Crafting & Storytelling – 465 Collective

Crafting + Storytelling: Hand Twining Scrap Rope + Japanese Folktales

Join Midori for a gentle afternoon of fiber crafting together as we listen to Midori’s lively telling of Japanese folktales.  

 

 

Making rope from scraps, rags, fibers, and plant material is folkcraft and a subsistence skill shared by many cultures worldwide. Midori shares a very simple method, requiring no tools or specialized skills, to transform bits of fabric into colorful twine – which can be used for multitudes of art projects. People find rope twining calming, meditative, and grounding. Midori adds her unique perspective of time marking, memory making, collaboration, and mindful tactile joy to this process. 

 While we make twine and rope, or work on other craft projects, Midori will regale us with old stories from Japan ~ told with her unique twist. (Get the pun? hahaha) Tales of undersea kingdoms, shapeshifting animals, brave warriors, the fate of the bully master, the old childless couple, small gods among us, and why you should not look into the forest when rain falls from a cloudless sky. 

 

You are welcome to bring scrap fabric or fabric you’d like to keep out of landfill. However, you don’t need to bring anything, as Midori will provide the material.

 

 

Optional items to bring:

Attendees are welcome to bring any of the following items 

  • Fabric scraps 
  • Any fiber craft you are working on currently 
  • Good pairs of scissors  
  • Sewing supplies (You might want to make something from the ropes we make)  
  • Other craft projects you want to work on

Midori will provide some scrap cloth for people to work with. 

 

Open to:  Adults 18+, Teens (14-19), Youth (k-8th grade)

 

 

• • •

 
WHEN

Sunday, Dec 14, 2025
2:00 – 5:00 pm 
Gallery Open 12:00 – 6:00pm

 

Exhibit Dates

December 5-20

 
WHERE

465 Collective
465 South Van Ness
San Francisco, CA USA 

 
Dining Room, is a participatory installation that explores intergenerational, familial, and cultural trauma through symbolic action and community engagement. I invite participants to take part in a Shatter Party, a facilitated event in which ceramic dishes are broken, one by one, as an act of emotional release. These fragments—each a material trace of pain, grief, rage, or catharsis—are then gathered by me and used to construct the centerpiece of the final installation: a stylized domestic dining room, where the carpet is composed entirely of broken dishes, and the table is set with white plates long ago cracked and imperfectly repaired.

Casually viewed, the Dining Room appears unremarkable—a diorama of domesticity. But closer inspection reveals the underlying fractures. The viewer peers through a suspended window and sees herself reflected in a vintage mirror across the table, placing her inside the scene. This is not just one family’s table—it’s everyone’s.
What we share across backgrounds, cultures, and identities are the quiet wounds carried from our families of origin. For many of us, the dining table—an object associated with connection—is a site of pain, silence, and pressure. In today’s world, as we all carry the weight of daily overwhelm, social fragmentation, and collective grief, we’re expected to hold it together. But many of us feel like we’re going to shatter.

We are living through a time of profound social and political upheaval in the United States—a period marked by uncertainty, fear, and systemic breakdown. This project is my response. I want to offer a space where people can come together in their fragility—not to be fixed, but to be seen. Where we can rage, grieve, and release alongside others. Where we can access support and community. And where, from the fragments of our individual experiences, we build something shared.

This project is not about resolution. It’s about recognition. It’s about honoring the emotional truth we carry, and inviting moments of connection and compassion through visceral, creative acts. That’s my vision—and why I’m making this work now.

Support Midori’s new work
“Dining Room”
with a tax-deductible donation!

ACCESSIBILITY

 

465 Collective Space has limited accessibility, and accommodations can be made to ensure those with limited mobility or mobility devices can easily enter the space. A portable ramp will be available for this event. The bathroom currently has a door that opens inward and a small step down. This makes accessibility difficult.

Date
Dec 14 2025
Expired!
Time
2:00 PM - 5:00 PM
More Info
More Info
Location
465 Collective
465 South Van Ness, San Francisco, CA
Website https://www.queerlycomplex.com/465-collective
Category
Organizer
465 Collective
Website https://www.queerlycomplex.com/465-collective

The 465 Collective is a coalition of Bay Area artists based around the cooperatively run space 465 South Van Ness. Run by Collective members Madison Young, Beth Stephens, Maria Judice, Scott Sessions, Ginger Yifan Chen, and Jason Wyman.

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