the luxury of time

Finished threading the loom for a would be top. Hadn't touched yarns in a looong time, now on to beaming.So far I've discovered some twisted threads that have to be repaired before the beaming.
Also completed this new piece of the kana series.What I like is that the background silk has a distinct diagonal weave which crerates a play with the other incorporated fabrics. It's a very subtle texture play, but I think it reinforces the textile language. Because hey! for me a pet peeve is textiles wanting to be other things and masking their textile quality.
Adedd some beads on the small patch of fabric whuich also has a nice texture. When to stop-that's the design dilema.

On another note a question here. Do you people out there scketch your ideas, keeep sketch books etc? Does this help you in your process?


neki desu

Tags: weaving, surface design

ome deto godsaimasu!

To me! title roughly means happy birthday.
This is the latest of the kana series.Distilled emotion,although I can't recognize the emotion.There's some red stichery going on ,but pretty subtle.
Now after a session of pruning and planting my terrace is getting back to par.
Some studio work as well a blue piece is coming along fine.

neki desu

Tags: surface design, stitching

o hanami

Since I am not in Japan at this time, but the season for cherry tree viewing is about to start I will have to content myself by posting pictures in the next couple of days. Enjoy!

neki desu

Tags: japanophilia, day to day

more kana

I'm quite pleased with this work. WhatI like about it is that it's not just pleasant to look at, but it has depth. The more fabric I dye the more images come to me, right now there are 10 finished some of them with fractal images that have been incorporated. This is fun!

neki desu

Tags: surface design, dyeing

ritual seppuku

Japanese mid term was a real disaster.I blanked out with the kana words could not remember how to write the a and I just gave up. This was on the third paper,three papers on both sides in Japanese, not romanji and all that in just one and a half hour. Plus numbers, dates,verbs, particles, you just name it.
I think I haven't had enough time to assimilate kana, I'm just now begining to be functional with hiragana.
That or that German doctor whose name I can't remember has got me.
As an incentive last Friday we went out for lunch to a nice tempura-ya. Actually we are all out to lunch. The picture is the maki we were served. Oishii.

neki desu

Tags: food, japanophilia

the kindness of strangers

Tennessee Williams gave us an incredible life line-pun- when he made Blanche Dubois say "I've always depended on the kindness of strangers"
Opened my blog today trying to keep myself from climbing walls due to the upcoming Japanese test to find this incredibly kind comment. Thank you, thank you, thank you. It really means a lot to me.

Here is another finished work from the kana series. I still don't have a title for it and I dislike cute punny titles. But let's face it I can't think of anything but the test. It makes me feel less obsessed to know that my classmates are equally desperate. It's like wearing those cute Japanese schoolboy uniforms in your brain. Yes, they are cute but, they are military looking. Extrapolate the thought.

Anyway, I dyed the silk using LWI then overprinted the kana letter ing, used a scrap of one of my digitally printed fabrics and a commercial silk scrap. This could read as reinterpretation of Japanese country fabrics.

neki desu

Tags: surface design, dyeing, day to day

unifiying concepts

Right. Up to now I just felt as if I was navigating in different waters. Most of the work done was of the occupational therapy category. My work was one thing and the rest of my life, which is basically now studying Japanese, another thing. All scattered around me making not much sense. I was on the verge of accepting this conceptual and existential chaos as a sign of the times.
And one day as if by magic it all came toghether. All the struggling with hiragana and kana started surfacing -pun-.

I'm working on this surface design series dyeing, stitching and stamping images of letters from a Japanese newspaper. It really feels great to have been able to pull all these concepts together in life and work.

neki desu

Tags: surface design, day to day, japanophilia