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.
Saturday, 18 December 2010
Primitive Rope Making
Someone had cut down a shuro tree and taken it to the local sawmill to have it processed. The shredded type bark looked as if it would make a good lesson in beauty/utility. Sure enough, Ogata san knew how to make a strong rope and immediately set about showing the other students how to. We couldn't find her 'off' switch and she quickly used up everyone else's supply of shred. Her masterpiece is now hung in the kitchen on the art object wall.
Ogata-san is amazing and her rope truly is a work of art.
ReplyDeleteHow lucky are you living in the midst of all this wonderful knowledge! While the students missed out making their own rope, they undoubtedly had a wonderful lesson.
ReplyDeleteThat would definitely be on my wish list for Santa this week. What beauty.
ReplyDeleteFantastic, I can not believe that there are people still doing this and knowing how to do this. What about the next generation?
ReplyDeletea lovely rope, looks very useful, even as eye beauty.
ReplyDeleteA lesson in beauty / utility hung on the art object wall? How droll!
ReplyDeletevery neat! i wonder if the red color will maintain itself with age.
ReplyDeletethat's the amazing thing about the older generations; their resourcefulness knows no bounds. something that is needed so much right now in japan.