Thursday, August 29, 2013

In Store...

Around the shop....


Lots of bundles of indigo cotton  ideal for boro inspired projects. I have these in my online shop as well:


Early - mid 20th century ikebana basket.:


I've put out some more donsu:


I've been sorting out boxes and boxes of textiles trying to make space for the shipment that arrived a few weeks ago and I discovered this wonderful bolt of cotton shibori:
 

A beautiful silk child's kimono:


I had a few more rolls of new quilting cotton arrive in our last shipment:


I love stitching with natural linen thread especially when working on boro inspired projects where regular sashiko threads can look too new and stark. So I decided to stock some in the shop.  So far I've just got a fairly  fine pure linen and a linen/cotton mix but I'll add more in future. I'll put these on my online shop as well:




Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Gallery - Aukje Boonstra

Aukje Boonstra is a well-known Tasmanian dyer, stitcher and all round textile artist who has been using fabric from our shop in some of her works for many years, and has taught workshops here in the past as well.  You can see some of her works and learn more about her workshops and other events on her website:  aukjeboonstra.webs.com  Here are a couple of her wonderful creations made for exhibitions earlier this year using remnants and paper from Wafu Works.

I was really excited to see this amazing outfit which Aukje made  from kimono remnants, natural dyed silk and a pre-used skirt  for the Wonders of Wearable Art  at the Chocolate Fest in Latrobe.



And equally amazing is Aukje's  'Book to Kimono' for the Burnie  'Paper on Skin' exhibition earlier this year. This is made from antique paper  which we sell in the shop and is  taken from various old Japanese books.  It's lined with black tissue paper and stitched with a traditional Japanese running stitch.  The mini kites on the back were  made by Aukje's late husband  Mal.





Monday, August 5, 2013

New shipment of kimono fabric and obi

I've been very busy over the last few weeks with a new shipment. Takashi does the buying in Japan so I  don't know what's coming until I open the boxes - which is enormous fun!  It's mainly rolls of silk and other kimono fabrics (mid - late 20th century) and it takes quite a while to sort out and get on the shelves,and then find space for all the ones that don't fit on the shelves yet.  It was only a small shipment (two pallets) but we don't have much space left here with a home and a shop squeezed into the one house. There are boxes of obi as well that I haven't even opened yet. Before I put them on the shelves most of the fabrics need re-rolling. Kimono fabrics are not designed to be sold by the metre and they usually come either rolled inside out or in layers.  I've started putting some of the new silks on the website  here's a sample of some that are either already online or will be soon. (I've also got a sale on the website to clear some of the silk that I'm taking off the shelves.)