着物を制作なんて！Making a Kimono...

In the textiles department at Kyoto Seika, students often make kimono. My teachers had been suggesting I dye my own kimono since July. I was scared!...the fabric is expensive, it takes a really long time to complete...but it's another of those 'only-in-Japan' opportunities, so for better or worse I am in the midst of producing a kimono!
京都精華でテキスタイルの学生は良く着物を作ります。7月以来教授たちは「着物を作ろう」と言っていましたけれども、怖かった！着物用の生地が高くて、制作は何月間が掛かるしと思ったが、やはり日本だけで掴まえる切っ掛けなので今自分の着物を作っています！

some initial sketch ideas　色々考えた

Creating a design for a dress is one thing, designing for a kimono is an entirely different beast. Parts of the kimono are folded upon wearing and are unseen except when displayed. When worn the front left overlaps the front right so that disappears too. The patterns and colours of a kimono vary depending on the age of the wearer and the occasion; older women wear smaller patterns and more delicate colours, young women can wear very bright and large motif designs. Some kimono are patterned all over, others only on the hem or on certain sections only. All of these things and more took a long time to get my head around but finally I came up with a design for a furisode - an unmarried woman's kimono with longer sleeves.
ワンピースなどの服のためのデザインを作るとは全然違います。例えば、着たら、長さを調節するためにあまった生地を折って重ねますし、着物の左側が上に巻きますので右側の模様を隠してしまいますし。後、年齢や行事によると、着物の柄や色が違います。こうゆうことを色々考えた上、やっと振袖のデザインを作り上げました。

this image clearly shows the difference in sleeve length between a furisode at left and a normal houmongi at right. http://img.blog.shitateya-ito.com/20121027_327721.jpg

This time I wanted to work with more flying birds, because they really lend an energy to the image. In my research of what birds are attractive in the air, I decided on the Rainbow Bee-Eater (merops ornatus). These tiny birds have spectacular green, blue and yellow feathers and spend most of their time in the air chasing their main food source of bees and insects. They are migratory birds that spend their winters in the north of Australia and New Guinea and then return to breed in Australia in summer.
今回のデザインでは、飛んでいる鳥をもっと入りたかったです。飛んでいる鳥は作品にはエネルギーを与えると思います。飛んでいる姿が綺麗な「Rainbow Bee Eater」（ハチクイ属）を染めることにしました。この鳥はハチや蛾を食べるので、いつもひらひらと飛び回っています。冬はオーストラリアの北部やニューギニアで過ごすけれども、繁殖期は夏で暖かい南オーストラリアに帰ってきます。

sketches

getting a rough idea of how the kimono would look displayed

building up the design with eucalyptus

Right now I'm tracing my design onto the silk fabric I bought using a blue ink called aobana. This is water-soluble and will come off the fabric at a later stage. The next steps will be to apply the resist paste using a reinforced paper cone with a metal tip and then commence brush dyeing using acid dyes.
今は「青花」という液体で、買った絹にデザインを写しています。次の段階は糊を置いて、酸性染料で染めるのを始めます。

tracing my design onto the fabric using aobana. You can see the silk I chose has a wave self-pattern running through it.
青花でデザインを絹に写します。生地は波の模様が入っています。

the hem of the kimono all traced on, satisfying!　裾に全部写した後。

So I'm afraid this is another cliff hanger. I will post more pictures as the Kimono really gets underway. Wish me luck!!　着物の作業が進んだらまた写真をアップロードしますので、楽しみに待ってください！

Learning the Art of Lacquer 漆を塗るし。

This semester I have been lucky enough to join a lacquer ware class offered by the Japanese Painting department at Kyoto Seika University. We were given free reign to create whatever design we liked, to be applied to a round platter shape called 'marubon'. I chose to keep with my research theme, and used a section of the Rainbow Lorikeet & Eucalyptus design I used to dye a dress last year. On the side of the image, I've included the scientific names of the two species in English lettering. It's so funny to hear Japanese classmates and my teachers say that English lettering looks so "chic" or "stylish". To me it's just English!

今学期、京都精華の日本画コースによる漆の授業を取らせて貰っています。丸盆に好きなデザインを塗るという課題です。テキスタイルの作品と同様な感じで塗っていくことにしました。それで、今年の３月に染めたワンピースのインコ（五色青灰鸚哥)とユーカリの模様を使いました。葉っぱの間に鳥と木の学名を英語で入りました。同級生や先生がよく、「英語がおしゃれですね！」と言いますが、私にはただの英語ですよ！

As you might expect from a Japanese technique, it is time and labour intensive!
日本の伝統的な技法だからやっぱり時間と手間がかかります！

After first polishing the sheen off our already black platters and ensuring they were nice and flat, we transferred our designs onto the surface with a chalky white paint called 'gofun' ("whitewash"). From there we painted a thin layer of black (almost transparent) lacquer and proceeded to sprinkle very fine silver and coloured powders onto the wet lacquer.
胡粉を使って、丸盆にデザインを写した後、段々白い線に沿って漆を塗って、その上に銀や色の粉を撒きました。

stage one was to transfer the design onto the platter with a white chalky paint, 'gofun'
最初は胡粉でデザインを写す。

the leaf on the right has just been painted with the black laquer, which acts as a glue. After sprinkling over the various powders, it looks like the leaf on the left.
右の葉は漆を塗った状態です。その上に粉を撒いたら、左の葉のようになります。

the "stylish" English lettering reads "Trichoglossus Haematodus Molucannus & Eucalyptus Leucoxylon Megalocarpa"
いわゆる「おしゃれ」な英字

Keep on adding layers of lacquer and silver and coloured powders and the design starts to appear
段々漆を塗って粉を撒きいったらデザインが出て来ます。

getting there....進んでいる。。。

Done with the powders! 全部撒いた後。

And then, in what seems like a backwards way of doing things, the whole thing gets a coat of thick black lacquer, which is left to dry til hard, then you polish the black away to reveal the design below, magic!
それで、全体的に黒うるしを厚く塗ります。それが乾燥すると、研いたら、ジャーン！！下に塗ってあるデザインが現して来ます！何かの魔法のように。

suffocating the lorikeet beneath a thick layer of lacquer...黒漆を全体に塗って（インコが可愛そう）

then digging him out again! で、研ぐとインコを解放する！

We still have 3 classes left, with some more polishing to take place. The surface will be all shiny and the silver will really sing once its all finished. I'll post pictures of the final product in January!!
授業はまだ３回残っています。ぴかぴか、つやつやになるまでもうちょっと研がないといけないです。１月に完成したらまた写真をアップしますので楽しみにしてくださいね！