Judy Niemeyer quilts and mushrooms!

I'll end this year with three photos.

I've been working on the blocks for that Judy Niemeyer quilt; I'm a little more than half way and trying to finish it up before I take another class building on the same techniques...  Here's part of what I finished this morning.  When I sew them together, the blocks will be 16" square.

Next are the fabrics for the class next weekend.

And finally, meringue mushrooms I made. Making these (or any meringue, really) was on my cooking bucket list. They were absolutely adorable and totally yummy, although a close inspection would indicate perhaps I need more practice with a piping bag. I took a small box of them to S and to P earlier this week when we had lunch in Carmel Valley, so now there are none left... So sad...

Happy New Year to all!

Quilt in progress

Quilt to be

Mushrooms, made from meringue

Fishy!!!

I've been wanting to make this fish since I bought a book containing the pattern (I'll edit the post with the name, I promise!) at a little quilt store in Queenstown, NZ.  I've been afraid of machine applique forever, and even cram-dyeing the fabric and putting all the supplies in one bag did not cause me to get over myself and start it.  Until last week.

When I put Fishy on the dining table he looked tiny! Fish is approximately 40" long and about 12" wide; technically it's woven, and then quilted. Do I need to make a larger fish, a humongous cotton representation of all the ones that got away? Time will tell!

I promised the final picture of my dress; here it is, all ready for presentation to the class. Too bad it's two sizes too small for me (at least); but it did fit the model, and that's what counts.

On other projects:

• I'm still listlessly knitting away at skirt... it's slow! And I'm bored of it. It may need to rest for awhile.
• I brought out the quilt I started in February, and finished another block; it took me a while, and I ruined a small bit of it, as I'd forgotten the method. I think I've got it down now, so more blocks to come before the end of the year!

Food wise, I've had 3 adventures...  I made a duck, andouille, and shrimp gumbo combining a recipe from Epicurious and a recipe from Paul Prudhomme; I decorated cookies with my knitting group at S's house and learned all about edible spray glitter; and I made 3 batches of macarons one afternoon with my friend J and managed to get her to take them all out of my house!  It was perfect. I'd like to combine my new-found love of edible spray glitter with macaron making...

I'm looking at 2018 goals for the studio and other than getting the new loom up and running, I'd like to be more focused, and finish some of the long standing projects hanging around in boxes and bags, as well as work through some of my stash. Most of the cabinets are a little tight, and this should help. Towards that:

• I'm taking another Judy Niemeyer quilt class (clamshell) out of my hand dyed fabrics.
• I plan on starting the Persian Dreams blanket out of primarily stash yarn; I'll need to order a background color to be consistent.
• I'd like to make some quilts (mostly baby and toddler) for donation; I've already identified a stack of free patterns I would enjoy, and a couple of locations where the donations would be welcome.
• I've got my list of currently planned or started projects as well;  I'm still looking at it. 

Yet Another Green Object (YAGO)

Isn't he cute? I call him Yago.

I'm helping a friend, C., with a group of 4H kids who want to learn to weave. This little guy is representative of what they did for their first project, which is stick weaving (we used straws).  This, by the way, would be a great project for kids of any age!!! The kids' weavings were much cuter, and theirs had googley eyes instead of button eyes.  This week, we're doing circular weaving on old CDs.

Very little else has been going on other than preparing the house for holiday guests and a small holiday party for DH's workmates. This did force me to straighten the studio and get rid of more boxes; I'm down to two boxes, I think... It's starting to look like a place I want to be.

Loom with a view

Other than that:

• I finished my final school project, a shift dress with low French darts (photos when I get it on the model)! Sadly it's a pattern-size 10 (class requirement) but if it were my size, I'd like it enough to wear it. 
• I finished a doll that I found partially finished in a box I unpacked (you can just see it by the spools under the window in the studio picture).
• I'm knitting away at my skirt which may be finished for summer 2020.

And I attempted to get organized by making a project list which gets eerily bigger every time I look away. I'll let you know how that goes.

It's a green day...

Heat and cat related insomnia is making me silly! So here are pictures of things that are green.

 I ended up processing 14 pounds of green tomatoes into 12 pints of green tomato relish;  I added red pepper flakes and cut the sugar in half.  It's good, but not fantastic; looking for a new recipe for next year!

While we're looking at food, I had to pick the last of the toy choy before it bolted. We had it twice so far and I have enough for two meals this weekend. 

Also in the garden are the green pea plants I recently planted.  They're climbing up the hand spun Romney wool yarn I made practicing for the sheep to shawl contest.  I don't think they (the pea plants)  are appropriately appreciative.

My weaving guild had hosted an event around little looms, and the call went out for rigid heddle loom owners to demo...  I hastily put on a short warp and demo'ed Lisa Reyner's Free Form Overshot technique, and let my braver guild-mates try it out... I am weaving the piece a little longer for a small tote to take a mug to the guild meetings; Owl, in his usual fashion, wanted to play "what's on my loom". 

Navajo Weaving

Blearly eyed after 2 days...

I just got home from a 3 day Navajo Weaving Class taught by Two Grey Hills Weavers Lynda Teller Pete and Barbara Teller Ornelas, taught at Lou Grantham's SF Fiber in Oakland. I'm still digesting the experience... there's a lot to learn while producing a roughly 6" x 8" textile, while soaking in a small bit of that indigenous culture. Barbara and Lynda were so generous with their knowledge and a true pleasure to learn from.

At the end of the second day I was wondering if I could finish on time, and also bleary eyed from concentrating on that patterned section...

Barbara brought in a tapestry she was working on that was amazing. I don't feel right sharing a photo of it without her permission, and I didn't ask her, but I will describe it. Two Grey Hills tapestries are characterized by only using natural sheep colors; wool from different colored sheep can be carded together to make new colors, but natural or aniline dyes are generally not used. Barbara's piece had "black", cream, and browns, but also contained a beautiful medium turquoise color. She spins her own wool from Navajo sheep, a very fine lace weight, and weaves with singles; she told me she sets the twist by wet blocking the yarn and weighting it while drying.  The edges were finished in the same dark wool used at the top and bottom of the pieces, twisted in a way that make me think of the card woven selvedge...   Barbara confirmed that they were twisted, but her hands moved so quickly and the dark strands were hard to tell apart...

Such an honor to watch such competent knowledgable hands!!!

Bok Choy, Baby!

Super bonus from the weekend; I sat next to my Favorite Indie Dyer Ever,  Elissavet from Wonderland Dyeworks. I've met her at shows but we've never chatted; it was like being seated next to a celebrity! I really enjoyed weaving with her. Hoping she signs up for the class next time Lynda and Barbara are in town...

I did manage to get some home cooked food on the table over the weekend as well, featuring the first harvest from the new garden; the bok choy is mine but the onion and red bells come from the grocer.

And here's the final project picture, with matching reading glasses to show size. 

Ange weaves a shawl in 4 hours, and sheep steal her coffee!

Right before the starting bell...

Last weekend I competed at the Sheep to Shawl contest at Lambtown.  What a fabulous team I was on! I really enjoyed the event!

Our weaver had food poisoning, and dropped out last minute leaving us with a partially warped loom and no plan.  I became weaver under protest. They prepped the warp while I pulled out my tablet and iWeaveIt software  and hastily came up with a couple of options for the group to look at; we decided on a zig-zaggy point twill that could be done with an easy treadling and a 4 shaft loom.

Here's the loom after tieing on, just before the competition started.  And here's the finished product, on the judging table about to be disqualified for being too short (this was a purposeful decision by the team; we knew it would be too short but we wanted to be done).

Right before being disqualified!

I'm going to analyze this in the context of textile design; I don't know what the weaver had in mind, so can't judge what she would have done with this but I can judge what I did with it. The warp was set up with uneven width stripes. The two larger swathes of purple purplish colored stripes used two different colors, alternating.  Some of the colors from the larger stripes were repeated at the other end of the shawl as smaller stripes.

I would have found the overall effect more pleasing if the warp colors had been intermixed in smaller stripes. The red (fuschia?) and the turquoise are jarring to my eye in full stripes, but would have made the shawl sparkle had they been intermixed in small stripes with the rest of the colors.  The weaver had wanted a black fleece but not were available, so the weft was a very pale grey, almost white, which, against the darker colors, highlighted all of the weaving errors. Stephanie, the competition judge,  suggested when asked that a weft color matching one of the warp colors would have tied it all together, and thought a dip in a pale dye bath would bring everything together. R. did dip it in indigo the next day, and it does indeed look better! I need to try this...

Weaving wise, I had a couple of notes I wanted to make:

• I used floating selvedges as I was weaving a twill, which slowed down the weaving; I don't normally weave with them. C. said she would have done 2 threads of plain weave at the border while L. thought a few threads of a different twill would have suited better. 
• The "frown" in the weaving on the right of the picture indicates the tension got uneven towards the end; I could feel it on the loom but did not have time to figure out a solution. 
• I overlaid fluffy ends where the yarn joined (L. said C. said to do it this way) which resulted in an uneven look; I think there is a better solution. 
• My beat was okay but not entirely even; practice before the event would have helped this. I might have been able to mitigate this by measuring PPI at the beginning of the shawl and periodically checking, but did not think of it.
• Putting a couple of threads of the weft color on the selvedges, spun like the warp, is a good idea. L. made the point that good selvedges come from lots of practice, which is true; but given that the weft is the product of 4 spinners spinning under pressure, and somewhat thick and thin, this would help mask inconsistencies from many eyes (but not the judges!). 

I thought I was done with all the things I signed up for... But then a Navajo Weaving class came up! So I'll be done that this weekend.  Other projects:

Sheep stealing my coffee!!

• I'm done spinning the singles of the orange cashmere blend yarn. One of the cats peed on the rest of the roving and I thought briefly of spinning it then washing the yarn then came to my senses and tossed the remaining into the compost. Not sure what the next step is.
• I'm still spinning on some demin-ish wool.
• I started warping a silk scarf on the Baby Mac.
• I am looking for the instructions for the cotton dish towels, they'll go on the big loom.
• The fall colored wool ruana pieces are off the RHL and waiting until I can get back to them.
• I had about 4 inches knitted on the mummy skirt, then ripped it out and have restarted. Definitely a KUI.

And I have 20-30 lbs of green tomatoes that I need to process into chow chow. So that first.

Dyeing with Toyon, a 10 day adventure!

Z is helping

There is a lot of toyon in my yard... it's supposed to be a great natural dye  First step was to cut some! I went to the folly with my helper Ziggy.  I picked 10.5 oz of toyon leaves, stems, and some berries and simmered them for about an hour. The book I have talks about the wonder scent of Toyon simmering... It is lovely, until you read that you need to cook it outside as the fabulous marzipan aroma indicates a low level of cyanide...

Toyon, by the way,  is Heteromeles arbutifolia.

Fresh stems, leaves and berries

On the 2nd day, I simmered it again for about an hour.  Then I let it sit on the deck for two more days, and look at the warm russet color of the water! Then I left it alone for about a week in variable weather, the color deepening daily.

Why a week? I wanted to leave it for several days, then realized I couldn't find my alum, so I had to order some, then I got too busy to wind the yarn... Yep, it was one of those weeks.

Boiled twice, then ignored for two days

Next step, I simmered 100g sock yarn (divided into 2.25 ounce and 1.25 ounce hanks) from my stash in water with alum and Cream of Tartar.  I think the fiber is Merino/Cashmere/Nylon.  I still can't find my last dye box after the move (I'm sure it's here but mislabeled), the one with measuring implements in it (scale and spoons), so I eyeballed a teaspoon of CoT and a couple tablespoons of Alum.  It simmered for about an hour, then cooled in the pot overnight.  Meanwhile, I drained the solids out of the toyon water and discarded the little bit of mold on the top. 

Now for the part where you learn why I'll never be a good dyer. Being a good dyer, who can begin to replicate results, requires that one measure reasonably accurately, and keep track of silly things like time. I suppose for natural dyes, I'd also want to note which bushes I took the cutting from, how small I chopped up the stems, what day I harvested the leaves on, what the weather was like while it "aged" and so on. But precision like that is hard for me, so I'll just detail the omissions and get on towards the photos of what happened when the fiber met the Toyon soup. 

I heated up the dye bath, adding the yarn early as I did not want to shock it. Then I threw the larger hank of yarn in and forgot to note the time. I think it simmered for about 90 minutes, then I turned it off and meant to leave it overnight... but it was looking pretty dark so I pulled it out after some time. Then I decided to throw in the smaller hank to see what would happen (it's the lighter shade), and simmered again for an indeterminate amount of time...While it sat in the dyebath, cooling, I got impatient and rinsed the darker one; I definitely lost some color. But I'm thrilled with the results! 

Next up in the dyepot: mahonia aquifolium!

Madder, Sky Deck, Zucchini pie! Oh My.

Weaving on the sky deck

Finally I'm ready to plant the madder seeds in the Garden. We'll see if they take; if not, a friend from the guild has offered me some roots from her garden, which will certainly take off. We'll see what happens.  I also have wild indigo (aka false indigo) seeds, ready to make cute little wild indigo plants for the garden; these will probably get planted in the spring. It's very exciting.

Meanwhile, there's a toyon plant I'm eyeing for it's natural dye properties...

Hiding from predators

I put the yarn that wouldn't fit in the cabinet on the loom. It will be a poncho or ruana or some such... We'll see when it comes off. I was trying to get a faux ikat effect in some parts... but also wanted to tone down some colors that were not exactly what I was looking for. I used a semi-solid in a fabulous color (Malabrigo Primavera) as the weft: warp is yarn I dyed with K. at a dye workshop in Fresno. Note to self: a busy weft is not the best choice for a busy warp, if you hope to see any pattern coming through. I still like it. Here is is being woven on the sky deck. And here's a photo from last week of Owl helping me with the piece. They've still managed to avoid being eaten, probably because I'm locking them in at night...



I attended the spinning guild meeting today; I was spinning on that semi blue roving I mentioned in my last post. On the food front, I used the surplus of donated zucchini in a pie today. Yum.  Otherwise all the food I've been cooking lately has been lackluster...

I do need to get back to goal setting. Right now the goal is to put the leftover pie in the fridge, and clear the rigid heddle loom as it's needed elsewhere.

The studio is live again!

I finally got enough unpacked to call the studio live! I suspect I'm missing a box... Which is fine... And there are a couple of "I don't know what to do with this boxes". But it's cleared out enough to start working in it. Here's Z doing yoga in the long window!

View from the studio is impeding my progress.

Meanwhile, this is what I've been up to fiber wise; I have used a lot of words to describe what's really very little progress...

• Some spinning on the orange cashmere silk I've named "45"
• Some spinning on this wool fiber with a demin like color; I spun at the Black Sheep Guilds Booth at the Redwood City Jazz Festival. Sadly it's not very even, but that should be okay. The yarn is destined to be a pin woven wrap.
• I got off by one stitch on my Seaside Affair. I took it off the needles to rip out the 12 offending rows and put it around my body just to make sure that the size was right. GOOD THING as it's 10-14 inches too big. I frogged it last night, so now have no easy knitting projects in action.
• I couldn't find a good place for a projects worth of yarn, so I finally put the project on the rigid heddle loom. I picked that loom since it's all springy knitting yarn. Two of the skeins were Dyed In Fresno but not palindrome skeins; I tried to warp them for warp pooling using Syne Mitchell's Painted Skein Bonus method that was in Weavezine; I'll get photos of that once it's going; I'm wound on but have not finished tying everything up yet.
• I started school again. Not sure how I feel about this.
• I pulled out the Green Handmaidens Towel kit I bought a hundred years ago and will decide whether it belongs on the Mac or the New-to-me Gilmore. 
• I've also been eyeing the pile of dyeable yarn in the studio and the toyon bushes in the back yard. Stay tuned on that one.

Moved, partially unpacked, having nightmares.

We moved 3 1/2 weeks ago. So far, I've emptied all the kitchen boxes, all the bedroom boxes except one, and all the living room boxes except one. I've ordered a sofabed for when DH's family visits. I'm getting the cats settled in, and working with the gardeners to put in food crops and dye plants. Today I met with the guy who will get the rats out of crawlspace.

It's been an eventful couple of months.

On the fiber side, I unpacked all the books in the studio today (9 boxes total!) and have already unpacked the spinnables and a lot of the knitables. What I need now is bins to fit in the Ikea furniture (recently built!) so organize things, so I can fit a full cubit of items in the space currently taken up by a cascading triangle of items.  Do I make these? Do I buy ones that aren't quite the right size? So many questions. I am having nightmares about settling another 7 or 9 boxes of "stuff" into the one cabinet unit that is unfilled, and thinking if I put the yarn on the loom, I won't have to store it.

Good thing I bought a new loom! It's a 40" 8 shaft Gilmore, used of course.

Hoping to post photos of something I'm making in the next week or two...

Placemats, and 45

Progress!!! Despite the moving there is progress..

I needed to clear the loom prior to moving; feels easier to move it empty than warped. So I finished the runner that was on there and added one more place mat. It felt like I'd made every mistake a rookie can make... Lack of planning, lack of keeping track of progress, letting enough time go by to forget what the plan was, changing plans mid stream, and so on. And then I made a near fatal flaw of weaving to the last inch; four of the staples holding the apron strings to the warp beam popped as they had pressure in exactly the wrong direction.  Yet I finished them, hemmed them, threw them in the washer and dryer, and ironed them when they came out. They are exactly the size I'd wanted! And nearly straight and flat. I clearly need a lot more weaving practice but am thrilled with the outcome.  Here they are, two from the green side and two from the grey side. The 30+ inch runner has the longer contrasting lines on it.

I spun some 45 tonight. It's a silk and cashmere roving in the color way "Peach Melba" that was one of the prizes from Sheep to Shawl last year. It pleases me to call its orangeness 45.

So I suppose despite everything that's going on, I can still indulge in fiber projects.  I'll name these as the next few:

• Spinning 45 and the blue roving for the pin woven shawl.
• Reengaging on the Melon Shawl.
• Knitting on Seaside Affair.

I also need to make plans for the new Studio, specifically identifying August projects.  I'll do this on paper, then transcribe...

New Studio in planning phases, old Studio in boxes

Yep, we're moving. A large part of my studio is now in this big pile of boxes. I'd brought out some batting to pack, and the beasts claimed it; see white beast just above the green chair?  I can't bring myself to take it away from them.

The new studio has no closets but is roughly 3 times the size of the old studio; it's also located conveniently next to the laundry room aka dye studio. The plan is to put low storage cabinets on two of the walls, and my two bookcases in a little alcove. That should leave the rest of the space for looms and the sewing tables, and a small comfy chair. Right outside the studio space is a lovely comfy sunny patio which I've christened the spinning deck.

So much to do...

Little to no progress...

I have little progress to report since my last Blog entry. My life is roiling with, well, life, and I'm trying to practice some of the skill I'm learning in  watercolor and drawing classes; hoping this will improve future fiber artistic endeavors.

I have been knitting slowly along on my Seaside Endeavor; for some reason it's a very slow knit. Maybe because I'm knitting fronts and backs at the same time? Anyways, I'm bout 5 inches into it, and progressing at a snail's pace.

I also warped up more thrums on my tablets and have been attempting Egyptian Diagonals, which aren't Egyptian but are very old never the less. Out of roughly 18 inches, I have one 3 inch stretch that looks like it should. I believe I'm starting to get the sequence into muscle memory, and learning to read the pattern like I should... I'll keep at it and will take photos when I've woven to the end.

Looks like we're moving, so I'll need to spend some time sorting out what to keep available during the move process; the studio might be in boxes for several months and I don't know what I'll do if I run out of idiot projects for the duration.

Now if I could only find my reading glasses...

Carmel! Aglets! and Inspector Owl

I spent last weekend in Carmel with a lovely group of women; I've been knitting with them for about 10 years! Lots of knitting, laughs, good company, and wine. I worked mostly on the border for the Melon Shawl, from Victorian Lace Today. I started the shawl while helping my mother through hospice, and had bought two balls of yarn for it in Ventura; after I got home I realized that one was a very similar but slightly different colorway!!! I finished the body about 4 years ago and was determined to use the 2nd color for the border. I got one long edge done last weekend, and knit around the corner; I'll need to pull the corner out and redo, but otherwise it looks fine. 

I used some thrums from another project and made a band; I want to make two, to use to lash my leash sticks to the loom. It's 4 cards of 5/2 cotton, threaded two dark, two light, then woven with some black cotton something that was on one of my shuttles. I wove about 5 chevrons forward and 5 backward. I've also been looking for the best way to do the aglets, on these cords and also for shoelaces, one of my current obsessions! Ian Fieggen has a wonderful site with lots of info on aglets, different ways to thread shoelaces, and knots to tie them with... For this piece, I whipped it with the black weft thread and then coated it in clear nail polish; for the next lace, I'll whip and then try glue.

I finished two of the placemats, and got tired of the same old pattern... I switched to this. Owl is inspecting for me.

On other fronts, I finished spinning the light brown Merino I talked about in the last post. It's all washed, dried, and put away; someday I'll weave it into something lovely and very, very warm; maybe a ruana. I may dye more of it, as the overdyed brown is lovely.

I'm also taking a watercolor class, and just signed up for a beginning drawing class. It's all Art, all the time. I felt somewhat guilty about engaging in these frivolous activities, with the current political climate, but then realized if the world goes to hell, what a better way to spend my time than drawing, painting, weaving, and so on?

I probably need to set some priorities; I've got default weaving and knitting projects so they won't show here.  Here are some possibilities in no particular order:

• Figure out the next steps on the pub quilt.
• Start another card woven band so I have 2 to lash on my leash sticks. 
• Use the pattern book from New Zealand to create a fish table runner.
• Plan the next loom project, maybe a scarf for the DH in the bamboo I bought for that.
• Plan and sample the next spinning project, maybe the demin colored roving for the pin woven shawl.

New!!! Since Tokyo

I'm finally getting back in the groove after coming home from Japan... I've been grumpy, the cats have been needy, and things in general have needed attention. My progress so far this month has been mostly driven by events.

I attended the local spinning guild meeting and spin in last Saturday, and needed some thing to spin on, so made some progress  on the hand carded merino I've been playing with for months.  It's a lovely light brown sheep colored fleece that was a destash from G.

I'm retreating for a weekend of knitting with my weekly knitting group, so a bunch of us broke out some UFOs and worked through what is needed to get them back on track; I'm putting the border on the Melon Shawl from Victorian Lace Today; I started this while helping my mother through Hospice five years ago; it's been languishing for at least 4, and only needs the knitted on border to be knitted on. It's on progress as well as Seaside Affair, a cute little summer sweater from Drops Design. Neither of these seem like a good project for Knitting Under the Influence, so if I can clear the wheel this week, I'll bring along some roving to spin for the pinwoven/knitted shawl I learned about at Stitches.  

On the weaving front, I finally warped up for some double weave placemats.  It's unmercerized 8/2 cotton in a dark green and a green grey; pattern is from the most recent Handwoven magazine  (March/April '17). I've warped for 6, and I'll likely get bored, so I expect to change things up a bit on some of the mats. Maybe vary the dot pattern? 

And here's a creepy picture of me checking the under layer to make sure it's coming out okay. So far so good!

One more interesting tidbit...  I'm using WeaveIt software and have put this project into their planning tools to see how it works.  It includes a full weaving calculator and will tell me how many heddles I need on each shaft!!! How cool is that!

Kyoto Textile Tour Days 7 and 8

Tour day 7 (March 25) was a free day. A bunch of folks went to the Kitano Tenmangu shrine, where we were early in the week, for a big flea market; I fretted about what was going to fit in my suitcase and opted to sleep in and walk about with my DH.  The tour company gave us plenty of ideas in a handy brochure but we elected to go a little shopping and then walked to a couple of temples I had not seen; the streets were crazy busy, so a zen garden seemed about right.

March 26 photos

We had the honor of visiting Hiroshi Saito, who is an abstract arts using natural dyes and yuzen techniques to create dyed work for clothing and wall pieces. There were a number of fascinating things about this man. First of all, if you were to pronounce his full name, it goes on for minutes.

His work was astounding. This large piece was stretched out across his studio, ready for him to work. He'd already applied 3 types of mordants: alum, copper, and iron to the stretched fabric and let it dry. After we arrived, he applied 3 types of dye; I have that data somewhere and will find it and update here when I do. He applied the dye, one color at a time intuitively and without plan; this piece was in honor of springtime. He'll go back later and add some rice paste resist and more layers of dye until the piece is done.





His wife sews some of the fabrics into shirts, like this one.  There were some pieces that may have gotten some details painted on after as well. He showed us an album of his kimonos; they are truly amazing pieces.

He's also very socially aware. After the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster that hit Japan in 2011, he felt he needed to change to processes that were gentler on the environment, and gave up chemical dyes for natural dyes. He also works in the areas affected by the earthquake to bring art to the region, and he feels it's a necessary part of life and it's too easy for people struggling to recover from a disaster like that to lose focus on things like art. He also works with the disabled to produce textile art since abstract art can be done by people with a wide range of disabilities.

The next stop was Gallery Kei, where we visited Kei Kawasaki and her collection of museum grade antique folk textiles.  She had cloth made from bashofu, hemp, wisteria, linden, and elm; some well over 100 years old; and we got to touch it all. Also, old kimonos,  fabulous boro pieces, and many non-textile antiques. I admired her pieces very much and would encourage any lover of textiles to visit her shop! Here she is showing us how some of the bast fibers are harvested and prepped for weaving.

The rest of the group went to the dyeing museum, which I will visit on my next trip... and then a goodbye dinner, which I elected to skip in favor of returning to Tokyo to see Ossan Live, a very happy Tokyo based band; we went with two other Americans and were the only foreigners in the room.  It was a very nice evening, even though we didn't order the half size salted squid guts at the restaurant after.

The Textile Tour? I highly recommend it to any textile lover; we had a mix of makers and admirers on the trip, probably more admirers than makers... but it appealed to both. We had access to amazing artists and studios; insights into processes from Nancy, who lived in Kyoto and worked there as a fiber artist; and Andy, our guide and translator whose knowledge of and commentary on Japanese culture really took this tour over the top.

Kyoto Textile Tour Days 5 and 6

March 23 photos

First let me say how honored we were to be able to visit these amazing artists and craftsmen.

This day was Nishijin day. There are various articles on the web detailing what Nishijin textiles are and how they are made, and there are a number of Youtube videos that are excellent. I'm going to start by roughly outlining the steps as I understood them...

We were honored to be able to visit some amazing artists and craftsmen.

Let's assume an artist has already created a full size drawing of the design repeat for the obi; some obis do not have repeated patterns so then the drawing would be the full length. Obi are generally about 30 cm by about 300 cm (12" by 9.8'). 

A specialized company pixelates the drawing (this used to be done by hand on graph paper but is often done by computer now) and produces a color plan, weft thread by weft thread, for the weaver, as well as a set of punch cards used in the jacquard loom. The cards are stitched together in order. We visited the Ozasa Company and saw examples of the various steps; I was unable to take photos as the designs are property of their customers.

Then, the designer or customer works with a gold leaf artist to figure out what patterning on the gold leaf will work best with the design, then the gold leaf is applied to washi paper in a multi step process using a liquid extracted from a sumac plant; the artist has to get accustomed to the liquid, otherwise it will itch!!! The gold leaf artist can create different affects using scraps and "gold trash".  The gold-leafed washi is cut into very very narrow strips but attached at sides of the paper to keep it in order until it's woven. We met Yasushi Noguchi, who gave us an overview of the process. He told us an interesting story about a commission he once had; the customer wanted his gold leaf sheets to be irregular, like the background in the famous iris work by Korin at the Nezu Museum. No one knew how this was done. He found another pattern his customer like but continued to research and ponder this for years until he finally received some untrimmed sheets of gold leaf and figured it out. I'm not going to detail it here; he described it. but it's pretty in-depth; but there are now scholarly papers authored by Noguchi-san detailing the technique. 

Meanwhile, back to the Nishijin Obi. The weaving company pulls the appropriate color of silk from their inventory or contacts with a silk dyer to get the shades they need created. We visited the dye workshop owned by the Okamoto brothers, who custom dye silk yarns for kimono and obi weavers. They use red, yellow, and blue (not sure if they use black as well) to match any color you can bring in, without test runs and apparently without challenges by incrementally adding tiny bits of dye until the right shade is reached.

There are a number of interim steps that we did not see... For example, the warp is sent out to be wound by a warp-winding-specialist before the weaver starts. Apparently the level of specialization is staggering, but the specialization this entails lets each artisan be a master of what he does.

We saw two weaving houses, one that does hand weaving and one that does machine weaving. First, we were in the home and studio of Tatsumura Koho. He believes in having his works hand woven, as it gives greater control over the weft-threads per inch; this would mean he was more control over how the fabric looks and feels.  We first saw some of the amazing works he and his family have produces; both wearable and decorative pieces, some reproduction, some artistic. One line of particular note was a series of historic fabrics that they researched, dating back to the 6th and 7th century; they researched how the textile was woven, and what colors must have been used and now can create that fabric again for use in period settings as well as modern interior decorating. Another piece depicts a scene from the Tales of Genji that was not in the original drawings. They spent a year researching period details; clothing, interior design, building architecture; to create a Nishijin woven piece that might authentically depict a scene from that period.





Here's the weaver at work on a manual loom. On each pick, the pattern shed is controlled by the punch cards; the pattern colors for that row are laid in; and the next strip of the gold leaf is laid in. There seemed to be a fine silk weft used as well to lock in the threads after every pattern row. The weaving is done upside down; the weaver is looking at the back side of the fabric, and checks his work in a mirror held under the growing fabric.







We also visited Nagashima Orimono, where we got to tour their wholesale showroom and see powered machine looms at work. The first floor of the building was their yarn stash. Here's a very small amount of the colors that were available. Upstairs was the Obi showroom with hundreds of different obis in all colors and pattern and styles. The patterns were amazing!  I didn't take any photos here, I was completely overwhelmed by what I saw. Then on to their weaving studio. Who knew I was such a machinery geek? The looms were fabulous, and noisy, and each attended by someone watching to see if anything went wrong. These machines were computer controlled as opposed to using the punch cards of the other jacquard looms. The mechanism handling the gold leaf washi slices was really interesting!

Our last stop was Hosoo, founded in 1688, a traditional obi and kimono weaver that has entered the high end fashion and interior design market. We saw some of the historic sample boards they've created for imperial and high end clients... They're now also creating wider fabrics (obis are about 12" and kimono fabric no more then 14") in traditional and more modern patterns using the traditional weaving techniques. They're also home to Japan Handmade, a collaboration of 6 Kyoto craft families to create new uses for the objects made in the traditional way; a couple of examples are champagne buckets made with the old-style bucket making techniques and copper wire baskets made with the same methods used to make strainers.

March 24 photos

OMG it was cold today. I'm going to jump ahead to say that although it didn't precipitate heavily, there was some form of water falling occasionally from the sky and much of that was snow. I'm not complaining but I really didn't have all the right clothes for standing outside most of the day; I think I need to rethink my March packing strategy to include some emergency cold gear!

We went by taxi to Ohara, a little farm village about 30 minutes or so northeast of Kyoto. Our first stop was the farmers market which has an amazing array of vegetables I did not recognize! Plus some most excellent mochi filled with bean paste and some lovely handmade items, including a lovely purse which is now mine.

We walked from there to Ohara Kobo, a natural dye studio, where we heard a lecture on natural dyeing and were able to dye our own scarves! I did solid indigo blue but a few people did some really lovely tie dye. Using four colors; indigo for blue, madder for red, some plant for yellow, and another for brown which I did not recognize, they can make most colors; colors are not vat mixed, but the object is dyed in one color then the other. They had lovely dyed items for sale, many woven locally, so the yarn you see hanging here was not destined to come home with me...

Lunch was at Wappado, where we got a country style set menu. It was nearly all vegetarian except for a small amount of fish and all delicious. This was the second of five courses. One of the courses was a spring onion and chrysanthemum leaf pizza.

After lunch, we continued walking up the hill to Mitsuru Kobo, a dye studio specializing in kakishibu, a dye made form persimmon tannin. Apparently this color of the dyed piece will change over time; so when you buy a piece, you intend to appreciate and cherish it as it changes; this is the pact between the artist, the owner, and the piece of art. They were mostly. dying those two or there piece hangings you find over doors in Japan. On the left, you see on still drying in the studio. On the left, you see a finished piece, being washed in the river. Since they're just using fermented indigo, fermented persimmon, and rice paste on these pieces, there's no ecological issues with using the river to perform the final rinse. It was an amazing treat to see this piece the stream.

Finally, a walk up the hill on the other side of the valley to the Sanzen-in temple.  All along the path to the temple, there were restaurants and stalls selling snacks, souvenirs of all kinds, and lots and lots of pickle. The temple is famous for having many small statues of Jizo, Buddhist protector of travelers and children.

Kyoto Textile Tour, Days 3 and 4

March 21 photos!

Day 3 was a very full day...

Yasushi Ando, master Yuzen dyer, gave us a presentation on his art. I love this guy... so enthusiastic and excited about what he does, and he does it particularly well.  I have more pictures of some of his work at the photo link above; please take a peek!

Yuzen dyeing uses rice paste as a resist to block out areas that are to remain uncolored... I'm not going to go into the process here but will try it one day at home on a very basic level and detail the process then. The roll here on the left is a full kimono; it features shibori, yuzen, and some rather fine embroidery.





Then Jorie Johnson, an American felt artist living in Kyoto, talked about her work, and what it was like bringing an unknown fiber art to Japan. Her work was impressive! Thoughtful inspiring art... She has made felt rugs to be used in tea houses in winter and small mats to be used under decorative vases for tea ceremonies, as well as the types of wearable items we're used to seeing (scarves, vests, mitts, etc).

After lunch, we walked to the Shibori museum, where we watched a video, viewed their latest exhibit, and had a shopping opportunity... I mentioned that I'd taken a shibori class there before, and showed the guide a photo; he knows our instructor from 9 years ago!

After the Shibori museum, we went to Sou Sou, which is about 7 or 8 shops from the same textile design company, each small shop covering one genre (women's clothes, men's clothes, hand clothes, shoes and tabi socks, etc). I bought a lovely handkerchief; beautiful cotton with bicycles on it. It wasn't until I got home and read the brochure, that I realized just how special their textiles are! They are Ise-momen cotton, which is lightly twisted cotton that is starched for hardness and woven on a hand loom; when the starch is washed out, you end up with remarkably soft cloth.  Sou Sou gave me a free bag of potato chips for textile design fans.

And finally, an exhibition of various Kyoto textile artists, including a couple of modern yuzen kimono at Gallery Gallery, at the top of an old nearby building; Jorie was one of the exhibitors, and joined us at the gallery!


March 22 photos



Is there a better word to use to describe a trip to Yoshiko Mori's home and studio than pilgrimage? His family has been working with indigo since the 1870's.  They grow their own indigo, harvest and strip the leaves from it. Then, it's fermented (composted) in their old barn, and formed into bricks for storage. The resident bacteria or spores or whatever that are perfect for fermenting the indigo are present in the mud and straw walls of the yarn... Mori-san showed us half a brick of indigo from one of their first batches; it's 140 years old; and the other half of the brick is in the Japanese National Museum.

Mori-san's jacket in this photo belonged to his grandfather, and is pretty much the same color now as it was then. The particular way Japanese indigo is made makes it particularly color-fast.






Then we learned what goes into an indigo vat, and saw where dyeing takes place; Mori-san and his son demonstrated dyeing yarn and washi paper, in large ceramic pots sunk into the ground; in the winter, a small brazier it set into wells between the pots to keep them a temperature that indigo likes.

I bought some indigo-dyed silk yarn that is the color of the sky, destined for my loom and eventually for my DH.

From there we went to the Miho Museum, a building with an amazing sense of space and presence, designed by I. M. Pei. We had a vegetarian bento lunch made from happy vegetables (seriously, we watched a video about it, and these are pampered vegetables), then wandered the museum for a couple of hours; I saw an exhibit on Japanese glass, then an exhibit with artifacts from the Ancient Orient; lots of Sumerian and Mesopotamian pieces. Google the Miho museum and look for images if you'd like to see it; I was too busy looking at the building to photograph it. However, it's a place made to be experienced and the photos I've seen don't do it justice. There's an initial building where you start that initiates you into the idea you're entering an interesting place; then a walk up a hill dotting with seasonally spectacular foliage (it'll be bursting into cherry blossom bloom shortly); then through a tunnel... when you near the end of the tunnel, the entrance to the museum is framed by the tunnel walls and ... well... you just need to see it. Especially the view out over the valley from the museum halls.

After that, we went on to Shigaraki, a pottery town dating back to the 1200's. Shigaraki is famous for it's Tenuki statues; they're a mythical Japanese raccoon-dog that does some amazing things with it's very large and stretchy scrotum (for example, uses it as a umbrella in the rain, or like an parachute)... But this is not why we came to Shigaraki. We met Satoshi Arakawa, who moved to the area to study pottery. Here's some of his work, welcoming us into his garden.

Arakawa-san built his own kiln, which he fires up twice a year to fire his pots without glaze for 5 days... He adds wood every 2 hours and goes through about 250 bundles of wood. The color and design on the pots comes from ash in the kiln settling into the pieces... He demonstrated how he mixes his own clay by mixing standard potters clay with light colored gritty clay he digs on this property, then created this lovely vase as we watched.