Recent Discovery of Old Photographs

These photographs are part of a collection recently found in California, the whole story is published here.

Thanks to Sian Evans for the pointer.

My Favourite Blog of the Moment: Rising Sun Jeans

Rising Sun in California has blown me away.
I need a script to land in my lap right now that requires me to order from them.
Just look here and you shall see.

Katazome

Cotton printed using the katazome technique where rice paste is pressed through stencils to create a resist then the fabric is dipped in dye, usually Indigo or kakishibu.

I didn't notice any cracking as you would see in batik, a similar process, perhaps the rice paste stays flexible?

There are some good notes on the history of Japanese stenciling here, read how human hair was once used to secure intricate, fragile parts of a stencil - typical Japanese attention to detail and problem solving.

Indigo, Boro and Sashiko

 

 

  

The Japanese tradition of stitching, patching, mending and recycling has resulted in a fantastic tradition of peasant, or folk clothing. The ragged, textured result of all the layers of stitching is called Boro.

White mending stitches became a decorative technique of their own, called Sashiko. Intricate patterns were stitched onto woven indigo fabrics creating bold decorative detail.

See Sri Threads blog and gallery for some great items.