Shuko Designs Shibori-BIO.1

I started my creativity here at Shuko Designs after touring a Yusen Kimono shop as an LDS missionary in Kanazawa Japan. The beauty of those Kimono, with the seamingly simple procedures caught my eye as we watched the craftsmen hand paint and dye the intricately designed Kimono and other fabrics.
Once back in school, I decided I could do Kimono with the right training, and started taking Textile Surface Design classes at Arizona State University.

We learned how to Screen Print, Airbrush, Hand-painting of silk (or Yusen as I learned in Japan), and finally Shibori Tie-dyeing.

My instructor, Clare Verstegan, was correct in thinking that I might like the Japanese heritage of Shibori-zome (Tie-dyeing). I was so amazed with the first design (Mokume Shibori or wood grain), I was able to create, that I decided then that I should set my sites on Shibori and eventually Tsuji-ga-Hana (a combination of silk painting or Yusen, and Shibori). The well controlled, but random patterns I get with the Shibori I do keeps me interested and excited in the work I do.

Shuko Designs Shibori-BIO.2

Out of necessity as a Shibori craftsman in Japan, I found work as a Translator and Proofreader for Japanese to English localization at Fuji Machine Mfg Co. not far from the Arimatsu area where I learned the Shibori craft. This allowed me to pay the bills and participate in the Shibori Matsuri (Tie-dye Festival) held every year in Arimatsu, and the other Shibori ralated events.

After translating the Japanese into English, we needed to run the new text into the Japanese templates using Quark Xpress, Illustrator, and Photoshop... “not paying attention to the Pixal level design, but concentrating on saving time...”.

From Fuji, I went to Okuma to work as a catalog translator, proofreader anddesigner. Work on the Leadership meeting presentations honed my Photoshop skills as I edited skies and buildings in photos taken in diferent parts of the world. Smaller pamphlets, brocures, and more presentations gave me to a chance to express my design concepts in Illustrator.

Shuko Designs Shibori-BIO.3

The need again arose for me to follow skills elsewhere, and I was fortunate enough to find work as a contract graphic designer at Impact-Taki Inc. (a full-scale design house). I was taught that speed was King and Illustator and Photoshop worked well to polish one’s skills at design. We worked on pamphlets ( I was asigned one for a Yusen Exhibit in a major shopping center, because of my Shibori background: that was really awesome!), Calendars, (one was requested in the morning meeting and had to be presented in the evening meeting to the clients; a full 12-month calandar of the new Mag-Lev Super Express train which only ran on about five miles of track... to include four-season picts, Mt. Fuji and beach shots, rural and urban shots... we made it with time to spare and it looked great!), commercial Storyboards, and web sites etc. Contacts were cut and on I went...

A friend at Urim Limited called me in to work on a large web-related Eigo (English) project where I learned about adding sound and graphics to websites. Timelines and web motion moved me toward Video for the internet. After a divorce, I returned to the US to enroll at Collins College to study Graphic Design and Digital Video.