and seahorse, and will print my name on them. Also, you can choose one color, turquoise or dark purple. (Hmm...both colors are so cute. I can't decide..!)

I'd love to use them for letters and gift wrapping!


We will soon update the new bespoke stationery of the month, so please don't forget to check it out in August. You can check the items here.

Have a nice weekend!

Rumi

Winged Wheel's new factory!!

Our factory has moved to a new place in Osaka!
It's a brand new factory, and our 120 colleagues are working there.


I personally love the chimney of the building. (WW's logo!)


Entrance (Haguruma envelope is a name of our parent company.)

When you enter the door, many colorful envelopes will welcome you!


I will tell you more about our new factory soon!

Rumi

wallpaper* invitation

The party was held at Baroni House in Milano.
My friends, Chiara and Lucio could send us a lot of photos about the party.
(I wanted to join!!)



Woo, it looks so gorgeous event...

So many luxurious hand-made items!




And...look! Our invitation was introduced at the party! Yay!!


We are so happy that wallpaper* chose us to make the luxurious invitation.

Grazie mille! to my friends, Chiara and Lucio, and Nishino-san who is a washi crafsman and could support our collaboration.

And, "arigatou" to everyone who love Winged Wheel :)

Lots of love,

Winged Wheel team

Sakura, sakura☆

Hello all, it's Maki from Osaka :)
How are you? It's a bit strange weather here. Still cold in spite of mid April...!

Have you ever heard the Japanese word, "sakura"? It means cherry blossoms, and is the symbolic flower in Japan. We enjoy the season of sakura in early spring.(From late March to early April). It's a typical Japanese custom, but people really love to have parties under/near the trees. (Me, too!)

Since it is mid April, the season is getting over...
(Woo, I'm already miss sakura!)
Anyway, I took a photo of sakura, Hope you can enjoy, too ;)



And, this is a photo from Rumi in Tokyo.
People are enjoying the parties. Sounds fun!


During the sakura season, we can see a lot of "sakura-pink" color all over the city. I saw many sakura themed show windows, and even foods such as sakura cake, cookies, and doughnuts at department stores. It is one of my favorite seasons.

Have a nice weekend!

Maki

DAILY CANDY!!

Last month..it was a busy busy month since we had a lot of orders from foreign countries. (Thank you for all customers!)
We are so happy our cards are loved by many foreign people...!

One of the reasons we got so many orders is that the famous stylish website in the US, "DAILY CANDY" featured our new calling cards! Yes!! Please check our article here.

It is so interesting that the most popular design of the cards is "wisteria."




I personally love camellia, and it is the second popular design.
You can check the all designs here.

Many many Arigatou to you all!

Rumi

collaboration with letterpress 77

We had a fun collaboration event at our Tokyo store last Monday.
The guest speaker was Mr.Kiyo Matsumoto, an owner of
letterpress 77, and he owns his studio in Dusseldorf, Germany.



Kiyo(right) and our boss, Masaki(left)

As you can imagine from the company name, Kiyo is an expert of letterpress,
at the same time, he is also a designer of his letterpressed items
such as calling cards, greeting cards and wedding invitations.



About 20 participants who are working as designers, printers, and retailers enjoyed his talk, and exchanged the design trends between Japan and Germany.

This is our collaboration card with letterpress 77.
Kiyo designed these adorable designs for us,
and we made the cards. Which is your favorite card?
For me, since they are all cute, it's hard to choose one! :)



You can check his lovely studio and designs here.

Have a lovely weekend!

Rumi

The 50 Best Stationery!!

The famous British newspaper, The Independent introduced our products(series 342) as "the 50 best stationery"! Yay!

Although we have not read the real article yet, we were thrilled to see our items on their website!



We look forward to seeing it by newspaper :)

Now, we have many orders from the UK.
(Dear customers, Thank you so much for ordering our cards & envelopes!)

Please read the article here.

Also, if you are interested in the series 342, you can check here.

Have a nice weekend!

Rumi & Maki

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

Lots of hugs!

Hello everyone! It's Maki from Osaka.

My hometown, Akashi locates on the seaside and it is very famous for good seafood.
Especially, squids and octopuses are special products.

I took a photo of a dried octopus. In this season, we can see a lot of dried octopuses around fisherman's villages.



I often use our octopus card of series 700, which reminds me of my hometown.
So, I really love octopus!



Although I know they have some negative meanings in some countries, it is said that they can hugs you a lot with love!

Octopus is a lucky and lovely charm for me.

We will have a summer vacation this week. (Yes!)

Have a fabulous week!

Akashi girl, Maki ;)

Summer's greetings card, Kuchinashi

Since we will start to sell our new series #610 in August, we have just produced summer's greetings card using the same series.

The flower design of this card is gardenia, which we call "kuchinashi" in Japanese.
Don't you think the design look a little bit antique?



In fact, it is one of the vintage designs which was printed by woodblock printing in Meiji period (1868-1912) in Japan.

We were fascinated by the beauty of vintage designs during the period, and produced our new series.(Sorry, kuchinashi design is only for our summer's greetings card, not for sale. We look forward to introducing other pretty designs soon!)

Also, the card is hand made cotton paper produced by a Japanese artisan in Echizen area, where has a 1,000 year-paper-making history in Japan.

It is said that the flower, kuchinashi brings happiness and pleasure!

It's really hot(boiling!) here in Osaka, even though we are still in the rainy season..
During the summer vacation, I have a plan to visit Shikoku area (western Japan) to play in a river.
I'm a bit worried the weather, but I can't wait!

Please enjoy your lovely summer/winter season :)

Maki from Osaka

Japanese stationery trend reports - wedding stationery

The myth of "June bride" also has a magic power here in Japan.
Many brides want to have their weddings in June.
(The most popular wedding season is autumn, but spring is still popular.)

In our store area, Omotesando, there are some famous places for weddings, so we could see
many people (guests) for the weddings on the main street in June.

Now, many customers visit our Tokyo store to look for their wedding stationery for autumn weddings.
This time, let me introduce a little bit about the trends of wedding stationery in Japan.

As I wrote about the culture of "kamon" last time, every Japanese has their own family crest.
Recently, many couples use their family crests in their wedding stationery.

These are images of "kamon" wedding stationery.


(front -wedding invitation, back - reception program)

As you can see, there are two types of kamons on the cover, usually the right side is
groom's and left side is bride's.

One of the most popular printing/processing methods is letterpress (right one of the picture below) as well as Western trends. Also, foil stamping (center) and blind embossing (left) are popular.




Although most brides wear wedding dresses, almost of them also wear Japanese kimono.
I'm glad most Japanese women still love the beauty of traditional Japanese kimono. (I am crazy about the culture!)

I will write more about kimono next time.

Have a nice weekend!

Rumi, from Tokyo

Japanese family crest, "kamon"

Hi everyone!
Although it's a rainy season here in Japan, it's a sunny day today. (Yes!)

Have you ever heard of Japanese family crest?
It is called, "kamon" in Japanese. ("ka" means family, and "mon" means crest)
Every Japanese family has their own kamon, and it is said that there are more than 5,000 kamons in Japan.
The most popular kamon motifs depict plants, animals, insects, and tools.
Since I am not a kamon expert, if you are interested in its story and history,
please check Wiki!

Of course, I have one! My family's kamon is "tachibana," it's a kind of flower.
At first, I thoutht my ancestors were farmers or something?? haha!
In fact, my kamon is very common, and its origin is coming from a famous clan of samurai class,Tachibana family.

Many samurai class people had plants related kamons.
For example, the famous Shogun family, Tokugawa clan has a flower crest, called “aoi,” which is a holly hock flower.
Since we love the elegant design, we produced aoi card in our series 510.
Yes, we were inspired by the Shogun family kamon.




By the way, it was a coincidence that my colleague Maki’s and my kamons were the same, "tachibana". Amazing!

Our kamons are not so bad, right? :)
We made seals with the tachibana crest.



Rumi from Tokyo

Workshop in Osaka

Konnichiwa, world. It's Maki from Osaka, Japan.

Our store display in Osaka has changed. I love it!
I hope you love it, too.



Now, it’s a rainy season here in Japan.
Since we have humid and gloomy weather recently, it may be better to chill out at home.
Well, I guess it’s a lovely season to write a letter to someone, though. (That's a good idea!)

We will have a workshop on June 28th at Osaka store.
The theme is “personalized envelope.”
Participants can choose the paper type, ink color and the motif from our wide variety of design selections.
After that, I (as a product developer :) will coordinate and finish the designs for each envelope.
We print the patterns, and die cut into the envelope shape, which we call "diamond shape" as shown in the picture.

There are two ways to make your special envelope more creative. It looks different when you fold the motif pattern's side into inside or to outside. (like the image of the photo below)
Both ways look so fabulous.



By the way, the shape of the envelope without folding looks like a unique flat fish, "ray".
Don't you think so?
As I like its lovely shape, I decollated the "ray" envelopes at my room.

I look forward to the workshop.
Does anyone live in Osaka City??

Maki

Kanda Matsuri (Festival) in Tokyo

We had a very famous festival, called "Kanda Matsuri" here in Tokyo.
Since our head office is in Kanda area, I took some photos just in front of my office.
It was so cool!



As you can see, they wear the same uniforms and carry a "mikoshi",
portable shrine.
About 100 portable shrines gather for this festival, and
people parades through the streets of Tokyo.
If you are interested in this festival, I'm sure you can find some movies through the Internet like You Tube.



Japan has so many festivals in many places.

Since Winged Wheel's designs are very much inspired by Japanese ancient designs,
you can feel "Japan" from our cards and envelopes.

If you are kimono lovers, I recommend our series 510. (please check here.)

Have a nice week!

Rumi, from Tokyo

Our store area, Omotesando

We had a staff meeting last Sunday morning.
After staff meetings, I usually stroll around our store area, Omotesando.

Omotesando is a hub of style and sophistication in Tokyo, and has many attractions such as luxurious shops, uniquely specialized boutiques and small galleries; all set along or just off a beautiful tree-lined main avenue.

Since it was a very sunny and comfy day on last Sunday, the main street was so crowded with many people than usual.



Tokyo has a lot of fun places, but please don't forget to visit Omotesando and our store ;)



After the staff meeting, I took a phot of our animal cards(series #602). It's like a zoo, right?
One of my favorite series!

Rumi from Tokyo

sakura, cherry blossoms!

Hello world :)
This is Maki from Osaka, Japan.

Yesterday, I took some photos of cherry blossoms in the park.
The cherry blossoms at night was just beautiful..!
It was so crowded with many people, and they were having parties.

Japanese loves to have parties under the cherry blossoms in this season, and it is called, "Hanami."



I wish I could introduce much nicer photo to you, but this is the best one.
Of course, it's better to see actual ones, so if you have a chance to visit Japan, I recommend spring!

And enjoy Hanami party here in Osaka ;)

Maki