Craft

We Deliver Exclusive Artisan Japanese Craft Supplies to Your Door

Purchase genuine, contemporary Japanese craft supplies, kits, accessories, and tools - sourced from select Japanese manufacturers - from us. Our HOW team in Kobe will ship the order to your home or business via post or courier. We offer beginner weaving, pom-pom animals, Sashiko embroidery, and needlework tools and craft kits from esteemed Japanese brands and will gladly gift wrap an item you wish to send as a present.

A History of Japanese Crafts

As far as we can tell, humans started making useful objects on the Japanese islands during the Mesolithic Jōmon culture (c 10,500 toc. 300 BCE), after the Pre-Ceramic era. The American zoologist Edward S. Morse discovered pottery with patterns pressed into the clay from that epoch during the 19th century.

• Geologists have found proof of woven baskets dating to the Early Jōmon period (c. 5000 to 2500 BCE). Though some may have started using plant fibres to make textiles in the latter part, clothes generally consisted of bark at that time.
• Agriculture, the use of massive stones to erect monuments, and the further development of weaving appeared in the succeeding Neolithic Yayoi period (c. 300 BCE to c. 250 CE). Inhabitants acquired the skills to produce textiles and used vegetable fibres to weave cloth on primitive looms.
• A recognisably Japanese textile culture originated in the Yamato period (c. 300 to 710 C.E.). The emergent monarchy and aristocratic clans demanded select fabrics such as silk. The establishment of Buddhism in the mid-sixth century increased the demand for ecclesiastical use, creating a greater need for weavers, dyers, and other textile workers in imperial workshops.
• Workers created brocades plus plain and twill weaves, hemp, cotton, ramie, silk, and other fibres to make Japanese fabric in solid colours or patterns produced by stamped wax-resist dyeing, braiding, embroidery, and appliqué. Their designs were distinctive, refined, and aesthetically commendable.

Why not order from our HOW selection of fabric pieces for crafting and small sewing projects? We supply beautifully designed, hand-dyed cotton Tenugui and cut cloth (Japanese version of ‘fat quarters’). You will enjoy using our Japanese craft supplies to fashion serviettes, tote bags, and small pouches.

Our Shibori Dye Kits Make It Easy to Colour Cloth in a Time-Honoured Way

We can ship your shibori dye standard or express. The kit excludes fabric. It contains Konya Ai indigo crystals and reducing agent (in a pouch), indigo colour fixative, English instructions, rubber gloves, and will make five litres of dyeing solution for approximately 200 grams of dry fabric (about five scarfs or t-shirts).

• You can produce patterns on fabric with the manual shibori dyeing technique that dates to the eighth century. Crafters used indigo dye primarily on hemp, silk, and cotton, using purple root and red madder less frequently.
• The Japanese word shibori refers to diverse ways to resist dye white textiles by twisting, bunching, folding, and tying the cloth before dipping it into a natural indigo colouring. Artisans developed various methods such as compressing, stitching, and binding over time.
• Each technique achieves different patterns and results plus harmonises with specific types of cloth. Artists apply distinctive techniques in conjunction to attain decorative effects via these traditional skills.

Our easy-to-use kit created by 5th generation dye masters in Japan of indigo plant dye, and you can make a batch at home within just a few minutes. Create beautiful fabrics for linen handkerchiefs, bags, slippers, or oven mitts using our sewing patterns and online tutorials.

Why You Need in a Craft Storage Box

Consider our sewing and toolboxes. With compartments for your measure, fabric markers, pins, seam ripper, and scissors. Store your tools, materials, and accessories conveniently in a hand crafted wood to keep.

• The versatile, handmade, Classiky sewing box – made by the respected Classiky artisan studio in Japan - consists of wood and boasts a chestnut urethane finish, handles, two tray inserts, and dovetailed corners. It is 33 centimetres wide by 18.5 deep by 18 high.
• Our large Classiky Toolbox can hold all the small tools you use for DIY projects. It is 30.2 centimetres wide, 16 deep, and 7.5 high. Polished on the outside, it is unvarnished on the inside and has three practical compartments.
• You may wish to safely store your 1.2-metre continuous roll of washable Japanese fabric washi tape that irons on and is available in a wide range of colours and patterns.

You can cut and peel our fabric tape off for craft projects and use it as name tags. Stick it on when you wrap a gift, make a card, or want to decorate paper, wood, or glass to finish the item off in an appealing way.

Discover Our Pom-Pom Kit and Related Products

Do you love making pom-poms as part of an art project? You can put them on party hats for extra fun at festivities, tie them to your key chain for easy retrieval, use them to fashion napkin rings, decorate letters and numbers in assorted colours for the nursery, and much more.

• Why not order a bird pom-pom making kit? Our Daruma Trikotri animal kits do not include the pom-pom makers, though you need to create pom-poms for the head and body. You can purchase the re-usable Daruma Trikotri kit set, including the makers, from us.
• The different kits contain winding yarn, wool, animal eyes, tie cord, and gut to make small pom-pom animal toys such as cats, dogs, sparrows, and chicks.
• Our weaving kit makes it much easier for you to interlace textured strands than the early humans experienced during the Yayoi period. Our Daruma mini weaving kit contains a mini handloom for fashioning small bits of textile. The kit also consists of an 18-centimetre shuttle, a techniques booklet, user manual, weaving yarn set, comb, and 15-centimetre needle. You may wish to consider our portable option.

Why You Should Use Hands On Workshop (HOW)

Apart from craft supplies, we sell brass bookmarks, clip numbers, label plates, pen cases, and fountain pens to go with our quality Traveler’s Company collection of kraft paper-bound books with spiral binding for those who take notes and write journals. Why not browse our papercrafts, homewares, and embroidery compendia to get inspiration for projects you will enjoy doing? Contact us to place an order, join our mailing list and ask questions.