Category: Japanese Textiles
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Saori in Japan
My trips to Japan always include time at Saori no Mori in Osaka. It’s a time to catch up with what is going on in the Saori world, learn more ways of working on the threads and just delve into my own weaving time. I always meet new people and learn my way around the…
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Naturally Coloured Temari
This Japan trip I had a little time in Tokyo and had the opportunity to visit some wonderful people and do a Temari ball making workshop at Temaricious. A major thank you to Nomo-san who helped make this happen. I learnt about the little shop from String Harvest as she stocks the Temaricious threads. One…
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Weavers! You are more than your rags
Weaving with rags is such a wonderful tradition. In Japan it is called sakiori. It’s one of the few things where old and worn out is a good thing. In fact it’s better than when it is new. Old worn clothing gets softer as the cloth breaks down and is laundered. The cloth I stripped…
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Japan – and desperately seeking textiles
The Japan Textile Tour 2017 with Intentionally Different was another amazing adventure in Japan. Once again we travelled city and countryside, through very long mountain tunnels, alongside tremendous rivers and the mountains of changing autumn leaves. The itinerary and organisation of the tour allowed us to see many textile places in more remote areas and…
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The cloth of light
On the Japan textile tour we met many weavers of different cloth. This particular business in Kyoto was well established and were famed for their ‘cloth of light’. This cloth was filled with light which could be clearly seen when a flash light was directed at the cloth. Very beautiful indeed and the photos I…
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Okinawa – Japan – still room for you to come along
Meet Taira Toshiko san. A national treasure of Japan in Okinawa. She is responsible for reviving the bashofu processing and weaving in Okinawa after the war. Now 98 years old she continues to manage the processing and weaving workshop which produces bashofu. This is a rare textile indeed. Bashofu fibre is from a plantain banana…