Over the summer I put a lot of effort into some new textile necklaces. I recently sold the one I was most pleased with but I thought I would share a couple of images of the piece.
Textile necklace
Detail
New Necklace
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Tag Archives: craft
The Arimatsu Shibori Museum
During the Edo era in Japan, the Tokaido road leading from Kyoto and Osaka to the capital Edo was the nation’s main highway. Near the city of Nagoya a village called Arimatsu grew astride the Tokaido and achieved great prosperity through the production of indigo dyed clothing fabrics that were sold to travelers on the highway. These fabrics were decorated using sophisticated Shibori tie-dyeing processes. Shibori techniques already had a long history in Japan but in Arimatsu many processes were developed and refined that allowed the large-scale production of many complex patterns.
A historic textile warehouse on the little street that was once the great Tokaido
Alex and I visited Arimatsu in 2014. The village has long been absorbed within Nagoya’s suburbs and what was once the great Tokaido is now just a sleepy side street lined with many nice old buildings. Several of the buildings are the great warehouses and mansions of the textile merchants who made their fortunes here, alongside old-fashioned restaurants and craft shops selling shibori items. There is also the Arimatsu Shibori Museum, which was the reason for our visit.
Arimatsu Shibori dyed fabrics on sale in a craft shop
The key to Arimatsu’s success lay in systematising and regimenting the production of small and complex repeat patterns. One important technique was the printing of a guide pattern on the fabric using a fugitive ink. This allowed the craftperson to align many hundreds of small individual elements with great accuracy. Various posts and hooks were also developed to help the worker carry out the arduous task of repeating complex patterns.
A craftswoman tieing Shibori knots using dots printed in fugitive ink as a guide
At the Arimatsu Shibori Museum one can watch craftswomen demonstrate some of their techniques, though when they are working at full speed it is almost impossible to see what they are doing. It is only when they slow down a great deal that one can work out how the seemingly magical knotting techniques are achieved. The ladies we watched were very patient and spent a lot of time showing us exactly what they were doing step by step.
Craftswomen demonstrating at the Arimatsu Shibori Museum
This woman is using a hook tied to a post to help control the complex knotting process
A section of knotted fabric. When the entire bolt of cloth is completed it will be sent for dyeing
Pieces of knotted fabric. The completed material beneath shows the final pattern
The Museum features a wonderful display of example pieces that show each traditional pattern from untied material through the tied stage, the dyed stage and on to the finished patterned fabric.
Examples of just a few of the many classic Arimatsu Shibori patterns
Each sample shows every stage from blank white cloth through to finished pattern
A close up showing the different stages in producing one design
There is also a display area showing Kimono and other items created from Arimatsu Shibori fabric.
Gallery display showing Kimono with Shibori designs
A famous Kimono with Hokusai’s “Great Wave”
A contemporary Shibori wall hanging
The museum features a large shop with a wide range of locally produced textile goods ranging from small “touristy” items up to very fine goods such as Kimono at truly eye-watering prices. Sadly, even with the local craftspeople’s great speed and skill, such labour intensive items now struggle to find a market at a viable price. Much of what looks like Shibori fabric sold in Japan today is in fact printed and we discovered that much of the genuine Shibori made for the more commercial end of the market is now sent from Arimatsu to Korea and China where it can be knotted by much cheaper labour.
A New Necklace
One of my recent necklaces was a new design (though based on an earlier style.) I was very pleased with how it turned out and think that the gold/white colours work really well.
Japan 5 – Hida no Sato
Hida no Sato (Hida Folk Village) is a wonderful open air museum situated on the outskirts of Takayama, a delightful town in the mountains of central Honshu, north of Nagoya. The site consists of around 30 old buildings from all over the mountains that were dismantled and then rebuilt here in the 1970’s. The buildings are mainly large farmhouses of various types and most are over 100 years old.
The old buildings have been re-erected as a small village in a rural landscape
The Hida region of Gifu Prefecture is subject to heavy snowfall (often up to two metres) and the different styles of architecture show alternative approaches to dealing with this climate. In the north of the region the farmers built using steeply sloped roofs so that snow would slide off. This is the “gassho-zukuri” (praying hands) style of building used at the nearby Shirakawa-go village that is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Other areas built houses with very strong, low-pitched roofs so that people could climb up and shovel off the excess snow.
The “gassho-zukuri” farmhouses were built with steep thatched roofs
Other buildings have shallow-pitched roofs where snow could be easily cleared
Visitors are able to wander around and enter the buildings. Inside are many of the everyday tools and artifacts used by their original inhabitants. Each structure also functions as a museum for one aspect of traditional mountain life, including weaving, house building and repair, cultivation, transport, etc.
The houses are packed with many original artifacts
This building displayed many examples of looms and other fabric processing equipment
Models are also used to show house construction techniques and such things as farm layouts.
A model showing the construction of a “gassho-zukuri” house
The immense size of many buildings is very impressive. Large extended families would have all lived together under one roof.
Many of the farmhouses are very large spaces
Buildings also feature space for the domestic animals alongside the people
Hido no Sato even features an original village well that has been painstakingly reconstructed on the site.
A village well
A view down the well showing the handmade wooden buckets
A fascinating old photo showing one of the buildings before it was moved
Hida no Sato is a very peaceful and picturesque place to visit
Some old thatched roofs have developed into interesting little ecosystems
The village even has a couple of little rice paddies that were developing a nice crop when we visited
Developing rice
This is a wonderful place to visit and certainly proved much more interesting than we had anticipated. In one part of the site visitors can watch traditional craftspeople at work and buy their wares.
The doll is called “Sarubobo” and is a traditional symbol of Takayama
Some New jewellery Work
Hi, I have not been posting here for a while but I hope to get back to adding regular updates soon.
Meantime here are a few of my recent textile jewellery pieces.
A cuff bracelet
Matching textile necklace
Another, distinctly asymmetric necklace
Brooches are not the fastest sellers but are still my favourite objects
And this winter I have been making a lot of earrings!
More earrings
Yet more earrings!
I have made many more – It has been a long (wet) winter!
Devon Guild Summer Show
On Friday, Alex and I travelled down to Riverside Mill in Bovey Tracy for the opening of the Summer Show of the Devon Guild of Craftsmen. The Devon Guild is the premier craft organisation for the South-West of England, and boasts a beautiful gallery.
Neckpiece and bracelet at Devon Guild
Devon Guild of Craftsmen
This year the show is entitled “Reaching for Gold,” and I had entered a neckpiece and a matching bracelet – I’ll be putting up a detailed post about these pieces soon. The exhibition was a fascinating mix of everything from large-scale ceramics and furniture, to prints, clothing and some exquisite precious metalwork.
The beautiful, historic Riverside Mill
Unfortunately, we were making a long car journey up to Oxford that evening and so we were unable to wait for the official opening speeches or for the announcement of awards.
Jubilee gallery – Reaching for Gold
If you have a chance to visit the West Country, I heartily recommend that you find time to visit this great gallery and craft shop. “Reaching for Gold” runs until the 2nd of September.
Some New Textile Jewellery
We were preparing some work to go out to a gallery today which included taking our reference photographs. At the same time Alex took some more pics to share with you. Hope that you like them:
These pieces are headed for the shop at The Devon Guild of Craftsmen, an excellent craft gallery to visit if you are in the South-West of England.
The Devon Guild Summer Show of members work (including a couple of my pieces), runs from June 30th to September 2nd (check out the Guild Facebook page.)
Related posts: My Love for Earrings; My Jewellery; Early Textile Jewellery; A Clockwork Orange; Neckpiece and Earrings; A Frilly Pendant; Textile Neckpiece.
My Love for Earrings
I adore earrings. They are the one form of jewellery that I have always obsessively collected – or at least I did until I started making them as a business eight or nine years ago.
Earrings made in 2011
Shopping for earrings was once one of my greatest pleasures and my husband always knew what to look for when he was stuck for a present. I have never been too interested in the value of the things that I hung from my ears, gold or found objects are pretty much the same to me. The only strict criterion was that they should be distinctive; that they should not blend into the background of all the other ordinary earrings on the market.
Over the years I had made earrings too, for myself and sometimes for friends. I would use beads or found objects, even feathers; and then, almost a decade ago I hit on a way of using my textile techniques to make earrings that satisfied me. Faced with making earrings myself every week, my love affair with buying earrings faded.
I still wore earrings, of course, but for a while I felt like I had to be a walking advertising hoarding and always wear my own creations. Now I am much more relaxed and regularly enjoy donning my old favourites bought many years ago.
I still love to look at earrings by other craft makers but I rarely buy now. In truth I probably own so many that I could always dig out something that looks fresh without ever getting another new pair. I am not saying that I never will though!
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- Earrings made in 2006
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- Earrings made in 2007
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- Earrings made in 2007
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- Earrings made in 2009
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- Earrings made in 2010
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- Earrings made in 2010
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- Earrings made in 2011
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- Earrings made in 2012
Related Posts: My Jewellery; Early Textile Jewellery; A Clockwork Orange;
Neckpiece and Earrings.
Embroidery Workshop
I’ve been using a sewing machine for a few decades now, and over the years I’ve picked up lots of techniques, hints and tricks. However, I still love to learn new things, and so last week I jumped at the chance to attend a workshop with a renowned expert in the field of embroidery, Sue Rangeley.
Detail of my workshop piece
Sue Rangeley teaches and writes about specialist embroidery techniques, including the process of stitching on soluble fabrics, rouleaux, free machining and the use of sheer fabrics. The day was particularly interesting for me because I regularly use many of the same approaches that Sue uses but with distinctly different results.
Sue demonstrating
Sue began with a one hour talk, covering her inspirations and the development of her ideas, and then discussed examples of her own work, showing the techniques we would be using in the workshop. Everyone taking this workshop was already a highly skilled machinist, which enabled Sue to concentrate on her specialisms.
Sue demonstrating the “rouleaux” technique
I was strongly struck by Sue’s highly methodical research into techniques, as I have a tendency to throw things together and see what happens. Her carefully accumulated knowledge of different organzas and other sheer fabrics gave me a lot of new ideas and fresh perspectives.
Sue shows her method of free machining on organza
I spent much of the workshop working on a test piece using free embroidery on soluble media. Although I was familiar with the technique, working with someone who has such highly-developed skills in this area was really informative.
My test piece on soluble fabric
The test piece after dissolving the base fabric
Some of the pieces produced by the workshop participants
So, will I be integrating the things I learned at this workshop into my own work? I’ve got a couple of ideas that I intend to experiment with, but even though it may never be obvious, I believe that everything I learn goes on to influence the way I create.
Another test piece I made at the workshop
I had a really fantastic day!
Sue Rangeley’s book “Embroidered Originals” is available from Amazon and most bookshops.
You can find her at: http://www.suerangeley.co.uk
Signed copies of Sue’s book available from her website: www.suerangeley.co.uk , go to Publications page or email: sue.rangeley@btinternet.com for further details
Glass Beads
A few weeks ago I spent a fantastic day at a glass bead workshop, thanks to a lovely friend who arranged it as a present. The workshop was held at the studios of Mango Beads, run by Manda Muddimer in Barnstaple: http://www.mangobeads.co.uk/
Some of my first attempts
I’ve never worked with glass before and found the whole day was enormous fun, although some of the techniques felt a bit like trying to pat your head and rub your tummy at the same time! Like any skill it’s mainly a question of familiarity and I definitely feel like this is a craft that I could become really absorbed in.
I need much more practice!
The trial beads I made during the day were a bit too crude to be really satisfying, but I am so glad that I had this opportunity to try out a new area of craftwork. Sadly, I may have to face the fact that there aren’t enough hours in the day for me to pursue all the things I am, or could be, interested in! I hope that one day I’ll find the time for a deeper exploration of the world of glass.
How it should be done!
The beads shown above were made by Manda and are an example of what can be made using the lampwork beadmaking process.
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- Beads by Manda Muddimer
Crafts of India: Papermaking
Whilst in India with my friends, we visited a few different craft producers in the state of Rajasthan, so this is the first of a series of posts showing the craftspeople at work.
In Sanganer, on the outskirts of Jaipur, we visited a traditional hand paper making factory. Here we saw paper still being made, one sheet at a time, by dipping a mold into a vat of cotton pulp (this is very different stuff from the wood pulp paper we use everyday). This traditional craft ceased production in England in 1987, but it continues in a number of countries around the world.
The paper is made from cotton pulp, which is a traditional material that produces very strong yet soft paper. The material is sourced as offcuts from a t-shirt factory.
This pulping machine breaks the cotton scraps down into small fluffy pieces.
The pulp is then transferred to a “Hollander” beater which further breaks down the pulp and blends it with water until it is the right consistency. This type of machine would have been in common use in Britain over 100 years ago!
The workers produce a new sheet of paper by dipping a mold into a vat of pulp – getting an even sheet is a highly skilled job.
The new sheet is lifted off the mold and stacked.
A stack of freshly molded paper. This batch has a scattering of rose petals embedded in each sheet.
These freshly harvested roses provide the petals that are embedded in the paper.
Each petal is separated from the roses by hand!
This is the press used to squeeze water out of the newly made sheets.
Final drying is achieved by hanging the sheets individually from wires in the roof space.
Each sheet of paper is checked for quality before being carefully stacked.
Brooch Experiments
This brooch is one of my favourites. The photos below show my experiments with different ways of folding and shaping the fabric – sometimes the same cut-out shape can be moulded into completely different forms. After finding a shape that I like, I embroider the surface, finish the edges and stitch the final form together. Then I add the beads and the brooch pin.
Textile Sculpture Commission: 4D Sphere
Last year, I was commissioned by Samvado, a Cornish sculptor and a fellow member of the Cornish Crafts Association, to make a textile sculpture.
He asked me to create one of his sculptures, the 4D Sphere, using my fabric.
Here are a few photos of the work in progress, and some images of the finished piece.
You can visit Samvado’s website at: http://www.samvado.com/
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- One Final Shot
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- Another View
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- The Finished Form
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- Another Angle
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- The Plywood Armature
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- Making the Shape
Another project: Indigo dyeing
In 2008, Sarah Montague and I ran an indigo dyeing club after school. The kids really enjoyed it – they couldn’t wait to untie their fabrics after dyeing!
At Christmas, we had an exhibition in a lovely gallery in Torrington, called The Plough. By selling our work at The Plough and at school, we were able to raise over £500 for a charity chosen by the children.
I can’t upload any photos of the kids without parental permission, but here are some photos of the techniques we used, and the finished creations.
A little project: Monsters
I made these dolls as samples for a Year 9 project at the school I work in. The main aim was to create a fun project based on the ‘Uglydoll’ craze, which would encourage the kids to use their imaginations and give them a chance to learn lots of different textile techniques.
(I had fun too).
Wai-Yuk Kennedy Textile Art 