Cheer yourself up with chiri-men!

I posted ages ago about the Chiri-men Craft Museum in Kyoto. I couldn't find the website for it then, but have finally stumbled upon it.



These are the hanging mobiles I fell in love with, but in a fit of misguided restraint, decided not to buy. Each of the strands is a string of little animals and shapes made of chiri-men silk - a traditional fabric to Kyoto, which is textured like crepe. I think they are for babies, but I'm not sure.

You can explore the website to see what else they do, but I was particularly taken by this autumnal scene with the king of the cute fall animals, the squirrel.



I'm not a huge fan of seasonal decorations, but this is irresistible, and I am excited to see what they have for Christmas.

There are lots of pictures of chiri-men objects from the store on flickr, here. A lot of Japanese "cute" stuff feels a bit old these days, but I can't get enough of these.

In other excited news, I have the day off work and the baby's at the childminder's, so I plan to spend the day planning what crafting to do next. I might even post twice in one day...