beautiful kasuri

This cotton kasuri fabric was given to me by my friend Atsuko in exchange for some bobbin lace i brought her. The Japanese and gift giving!
It was a whole kimono tan that i cut up in half to share with a mutual friend. Handwoven in very fine cotton it has both double and single kasuri motifs.
The fuzzy selvedges so that the woven design matches the resist design is something that i find endearing.

You can watch this video showing the tying of kasuri motifs. It was hard to resist those frothy indigo vats :)

neki desu



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reviewing the situation

Once you get out of sync getting back is an almost monumental task. There are still so many things to clear out, so may loose ends, so many kinks to straighten!

The good news is that this week i've been able to actually do some work in the studio, other than shift things from one place to another.
The other good news is that i met a weaver who lives here. Oh! a weaving crony in the making!

Back to work and studio working.
This one just flowed out and it was quite therapeutic. Too bad the gilding doesn't photograph well.
Now i have a weaving to full waiting for me.

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kangies

November TIF is now housed in Sharon's new blog, Pin Tangle as you may all know by now.
The theme is typography as a design element.
And to me, japanophilia aside, kangies are the epitome of typography as design.

Kangies are Chinese characters used in Japanese writing. They are somewhat stylized graphic renderings of objects and nature. And they possess the beauty of the brush stroke sometimes energetic and bold other times soft, diffused and demure.

The work above was a UFO that had been lying around waiting to come together.
The background silk fabric was bag dyed(LWI) and the inset was shibori dyed in black with a resulting interesting color haloing or separation.
Then i overprinted a section of a Japanese newspaper with my beloved Print Gocco, one of the most versatile tools for surface designthat have been invented.
Seed and running stitches were added as well as a machine stitched border framing the piece.
And some metallic printing of kangies to direct the eye.

i feel accomplished in having cleared another UFO and completing this months challenge albeit life happening.
And that the list keeps dwindling. :-)

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