What a Girl Wants

by D'Arsie Manzella

A little peek into my favorites on Etsy.

You gotta check these out.

Swinging summer love,

pop of color,

handmade honey-bead bliss.

~Cut from tin, ancient and fresh, Egyptian queen~

fancifuldevices.etsy.com

~Circle dance, opulent beauty, sugar maker~

octaviabloom.etsy.com

~Tribal secrets, pulling weeds, framing grace~

stillpointworks.etsy.com

~Wildflower, holding hands, flash dance~

mamaslittlebabies.etsy.com

~Nightfall, cha cha, vineyard walk~

lorelei1141.etsy.com

and the best part about each feature?

handmade, baby.

xoxo

Mamacita

Made With Japan

Hey guys! I just wanted to announce something that I'm VERY excited about. Right now and in the near future, I am going to be working with a project/web site, called "Made With Japan." Made with Japan is a bilingual web site that features people, places, artists, designers, and shops that influence or are highly interested in modern Japanese culture. The web site hopes to make people aware of a side of Japan that most people may not be used to seeing.

My new section of the web site is up here:
http://www.madewithjapan.com/news/2011/lactose-intolerart-made-with-japan-new-artist/

I will be contributing as time goes by. I was excited to get chosen after submitting some of my artwork to them after reading a great article on a store I love called "Nincompoop Capacity."

I am thrilled to be working with Made With Japan. Please continue to check out my posts there and what I'm doing. This is just another avenue to spread my love of this aspect of Japanese culture with the world. Thanks to all who have helped make this possible, I will keep everyone posted.



よろしくおねがいします！

Artist Feature: Nozomi Miyazaki

So I want to possibly start doing more features of my favorite designers, artists, etc, that I feel are somewhat relevant to the blog.



When I was in Tokyo over New Years, I found a great publication called "LIPP" in the basement of LaForet in Harajuku. I instantly fell in love with the cheap illustration/design publication.



One of my favorite artists in the publication was Nozomi Miyazaki. Her quirky character-based illustrations instantly caught my eye. (Maybe because I also do quirky character-based illustrations?) haha



There was a link to her blog which I instantly added, and contacted her right away! We are now online friends, and I am happy to support her art.



She say's that her style is very influenced by American fashion. I feel like we are somewhat the reverse of each other. Me being an American guy doing character drawings inspired by Tokyo street fashion cultlure, and Nozomi-san being a Japanese girl inspired by American fashion. Its just really cool to me!



Her work is very quirky, and really fun! The colors are bright and vivid, but my favorite thing about them is kimo-kawa, but amazing illustration style. This is the kind of art that I really enjoy seeing. She has been featured in various publications as well, and I wish her the best of success!



To check out more of Nozomi Miyazaki, check out the following links..



Official site: http://nozomimiyazaki.main.jp/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/nozomimiyazaki

Flickr Page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nozomimiyazaki/



Now cut and paste this Koenji gal into your browser! Let her know who sent you if you contact one another. Best of luck Nozomi-san!!! You're great!!