Hello friends and old-time followers. I ran out of Blogger steam. I closed down the business during the pandemic. The workshops are up and running again. 2024 is more or less booked up. I l...
http://japanesetextileworkshops.blogspot.com/2024/01/friends-and-old-time-followers.html
So much for my ten-day silkworm challenge. In a ten-day album challenge it would have been like running out of energy on day four on the Bob Dylan side of The Concert for Bangladesh. “It was...
http://japanesetextileworkshops.blogspot.com/2020/06/so-much-for-my-ten-day-silkworm.html
Day 3 of the silkworm challenge. Three videos on this post. Watch them and change your life. The silkworm eggs didn't hatch today...oh oh. This is getting tedious. I asked Minako, the old woman w...
http://japanesetextileworkshops.blogspot.com/2020/06/day-3-of-silkworm-challenge.html
Day two of the silkworm challenge. These bamboo trays (Ebira or Kago) are used to raise silkworms on. There is not a single respectable old farmhouse in Japan that doesn’t have a stack...
http://japanesetextileworkshops.blogspot.com/2020/05/day-two-of-silkworm-challenge.html
Silkworm eggs....Yeah...exciting stuff. Instead of the ten day, ten album challenge to see what ten albums have shaped my taste in music I will take the silkworm challenge. Eggs to thread an...
http://japanesetextileworkshops.blogspot.com/2020/05/silkworm-challenge.html
I’ve been living and making my living in this 650 year old mountain hamlet and 150 year old silk farming house for over 25 years now. I didn’t think much about it and basically enjoyed the t...
http://japanesetextileworkshops.blogspot.com/2020/05/ive-been-living-and-making-my-living-in.html
" I cursed you as I procraftinated for weeks and then double cursed you in the craftermath." The workshop participants are usually on their best behavior the first few hours of the workshop. ...
http://japanesetextileworkshops.blogspot.com/2020/01/procraftination-craftermath.html
I lost my voice for a few days of the last workshop. We were down in the river beating indigo dyed projects on the rocks in the fish ladder. We had climbed back up the staggered ladder rungs imbe...
http://japanesetextileworkshops.blogspot.com/2019/11/i-lost-my-voice-for-few-days-of-last.html
Sutras need to be chanted to send off our friends to their next destination. Some sutras are about listing up the deceased persons life. Born. Experienced war. Married. Kids. Grandkids...
http://japanesetextileworkshops.blogspot.com/2019/09/ogata-kane-1918-2019.html
An Australian doctor, an artist/ teacher from Hong Kong, an artist/teacher from France. We spent ten days together in the heat here in the mountains getting to know each other and time at the in...
http://japanesetextileworkshops.blogspot.com/2019/08/summertime-indigo-life.html
Most of the silkworms have been spitting out silk since yesterday. Spinning a cocoon around themselves so that they are safe to metamorphosis into moths. They are like tubes of toothpaste. The...
http://japanesetextileworkshops.blogspot.com/2019/07/most-of-silkworms-have-been-spitting.html
Spring workshops finished this afternoon. I have had three months of solid work. Most of it completely enjoyable. Dozens of live-in guests at the house. I can't even begin to thank all the help ...
http://japanesetextileworkshops.blogspot.com/2019/07/workshop-season-over-for-while.html
They are on the bullet train now. I just had 18 guests at the house for 12 days. An amazing amount of indigo work, a lot of time spent in close quarters, eating and sleeping and creating. I’m ...
http://japanesetextileworkshops.blogspot.com/2019/07/textile-workshop.html
A lot is going on here at the farm in May and June. Tea Harvest. Live-in workshops. Silkworms. Indigo planting. The last ten-day live-in workshop of the spring ended yesterday. It makes ...
http://japanesetextileworkshops.blogspot.com/2019/06/a-lot-is-going-on-here-at-farm-in-may.html
I have been raising silkworms for over 20 years. Last year I took year off. 1000 eggs about to hatch tomorrow. Such anticipation and excitement. The mulberry is salad fresh. Daddy is waiting. A f...
http://japanesetextileworkshops.blogspot.com/2019/05/daddy-waiting.html
The blog was quiet and hibernating. I had the house to myself all winter. Hiro was in Brazil for three and a half months. I went to New Zealand for a trip. I loved it. I kept busy with textile ...
http://japanesetextileworkshops.blogspot.com/2019/03/winter-silence.html
I worked on a few development projects in Laos 15 years ago. It was all very exotic and exciting spending time in ethnic minority villages in the mountains of northern Laos. The learning curve w...
http://japanesetextileworkshops.blogspot.com/2019/03/quick-visit-to-laos.html
A tiny handmade box with a tiny book inside. I am at a loss for words. The Present God has graced me with something special. Last September I ran a Japanese book binding course at ...
http://japanesetextileworkshops.blogspot.com/2019/02/japanese-traditional-book-binding.html
I run a two-week traditional Japanese Hanten/Firemans jacket sewing/dying workshop at the farmhouse here twice a year. The students are often repeaters who have come back to Japan to visit/study...
http://japanesetextileworkshops.blogspot.com/2019/01/indigo-quilt.html
Minako passed away three days ago. She was born in 1920 in a village about 15 kilometers from the mountain village I live in. Her village was different. The houses were grouped together...
http://japanesetextileworkshops.blogspot.com/2018/10/minako-passed-away.html
Gratitude is the emotion that is like the breeze rippling over the fresh tea leaves by the gently cascading river on a perfect blue skied morning with buddies helping harvest that same delicat...
http://japanesetextileworkshops.blogspot.com/2018/05/gratitude-to-textile-teacher.html
I held four workshops at the farmhouse so far this spring. I have a few week break to harvest tea and catch my breath. The first three workshops were the regular introduction to indigo use in J...
http://japanesetextileworkshops.blogspot.com/2018/05/time-is-contagious.html
At my friends funeral last week a large purple shroud with lotus patterns was held up and its significance explained to the mourners before being placed over his body and before we all gather...
http://japanesetextileworkshops.blogspot.com/2018/03/lotus-death-textiles.html
I've seen thousands and thousands of pieces of Japanese katazome indigo stenciled cloth. I don't get too excited. Only a well-drawn stencil, a cleverly designed stencil, a rare motif, excepti...
http://japanesetextileworkshops.blogspot.com/2018/03/katazomejapanese-stencils-taking-on-big.html
I went running a few days back and a group of twenty-odd monkeys came racing up the mountain from below out of the tea fields and spilled up onto the road around me and ran with me a few dozen me...
http://japanesetextileworkshops.blogspot.com/2018/03/monkeys-drag-queens-glasgow-and-van.html