There are piles of fabric and yarn on one side of the room, and on the other, hefty vintage books on flora and fauna; treasure troves of inspiration. The stones and sea glass placed on cabinet shelves symbolize the passage of time while bottles of seed fluff and dried flower bouquets evoke the cycle of plant life. The tunes playing in the room range from classical to hip-hop music.
Welcome to the studio of Ayumi Miura, an artist in Sendai City known for her three-dimensional fabric objects. The space is a unique hodgepodge of elements, which she calls a “nest box.” Like the birds, who rely not only on natural materials like twigs and grass to build their nests, but also on synthetic materials, Ayumi collects a complex mix of things that she feels are necessary for her creative practice, all assembled beautifully in this studio.
Her artist name “atelier subaco” is thus befitting, as “subaco” means “nest box.” With needle in hand, she works every day of the year in this studio, bringing to life unique objects are made through trial and error.
Ayumiʼs main motifs are animals, many the kind we rarely come across in daily life. Football fish, shoebill, giant anteater, ring-tailed lemur…the list goes on. The materials she uses also vary widely, from vintage patterned fabric to upholstery fabric. In one work that models a zebra, she has sewn together strips of denim, showing the right and wrong sides alternately to suggest stripes. Another series depicts carousel animals, including a goat and an ostrich made with velvet, evoking a retro feel. At times, Ayumi imagines the forms of extinct animals, other times she personifies animals by combining them with everyday objects.
Given this quirky sense of humor and imaginative expression, one would hesitate to call Ayumiʼs work “stuffed animals.” Stuffed animals generally embody cuteness, whereas there is something beastly about the eyes and the self-supporting postures of the atelier subaco animals, perhaps suggesting the fundamental “otherness” of animals. Thereʼs an element of surprise when encountering an atelier subaco work, and always something new to be discovered about the animal portrayed. Ayumi says, “I have feelings of respect and affection when observing animals, so different from us in color and form. While I donʼt want to change their characteristics too much, I also like to leave room for creative freedom to spice up my works. I think my style is to make animals that are not too real, yet not too far from reality.”
Ayumi grew up in a mountain town in Miyagi prefecture. She nurtured her creative spirit in nature, running around the hills and learning from her grandparents who made everything by hand, borrowing from natureʼs gifts. Flowers in the morning dew, the loud chorus of cicadas during the summer, insects going about their business…Ayumi observed and drew the smallest details of nature unfolding before her eyes, and continued to do so even after she moved out of her hometown. Then, about fifteen years ago when she became a mother, she decided to take up sewing instead of drawing.
At first, Ayumi made three-dimensional figures based on some of the curious creatures that her child drew, using scraps of fabric from old baby clothes. She had never learned doll-making, but creating dolls with materials at hand became a hobby that gave her comfort during her busy parenting days. Gradually, her skills got better and the dolls became varied. It was here, in her very own “nest box” where she nurtured her child, that Ayumi started creating her creatures. Somehow it makes sense that the origin of atelier subaco and the nest box studio can be traced back to Ayumiʼs early days as a mother.
The process of making begins by building a wire framework from the nose, onto the face, and finally the body. The wire is padded with cotton, then covered with fabric. Sometimes Ayumi will be inspired by a fabric that reminds her of a particular animal, while at other times, she may have an animal in mind and then search for materials that resemble it. She explains, “For example, if Iʼm making a proud-looking rabbit, I would look for a lustrous fur, or if itʼs a coelacanth, I might use an organdy fabric with a subtle iridescent shine and put black sequins on top…I play around with materials to express the characteristics of the animals and convey stories about them.”
As Ayumiʼs works are all one-of-a-kind, there is no fixed sequence of steps, let alone a pattern. When she is making a deer in the shape of a hunting trophy, she struggles to find the right balance of form and weight between the antlers and the body. She experiments with combining fabrics like warm, soft faux fur and cool, smooth synthetic leather, or she’ll pull out a few strands from a tweed fabric to change the amount of color showing on the surface. The finishing touch is sewing in the eyes, which always makes her nervous as it determines the facial expression. When the process, mostly done by hand, has been completed, Ayumi says she is filled with a great sense of satisfaction. “Although at that point,” she says, “in my mind Iʼm already seeing the next animal in line thatʼs waiting to be made.” Her creative urge never seems to cease.
For Ayumi, a nest box is not just a container where she stores her favorite items. She says a nest box symbolizes a place for oneʼs heart, a kind of sanctuary that nobody can disturb. Ayumi draws inspiration from her own nest box filled with memories of happy moments in her life, bringing various animals to life every day. Eventually, those animals leave the nest box for a bigger world to realize Ayumiʼs wish — “I hope the animals of atelier subaco will reach peopleʼs hearts and give them a sense of joy and comfort.”
Website: ateliersubaco.tumblr.com
Instagram: ＠atelier_subaco
Photos of the artists’ work taken by Meri Tanaka Jemison
Photo1: a deer in the shape of a hunting trophy
Photo2: a coelacanth
Photo3: a ring-tailed lemur
Photo4: a wolf, a fox, and a dove with candles
Photo5: a carousel-shaped rabbit, unicorn, and goat