Friday morning I met in New York City with the manager of Kinokuniya Bookstores' main store, located across the street from Bryant Park. Kinokuniya is a chain of Japanese bookstores across the US. On behalf of my acquaintance Akiko Takana, I brought my collection of exquisite art books on beading, beads, and feltmaking published by MariaShobo in Japan.

Of course I brought my 3 books HANDFELTED JEWELRY AND BEADS, HOW WE FELT and MASTERING BEADWORK(Interweave Press), shown above and right, plus the feltmaking book I wrote for Japanese crafters, shown below, published by Patchwork Tsushin Co. Ltd. My English manuscript was translated into Japanese by Motoko Natsubori.

We scheduled the first of what will be a series of workshop/seminar/booksigning events. On July 4th, from 2-5pm, I'll teach a beginners Peyote beadweaving workshop. The registration closes at 20 and the $25 fee includes written directions, beads, needle, beading thread, and hands-on instruction. I'll have photos and description within the week.

Having regularly scheduled workshops/booksignings in this amazing store thrills me to no end. There is a cafe upstairs where I will have bento box lunch and green tea. Did I say that they have a tempting display of sweets to enjoy with that tea? And on the lower level where the vast array of craft titles can be found, is a stationary and gift shop. I could spend days just taking it all in. Perhaps this destination will re-energize my Rosetta Stone Japanese lessons. When I returned home from Tokyo in January, my dedication to learning Japanese, declined.

Before heading off to Fashioning Felt at the Cooper Hewitt, Elaine, Fran and I enjoyed coffee and the best croissant EVER at Lily O'Briens, around the corner from Kinokuniya.

The felt show was wonderful but much smaller than I'd expected. The catalog contained several more pieces than shown. In fact the catalog showed colorful versions of some of the same grey or white pieces in the show. Wish the show had more color. It was gratifying to see how thoroughly they described in word and video the feltmaking process.

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