Girl, do they.
So I am keeping this moon. But I did do a little ombré dyeing on it. I changed the orientation of the fish.
She’s jumping. Let’s see what happens next.
The linen arrived last night so I’m busy dyeing it today in between collecting the scraps, cloth, books , and samples for the weekend.
Since I’m in the flow…
I’m still prepping for this weekend’s workshop. I’m waiting on my linen order which unfortunately I’m thinking may not arrive in time. So I’m dyeing some other fabrics to substitute in for that but at the same time, I am getting a jumpstart on my Ayako Miyawaki inspired piece.
You know how I love fish designs.
I’m just auditioning this moon. The fish is about 22 inches long.
I wonder how this will actually turn out in the end.
Going to have to wrap this up now since I have a 5:30 Zoom meeting for a local board. We continue to fight the good fight here.
I was reminded.
…by a recent post by Jude in the (not) forever zone about cloth weaving.
Back when, she showed some cloth weaving (years ago) and I was mesmerized. So much so that I never paid attention to how she liked to do it.
I made up my own way. But her recent post lead me back in time to her original video on how she did this type of weaving. Of course, I had to try her method. And I decided to do it on a bit of a larger cloth than I usually do it on for the moons.
This piece is about 14 x 14“ and the moon is 12 inches in diameter. I used some dark strips, some shibori strips and some white strips which I then clamped and dyed itajime style.
Since I could do two at once, I use a piece of bound shibori for the other large moon, which ended up like this.
Like many of these types of things that I make and dye, I’m not sure what I’ll use it for yet. I like to look at them and let it simmer for a while.
Today I was assembling the fabrics for next weekend‘s workshop as well as dying some of the backing pieces for the pillows shams that they will be making. It was a day when I could just take my time at everything and think slowly and intentionally.
There was no rushing. my favorite kind of day.
Yes, I’m back…already.
When the mood hits I guess.
Catching up on some indigo dyeing before it gets too hot here.
I got the cotton base fabric dyed. It’s the usual cotton lawn that stitches easily due to its lightweight nature.
That linen/rayon I bought that’s just too soft for the pillow backs is also being used for June moons. I ordered some linen I’m hoping will work. I can’t believe how hard it is to find reasonably priced linen. Or even a medium weight linen cotton blend. I’m digging into my boxes for linen and I found that old linen or hemp piece with patches.
I’m no expert on these things but they sure are tough! I won’t use this for the workshop but I did find some old linen tablecloths that are dyeing up well.
In between vat dips, and before the heat sets in, I finally (almost) finished re-setting the path after all the trenching that was done. One day at a time.
I’ve been telling myself to post here for a while now and perhaps in my mind I have. Just not in this reality. Media these days runs on velocity. Here, you can take your time. I’m not writing here to compete with that sort of media. If the first bit doesn’t grab you and you click away-oh well. But maybe you will find something compelling in the mix of stories and topics in each post here, and maybe not. I’m ok with it.
So some things that happened since last post in a list:
So all that and more! (in a list)
There’s more but my brain can’t seem to manage it at the moment. At least not as a list. For me, lists are better for things i have yet to do, not past doings.
Other things include watering the summer garden and picking it’s abundance. We are still having decently cool weather thankfully. The two old dogs here are still fine but their care and maintenance takes time. Bella is now in her 17th year! I do my phone calls with airpods sometimes while walking them. I also listen to music during those walks.
Lately I’ve been smitten with my son’s (Tristan Dolce’s) latest album. I’m mom, so I can brag about it a little. It’s really his best album yet IMO. He has really developed his songwriting, recording and engineering as well as gathered a great group of musicians to play with him. He loves to tell stories in song, has always been a reader, and he outdid himself on this one.
Some are sweet, sad, funny, and reflective. The subject is Catalina Island, just off the coast here in Long Beach. There are some wonderful stand out lyric lines. If you like to listen to albums from the ’70’s where everything from the liner notes, the artwork and the stories drew you in, then you might like this. (Remember the days when we spent HOURS in bedrooms and basements with friends or by ourselves POURING over every album cover. Replaying every song and talking about it endlessly with friends?) The former Harbor Master of 32 years wrote the intro to the album on the vinyl copy. It’s an interesting and worthwhile read.
He’s always played and written music since he was a third grader. I remember those days…
This album, titled Amory and Elenor by Tristan Dolce can be found on Apple Music and Spotify (where the artist gets virtually nothing!) as well as on vinyl on his website for $25. Go to the vinyl site and click on the lower left button where it says “Party”. So clever. The album cover is a photograph of a diorama he made depicting scenes from stories on the album. Clicking “Party” animates the images. I remember going over to his house and bringing him some things for the diorama and my grandson was helping him build it out in the yard. It’s so cool to see it all come together.
I know most people don’t have a record player anymore but what fun that was! It’s worth it, just for the art and liner notes. The tile of this post is a lyric line from the album. Here are a couple more…
When I was on the windward side, I was trying to keep an open mind
But I am like the shifting tide returning to the windward side
-from Windward Lights
It's hard to remember two years back
to the same year we put nickels on the train tracks
We didn't know what we done. We didn't know what we done
that a minor deviation can change an outcome
-from Same Year
So perhaps you’ll be curious and give it a listen.
This will be a longer than I thought post. I was stopped yesterday by my niece and her friend wanting to come by and dye some heavy canvas in indigo to make their own bike satchels. Now when a couple of 20 year olds text you and want to know where they can go to buy indigo to dye with (which they have never done before), what does someone like me say? Especially when they want to sew themselves a practical useful item? Well of course you don’t send them a link for Dharma Trading or some such place. You stop everything you are doing and tell them to head on over! So they did. We spent the afternoon dyeing fabric and they learned about indigo. Well, at least what I could communicate to them in the few hours we had. While the fabric was being washed and dried, we went through the shibori sample box and and they learned a little about that as well. It ended with them both trying on a couple of the kimono samples in the box. So sweet. They were both smart, curious, and attentive with all sorts of ideas about things they want to make.
Back to the chiri shibori…
The weekend workshop was a fun introduction to chiri shibori. It was a new pole wrapping technique to explore and practice. I love how these participants are so willing to try something new and don’t despair if their first try doesn’t come out just as expected. The all end up as a sample that can be used creatively in some project.
Cheryl brought a pole wrapper device that her brother made for her that had a great added improvement. He added a slot and a way to space out the rollers to accommodate different size poles. I think we all had a little pole envy! I love how these participants come to share their materials, tools, resources and shibori discoveries. Keeps me learning too!
A few things I will share about chiri shibori should you want to try it yourself. I think the best fabric to use for it is a medium weight linen or cotton/linen blend. softer cottons tend to bleed through a bit more and leave less white in the background. You must wet the piece out well after the second wrap before dyeing or the indigo will wick back under the wraps.
The next thing I am going to try is to do the second wrap in a slightly heavier thread. This should have the effect of seeing the lines a little better. The larger your pattern, the larger this thread can be, but if your original wrap was very close together and your pattern is tiny you probably want to stick to the finer thread for wrapping.
I am still trying to wrap my mind around how the Japanese made whole 12 meter bols of this pattern so consistent. A few of us surmised it had to be on the very long poles and maybe even with some mechanical assistance. I’s love to see the push and twisting on that!
We also discovered that the agar that we used for stiffening can be mixed up very thick and screened through a stencil creating a resist, kind of like rice paste used in katazome. Keiko tried that out using one of my stencils and had good results. Its a bit more delicate to handle but I think she got 3- or so dips before it started to come off the cloth. Has to be well dried of course.
I kept doing a couple of samples after the workshop.
I have to also mention that Dee Mallon stopped by! I know some readers here know and read her blog. She was in town visiting family and I let her know that they were welcome if they were tripping around LA nearby. So great to meet her in person after 15 years of online friendship. That is one thing that’s cool about writing and reading long term blogs- the virtual relationships can turn into in person meet-ups! I shared her book, The Weight of Cloth, with the group and I have to say I’m completely savoring the read. I’m reading a section at a time out in the garden with my morning coffee each day. I hope when she is back her visiting family again we can have a proper get together with lunch or something of the sort.
Here is the point in the post where I am listing the next workshop. We will be making this:
Or whatever version of it you like. The project is a pillow sham with an envelope style back opening. It’s another boro style piece with decorative stitching. I will have my collection of vintage Japanese scraps, threads, and samples. Participants can bring their own favorite scraps to incorporate and share as desired. The inserts will be up to you. I do have samples of three sizes of inserts from Ikea that work really well. The sewing machines will be there for assembly. I will also have one vat for those who have ongoing indigo pieces that just need to be dyed. I am not bringing the whole shibori studio set up. I just received an order of linen rayon blend fabric that I thought I would use for the backing fabric but after test dyeing a piece of it I’ve decided it is too soft. I want a harder fabric for the pillow back. Must order that today. It’s a cool fabric and it will make for a nice summer outfit as it has very nice drape and dyes well. I’ll bring some of it to the workshop as there are some good garment sewers there. I want to try a pillow design that incorporates some of Ayako Miyawaki inspired designs.
When: July 11 & 12th
Click here to sign up
(Saturday and Sunday) 11:00 AM -4:00PM
Where: Nichiren Shu Buddhist Temple, 2801 East 4th Street, Los Angeles
And circling back to the garden, a good place for respite.
So that’s it for the moment. Thanks for meandering here.
Once again,there is a lot to catch up on. The recent shibori and indigo workshop in April, shibori inspirations, new workshop announcements, and garden noticing. I’ll try to get this post written in some sort of comprehensible order. We’ll see.
The end of April had a great group overfilling the Nichiren Buddhist temple with shibori enthusiasts. We spent the two days exploring the possibilities. We even had homemade bento delivered to us on Saturday from Beverly-the temple food expert!
Years ago, I saw a shibori pattern (maybe in Japan on one of the trips there) that I wanted to try. It was a version of hinode (sunrise) shibori. I did my own variation that I liked a lot.
In a recent lesson in Ishi Takayuki’s shibori subscription, he had his own hinode variation. I did a version of it based on his lesson. At this point, I had forgotten all about the above version I tried many years ago. It’s really fun to see how others vary a basic technique and how that can lead to other things.
It was a great treat at the workshop to be able to see the very special books and textile samples collection by Hiroko Ando that Dorothy brought to share! The collection of samples is very rare and it was amazing to see them in person! I was inspired to give one of the techniques another try and after translating the instructions from my Hiroko Ando book I found what I think is going to be the answer! It won’t be done until later this week but I’ll post the results on my blog linked from my website. Below is the image and translation. I’ve tried a couple of versions of double pole wrapping trying to replicate an old shibori pattern but seeing the chiri shibori sample in Dorothy’s collection really helped. Plus they use Seaweed paste(basically agar). We’ll see how mine turns out…
Thank you Dorothy!
The above was taken from my post workshop email to participants so was before I finished the samples. Below are the relevant images.
It was an extremely generous share and Dorothy was thrilled to have so many appreciate her special treasure. Each sample was mounted on heavy card with a name and number coordinating with Ando’s book. It was eyes only and I wore gloves to handle it.
So, I took to the pole and started wrapping, twisting,stiffening, drying, rewrapping,dyeing and finally opening.
I tried different variations- on the bias, on the straight of grain, narrower and wider wraps. I used different fabrics, pushed the cloth on the pole twisted and straight. Getting the twist pushed just right is gonna take a LOT of practice. I have several pieces still out there in various stages… The last image there is a vintage yukata detail of another variation. I never did quite accomplish that but I think I have a better idea at this point. I collected that piece many years ago in Arimatsu knowing it was quite unique.
But now, there is a ribbon order to dye, a workshops to prepare for, moons to make, and more.
As for the workshops, here are the May and June workshops listed. The July workshop will be on July 11th and 12th subject TBD (but likely a sewing one). Save the Date…
The last run of ribbon was an explosion of pleats and color. It was a pleasure to make! There are still a few of the extra yardage sets in the shop. (click image below to play vid)
Right now here, the weather is great! Cooler (65-72 mostly) and a bit windy. I’ve not really talked about it much but the backyard is quite the soundgarden. On windy days it’s a delight to hear. Lots of chimes, different places and types. I can just wander out there for a mental break. Phil has placed them and manages the soundgarden. It also informs him as to his surfing sessions. Wind generally, unless offshore, is not preferred unless you are a kite surfer. So, a little from the garden…
mata ne!
Started with reading my favorite blogs and substacks…
Did two Duolingo lessons. Zing!
Baked yesterday’s sourdough loafs.
Contemplated a new shibori subscription…
Shipped some orders.
Progressed with acquiring sand, rocks, more sand, cow poop, & chicken poop with Phil’s help. I
Walked for the campaign. (yay-go Tara!)talked with people at their front doors. Highly recommend.)
Planted one raised bed with Japanese cucumber, shishito peppers, and a momotaro tomato.
Walked the dogs.
Made chicken pot pie from scratch. Chicken was from a memorial gathering on Sunday. SO MUCH FOOD!! We took some home to help out! Gave to neighbors etc. Filipino gathering so food was great and so was the community.
Thinking of you JGat. ❤️
It was a good day.
Tired.
We had a great zakka workshop a couple of weekends ago. I am only now getting around to the posting of it. The world weighs heavy on us all. Community matters. We gather in cloth and community. I am grateful to be able to gather this community. It sustains me in many ways and I hope it helps others. We made big fish and little fishies. In Japan, fish figure large in many artforms and communities. We talked about that, among other things. Here are a few pics from the weekend:
A little shop update!
I have been doing a few wholesale ribbon orders and I always save a couple of yards aside to put into the shop. There are some great three yard sets over there for your creative minds and hands! Plus it helps keep the bills paid around here! Always a plus!
I’m still enjoying the ribbon making process after all these years. The one-of-a-kind nature of the end result and the variety is always an colorful adventure. It’s a meditation of sorts.
How many years have I been making the silk shibori ribbon you may wonder…20!! Most of the copycat makers have faded away over time but there are still a few in the mix. Mostly from the Eastern block countries. Oddly, I took a trip over to Etsy just to see since I haven’t been there for a long time and I saw one vendor from Germany selling 4″ lengths of their ribbon for $36!! plus $25 shipping! As always, Fundametals Annex sells my ribbon over there in a wide variety of colors.
In any case, the ribbon is lovely and fun to create with. Check it out.
Additionally…
I added some takaramono fabric packs over there-mostly indigo collections and a few brown collections. Each order comes with a simple pattern for the small ayu fish.
As the world swirls around us, we can find peace in Nature and stop a minute to appreciate it.
This weekend we have a shibori workshop- sold out for some time but I will be posting events for May, June, and July very soon as we confirm dates. Plus the Silk Study Tour 2027 will be accepting applications mid May.
And in doggie news, Bella is still hanging in there with her pals. One of the not-my cats (Spector) goes on daily walks with her much to the amusement and delight of the neighbors. Spector is Bella’s hospice worker I think…
I’ve been meaning to do this post for days but somehow the days seem to have been shortened! (Welcome to DST! I’ll be enjoying more daylight myself.)
I’ll make it shortish and still informative and fun. We could all use a little of that right now. What can I say about it all? Peace…find some beauty & joy each day. Make time for someone struggling. It makes the world a better place.
-in the studio
First off, I had fun with the February moon circle moons. I have all sorts of ideas for moons and just not enough time in the day!
I’m working on a nice order of silk shibori ribbon for a customer who has a creative embroidery business.
(It was 91 degrees here yesterday.) He and his partner look like they inspire a lot of fun for their customers. I’m glad to add to that.
I”ve been working on samples and a couple of patterns for the upcoming Zakka workshop. FIsh and more!
Speaking of fish… this piscean had a birthday and celebrated with sashimi lunch with family and daffodils.
Go and check out the workshop writeup– even if you don’t plan on attending. It’s fun! More photos!
Then, there is an April Shibori and Indigo workshop to sign up for.
Saving the “best” for last, while we were away in another time zone, the water main on this 104 year old house gave way. We had a temporary fix made and now is the time for the real fix. My son Trevor has been trenching and the garden will need a redo and clean up afterwards.
He was willing and I can make payments! Mony to him rather than the plumber! It’s hard work! Phil and I will fill it back in.
Other fun stuff… I saw my grandson play baseball. He’s six and enjoys it. I Walked for a City Council candidate on Saturday and picked up some delicious grapefruits at the garden of the meetup host. I rescued a neighbor who was stuck in her orange tree picking oranges- got a nice bag of oranges, My lemon and lime tree are dropping too. Yum!
The yard is a crazy mess but the spring flowers still bloom. We lost a lot of the various poppies and blue cornflowers (self seeded wildflowers out back). The weeping cymbidium is especially beautiful right now. The cats and dogs are putting up with the disruption but have a few thoughts…
Did I mention you should go see the movie Kokuho? Can’t remember and too busy to go back and look. Shio is in town for a brief moment and we planned to meet up tonight for dinner and discuss the 2027 Silk Study Tour to Japan. Unfortunately she arrived not feeling well and we called it off. It’s a work trip for her so we hope she’s better soon. Well wished to Shio!
Don’t forget to sign up early for the workshops!
Mata ne!
It’s like a Monday but it’s Tuesday. Time is like this more and more often. And it’s nearing mid February. It’s cooler here thankfully, after returning from a brief visit to Japan which was nicely cold. We returned to very warm weather even for here in SoCal-the upper 70’s and mid 80’s! NO! Just NONONO. Can we please have a LITTLE cold weather?
Anyway, some of you may have known we took a quick budget trip to Japan. Yes you can do Japan on a budget if you plan it well.
I did some great textile recon and was impressed by a number of things. We visited two locations, Nagoya and Hamamatsu. Nagoya offered up some heretofore unexplored locations that should you get there, are a must see. They were on my textile list for the area and I was not disappointed.
The first being the Toyota Municipal Art Museum in Toyota City. In and of itself, it’s a beautiful building and an architectural delight. Inside, it contained what I had come to see. The work of Ayako Miyawaki in person. It was definitely worth the hour travel to get there from Nagoya. I wanted to see the stitches in person, the layering of cloth and fibers. It did not disappoint one bit. An added bonus was to see the paintings of her husband Haru Miyawaki shown in the same gallery. It even snowed while we were there! Phil was thrilled even though it wasn’t sticking. aside from lots of interesting art, there was a special gallery featuring the work of urushi (layered lacquer) artist Takahashi Setsuro. Wow! Urushi like never before. There was also a nice cafe where we had a delicious $15 lunch set with a great view of the courtyard.
While we were checking out the museum, Trev and Jen were visiting the Ghibli Park another hour away where it also snowed. This had been a wish list location for them which they thoroughly enjoyed. They grew up watching all those movies and had a great time. The park is large and located on the grounds of a previous World Expo site.
(I’m going to share several photo sets with captions to explain.)
First set refers to the above…
We took a little side trip to Inuyama Castle after reuniting with Trev and Jen. There were a few plum blossoms peeking out but the anticipation of spring was swelling in the cherry trees everywhere. I haven’t been to Japan at this time of year since I was a kid growing up in Yokohama. Loved the winter weather.
I could add more to the above and maybe I will before the final posting here but time has slid into Wednesday already and this old computer slowed and sputtered to where I did a whole utility cleaning and it seems to be a bit better now. It’s a 2014 MacBook Pro and still chugging away.
I’ll move on to the next museum that I never got to in my previous visit to Nagoya- the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology. This was another day trip to the outskirts of Nagoya and we spent the entire day here. In general museums in Japan are super affordable to visit and this was no different. Many groups of school children were also visiting and it was fun to see them. Toyota has done a remarkable job of telling it’s origin story here from its beginnings in textiles and particularly its innovations over decades in textile machine technology before entering the automotive industry. Both the textile and the automotive pavilions were fascinating. The museum had an excellent virtual tour that I have even rewatched as there was so much to take in all at once. There’s nothing though like seeing it in person. We arrived at the opening of the museum and stayed until closing! We took advantage of the excellent lunch(again very affordable!) at the museum cafe.
Again, another photo set that barely scratches the surface of the museum.
I’ll pause here and add a few videos…
The giant circular loom was something I’d never seen. So innovative, allowing a wide cloth to be woven in a vertical manner instead of having to have a huge and wide floor loom. This is the only remaining working loom of its kind remaining in the world. Remarkable! (again, for details watch the virtual tour)
From innovative vertican and other floor looms and fiber processing equipment, the end of the textile pavilion was the AirJet Loom. I had seen one of these in the early days of the silk tour in Hachioji (maybe 16 years ago in Hachioji), but this is the current model being made and used around the world. What technology.
transitioning into the automotive robotic area of the museum there was lots of robot tech that has been developed after a very basic start in the manufacturing of cars.
Again, just go see this museum if in the Nagoya area! It will only further convince you that silk and other textiles industrialized Japan. Such a facinating history!
I did manage to attend a temple sale in Nagoya at the Osu Kannon Temple as well as stroll through the attached shopping arcade where there are a number of used textile and kimono shops. The temple sale was relatively small but there were some good textiles to be found there. Same with the shopping arcade. I was there early in the morning and didn’t take photos. Many vendors were bundled up in the early morning cold and even had hibachi going to hear big kettles of hot water and warm their space.
here’s a few of my treasures for fabric packs, moon circle cloth and workshop projects.
I bought the above piece anyway even though the shop owner was very clear that it wasn’t well dyed and not made in Japan. It has some good shibori techniques represented and was only ¥1000! It will make a good sample piece.
The rest of the trip was spent in Hamamatsu/ Hamanako. We found a good little onsen hotel with sweet off season rates, and of course ONSEN! A few train rides and 3 hrs away and we arrived. Situated on a lake with a very nice view, the area is known for its mikan, strawberries, and melons when in season. The little train station we arrived at had a cart of mikan and an honor box for ¥. A nearby restroom was disguised as a mikan! Some more photos!
and a little more video…
Now I’m back and catching up with things. Scheduling workshops, restocking a few treasures in the shop, and dealing with a water main that exploded while we were away! Next post for signups and treasures…
Guntai shibori moons for the February moon circle as a Pisces birthday approaches this month.
Shibori Girl 