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Japanese Textile Workshops 　日本のテキスタイル　ワークショップ
www.japanesetextileworkshops.blogspot.com
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I live in a small mountain village just outside of Tokyo where I grow a crop of indigo every year and process it into a vat dye using traditional methods. With the resulting indigo I dye cotton and silk. I also breed silk moths, reeling the silk from the mature cocoons to later color the silk with natural dyes, finally weaving it on traditional Japanese looms to create unique fabrics.
#172852 in All

Scalping a Yeti and Using the Fur to Make Ropes

Ogata san showed us how to do this a few years back. 94 years old and knows how to dress a downed primate. This woman is tough. None of us had the confidence to pull it off by ourselves so Ive been w...

2 days ago

Sky Tree Feudal Leftovers

Today in class we looked at the Berninis St Theresa and the katagami exhibition book. Kamei san and Yamaguchi san were interested in how they were related.   The conversation was interesting as ...

22 may 12

Katagami Style Exhibition at Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum

The posters for the exhibition have been in all the tonier train stations for the past two months. Katagami Style written out in a faux Jungenstile font. I had misgivings about the exhibition. The sa...

21 may 12

Last MInute Shibori for France.

Guillaume , thank you for being such a great help these past months.  We were harvesting tea and Guillaume looked anxious checking the time...."Bryan I wont have time to indigo dye my last s...

20 may 12

Under Dyeing Indigo

Tanaka san spun and spun some old silk hankies I had made years ago from cut cocoons I had used for breeding and brought some very well done skeins to class today. We dyed them with gardenia pods to ...

18 may 12

A New Project Before the Last One is Finished.

There are two very cool knit machines that have been thrown at my life here. One is the 1950s American tube t-shirt knitter. The second is a way way cool 1950s pile sock knitter. These two wonders ar...

16 may 12

木目絞り Woodgrain Shibori

 Takeshima san went the extra ten miles to do it just right on this mini-masterpiece of woodgrain shibori. It turned out tough, bold and healthy. Yeah, throw me two cold beers.  Ill-drink-t...

14 may 12

Students Invisible Work

Students can work for months incrementally on a shibori or weaving project at the house and when finally completed the work vanishes forthwith.  It is like pulling teeth to get it back at the ho...

14 may 12

Tsumugi, Kasuri and Katagami hori

It was a quiet class day with everyone concentrating on their projects. Kamei sans carpet made a few rows of progress. Tanaka san spun silk floss on my spinner for the first time. She had pulled...

08 may 12

Finishing Up a Hydro-sulphate Indigo Vat

The chalk-like sediment is visible when you stir the indigo adding to the guesswork of the condition of the vat.A hydro-sulphate de-oxidised indigo vat cannot last forever. The slaked lime (or other ...

06 may 12

Indigo Planting and Indigo Balls

As the tour members were on their way out the front door on the way to the airport they planted a dozen or so indigo seeds each. This year will be my 19th year growing indigo and the help from my pla...

01 may 12

Spring around the House

ひとりしずか/ Japanese name: By Myself Quiet.Spring arrived late this year. It arrived all at once with plum and cherry blossoms back to back.  We had snow just the other day and now your lungs fill t...

01 may 12

Thank You Indigo Sisters

This was the first Japanese Textile Study Tour. How can I really thank Mrya, Janine, Nat, Cynthia, Blandina, Judi, Jean and Lis? They signed up without knowing me except through Nat and my blog. &nbs...

26 apr 12

Katazome Master Visit

 I first visited Noguchi sans time slip katazome studio seventeen years ago. He is the seventh generation stencil dyer here and his son Kaz  become the eighth a few years back. &n...

26 apr 12

Rocket Lamp and Shibori Prep.

OK. I took a few detours on the house renovations. There was an old milk can hiding in the rafters. Rusted and cobwebbed. There had been a small barn next to the stream in the early 70s. There had be...

25 apr 12

Early this morning the highway to Takao was empty and the valley was a cool silver blue as we drove. We said our goodbyes and it was suddenly silent as I drove back to Fujino to an empty house (excep...

25 apr 12

Life Sign

The plum blossoms are out. They are almost two months late as the winter has been exceptionally cold. Looks as if the plums and the cherry blossoms will be back to back. We have had hurricane-force w...

04 apr 12

Massage Chair

Here Blandina. The massage chair is waiting for you. I wrote a blurb about the fine textiles Panasonic used on the chairs. So they gave me one. A thousand settings. Gentle to almost torturous.

07 mar 12

Shinto Purification

It is the home stretch now for the tour preparation. (Almost there.... just some glass in the window frames. ) Nat appeared out of nowhere and caught up in her whirlwind of enthusiasm we both jumped ...

05 mar 12

More on Sarasa Vegetable Pigment Making Techniques

Madder PlantsBoiled madder roots. Note that the outside skin of the root is pigment rich not the tough sinewy inner core.Madder pigment settling to the bottom. Repeat this several times to neutralize...

14 feb 12

Monday Sarasa Research

Jars of settling cochineal purple dye.Pomegranate skins ready to have the pigment extracted.Cedar ash to make the alkaline solution.There is a field/mountain of Japanese textiles that seemed just too...

13 feb 12

Lynette Anderson San

I was up early in the morning and the thermometer read minus seven. It had snowed a few more centimeters but this was easily shoveled away. Layers are the best way to go with clothing on a trip into ...

26 jan 12

Tokyo Quilt Festival

It is hard to digest all the work there. It is impressive to see how much thought and work go into making the quilts. An old line from a high school text book popped into my head. It was from Kennith...

25 jan 12

End of the Year Party

Instead of going to restaurant for the class bonenkai it seemed better to do something practical and memorable. We made 75 kg of miso outside the front door. The soy beans are put in fresh stream wat...

21 jan 12

The Crazy Ones...

I have been a Apple/Mac fan and Steve Jobs admirer my entire adult life. OK. He wasnt the perfect human but he stood where humanities met technology and did about as good as a job as it as I can imag...

19 jan 12

Indigo Fermentation Started

Posted on my tour blog...sorry for repeats.I got two decent harvests of indigo leaves from the same plants this past summer. Stripping the leaves off the stems gives you cleaner indigo balls. It is d...

27 dec 11

Loom to Go.

There are just too many looms in the house. Ive collected a dozen or so old Kanagawa Takabata over the years. They were an easy find not so many years ago. Easy to spot in barn lofts and attics. Alwa...

26 dec 11

Scandinavian Looms Alive.

The two big Scandinavian Looms are alive these days. Kamei san finished up weaving four panels for a bed throw. She wove steadfast and sooo cleanly. I am proud of her. She had to weave to the last la...

11 dec 11

Dying with Cedar Bark and Alder cones on Silk

Left: Alder iron mordant overdyed with a single indigo dip. Middle: Alder cones with Copper mordant. Right: Cedar bark with copper mordant.The mountains decidious trees are vibrant copper and the vei...

11 dec 11

Cleaning out the Kura

There is an old clay walled storehouse just outside my front door packed full of generations of semi-precious and semi-discarded belongings. Parking in front of it for 19 years and nothing changes ex...

05 dec 11

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