Thursday 18 June 2015

Cocoons and Workshop

                      It is cool. The five week rainy season is weighing heavily on our spirits.




Ten days after the silkworms finished spinning the cocoons I removed them from the frames and took off the outside fuzz. The next step is to boil them in a straw ash solution to make silk floss and then spin the floss, dye it and then weave it.




Caroline the amazing French knit designer attended my spring ten-day Introduction to Japanese Indigo Workshop. She was so kind to write about her experience. She writes both in French and English.

Please take a look at her knit designs. I shake my head in disbelief at her work. You would keep it for years. It lacks...throw-away-ability.... I just heard that fashion is the second most polluting industry on earth next to the oil industry. Shouldn't we buy clothing we keep for twenty years?

These are the links to her blog about the indigo workshop. You can easily click around to see her work. Practise your French.


Number one
Number two
Number three

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7 comments:

  1. linenflower19 June 2015 at 01:59

    pictures and weather perfect for stencil-cutting

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  2. judib19 June 2015 at 08:25

    I love that term - throw away ability. Must admit some of my clothes are very old. I just keep darning the jumpers when the moths get into them . Trust all is well. Those moths are certainly keeping you busy.

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  3. Anonymous20 June 2015 at 08:53

    oh sure, just spin, dye and weave. Quicker said than done. I love the bowl of cocoons. what is the plant/fern in the second picture/ lovely curly fonds.

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    1. Bryan's Japanese Textiles21 June 2015 at 18:18

      It is a cactus like palm outside the knit studio in Atsugi.
      My friend's neighbour cut it down with no roots and threw it in the compost for a year. It just came to life out of gratitude it seems. I am spinning a few hours at night listening to audio books. War and Peace....I should have all that silk floss I made and accumulated for years spun by the end of the book.

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  4. neki desu21 June 2015 at 04:22

    beautiful blog, that of caroline. practicing my french :) and learning to use my ribber with the manual in french. won't be able to speak w. anyone about it :(
    all for lack of throw away ability here. still have some clothes from way back then

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  5. Bryan's Japanese Textiles21 June 2015 at 18:15

    I buy clothes now with that criteria in mind. Not slowing me down much... I need a new closet....

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  6. baukje24 June 2015 at 15:47

    I am so glad Caroline was in your workshop. She will tell me everything about it!!!!!! Thank you Brian for learning her so many new things. I still dream of coming to Japan, maybe in another life........... Je t'embrasse.
    Baukje

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