猫ちぐらを作ることは、まず藁を手に入れるところから始まります。
Making of Neko chigura starts with getting fine rice straws.
よくお日様に当て、乾燥させた丈の長いものです。
中くらいの猫ちぐらを作るには、この藁の束が20~30必要になります。
I was lucky to have these nice straws from my friend this year.
They are well-exposed to the sun, well-dried, and long-stemmed.
For medium sized neko chigura, you will need 20-30 of this bundle of straws.
藁はすべて余計な部分を除き、編むのに適した長さに揃えておきます。
年に一度の猫ちぐら作りなので、しっかり作り方の本を見直しておきます。
Preparation of straws: eliminate unnecessary parts and cut to the adequate length.
Go over the how to make neko chigura booklet; it’s a once-a-year event
so you don’t want to mess it!
Nekochigura is a cat house with dome ceiling made out of woven rice straws.
ちぐら、というものはもともと農作業中に赤ちゃんを座らせておくためのもので、
それぞれのお家で作られていたものでした。
Originally, chigura was a woven basket in which baby sits during
parents are working in the farm and was commonly made by individual family.
それをドーム状にして猫のお家にしたところ、多くの猫が喜んで入ってくるように!
Then after making it a cat house with dome ceiling, people found cats actually love and enjoy it!
現在は新潟県の関川村を中心に作られていますが、編める人も少なく時間もかかることから、
注文してから届くまで6年もかかるそうです。
Nekochigura is currently made in several villages in Niigata prefecture, like Sekikawa-village,
however, there are only a few people who can make it and it requires lots of time to make,
now you need to wait 6 years to get one for yourself.
そこで、私は自分で作れるようになればいいと思ったのです。
At that point, I realized “how about making one by myself?”.
もとは、各家庭で作られていたもの、それほど専門的な道具も技術も必要なかったのです。
As I mentioned before, Nekochigura is made by each household, so you
really need neither special tools nor techniques.
関川村の猫ちぐらのご紹介↓Here is a link to Sekikawa-village’s Nekochigura makings
http://www.nekochigura.com/
Making Japanese confetti bag.
Just keep sewing parts together…
Still going and going…
After that, sew it to become a tube.
Sew castings and inner bag together.
あと少しで完成。
Insert two strings.
It’s almost done.
Complete with making charms at the end of strings.
(先日の薔薇袋も同じサイズです)
It is a palm size bag as you can see.
(the rose bag I made is about the same size)
Its bottom is also very cute.
縮緬の琴爪入れの薔薇ができました。
I have just finished Japanese crepe cloth craft Rose bag.
It is same as patchwork quilting.
Sew them together after making all roses.
It looks like a doll’s hat in this stage.
Make inner bag
Sew and put leaves around the hem line.
サカナ君の帽子みたい。
Again, let my doll wear it as a hat.
It looks like Sakana-kun’s hat.
Sew castings and insert 2 drawstrings.
Complete with small red pompom at the end of drawstrings.
Extra.