Spring / Summer 21

When K learned how to fly

When K* learned how to fly 

An inspirational tale

K cannot fly. She wants, she tries but she can’t. She wishes she was a bird or an insect, but K is just a wooden doll. K is an old, small, Japanese doll that was bought as a travel souvenir and ended up – on the other side of the earth – inside a Greek house.

K always longed to fly. She thought it would be easy. She thought there would be no difficulties, but the years went by and she never succeeded. And then suddenly the world changed- and K realized that not only can she not fly but she cannot even leave this table she is leaning on. And then K sank. Why are there so many problems? How does one overcome the many difficulties of being a simple doll? She thought everything would be easy but the older she gets the more she feels the grooves in her body the deepest and most painful. Why was she not born a bee?

One day, a bee flew in through the window. She landed on the edge of her chair and K was jealous of her. When she flew again, K thought she heard her whisper, “Oh, how I wish I were a wooden doll.” From that day K began to change. And she understood. Nothing is easy. Why did she expect it to be?
And then everything seemed easier.
And she felt an overflowing love for the bee.
And now she did not care if she would fly.
And then K -the wooden doll- flew.

*The inspiration of this collection comes from Japanese Kimekomi dolls.

Kimekomi dolls are made of wood. The ancestors of Kimekomi dolls are the Kamo (“willow-wood”) dolls, small dolls carved of willow and decorated with cloth scraps. Kimekomi refers to a method of making dolls. They start with a carved base of wood. A design of different patterned cloth scraps is planned out, and the base is grooved so that the edges of the cloth can be hidden in the grooves. The method is also used by some of Japan’s avant-garde dollmakers, who adapt the old materials to new visions.

This collection is dedicated to the shock caused to the lives of the whole world by the pandemic of Covid19.

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