In store...

I often have quilters looking for interesting feature panels for their Japanese quilts and now I've got a couple of wonderful rolls of cotton based on traditional textile designs. I'm not sure what these have been made for but they're about 35cm wide and would make great noren (doorway curtains) as well. The samurai pattern is taken from large traditional Boys' Day banners. The crane design is based on old tsutsugaki futon covers or wrapping cloths. Tsutsugaki is a traditional dyeing method in which the design is drawn on in a rice paste resist before dyeing.


Buttons and more buttons...including these pre-war uniform buttons. These are mostly old school buttons. You can see the stylised 中 mark on many of them which means 'middle' as in middle school. We've always got more buttons waiting for me to package up so it's worth asking if you can't see what you're looking for.

And also... this lovely mid-20th century 'ichimatsu ningyo' doll:

Welcome

Welcome to my blog. I'd like to use this space to share Wafu Works news and to give more information about the kind of traditional Japanese textiles we sell - how they were made and used in their former lives and what people are doing with them now. I'm a collector as well as a shopkeeper and, as my regular customers know, Japanese textiles are my passion so there's nothing I'd rather talk about... Please feel free to add your comments, suggestions and questions and I'll be very glad to discuss any (related) topic you're interested in. If I don't know the answer to a question I always enjoy trying to find it.