The ikebana display that Miyako & Susan Robertson created for Afterglow Art Festival 2015 was featured in the August, 2016 edition "Sō" (「草」) magazine, the official publication of the Sogetsu Teachers' Association.
Read more about the event here.
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Revised Blade Sharpening Price Schedule
No, it's not really a price increase! We've just streamlined the blade sharpening pricing schedule to simplify things.
The following pricing schedule will be applied from 2016:
Cost / knife
$8.00
$10.00
$15.00
$15.00
$15.00
$15.00
$10.00
$12.00
no extra cost
$5.00 extra
Regular & Serrated Kitchen Knives
up to 4" blade
more than 4", up to 9" blade
more than 9" blade
Japanese traditional knife
Cleaver
Non-kitchen knife (hunting, folding)
Ikebana clippers
Scissors
Minor chip repair* ( <2mm)
Chip & tip repair*
*Chip repair must be incorporated with sharpening order.
Note: If your knives or clippers need extra special attention, we will let you know the expected cost and obtain your agreement before starting any work on it.
Prices are subject to HST.
Happy New Year 2016!
Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu!
"Sō" Magazine June 2015
The large ikebana instalment that Miyako and her students created at St. Mary's University was featured in the June, 2015 edition of "Sō" (「草」) magazine, the official publication of the Sogetsu Teachers' Association.
L-R: Jean H., Patti V., Val S. and Miyako.
The arrangement was part of the Japaneseque event at SMU. Great job ladies!
We Are Taking A Break
Important Announcement:
We are taking a short holiday. The shop will be closed from Jun 12th (Fri) to Jun 21st (Sun). We will come back refreshed (and jet lagged!) and re-open on Jun 22nd (Mon)
Happy New Year 2015!
Happy New Year! 明けましておめでとうございます。 Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu.
Goodbye horse, hello sheep! Our sincerest thanks to everyone who supported us throughout the year. We wish you all the very best in 2015!
"Sō" Magazine October 2014
Miyako's demonstration at St. Mary's University last February was featured in "Sō" (「草」) magazine, Oct 2014 edition. "Sō" is the official publication for the Sogetsu Teachers' Association. Thank you!
In the photo, (L-R) Dr. J. Colin Dodds, President of St. Mary's University; Miyako Ballesteros, ikebana artist; and Mr. Tatsuo Arai, Consul General of Japan at Montreal.
The demonstration was part of Japanesque, an event showcasing Japanese culture at St. Mary's University, Halifax NS.
"Sō" Magazine June 2014
We are happy to see our work featured in "Sō" (「草」) magazine, the official publication for the Sogetsu Teachers' Association. Thank you!
The event was our exhibit during the Nocturne Halifax Art At Night last October, 2013. Please click here to see more about the exhibit.
Anti-Spam Legislation Compliance
Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation will comes into effect on July 1, 2014. The spirit of this law is promote a safer online environment and to protect Canadians from scams and disruptive/unwanted emails. We are all for that!
The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has outlined 3 rules that must be followed when sending out a commercial electronic message (CEM).
- Prior consent from recipient.
- Clear identification of sender.
- A mechanism to unsubscribe in the future.
To be clear, we do not send out spam. We also do not "harvest" or purchase email addresses.
However, we do send out the following unsolicited messages to an email list:
- Monthly ikebana lesson schedule updates.
- Occasional announcements of origami and other workshops that we plan to have.
These messages can be technically categorized as CEM and therefore subject to the Anti-Spam Law. The email addresses in our mailing lists have been painstakingly collected through the years from people with whom we have had direct contact. They have expressed interest in our activities. It is unfortunate that we did not keep any kind of proof of consent. Some email addresses were given to us by phone, by little slips of memo paper, by a business card, etc. None were archived in any organized way.
Sooooo, we're going to push the re-set button. We will delete our mailing lists and start with a clean slate.
Our Request
If you would like to continue (or begin) receiving our ikebana lesson schedule updates and/or our origami & other workshop announcements, please send us an email saying:
I subscribe to your ikebana / origami & other workshops [choose one or both] mailing list.
In the same way, you will be able to un-subscribe by sending us another email to tell us to remove you from the mailing list(s)....and we will do so promptly (as we have always done till now).
Thank you very much for your understanding.
A Little Gift To Sister City, Hakodate
Halifax and the city of Hakodate in Hokkaido, Japan, have been sister cities since 1982. As a symbol of friendship, Halifax has been sending a Christmas tree to Hakodate annually. This tree is the main attraction for the annual "Christmas Fantasy" event in Hakodate. Many, many people appreciate this tree from Halifax.
Many volunteers in Hakodate work hard to make this event happen. We thought we'd give them a small gift from Nova Scotia. So, we took some Nova Scotia tartan and some Nova Scotia lavender...
...and made little Christmas trees out of them!
(Photo courtesy of Mr. Masao Oikawa.)
Through the good offices of the Hokkaido International Foundation, we shipped a box of about 50 of these lovely-smelling lavender Christmas trees to our friends in Hakodate.
Below on the right is Mr. Fumio Yamazaki, representative director of the Hokkaido International Foundation, presenting our little sachets to two directors of the Christmas Fantasy Executive Committee.
(Photo courtesy of Mr. Masao Oikawa.)
The little trees were distributed to members of the Halifax-Hakodate Friendship Association and volunteer staff of the Christmas Fantasy Executive Committee. Plus, the Hakodate City Mayor, Tourist Department Chief and International Department Chief all got one each too. Wow...our little bit of Nova Scotia went a long way! Thank you very much Mr. Yamazaki!
We would also like to thank Mr. Masao Oikawa, a professional photographer and a director of the Halifax-Hakodate Friendship Association for graciously providing us with some of the photographs. He is also the photographer responsible for the beautiful Christmas Fantasy poster.
We hope the friendship between our two cities will continue. We work in our own little way to contribute to this objective!
Enjoy some scenes of Christmas Fantasy in Hakodate...