new moons and a shop update

A while back I hosted a zoom workshop where participants and I refashioned a kimono into a more easily wearable garment by shortening and removing sleeves.This project leaves you with some fabric to use later. One of the pieces I reworked was a wonderful hemp unlined summer kimono that was kasuri woven with a wonderful 40’s or 50’s design like meisen. This very bold and colorful piece is now wearable as a lightweight over-jacket. The leftover cloth was set aside until now. I did a little test to see if I liked it to start out the January moon circle. I LOVED IT! wow…what fun. Laying out the cloth for the moons, each one is uniquely fun! Being a bit of an open weave I wondered if the indigo would leak a bit into the moon-it didn’t. And the cloth took the dye beautifully without completely overwhelming the design. Each of course is a bit different.

The other smaller moon this month is indigo dyed onto some beautiful silk jacquard I had been stingily hoarding since I was at the end of the bolt. It has a delicate chrysanthemum (kiku) pattern on a slightly off white (natural) silk. The weight is light- like for a nagajuban (silk under kimono).

While you can join the moon circle anytime, if you want the January moons featured here you need to sign up prior to Jan 30. Thanks to everyone who is currently subscribed and especially to those who joined for a second time!

I also added some items back into the shop- Neko chan kit, indigo treasure packs, and indigo yardage in 3 shades.

lots of inspiration!

The madder I dug is still drying since it’s been so wet here lately. Maybe it will figure in February or March moons. It’s still cold here (for us!) we’re lucky if it gets to 60 and the nights are in the low 40’s. The garagio is still cold and wet! Looking forward to the forecast of ten sunny dry days ahead! Hopefully we will continue to get some rain in the next couple of months. I hope to get at some of the weeds outside. There is a forest of cassia seeds sprouting! Yikes!

On another note, I got up at 2 AM on Tuesday to hear Nobue Higashi’s sericulture lecture on Zoom. It was very interesting! I saw a mulberry field machine that helps pick the mulberry. It claims to be able to do the work of 10 people in collecting mulberry for feeding the silkworms. She also mentioned and showed some images of a machine that is kind of like a ferris wheel for silkworms. As the bins of worms circulate, feeding is easily done to many worms in a smaller space. I understand that the reason these are not in wide use these days is that the parts are not available to repair them when they break down. Hirata san and I once visited a sericulture farm about ten years ago that used this method. It was interesting and I have since wondered why it’s not used more.
She also had a nice section on the commercial hatching and raising of the young silkworms (before they are distributed to the farmers). I knew about this but had never seen the inside of these facilities. If you are interested in this lecture series, you can still sign up (see last post for details).

I’m really looking forward to meeting up with Nobue and all the artisans along our way on the Silk Study Tour to Japan in May. Join us?

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!

Made for Mermaids

Seems like it’s been a few weeks since I started to work on getting this workshop up online. We have a saying around here- I’m sure you are familiar with it. Everything takes a lot of time! But anyway… it’s done.

I re-posted a photo of this piece on my FB feed from a memory suggestion there and got a lot of responses and requests for a kit or an online workshop. I had made these quite a few years back and sold a few at my Houston show when I was doing that . So I thought I would accommodate but first had to recreate it.

In order to set up something for a workshop there is a lot of “behind the scenes” work. It’s one thing to make something to sell individually and another quite different thing to make and create a workshop for something. Online or in person, I need to be very familiar with the making of it. So making a new sample, calculating time and materials, adding options (beads or no beads), gathering the kit supplies, picking color choices (so many possibilities!), getting everything loaded up online etc etc….

This time I decided to try Squarespace’s email marketing option since I have a lot of people who have subscribed to me over time. Usually, I would go to my Constant Contact account and do it from there but after posting the shop item, there it was… just a click and $14 a month away. It was simple and we’ll see how it does. So just warning you, some of you here may be getting that in your email.

one option is to “bead it up” and use up a bunch of mixed beads left over from various projects. I know a lot of you out there have done beading at one time or another…

I posted 6 different color possibilities- hopefully one that suits everyone. If you have a special request, let me know and I’ll see if I can accommodate. You can see all the details in the listing here- Silk Shibori Mermaid Adornment. These are fun to make and not super time consuming. Of course beading adds some time and effort but not difficult- just straight stringing.

We are still in the midst of the heatwave here-upper 90’s and low 100’s near the coast with minimal night cooling until last night so that was a bit of relief. Still getting power alerts on electricity use but guess WHAT?? It’s supposed to rain on Saturday! I’m glad of course but….it’s the day of the shibori ribbon studio workshop! We will forge ahead- better wet than too hot I say…. I hope it pours!

And since I began writing this post, we get word of the passing of Queen Elizabeth at 96 years of age. At times here on the blog we remark on the passage of time. But 70 years a monarch in this modern era is really pretty amazing. No matter your thoughts on monarchies in general, or this one specifically, Queen Elizabeth has been there as Queen of England our entire lives. I wasn’t ever a passionate royalty follower or fan, but you couldn’t avoid news of her over the decades. From this great distance she seemed to be strong, steadily graceful and willingly responsible. Beloved by many, willing to accept her role and also to accept change as needed. She sacrificed much to live so richly as well as publicly.
May peace be her eternal resting place.

wassup? indigo…

today

Silk

Collecting up a few bits and pieces.

Silk… from moth to cloth

I’m gathering the the circle of participants.

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 Shibori Ribbon Workshop

Circus

In studying all the workshop possibilities (and there are many!) I have added two workshops to the shop.

First, the ever requested silk shibori ribbon making workshop. In the past I have taught arashi shibori in general but there are some very specific points and techniques when it comes to making the ribbon. This workshop will be specifically on making the ribbon.

I have been producing the ribbon since 2006 and I know there is no one who knows more about making it than myself. Yes, I can confidently say that!

So, if you would like to learn the techniques from an expert, from the originator of this product that has been copied and sold all around the world, then this link is for you! You will complete a 10 yard roll of silk shibori ribbon. You can elect to take home your entire ten yard length in the color of your making, or you can cut and trade colors with other participants! Your choice!

This workshop is scheduled for September 10, 2022 and limited to 5 participants. If you find this workshop has filled, contact me and I will add you to a list to reserve you a spot in a second workshop.

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The second workshop to be listed is an in-person version of the Tekumo Shibori workshop I offered a couple of times over Zoom in 2020/2021. It was fun over Zoom but I’ve really wanted to do this in person. My favorite way to do tekumo shibori is on silk organza because I love the colors as well as the extreme texture you can get with it. I will also have the indigo vat available with some cotton or silk if you want to try that too but the focus will be with tekumo on silk organza.
Each of 6 participants will have materials provided as well as the option to take home their own tekumo shibori stand.
Tekumo shibori involves using a special shibori hook to “grab” the fabric and a small bobbin of thread to wrap and bind the gathered cloth. We will dye, bind, discharge, overdye and steam set the cloth. I will have various samples of things you can do with this very sculptural resulting cloth but I’m sure you will have your own ideas as well! You will take home an assortment of tekumo shibori fabrics to use in your own projects.

Here is the link for the Tekumo Shibori In-Studio Workshop on September 24th.

I hope you can join us for one or both of the workshops. If you have any questions please contact me.
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what can I say…

wondering

one thing (too many) at a time…

Now that I got that last post finally published, I feel free to start a new one (there are still over 50 posts in my drafts folder-ha! need to clean THAT up a bit-later!) .
Seriously, later.
I’ve been a little quiet here- too much going on and for some reason I don’t get as much done in a day as I used to! Some of you know I’ve been working on some local government campaigns so that takes time to do, stay informed, etc.. One of my jobs for the campaign was….social media-surprise!! I wonder how I got THAT job? Anyway, most of “our” candidates lost- big $$ and insider political endorsements and all. But our # 1 priority candidate earned a place in the November election making it into the top two. Phew! It’s gonna be trick to get him elected (against the city endorsed candidate and mayoral BFF and TONS of $$- I won’t go on here)…

BUT…
In studio news, yesterday I finished the second (and currently last) session of two, three installment workshops entitled Refashioning Kimono. Even though the groups were small, we had a blast! I wasn’t sure what to expect, hadn’t done this one before or even one like it but it turned out to be a great opportunity for all. I always learn so much doing these. Each session was 3 weeks long and now we are planning an “alumni reunion” to include everyone from both sessions if they want to just “check in” and update us on their projects or see what everyone else did. Some finished during the workshop and started a second piece (the high achievers with time) and some are still working on them (you know…Life!). They have all the info they need to complete their pieces on their own schedules.
I have to say though, perhaps the very best part of these workshops was providing a time and holding a space devoted to learn something new, to tune out the rest of the world for a couple of hours and the threading up of a simple needle to hand sew with. When I hear that the sessions were “the best part of my week” and “I’ve been looking forward to this all week”, I know I am in the right space and time.

Right out of the gate I decided to turn part of these sessions into Japanese Textile Explorations. I sent out swatch cards of the fabrics I had used on my sample pieces to everyone and that was a fun experiment. Participants were surprised at some of the fabrics. We did burn tests, looked at the weaves of the fabrics, and studied their embellishment techniques.

silk sha, meisen silk kasuri, and very fine old silk print(maybe copper roller printed)

As we dismantled and sewed, I talked about various aspects of kimono, textiles, and we looked at my PPT presentation, some online videos and book selections. Each session was recorded for reference in case they wanted to go back to review something and a follow up email was sent after each installment with links, notes and more.
Through the dismantling of the kimono each person formed a relationship with the original kimono sewer and the weaver too. I can’t wait for the reunion!

I was also treated to such a sweet email from one of the participants who thought that there were continuing sessions after the third and last session. She emailed me to let me know she would be back from her errands in time for the Saturday class. I emailed her to let her know the workshop was over.
She emailed me back – “How small is my world now – no class Saturday!  I thought it would go on & on – just slow stitching & getting lots of wonderful information & chatting.  I will miss it & you.”
More confirmation that I’m in the right place and time…

***NOTE***
as I was getting ready to post this we started in with the J6 hearings and the SCOTUS decisions. I just wasn’t feeling like posting. I’m sure you understand. Now that my brain has settled and cleared a bit… I carry on.

AND… before I could even hit the publish button another devastating SCOTUS decision…this time on the environment. AARRG.

I have another post “in the hopper” already with only fun stuff so will finish it up and post soon…

As Justice Elena Kagan, writing for the dissenters, countered: “The Court appoints itself — instead of Congress or the expert agency — the decision maker on climate policy. I cannot think of many things more frightening.”