PLAYFULNESS + CURIOSITY Page 13 of 22

Colour magic

Posted on 2012-06-13 at 9:00 am.

One of my favourite things about Kawashima Textile School was being surrounded by colour and texture – on the walls, on the desks (works in progress of other students), in the teachers’ rooms… esepecially the rows and rows of silk threads lining the shelves. A colour feast for the eyes… (and perfect for testing out wedding colour palettes!)

More posts from school here: Preparing and dyeing the thread / Preparing giant bobbins / Preparing the warp / Preparing the loom / Time for weaving! / Lessons in weaving, lessons in life / Silkworm encounter

Lessons in weaving, lessons in life

Posted on 2012-06-12 at 9:00 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

My time at Kawashima Textile School was much more than a lesson in weaving. I truly felt like it was a lesson in life. There were times when I actually swore out loud at my loom, having spent an hour happily weaving away and then noticing a mistake which meant I had to undo it all and start again. This was a regular occurrence throughout the day, and one morning I made about 1cm progress. There was a point when I was questioning whether it was really a good use of my time and I got really frustrated. I struggled to fathom how a ‘creative pursuit’ could be so prescriptive, with everything being black and white – you were either doing it right or you were doing it wrong. This is a whole world away from the teaching style of all the artists and designers I work with in Do What You Love, and I found it really tough.

But eventually I realised that sometimes we have to take instruction and learn the basics strictly and carefully in order to build the foundations for freedom of creativity later. If you don’t know how to weave evenly, how are you ever going to design and create a beautiful kimono? We need to know the rules in order to break the rules. It is so obvious, but it took a lot of huffing and puffing for me to realise this in the context of weaving.

I am not the world’s most patient person – I like to be doing stuff. But Kawashima was so good for me in that it made me slow down and take care with each detail. When I got into the rhythm of it I was almost in a trance – which opened up my mind for dreaming of other things.

The vocabulary was also a whole new world for me. I had never heard of ‘sericin’, ‘tussah’, ‘throstle yarn’, ‘dobby cloth’ or ‘heddles’ in English, never mind in Japanese. The 16-page (very helpful) vocab list made me feel like I was back at university! It was a great opportunity to learn lots of specialist textile terms, with the gentle support of my lovely bilingual teacher Emma Omote.

Some important lessons in weaving and life…

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More posts from school here: Preparing and dyeing the thread / Preparing giant bobbins / Preparing the warp

The school run

Posted on 2012-06-08 at 9:00 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

My trusty bicycle, which comes everywhere with me these days

As you will know if you have been reading this blog lately, I recently spent a couple of weeks studying at Kawashima Textile School. This meant a daily routine of cycling to the station, taking a sweet little train north out of the city, then walking through the quiet streets of Ichihara to school. Despite the early hour, the journey itself was a lovely part of the day, and I thought I would share it with you…

Past lovely little coffee shop ‘Amuca’

Greeting other early birds

Through this lovely temple complex

Past sweet houses

Along the riverbank

Calling out ‘Ohio gozaimasu’ (‘good morning’) to joggers…

…and to musicians in training who prefer the riverside to their paper-thin walled apartments

To the ingenius bike park at Demachiyangi Station (I think they could do with one of these in cities like Oxford!)

Just in time for my train

This rural station at Ichihara is my stop

Past freshly-planted paddy fields

And to school, just before the bell rings (yes there is a school bell!)

I change into my slippers(!) and then head off to class…

More posts from school here: Preparing and dyeing the thread / Preparing giant bobbins / Preparing the warp

Kawashima Textile School 4: Preparing the loom

Posted on 2012-06-07 at 1:22 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

My (lovely and very patient) teacher Emma Omote demonstrates

Next up is the loom. You have to get the threads onto the loom itself. This involves pulling each individual thread through something that looks like a needle eye, and then a tiny hole in a giant metal comb. Repeat x 180! There is something akin to a zen meditation about this process…

Next up: time for weaving at last!!

More posts from school here: Preparing and dyeing the thread / Preparing giant bobbins / Preparing the warp

Kawashima Textile School 3: Preparing the warp

Posted on 2012-06-05 at 3:00 pm.

Written by Beth Kempton

(The next instalment from Kawashima Textile School…)

By Day 4 of school it is time to prepare the warp (and by now I am secretly wondering whether I actually get to do any weaving at all…!) I cannot believe how much preparation goes into this craft, and I will never look at a piece of fabric in the same way again. Respect to professional weavers!

Back soon, preparing the loom…

(Earlier posts here: (1) Preparing and dyeing the thread, (2) Preparing the giant bobbins

Kawashima Textile School 2: Preparing giant bobbins

Posted on 2012-06-03 at 1:00 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

(Part 2 of my tales from Kawashima Textile School…)

Once all the threads have been dyed, they need to be put onto big wooden bobbin-type things. When I think of the word bobbin I think of the tiny metal thing that goes in my sewing machine – but these wooden bobbins (‘kiwaku’ in Japanese) are huge!

This stage is important in order to stop the threads getting tangled when you prepare the warp (coming up in the next post).

All these things I didn’t know I didn’t know…

Next time we get the warp ready…

Kawashima Textile School 1: Preparing and dyeing the thread

Posted on 2012-06-02 at 3:14 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

For the past couple of weeks I have been studying weaving at Kawashima Textile School in the north of Kyoto. It was a wonderful, quiet reflective experience, where I was treated to one-to-one tuition. Over the next few days I will share a series of posts showing the process that I learnt.

I will begin with dyeing the thread… First I tried natural dyes, and loved going out into the school’s garden, picking biwa (loquat) leaves and using them to colour the wool. I also tried ‘yamamomo’ which translates as ‘mountain peach’.

Depending on the metal-based ‘mordant’ used, a range of colours were possible. These (above) are the six colours I ended up with using natural dyes. And then I tried chemical dyeing…

Weighing out the chemicals to get the exact colour mix I had chosen

The lovely Hori-sensei, Master of Colour, shows me how to dye evenly

I also tried acid dyeing, which produced a more vivid palette.

These are the threads I used for weaving during my time at school.

Stay tuned for more in the coming days…

Photostyling

Posted on 2012-05-16 at 3:00 pm.

Written by Beth Kempton

When we decided to come out to Japan to spend a few months, I knew that one of the things I wanted to do was take some lessons in photography/styling. Out here they call it ‘photostyling’, and they even have a formal association for it.

I found a teacher here in Kyoto who lives out west, among a green expanse of paddy fields. Once a month I have to take a sweet little train for 20 minutes or so, away from the city, past a stunning gorge and out to the beginning of the countryside. I love the little adventure, and the prospect of learning more about my beloved camera (as well as learning how to take better photos of all that lovely stationery…)

This month’s theme was flowers – and in an attempt to understand more about the different settings on my camera, I took a lot of shots of the same thing! It was interesting to see how the light and shadows changed between each image. Can’t wait to find out more…

Inviting entrances

Posted on 2012-05-12 at 9:00 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

Kyoto is a wonderful city for cycling in, except for one thing. It takes me ages to get anywhere, not because it is that big, but because at every turn there is an inviting entrance just begging to be photographed! Sometimes you wonder how businesses survive – it seems the more exclusive and expensive they are, the harder they are to find. A row of low lights here, a flight of worn stone steps there… Here are some of the entrances that have called to me recently…

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I’m on a big adventure in Japan right now. If you fancy an adventure of your own why not join me for the Do What You Love e-course? Shake things up, expand your comfort zone, nurture your playful spirit and feed your creative soul. Identify your passion and make it a greater part of your every day life! Find out more and register here. But hurry, class starts on Monday!

Eye candy

Posted on 2012-05-04 at 9:00 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

The Japan Hobby Show was crazy. Literally thousands of craft lovers in one place, oohing and ahhing over buttons and ribbons, fawning over fabric, patiently queueing up for workshops.

And I was one of them!

I went to get some inspiration for The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design, and snapped some gorgeous eye candy – the images above and below are from my favourite stand from Scandinavian design company Tilda.

Now if this doesn’t make you want to stitch up an apron or cushion I don’t know what will!

I took a little workshop from Japanese collage artist and illustrator Yoko Inoue. Her work is really beautiful – she uses photos she takes herself, shrinks them down on a colour photocopier, then works them into gorgeous collages in muted colours.

In less than an hour there wasn’t much time to get into it, but it was fun to have a play around with all the free supplies! I used a couple of postcards of Lily Greenwood’s art in mine.

For the latest information about the Japan Hobby Show click HERE.

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