SHIBORI GIRL - GLENNIS DOLCE

A friend that I made thru blogging,

Glennis Dolce,

a local So.Cal. expert in the art of Shibori,

takes an eager group of students to Japan every year and always returns with treasures.

This year in her shop,

 I was able to purchase many of the pieces listed below in her letter. 

She bundled the letter around the precious remnants,

and they did not disappoint.

Below are shoots and close-ups of all that I bought.

I've been thinking about what to use them for.

 So far I have a favorite pair of jeans that the holes have become too large in,

 I think I might cut off a piece of each fabric to mend them with.

After that I'm not sure.

the family crest button a top an indigo dyed loosely woven fabric

a vintage piece of boro cloth

two different pieces of Ikat dyed and woven fabric

close up below

two more pieces of Ikat

Just a note.

I did learn the art of Ikat dyeing and weaving in college (1979),

and I remember how extremely time consuming and difficult it was 

so it is fabulous to see the real thing in person.

honestly, I'm not sure what this cloth is called.

got to do some research.

but isn't it lovely?

you can see how old it is where the two worn areas are.

This last one is my favorite because it's my go-to technique to do with my students

in the Beginning 3-D class.

The favorite of all the Shibori techniques that Glennis taught us.

This cloth was all all hand stitched, pulled tightly then dipped into the Indigo vat.

When dry the stitching was removed to reveal the design.

This piece was so expertly done,

so clear in it's design, and the dye so perfectly applied,

rich and dark.

When I saw it in the packet my eyes just popped with happiness!

And I already know the first thing I will do with snall pieces of each remnant,

I'm going to mend/patch a loved pair of holey jeans.

Anding it to my list right now!

Boro - Japanese Textiles

With the permission of one of my very favorite fiber artists Morna Crites Moore, I wanted to share with you what I learned from her recent post on Boro Cloth:

"I am totally in love with boro, a Japanese cloth patched together from pieces of rags and tatters.  These patched textiles were made and used by the people living in the far north of the country, an isolated area with a harsh climate and much poverty until the early twentieth century when economic conditions slowly began to improve. Due to their isolation, cloth was hard to come by and therefore not a scrap was ever wasted. The boro (literally, rags), used for clothing, blankets and so forth, was a humble textile - valued for its ability to protect from the bitter cold and treasured for its long life and many layers of personal history literally stitched into its very being. But it was also emblematic of their poverty and once it was no longer necessary to patch together one's clothing and blankets, the boro might well have disappeared from history if not for the efforts of Chuzaburo Tanaka. Tanaka was that rare person who fully appreciated the beauty inherent in the boro. He saw the patched and heavily stitched articles of daily life for what they are: exquisite examples of folk art in the form of cultural textile treasures. Starting in the mid-1960s, he literally walked the countryside, primarily in the far northern Aomori Prefecture, amassing an extensive collection of boro at a time when nobody else was the least bit interested in the raggedy, patched cloth."

"A wonderful book on the subject is Boro: Rags and Tatters From the Far North of Japan, an out-of-print paperback book which is lavishly illustrated with photographs from Mr. Tanaka's collection.  Nearly all of what I know about boro is contained in this lovely book, which is written in both Japanese and English. Thank you for that, Yukiko Koide and Kyoichi Tsuzuki."

   

Here are a couple more examples of Boro.  The piece below is from a child's jacket.  Look closely at all the tiny white stitches.

(Photos above are from Boro: Rags and Tatters From the Far North of Japan, by Yukiko Koide & Kyoichi Tsuzuki.)

In one of Morna's up and coming posts:

"I will share with you a wonderful new book which discusses boro as well as other Japanese textiles, all from the perspective of mottainai (waste nothing). The book is Mottainai: The Fabric of Life - Lessons in Frugality from Traditional Japan, by Kawasaki Kei (Gallery Kei) and Stephen Szczepanek (Sri Threads). It's just recently landed in my mailbox and I can hardly wait to sit down with it. It is beautiful and wonderfully informative."