Sumimasen - すみません

Sumimasen  - すみません 

I may have bit off more than I can chew but I am in three round robins.  Two are monthly and the third is whenever it arrives.  This piece Sumimasen was created for a member of a group that did a RR in 2014. We loved our working in each others' journals, hence we are at it again this year with one change.  We are creating 8 x 8 inch pieces on 90 pound watercolor paper instead of mailing a whole journal.  Each month we send one to one of the others in the group.  In July we will have seven works to bind ourselves.  Each piece folds into a pentagon that measures 4 x 4 inches square with two corners hacked off.  So it will become a 4 x 4 expanding to an 8 x 8 pop-out journal when completed.

Sumimasen means "excuse me" in Japanese.  When I was living and working in Japan in the early 1980's I had to remember my excuse me's as when in another culture one tends to make blunders. Sumimasen is excuse me when you are asking someone for something or calling them over.  There are two other excuse me's....excuse me is anyone home and excuse me as in I am sorry.

One time I could not remember which excuse me to use and so I used them all.  The person who I was talking to broke up laughing.  I covered all bases though.