In bustling Downtown L.A., Nellita’s Craft provides a space for hands-on discovery.
By MIKEY HIRANO CULROSS
RAFU STAFF WRITER
What’s in a name? Well, plenty, if you’re getting the back story about one of Little Tokyo’s newest businesses.
Nellita’s Craft is a bright, airy space dedicated to crafting and artistic inspiration, a home for anyone loves hands-on creativity.
“In a nutshell, we’re Little Tokyo’s neighborhood craft shop,” explained owner Rosalyn Kawahira, who opened the workspace in April. “We are focused on a lot of fiber arts, embroidery arts, a little sewing, a little knitting and crochet. We also want to support independent artists, and so we carry their stickers and greeting cards, and hopefully folks will also be inspired to be creative and do creative things.”
In addition to providing a facility that gives access to supplies, tools, machines, and Kawahira offers workshops and hosts artists to share their creations and techniques.
“We’re pretty new, and people have re-ally expressed a lot of interest in coming to the workshops that we do,” Kawahira said. “People really like to see Los Angeles-based independent artists highlighted, which is nice too, and for me, I’m always very impressed by how talented people are.”
The scheduled workshops at Nellita’s Craft are done for 2024, but Kawahira said there are more to come in the new year. Once each month, she hosts Work in Progress Wednesday, during which any-one is welcome to bring unfinished projects for group input and assistance.
“The objective is really for people to try new things, so our sessions are basically all beginner workshops and introduction classes. So when people come here, they don’t need to bring any-thing. We provide everything, and they can see what they like to do.
“We have crochet and we will have knit-ting classes. Some classes use our equipment, like the Cricut (die-cutting) machine, and show different techniques too, like embroidery. We have also a candle-making class, sticker-making class and fun things like that.”
You read that correctly: sticker-making, with the tools and supplies on hand.
“I have really great instructors who are very creative and really wonderful at teaching their craft, so I feel very lucky about having their participation.”
Nellita’s Craft boasts what is likely the widest selection of kits to create sashiko, a traditional Japanese technique for stitching, used for reinforcing fabrics as well as for its decorative qualities.
“These are kits from Japan, and sashiko is a mending technique, but it’s also evolved into a decorative esthetic as well,” Kawahira explained. “We carry these kits from Japan that are pre-print traditional sashiko patterns, as well as these other kits from Japan that use contemporary patterns. The stitching itself is actually very easy. It’s a running stitch, one of the basic stitches, but it is just a repeated pattern. So it takes some time, but you sort of get the technique by following, and it’s done by hand.”
The shop also features half-yard lengths of authentic Japanese fabric imported directly from a legacy tailor shop in Kyoto, as well as needle-point and doll kits.
So about the names … Rosalyn is named after her mother, Rosa, but the shop is also named after Mom. What gives?
“She was born in Lima, Peru, and she and her siblings were born at home,” Kawahira explained. “Like most families, her folks needed to go to register their children at a local government office. However, when her dad went to do that, he totally forgot what he was going to name her by the time he reached the office. So he said, ‘Oh, Rosa is a nice name.’ So on paper, she’s Rosa, but at home, as she was growing up, everyone called her Nelly.
“She got to kindergarten and to elementary school and they called her Rosa. She’s like, ‘Who’s Rosa?’ and from Nelly, she was little Nelly, or ‘Nellita.’”
So what did Grandmother have to say when Grandpa returned from the registration office with a name completely different from that which was agreed upon earlier?
“I don’t know what Grandma said, but since that moment, everyone calls her Nelly,” Kawahira said.
A true L.A. native, Kawahira is a graduate of Pilgrim School and Scripps College.
“My mother was the Volunteer of the Year at Little Tokyo Service Center last year, and my father is a volunteer gardener at Higashi Honganji. We really are a Little Tokyo family.”
Kawahira said that while she has always enjoyed being artistic, much of her passion for hands-on creativity comes from her mom.
“I think there is this element that comes from my mom, who is an extremely creative person who loves to try new things,” she said. “I think seeing that while growing up, I take after her a little bit where, you know, I just want to try new things and see what sticks.”
Occasionally, the woman whose name graces the walls of the shop will sit in on crafting sessions or just observe and absorb the creative air.
“She loves the workshops, for sure,” Kawahira said. “She loves to hang out and try new things. She’s been retired for a while now, but like everyone, she’s had her responsibilities. My mom was a great provider, and all that kind of stuff, so I think she really held back a lot of that creativity, but it revealed itself in a lot of different ways that I can imagine.”
Kawahira said she feels fortunate to have been able to open a place where creatvity is the focus, not merely a dressing of escape from the duties life throws at us, and Nellita’s spirit is the guiding mindset.
“I think it’s really a testament of her influence, like how can folks still maintain their lives, working in an office or whatever, in the neighborhood, living their grown-up lives and still be able to exercise their creativity and having a space where you don’t have to invest too much in equipment or supplies that take up space that many people don’t have in their homes, and still try new things,” she said.
“I think that’s what I wanted to do, and that’s what I wanted to provide. And I think Little Tokyo is really great because it has a great mix of people who do work here in the offices in adjacent neighborhoods, but also people who live here. And then they can come here after work, or come here before they go home, and kind of decompress, and use their hands to discover something new.”
Nellita’s Craft is located at 248 E. First St. in Little Tokyo. For hours and workshop schedule, visit nellitascraft.com.