Japanese Textile Workshop

Oh my - just back from the second leg of my Grand Tour, and so much catching up to do!

Ikebana by Hiro

Undecided about if I should go in chronological order, and start with the Japan textile workshop, then move forward, or if I should start with the most recent trip, which is freshest!

But I will go in order!

Japanese Textile Workshop

I think I learned about this workshop through a post on Pattern Review which led me to a blog post by Gayle Ortiz describing her experience at Bryan's workshop. I was hooked, and decided then that I would work this into my year off travel plans. It took a while to track him down, but I did. Bryan was still coming out of the pandemic restrictions, and not sure how and when he would start up again, but in late Fall (I think), he sent me the course brochure, and I decided that I would like to take the Golden Week Hanten workshop. His other workshops focus on indigo dyeing. This one would have some indigo work, but we would also be hand-sewing a traditional Japanese garment (coat).

The "homework" all finished

(I will update this later if Bryan okays putting some contact info here for anyone else who might be interested.)

I sent him my interest in signing up for the course, and waited to see if there would be enough people to run it. I planned the rest of that trip around those dates (Australia, mainly). I was going to go to Japan regardless, but this would make it that much more interesting.

Bryan is knowledgeable, and personable, and lots of fun. He did seem to communicate on his own timetable, though, so I have to admit there were times when I wondered if I had not walked into the world's most elaborate scam! The bank teller was careful to ask me what I was doing when I went to do the bank transfer. (Full disclosure: this workshop is not cheap, but it is all inclusive). I assured him that I had reached out to this person, and I took comfort in the fact that a bank transfer is very traceable!

same indigo, different results

A short while later I received my homework box: a 2 metre length of white cotton, two special markers, cotton thread and a couple of needles (promptly lost one of them in the armchair!) and some instructions: I needed to draw lines at 5 cm intervals, then draw a design of some sort, then do a running stitch along all those lines (skipping over the design features), then again half way between each line, and then again half way between each of those lines... not difficult, but certainly time-consuming! (This is a form of shibori)

I would write to Bryan every once in a while, kind of hoping for more concrete information about the course, but not quite getting it! I did eventually get information about where we were meeting in Tokyo and at what time. Off I set for my travels, hoping that it would all work out!

A few days before the workshop Bryan set up a Whattsapp group for us, and then it started becoming real... there were actual other people in this thing. But then I saw a man on the train doing work with two or three phones in front of him and a computer... wait - was Bryan still scamming me? (To what ends, who knew!) 

Morning mist from third floor

All that to say - it was not a scam, of course. We were a group of eight women of various origins and interests who met Bryan at the meeting point in Tokyo. SM from Australia, DE  living in Mexico, DL and LW from the US, TH living in France, KS from Hawaii and AC from Hong Kong. 

We made our way to the delightful, traditional farmhouse by train, got a little tour of our accommodation and workshop spaces, settled in and got to work!

'Taka'

Bryan had hired two senseis to do the sewing instruction, so the first order of business was to take measurements, and decide as a group what exactly we would make. We were given a bit of history about hanten and about another jacket, a samue. We decided that we would first make a samue, and then a hanten; we would line the latter. A samue has a bit of overlap, whereas the hanten goes straight down. The samue would serve more as a smock for working (the example was imagine the monk at a shrine sweeping), and a hanten is like a team uniform for workers, with the company or group stenciled onto the collar / front band pieces. 

BTW, the kanji on the back of my Samue is pronounced 'taka', and was chosen because it is similar to the first syllable of my name. It means tall, or expensive.

 

samue

lining

Hanten

  

So we got our fabric and began the dyeing process. Well first we measured out the piece for the front, for the back and for the sleeves, using traditional tools and techniques. No, I could not reproduce it on my own! 

 

  

Indigo is an interesting 'dye'. It requires oxidation to turn blue - so you place your fabric in the vat, let it sit for a minute, then let it sit in the air for a bit (5 minutes or so), then you dip it again.  The more often you dip it, the darker it gets. I think we went for about six or eight dips in the first garment... 

We also worked at finishing our shibori homework. I had finished the stitching, but then all of those threads had to be pulled tight and tied off! It also needed to be dipped numerous times! 

The shibori thread all pulled tight

shibori after dipping

My shibori unstitched and rinsed

The 'bloom' on the indigo, showing its health

The indigo vat

working the indigo

Down by the river...

After all of our dips, we got to go to the river to 'slap it'! The slapping and rinsing process helps oxydize the dye (helps it set), and rinses it out. And goodness, was this a lot of work! The location had been built as a fish ladder - I think it had seen better days - but it worked well for our purpose.

Throughout the ten days, in addition to the particular hand-sewing techniques, we learned about other techniques (stencil dyeing - kakishibu, other natural dyes, etc).  Trust me, the hand sewing was not always as straightforward as one would think - all the stitching gets hidden away, as if by magic!

Kakishibu

Applying the paste to the stencil

Kaki = persimmon in Japanese. The persimon juice is used to create the paper used to make these stencils. (Look it up if you want to know more specifically how this is done!)

Kakishibu is a resist dyeing method. A paste is made (of sticky rice powder and a defatted bran powder. A red colouring was added here so that you can see where you have applied the paste.) The paste is allowed to dry thoroughly, then the items are dipped carefully into the indigo vat. The paste is somewhat water soluble, so you can only get away with a couple of dips before it starts to disintegrate, or to seep through from the reverse.

The cloth needs to be well boiled in order to remove all the paste - or it will go mouldy! The hanten lining was dyed using this method.

Removing the stencil

Letting the paste dry

going for an ombre look

after dipping

A few of us were able to finish, or nearly finish, both garments during the workshop. I got the samue finished except for the ties, (which I have finished), and I got my hanten fairly far along. I chose to do a shibori pattern for it. I got the front and back pieces together, with the lining, and the sleeves basted on. Upon my return to Canada, I managed to get the sleeves sewn on before leaving on trip two, and finished the collar upon return from that trip.

The shibori for my hanten

In the end, LW, who, in addition to her day-job, has an online and market shop where she sells vintage kimonos and other vintage Japanese fabric items, completely finished both garments. She understood that the samue should be simple (think zen buddhist temple work!), and the hanten is more commersial. Her samue is muted, and she designed her hanten to wear at market days - with the name of her business appliquéd and embroidered onto the back, and also stenciled to the collar in the front. It is beautiful. I may have gotten mine backwards - my samue is more 'loud', and my hanten more muted.

The group got on very well, helping and encouraging each other, the food was great, and it was a wonderful experience.

 

Bamboo shoots for dinner!