Apologies for not having my next post up on Monday as I had promised! Preparing for Fanime is a bit like getting ready to run a marathon and I’m already feeling exhausted, but exhilarated as well. The KimonoMomo Etsy shop will be closed starting Wednesday evening May 26 and will reopen sometime around Tuesday or…
Month: May 2010
Book reviews: Sashiko books in English part II
Continued from yesterday’s post, here are four more excellent sashiko books in English. Once again, these are listed by publication date. Quick summary statements are underlined. Click on the title links to purchase. Japanese Country Quilting: Sashiko patterns and projects for beginners by Karen Kim Matsunaga. Kodansha, 1990. 96 pages. An excellent all-in-one sashiko reference,…
Book reviews: Sashiko books in English part I
I’m going to take this in stages as there are so many books to choose from! Some of the more recent books that I will review tomorrow include those by Sylvia and Kitty Pippen, authors and textile artists who are comfortable taking sashiko and developing it into more than just the typical white-thread-on-indigo look that…
Book reviews: Japanese sashiko craft books
Japanese craft books, you gotta love ’em. The bright, clear photos presented in an easy to understand step by step format and abundant diagrams. Never mind if you can’t read Japanese, the visuals alone will get you through the process. Also known as “mooks,” a hybrid of magazine and book, these tend to be smallish…
Book reviews: ancient textile construction
Every morning after the dog has been fed and the kids shuttled off to school, I sit down at the kitchen table with a plate of last night’s leftovers, a pot of tea and a book or two. On occasion this leads to a loss of appetite, especially when dye techniques that involve dung or…
If you’re in San Francisco tomorrow
Just a quick reminder, I’ll have a booth at the 6th Annual Asian Heritage Street Festival in San Francisco, CA Saturday, May 15. Please come by, try on a kimono and say hello if you’re in the area!
An experiment in washing vintage indigo kasuri, part 2
(Continued from yesterday’s post, as promised) So how did it fare after the second wash? The blue background color is sharper and clearer, but the splash areas that were once light blue are now white. This does not diminish its attractiveness in my opinion, but I had been hoping to retain the light blue on…
An experiment in washing vintage indigo kasuri, part 1
Along with shibori and sashiko, I am a sucker for kasuri (絣). Popular in Japan since the Edo era, kasuri (or gasuri) is a double woven ikat, meaning the threads are dyed prior to weaving and the design is in both the warp and weft threads. Machine woven Bingo kasuri, which constitutes the bulk of…
Clearance sale on fabric yardage
Please do me a kindness and snap up these fabrics before new ones arrive as I’ll have no place to put them! These are out of print bolts from Kona Bay, In The Beginning and Marcus Brothers, all with Asian/Japanese themed prints. Beautiful stuff, just yearning to be put to creative use. As it is…
get ’em while they’re here
First, some not-so-good news: I put in a call yesterday to reorder some of my best selling fabric bolts from Alexander Henry, only to hear that the bolts I want are no longer available. Despite being good sellers, some bolts just don’t have quite enough demand for reprints, which means the warehouse won’t restock them…
on the bookshelf
Thank you for all the orders rolling in! There may be a small delay while we’re still waiting for the paint to dry, but things are moving forward and items are being packed and getting ready to head out very soon. New items will be listed as soon as I have my studio and photo…
A love for both the common fiber and the extraordinary textile @KimonoMomo 