Chiyogami is traditional Japanese wood print designed paper which has been widely used in stationery decorations. While you can easily find the inexpensive machine-printed ones in 100 yen shops or normal stationery shops when you go to the origami section, the more “serious” ones can be found in larger Japanese stationery shops like Itoya or Kyokudo in Japan. I used to visit Kyokudo on Ginza a lot and the smell of washi, or Japanese style paper, with the smell of colorful ink that applied on top of washi, never fail to remind me of how precious and serious Japanese people treat this chiyogami tradition. That place is a great shop for souvenir by the way, if you want to get something that represent Japanese and not too heavy to carry, I recommend you to check it out.

So this time I have decided to recreate several simple chiyogami print blocks with eraser. They were time-consuming stamps but the result was satisfying! I like to overlap them and I think that’s the difference between stamp and paper, of which the latter one cannot be overlapped and still be seen.

I also added the yoga girl in the postcard here. She has so much in her mind when she is practicing yoga, and the various thoughts are like the chiyogami in the picture, scattering here and there with no order and control. She is yet to learn to concentrate on her balance and aim in life. I hope she can get there one day.