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Artists from Blue Tree House
Yoshi Aoki, Founder/ Lead Artist
Yoshi was born in Osaka, Japan and moved to the United States in 1994. He held various jobs in both Japan and America, and has always created artwork as a hobby. After discovering the unique lighting fixtures that can be created with wire and paper, he founded Blue Tree Gallery. Yoshi designs just about all of our lamps and nightlights, and he also designed this website.
Susan Baran Aoki, Communications/Artist
Living in Japan, Susie acquired an appreciation of Japanese aesthetics and cooking. She enjoyed careers as a teacher and a librarian, but grew up around art and always fantasized about making her living this way. Susie coordinates our colors, and papers our lamps and nightlights. She also helps Yoshi with this website. When you contact Blue Tree Gallery, you will most likely communicate with her.
Reiko Archer, Artist
Reiko has been a natural crafter all her life, making crafts from anything and everything she can find in nature. She contributes to our lamp designs and papering. Also, being a Japanese mother, she adds the authenticity to our Japanese recipes.
About Our Work
Traditionally, Japanese paper lantern frames are constructed with thin strips of bamboo. Bamboo lends an organic feeling to the lamps, but we find the nature of this material somewhat limiting. Although our lamps are inspired by the classical Japanese paper lantern, we use galvanized wire to construct our frames. The malleable and sturdy qualities of wire provide for the flexibility of creating an infinite variety of shapes. The results of our technique are sculptural forms ranging from realistic renditions of animals to unique abstract forms.
We begin the process by bending and soldering the wire. Then, we apply natural fiber and antique Japanese papers to the frame using special glue. The rich variety of colored and textured papers we use provides a feeling of depth and luminosity. Finally, we coat the lamps for anti-flammability and extra durability.
Each lamp and nightlight is handcrafted at our studio in the coastal mountains of northern Oregon. Inspired by this idyllic environment, our work reflects our infatuation with nature, animals and color.
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Blue Tree Enterprises
Hamlet, Oregon
(503) 738-9961
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Copyright-Blue Tree Enterprises, 2002
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