On September 4th, I went to a workshop for making six-strand weave baskets with a flat bottom. ✨ I think the reason it turned out better than ever is because I stripped away all the unnecessary things. 🤔

Good morning ☀️ It's Time. 😊 The weather has been bad and gloomy for a long time, but it's been sunny since this morning. ✨ When it's hot, I wish it wouldn't be so sunny, and when it's cold, I wish it would be a little sunnier. 😅 Humans are really fickle. Even so, the weather doesn't waver. I want to live a life that doesn't waver either, but I'm all over the place. 🤣 Well, that's just like me, I suppose.

Would you rather meet a fairy or a dragon?

Definitely a dragon 🐉 A really hardcore one, and it would be awesome if it breathed fire. 🔥 It's also a big factor that when I did hypnotherapy before, my inner child was a dragon. The therapist from that time has passed away, so I felt a little sad thinking that I might not be able to receive hypnotherapy anymore. 😢

Time has many life works, but the one I've been putting the most effort into over the past year is bamboo basket weaving. At first, no matter what I tried, I kept having to reset, haha. But lately, I've been able to weave really smoothly.

In the workshop I took this April, my mind was wandering all over the place, and my hands stopped many times. My heart was broken, and the result was the worst. But after getting past that, for some reason, I started to enjoy weaving.

I'm acting silly in the thumbnail photo, haha. It's like I suddenly gained some breathing room, or rather, I started to understand the explanations. Until then, even when things were explained to me, I was like, 'Huh?', but suddenly it all connected in my head.

It's a strange thing.

It's been a year since I started weaving bamboo baskets. Part of it is that I was drawn to the personalities of the instructors, Mr. and Mrs. Nomura, but I've come to enjoy weaving—the moment I enter the zone while weaving bamboo, or the joy of suddenly understanding something I didn't before. But for me, Time, it's strictly just about the weaving. There are courses like this, but my heart wasn't moved by them at all.

I guess I'm just not interested in gathering the materials with my own hands. If it were last year, I might have gone because I was a total follower of the Nomuras, but this year I didn't think that way at all.

This bamboo basket project is a two-part course. I've made several small ones before, but this is my first time making a reasonably large one. However, the explanations went straight into my head from the beginning. And miraculously, I stayed in that state until the very end.

The result was so good that the teacher asked, 'Did you practice at home?', which surprised even me. This is my seventh bamboo basket. Of course, I didn't practice at home, haha. I was told that PP bands are easier to weave with, and I thought, 'I see! So other materials work too!'—that was the first time I realized that. I've just been diligently attending Mr. Nomura's workshops, and before I knew it, I had become able to weave.

Maybe, I think I've become able to do it because I let go of the excessive emotions I was pouring into the bamboo baskets.

It was especially bad after I broke up with my previous boyfriend; I was desperate to fill the sudden void, and I was acting without regard for appearances. The bamboo basket workshop was the same; I think I had a strange intensity, as if I couldn't live without weaving these.

Now, partly thanks to my partner Utan, my feelings have become quite flat. I can weave casually without pouring strange intensity into the bamboo baskets, haha. In the first place, bamboo basket weaving is something farmers do as a side job, so maybe it's best to do it while chatting and having fun.

Since the teacher told me that you can weave with PP bands, I thought maybe you could do it with craft bands too. It's Thursday morning, and I'm thinking of giving it a try.

Sairi Ito x Humbert Humbert - Nakumonka
(Short ver) | Ikimonogakari meets

Trying hard is important, but for me, not trying so hard might be even more important.

This is Mr. Nomura's website. They are made-to-order, so if you are interested, please inquire.