Neko Chan

Today I put some more Neko Chan kits in the shop. I tend to do this in bulk (well, “bulk” for me on this item is about 12). I had an order for one that was getting stale and I had used up the previous batch. I knew I had an old post on the neko chan and I wanted to send the link for it to the person who ordered it telling the history. Alas, after hunting down the post I remembered it had been a difficult one sharing some sad news so I decided to copy just the Neko Chan kit portion and make a separate updated post that can be referred back to and linked to the shop item.

I always enjoy putting these kits together since I get to rifle through the indigo fabrics and refresh my memory as to where I collected this or that. Plus I’m reminded of Mom and Nana.
I was also inspired to make a new one so I cut an extra for myself! I’ll come back and add a photo when I get it done. (It won’t be super soon- just when I get to it) So here is the original part about Neko chan…

Over the past couple of weeks I have been going through some of my collected Japanese fabrics as well as cleaning out a cupboard or two. In one of the cupboards I found an old hand stitched cat doll my grandmother had made. It is so basic, yet with a lot of personality. Made with what looks like a cotton toweling and red thread it seems to have been an exercise in hand sewing practice. The face and her name are drawn on with a (now faded) marker of some sort. Interestingly, in one place where the stitching came undone the material that was used to stuff the piece was showing. It is stuffed with women’s nylons. Since nylons were not available commercially to women until around 1940, I had to reassess who/when this little cat was made. So either my Nana made this for my mom (maybe a class?) or my mom made it and for some reason my Nana’s name was written on it for identifying purposes. My mom would have been around 10 in the early ’40’s. Nana was born in 1901. Both Nana and mom loved cats (what a shock right?). This little guy is probably about 80 years old…

Back to the fabric sorting/organizing and I wondered…what if I made a little cat based on Nana’s cat? So I did. What if I made one for my grandson with some photos and a story? What if I made a pattern and a kit with instructions using some of the Japanese fabrics I have? And so it is… a quick and fun little project for a child or just the child inside us all. Added to the shop here.

Nana’s cat has a new friend

Neko chan loves flowers!

and climbing the persimmon tree!

observing the newly emerged butterflies

playing in the garden

three tomodachi

into the cornflowers

oh! poppies!

twin neko!

made a friend today!

playful!

The original post in full exists here.

timekeeper, pathfinder, wonderer

A little wander…

I recently completed another life season of full moons-12 to be exact. (2023 will be a year with 13 full moons- we get a bonus moon in August this year.) I was wondering…

That is a total of 804 lunar cycles in my now 65 years! This number made me wonder about the moons I make. Last year (2022) I estimate that I made and sent out about 1400 indigo moons. I imagine that this year may be similar. I like seeing and thinking about the numbers this way. It gives me a certain perspective of time. When I’m gone from here, some of those moons will remain in the pieces that included them. Some of those makers will be gone but the pieces they made will be cherished by those who received them. Maybe some of these pieces will be rediscovered by someone who has no idea where they came from, but someone noticed, ran their hand across the cloth, saw a moon, and wondered. Some will turn to dust.

Since I started making shibori, dying silk and cloth with indigo and other dyes, I have made moons. This started in 2006- seventeen years ago now. I started with two simple pennies, a clothespin, and a square of recycled silk. It was a simple way to teach kids about dyeing cloth. Of course it has evolved, but it really still can be, just that simple.

I love the moon. Over the years, I’ve used it as a touchstone, as something I can go back to over and over again. We all look up at the same moon, we all live and die under the same moon-we are all not so different when viewed this way. The moon’s calm beauty can be counted on to exist, even when obscured by cloudy days or nights. Our circumstances of birth may vary greatly, but we can all look up at the same beautiful moon with wonder and hope.

Sixty-five is a good place to be. A good place to stop and reflect. It’s a good place to cherish past memories, family and friends, and also a good place to appreciate the “now” moments. Right now is where it is at!

Right now it is still cold and rainy-plus snow in low elevations not seen around here in decades! If you aren’t tired of snow photos from SoCal yet…here’s one I took yesterday morning. The snow is deep and more is coming.

Right now the garden is enjoying the rain. The cold is slowing the season here. I saw today that snow has blanketed the Antelope Poppy Reserve! Not a bit of green to be seen! But under the snow the poppies persist! Looking like a superbloom is in the works.

The butterfly amaryllis is starting to bloom, the orange orchid is setting blooms, the avocado is flower laden. And there was a double rainbow!

It’s just been too cold, wet, and windy to work in the outside studio. Not to mention that the wind and rain tore apart the outdoor covered space. Once all this weather is past I will have to replace it. One thing at a time!
In the meantime, I’m working on indoor things-like putting together the listing for fabric packs I will collect in Japan during the Silk Study Tour and send out upon my return. I’ve developed a keen eye for what I look for and over the many years have educated myself to hunt down and pick out the best. It’s been a real education! I ‘ve put together many collections over the years but this time I’m going to do it a little differently…check out the listing below.

Sign up for the 2023 Foraged Fabrics Collection here.

Sign up for the Moon Circle here.

silk jacquard with silver thread running through, like stars in the midnight sky…march moons

SIgn up for the Silk Study Tour to Japan here (2 spots still open)

antique silk thread twisting machine

Finishing out this post, the wind is actually whistling through this 100 year old California bungalow, drum practice beats in the background and three black cats have the zoomies out my window here!
Later!

Moons over Amami

silk mawata moons are furry!

the obi lining

silky moons

These special moons are made with an unexpected cloth-a coarse homespun cotton cloth that had a layer of silk mawata stretched across it. I wondered…

Mawata is made from silk cocoons that are softened with hot water and soda ash before stretching them out on a frame. We also know them here as silk hankies. They can be used to spin silk yarn or are often used as quilt batting by stretching 50-100 cocoons into a thick, yet lightweight, layer of wonderful silk batting!

After asking around, the best answer I could find was that the silk mawata was there to help keep the two cloths together so the exterior and interior fabrics wouldn’t slip around. Another use for silk!

I put a dozen of these into the shop.

On the shibori side of things, Asiadyer sent me a couple of images of some shibori scraps he came across. They are a great little study in double arashi. Wrapping my mind around the concept, and the cloth around a pole, I made an attempt. I will make some adjustments and have another go at it. The result I got started out ok, but the second wrapping did not achieve the result I was looking for. Even still, some shibori was made!

sample detail

overall image

my first wrap

second wrap #1

second wrap #2

#2 another angle

These things drive me a bit crazy until I figure them out…

And yes, it’s February! We welcome the approaching Spring, warmer weather, and February moons for the circle. I chose and cut the fabric today. One is some fabulous kimono silk woven and dyed on Amami Oshima. Indigo, tannin and mud dyed then painstakingly woven. Even a small scrap is a treasure. The other is the leftover cloth from a dress I made from a repurposed meisen silk kimono a few years ago.
Links to my previous posts about dyeing and weaving on Amami oshima here and here.

treasured cloth

meisen silk

Amami moon

Meisen moon

If you want to sign up for the 2023 Moon Circle…here’s the link.

Getting in touch with reality

Some days are a real mix of duties.

Today, I:

-filed and paid my state sales tax return

-returned many emails

-attended to the Tour banking

-made indigo moons!! Yay!⬅️

-shipped some orders

-vacuumed and cleaned house

-videoed for phil

-pulled some weeds and trimmed the apricot tree

-made dinner

-attended to my social media

-posted this!

I had to make this list because at one point I actually felt I didn’t get anything done today.

I needed to remind myself.

Moons for komebukuro.

all the signs of Season…

There has been rain! It has also been colder lately. All the signs of season have arrived. For us here that means twinkling lights on houses, sprouts emerging everywhere, narcissus starting to bloom out back, and the annual golden falling of a million ginko leaves carpeting the the back corner of the yard. All the rain barrels are full- 300 gallons of water. Here, that is a blessing indeed!

It seems Time has been passing at warp speed. In that passing some things have been worked on. Some things have been endured. For the worked on:

A bag was made for an order. It is a lovely bag for a long time customer who became a friend over time. So was the psychological connection that I insisted on calling her by my sister’s name for YEARS!! That was the comfort and familial level at which we met. We laughed over it so many times. I finally have trained myself to her actual name at great effort. Have you ever had that happen with someone? Unfortunately, when it arrived it had a failing of a piece of the hardware and I recalled it for repair. It has been repaired and resent in time for gift giving. I appreciate her kind patience with all this. But it is the second photo above I want to bring attention to. I knew I wanted to make this a special bag and selected a long saved silk moth/butterfly mon I had found at a temple sale in Japan several years back. I remember the seller being wary of my purchase since the men’s kimono it was on was in such poor condition. She insisted in showing me all the flaws (virtually falling apart in many ways), but I assured her that I completely understood and that the price was fair and it was the mons I was interested in and that I would use it for scrap and hand sewing projects. We completed the transaction happily. It is an unusual piece as it is a medium grey silk with the finest and lightest katazome pattern in the background. I had not seen one like this before. And the butterfly mon was exquisite and detailed. Done with katazome technique and additionally embellished with fine line drawing. I think it’s pretty old…
Moving along to the third image above, I posted previously some images of sashiko practice. This piece seemed to call out for something “more”. I added french knots at the center of each star in a satisfying orange brick red thread. Done!
And then there has been this bag with an unfinished knitting project from at least ten years ago. I lost track of the pattern and asked my friend Penny to resurrect and reconstruct it. She’s a great regular knitter (as I USED to be), and provided the written pattern for me. I can’t express how satisfying working on this in the here and there has been! It’s been great fun and I have my knitting mojo back! Perfect for my mental plan to spin and dye up some glorious silk knitting yarn. This is some Zara wool we sold when I had a knitting shop (history – haha) and it is a great feeling yarn to knit with- especially on bamboo circular #6 needles. If you are going to knit, make sure you ENJOY the yarn! This is a simple 4 row repeat pattern over a 5 + 2 stitch count and yields a satisfying resulting pattern. I’m almost done now and will be blocking it soon.
Oranges… my favorite holiday ingredient. I picked these fresh navels at my son’s house (got to see the grandson and go to the movies with them!) and made candied orange peel last night- a holiday favorite here. I will make the much sought after orange pecan biscotti tomorrow…. after the dishwasher and under sink plumbing is repaired!!! (this OLD house!)
And lastly, while making the last ribbon order of the year I indulged in making some pleated red organza and made the floral piece pictured. I really love organza for flower making. I will likely do a zoom workshop for it in February.

Moving Time along…

Inspired by the french knots that seemed to be appearing everywhere I looked, I played around with french knots and the moon. It was a happy collaboration. First the sashiko piece, then a gal I have been following on twitter ( Katrin Vates) for some time that does the most intense french knot embroidery I have seen- mainly trees, and then Jude of course recently did some wonderful and simple moons pieces with french knots!
My contribution to end the year of the moon circle is to show you some possibilities with the year of moons. It’s winter, Solstice is two days away, and snow is a possibility! Maybe not here in Southern California, but we can dream…

And in conclusion, the report came back “margins clear” again this time. And I urge you also to take good care of your health, and your bones…

Captain, the next door cat, approves this post…

New trim ideas and plant dyed moons

I recently had some scrap silk left over from having bias ribbon made for my silk shibori ribbon. It was enough that I wanted to see what could be done with it so I had the converter do some flat bias tube (unfilled cording). I always want to use as much as possible without throwing any away of course. I found out that the previous company I was using to do the biasing was throwing out the end cuts! Once I found that out I started having them save them for me for odd projects but they were very irregular. These days, I am a little smarter. I work with the converter to minimize any waste so we can plan ahead to make something with the end cuts.
Below, I am playing around with some ideas for the trims I will start having made- which I will be dyeing. I started out with an autumn colorway.

The trim can be twined and braided too.

stitching the trim

all combined-with beads

detail

So far I have just finished the one piece. It’s in the shop as a made up brooch /necklace combo. When I get more of this made in different colorways, I’m thinking I’ll do some kits and workshops with it. It’s always fun to experiment with new things!

At the same time, I’m working on the September moons for the circle. This month I’m focusing on plant dyed moons. Using the feathery cassia seed pods and the fermentation vat on some vintage silk taffeta and cotton lawn, two very different moons are the result using the exact same dyes.

indigo over cassia pods on taffeta

cassia pods over indigo on cotton lawn

Also on the dye table are the materials for the kits for the upcoming Mermaid Adornment workshop. If you didn’t get a chance to check that out see here.

And my new daily visitor keeps me company in the studio…another squirelley girl but younger and smaller than my original friend!

In post workshop indigo vat news…

I decided to add to my indigo vat swatch card by swatching each of the three vats (chem , fermentation, and ferrous) at the end of the daylong indigo shibori workshop.

The vats all got a good workout by the six participants.

The chem vat degraded the most. It will need a complete tuneup! The fermentation vat held fairly steady but will need some rest and perhaps some bran. The blue is a bit lighter and noticeably grayer.

The ferrous iron vat held up the best with less loss of color. I might actually prefer it’s current state more than it’s original state. Seems like a nicer range of blues.

All three dips (on both occasions) were one minute.

In addition, the following day’s stitching workshop was a lot of fun. Getting people inspired to learn something new and create something beautiful is always satisfying.

One of the stitching samples I showed included a strip woven cloth with an indigo moon. Several participants wondered how it was done so I did a quick demo. They couldn’t wrap their mind around it in the beginning but then the “aha!” moment arrived. I always love that.

Aha!

Thanks to Jude for the fabric weaving idea way back when.

I’m wondering about how much work it might be to do a woven moon for the moon circle. If I do, it might be a one moon month…

make the strips narrow or wide, as you desire. A featherweight fusible on the back side before dyeing helps stabilize the weaving. I also basted around the edges to help with that here as an experiment. I hadn’t tried that before.

wassup? indigo…

today

Time and more time

I’m spending my time this week organizing for the upcoming workshops and pulling together teaching samples. There are many and I’m displaying them around the work space.

Also, finishing up a couple of things as inspiration for what one can do with the pieces that will be worked on during the dye and stitch sessions. Here is a bag I just finished with one of them. The exterior is all vintage and the interior lining is recycled. It’s really fun to give cloth a new life and make it into something “new” and useful. Another in the series of “Carry the Moon” bags I have made over time.

a cross body bag with an inside pocket sized for a phone. two sided and lined…

reverse side

I’ve got a few things to clear off the decks today (Saturday) -like a couple shibori ribbon scrap bag orders, the last stragglers of the July moon circle cards, and some computer email communications. If you are reading this and are in any of the August in-studio workshops, you would have received the last details on attending the workshops and have been asked to reply and confirm. About half of you have-THANK YOU! The others have been emailed twice so far with no reply. I will do so once more and cross my fingers! Other than that, I will take time and try to search you out via social media and send you messages there. This all takes time that I really do need for other things… help a girl out and reply to your email confirmations! Thx…

“Other things” include tracking down a FedEx return from France that has been “on the way” for 30 days now! This order seems to have a curse on it. If you recall, I had sadly and mistakenly sent the wrong colors to a customer in France. We resolved the issue by my remaking the correct order and reshipping it while at the same time issuing a return label to have the wrong order returned to me. Package never returned after being picked up by FedEx at the customers location (and this only after several calls to fedex to go get the package). Fedex is now looking for it after weeks of me calling to check on it. Fedex shipping internationally is no joke either ($$$) so not only am I out the ribbon, I have spent hundreds in shipping to get it back. Yikes! It is going to take more time to resolve this and likely not in my favor. I will persist! Never before had a problem like this with FedEx. We shall see…

BUT- in today’s mail, I received these two beautiful embroidered silk moths from an artist in the Ukraine. So delicate and beautiful! I’m working on a piece that involves silk in all its permutations and these will be a lovely addition to it. I came across them through one of my Japanese sericulture contacts on Twitter.

i love them!

so delicate…

Plus, I will be back to the Japanese American National Museum in early November with a workshop. stay tuned for details!

silk to senninbari

Today I’m preparing the fabrics for July moons. I’m kinda excited again about the cloth for this month’s moons. I enjoy deciding how to delight the moon circle each month. This time I went through my bins and chose a roll of something I’ve been saving and drooling over for YEARS! It’s silk tsumugi. But not just ANY old (and i mean old) silk tsumugi. This is the most lovely, drapey, thin, folk style cloth I’ve ever had the privilege of caretaking. It is completely hand spun and hand woven, undyed or treated in any way. In my mind I see a woman hand twisting the silk thread on her lap inside her small wooden home. It is uneven in places. Maybe she is new to the process or perhaps she knows the character which she imbues into the cloth from the wisdom of her past. But it is just wonderful. The silk floss might be what was left from her first rate cocoons- which were sold off to the local cooperative and sent off to be reeled at the filature mill. Who knows how long ago…I am just imagining here.

The cloth has texture, character, an uneven natural color in places. The warp is very, very fine reeled silk. Dressing a loom with this fine a silk must be an art in itself. There are slubs and tiny spots of darker threads in the weft which seem to me to be from discoloration of the cocoon by the silkworm. I hesitated to cut some of it for moons but I just can’t keep it all to myself. It must be shared. I happily imagine all the things it may be used for by those in the moon circle.

fine silk warp and a tsumugi yarn weft

unwove some of the weft-it’s crimped from the weave

fine silk pin for size reference in this detail

Some time back I did a meter or so of indigo shibori with some of this cloth for a garment. The shibori on the top right of the blog header above is some of that. It took the indigo like a dream!

The other moon this month is a departure of sorts. It’s also on old silk but on the scraps of a great and colorful silk meisen cloth that was one of the kimono pieces I remade with participants of the last Kimono Refashioning workshop. I’m enjoying putting these small bits of cloth in your hands for inspection and wondering.

I enjoy picking a style of moon I think will go with the character of the cloth.

Here I chose a straight forward circle for the meisen silk moon and a partial rough ombre moon for the tsumugi cloth.

I’m also preparing fabrics for the upcoming in studio August workshops. The shibori workshop is sold out with a waiting list. The Thursday August 4th workshop has one opening and the Sunday August 7th has 2 openings. Here is the link if you want to check it out. I spent the better part of today prepping all the vintage fabrics for these projects. I am dyeing the base pieces in the natural vat which is loving the warmer weather these days. I love sorting through all these fabrics and wondering about their past lives as well as imagining their future.
I’m setting up the “alumni reunion” for those that were in either session of the Refashioning Kimono workshops. Look for the date in your email inbox.

I have had several requests for new dates for both the Refashioning Kimono workshop as well as the Komebukuro Treasure Bag workshop. These new sessions will begin in late August and September. Look for dates in the next blog post.

In addition to the moons for the moon circle, I was inspired to do a bunch of these moons. I recently saw some new images of the planet Venus from NASA. Pretty amazing!

new images of the planet Venus

That reminded me of some hand dyed fabric I had bought several years ago in Houston. I used some of it to repair the couch cushions but I had some left over that I used for Venus inspired moons. There wasn’t enough fabric for the monthly moon circles so I just put them into the shop here.

I’ll end this post with a referral once again to the blog Old Photos of Japan and Kjeld’s recent post titled 1930’s Off to War. Another well researched and interesting post about being conscripted and sent off to war in Japan and how it was “celebrated” by the families and the public. It was the first of two times this past month where I came across the term senninbari or thousand person stitches. I had not known about this and it’s another way to honor the cloth and the stitch. He has a wonderful ukiyoe he came across depicting a scene of a kimono clad woman collecting the stitched knots in public at a temple. The images depicting this practice have dots marking the position where the knots are to be stitched much like the kanoko shibori dots that are marked with aobana. A really great post. I hope you go visit his site and support his fantastic work!
He includes this clip of a film with a “song for senninbari as well, Aikoku Senninbari (愛国千人針, Patriotic Thousand Person Stitches), released in 1937 during the Second Sino-Japanese War. In this clip of women collecting stitches on the street, you can hear part of the song as sung by Junko Mikado (三門順子, 1915–1954).“