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World Amigurumi Exhibition vol.2: Crocheted Culture Celebration!
What started as a unique Japanese crochet art only a few decades ago, amigurumi is now spreading like wild fire across the globe. As a Japanese cultural center in New York City, an extremely vibrant and diverse location, RESOBOX is looking to uncover and explore the core of what makes amigurumi so adored by everyone.
In order to examine how the amigurumi culture is developing in each area of the world, we’ve asked artists from 46 countries to submit at least one amigurumi representing something special about their country! Our goal is to show each country’s unique features while connecting them through the common medium of amigurumi! Artists have submitted amigurumi made with their country’s colors, a special type of yarn or other materials (beads, embellishments, fabric, etc.) well known in your country, amigurumi wearing cultural clothes, and many other original ideas!
Learn about different cultures around the world through crocheting and amigurumi at our second World Amigurumi Exhibition!
Mookie is back with a new adventure to find friends all over the world!
In The Press
- Experience A Tight-Knit World of Amigurumi at ResoBox in LIC by Joe DiStefano on About Travel
- World Amigurumi Exhibition 2: Crocheted Culture Celebration! Blog by Petits Pixels (French version)
- All Around the World by Inside Crochet Magazine
Thank you for joining us at Vogue Knitting Live!
Vogue Knitting Live NY: Jan 15-17, 2016
This year, RESOBOX had its own booth at Vogue Knitting Live 2016 with some special pieces from this year’s World Amigurumi Exhibit. We also arranged the annual VK Live scavenger hunt, held our own amigurumi-making workshops, and hosted a special lecture about amigurumi and the reason behind our exhibit! I hope you guys had as much fun as we had!
What are Amigurumi?
Amigurumi (lit. crocheted or knitted stuffed toy) is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small stuffed animals and anthropomorphic creatures. The word is derived from a combination of the Japanese words ami, meaning crocheted or knitted, and nuigurumi, meaning stuffed doll. Amigurumi are typically animals, but can include artistic renderings or inanimate objects endowed with anthropomorphic features, as is typical in Japanese culture. (Wikipedia)
Amigurumi stems from animism, a philosophy in the foundations of many Japanese traditions and customs. Animism is the belief that gods belong to everything: water, food, nature, buildings and houses, even technology. In Japanese, this is called Yaoyorozu no Kami. In fact, Japanese people often put eyes, arms, and legs onto non-human objects and give them imaginary lives in order to feel closer to these objects and show them respect as co-existing partners in this world.
As a Japanese cultural center located in Queens, NY, one of the most diverse cultural areas in the world, Resobox Gallery wants to explore how the ideas of animism and amigurumi are perceived in other places internationally.
Go on a video tour of last year’s World Amigurumi Exhibition!
Contributors
Helen E. Moss (Mookie’s Mother)
Little Yarn Friends (Website | Facebook)
AmigurumiPatterns.net (Website | Facebook)
The Sun and the Turtle (Website | Facebook)
Tomoko Takamori (Website)
Where in the World Are Our Amigurumi Artists?
