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.
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
Damselfly Stencil
"I want to cut a stencil to make something that is unexpected."
Eri was having a moment of creative fatigue. The straight-faced disgust of ersatz Japanese stencil life. Cherry blossoms and rabbits in the autumn grass stuff. Walking away would have prolonged her misery. On the kitchen table was an entomological book on insects filled with gruesome line illustrations of larvae and pupae and up close hair on the abdomens of water skeeters kind of thing. What about insects? Gross.
She picked it up and within minutes was at work cutting out this damselfly stencil. A little like botanical art.
It worked out and yesterday it was used for the first time. Without wetting the cloth properly it floated on the surface of the indigo giving it a screwed up dye job that somehow works perfect.
Eri will cut out a few more and it looks like she is shooting for a series of Japanese work aprons.
this is perfect. respect holding hands with humor.
ReplyDeleteI think it's just perfect! Delicate and simple and such grace!
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