Japanese Textile Workshops 　日本のテキスタイル　ワークショップ

Living in a small mountain village just outside of Tokyo, I grow a crop of indigo every year and process the leaves into dye using traditional methods. I also breed silk moths, raise the silkworms and then reel/spin the silk from the cocoons. The silk is then dyed with natural dyes and finally woven on traditional Japanese looms. I run several ten-day live-in workshops a year at the old farmhouse here in Japan focusing on the Japanese use of indigo. Contact me for information.

Monday, 4 February 2013

Spinning CVM Romeldale from New Hampshire.

The classes at the house focus around Japanese textiles, however the two big Scandinavian looms get a lot of attention. They needed to be treated with more respect so I started teaching the students to spin wool and weave blankets. I follow Nancy Zeller's Long Ridge Farm blog and am always impressed with her wonderful life and skills.
http://longridgefarm.blogspot.jp

Instead of sourcing wool from the craft store in Japan I introduced my Japanese students to Nancy's world and ordered a huge box of wool. She included pictures of the donor sheep that will make the whole spinning and weaving and finally having the blanket so much more meaningful. Thank you Nancy. We 'prosumed' slightly more than we consumed this time around.

I have very little experience with wool so in order to not make myself look bad in front of the students tomorrow I spent the day spinning some of the roving she sent. It spins beautifully.