In the summer of 2019 I visited the Daruma Yokota thread dyeing factory in Kyoto, Japan. As our wholesale company, Orimono Imports, is a distributor for the brand and our retail shop, Kimonomomo has sold their thread for several years, I was hoping to learn more about the dyeing process and brainstorm some new ideas….
Tag: Japan
June 1, 2016 Japan
Hiroshima Taxi drivers polishing their cars while they wait for fares, lace seat covers bright white in the sun. Crows cruise the sky over Hiroshima. It’s a strange sight. Ominous to me, nothing new to the locals. Promenade of Peace is a tree-filled, narrow park between hotels, offices, and a main road. It has a…
May 22, 2013 Japan
On the Ginza line heading to Asakusa Trains are efficient, clean, and feel more spacious than the Underground, but not as smooth as British trains. Prices aren’t bad. BART could learn a lot: Destinations are shown lit up on a sign above each door. Racks for baggage above seats. A little song plays before doors…
May 20, 2013 Japan
Koyata Okonogi-san’s silk worm farm He uses an older breed of silkworm from the Edo era to reproduce finer quality silk. Lime is sprinkled on the worms and leaves to keep them dry. Noriko is his apprentice. Awareness of how alive textiles are here. From raising silkworms and spinning the silk to tending the indigo…
End of the Year Updates and News for 2018
There was a time when I could semi-hibernate through December and rest up over the winter to prepare for spring shows and events. THAT HAS NOT HAPPENED THIS YEAR. We’re pretty much working full throttle this month, and January looks like more of the same, which is a good thing. Here’s what we have going…
Kogin Institute, Hirosaki, Aomori, Japan
I visited the Kogin Institute in Hirosaki on January 31, 2017 after visiting the Tokyo Quilt Festival, Takayama, and Osaka. It was a pleasant flight from Osaka to Hirosaki, with the view of snowy mountains most of the way, and many, many empty seats. My companion Toyo looked around the plane, counted the passengers, and…
Pardon the long absence, it’s been a busy year
Hello, dear readers. It’s been a while. In January & February I traveled Japan. More about that coming soon In March we launched our wholesale import business and showed at the San Francisco Quilt Guild Show In April I wrote a bunch, then stopped because there was so much more work to do with the…
Textile Trading in Osaka
Tokyo has the biggest quilt show in Japan, but many of the fabrics in those quilts start out somewhere else. Home to the bulk of the Japanese cotton trade for the past 300 years, Osaka is where next year’s trends are designed and next season’s designs are sold. In 2016 my husband and I decided to…
After Tokyo, a bit of Takayama
The hustle and bustle of the Tokyo Quilt Festival was overwhelming after a while. Two days wandering Takayama with my friend Keiko seemed like a good way to settle down a bit and catch my breath. Except for the trains. Oh boy, the trains. There aren’t a lot of direct trains to Takayama, and my…
Tokyo Great International Quilt Festival 2017 part 3
Some photos were taken in a hurry as I rushed from the booth to lunch, or back again. Closeups are all I have of these beautiful quilts. The geometry is complex and amazing. When people who don’t quilt think that quilters are old grannies who sit around making simple blankets, I want to show them…
Tokyo Great International Quilt Festival 2017 Part 2
I’m writing this while sitting in a Tokyo hotel, but I have so much more to tell you about this trip. Since leaving Tokyo Dome I took a train up to Takayama, another train down to Osaka, flew to Hirosaki in Aomori prefecture, then back to Tokyo again. Three weeks on the road and I’m almost ready…
Tokyo Great International Quilt Festival 2017
The Tokyo Great International Quilt Festival is big. So big they hold it in a baseball stadium. So big it goes on for DAYS AND DAYS, even longer than the Houston Quilt Festival, which seems like forever when I’m working that show. This time I only had to work two days, and I got to sit…
A love for both the common fiber and the extraordinary textile @KimonoMomo 