A couple of months ago Takashi brought back this wonderful old boro mat - or it might be a kotatsu cover. It was in a very sad state and not really old enough to be worth selling as it is. It is quite thick and I didn't know what fabrics might be in the middle layers.
My plan was (and still is) to turn it into a recycling project. I would unpick it and turn it into a series of cleaning cloths, mats, cords etc; items which were traditionally the final stage in the life of an old piece of cotton fabric.
When I started to unpick it I realised that many of the inner pieces were more fragile than I'd expected and that even if I could use them to make other items something of their loveliness would be lost. I'm not sure now what I will do with the pieces but while I was still unpicking I was introduced to Ishiuchi Miyako's book of clothing from Hiroshima which I featured in a post last month -
here . Inspired by Ishiuchi's photos my friend (and helper in the shop) Chris offered to lend me her light box to photograph my remnants.
These are very humble pieces (they certainly have no value to sell in the shop) and I'm not a good photographer but I am happy with how some of the photos came out. I hope you enjoy them as well. I'll post more soon.
