Going to Japan
I’ll be on a buying trip to Japan until 13 April*–hopefully I’ll find wonderful things that I will upload to the webshop, or that you can see in person if you come to visit the Brooklyn showroom. I...
View ArticleA Day in Tsumago, Nagano Prefecture
A wonderful day in Tsumago a preserved Edo Period post town in Nagano Prefecture.
View ArticleA Beautiful, Pieced Sashiko Stitched Furoshiki
I’ve recently returned from a buying trip to Japan and have been overwhelmed with inventorying the beautiful things I purchased there, so blog entries needed to take a back seat to logging in new...
View ArticleA Chaotically Mended and Stitched Furoshiki: Unusual Patterns
This eccentric beauty is a recent acquisition from my recent buying trip to Japan. I couldn’t resist it, and you probably can see why, even with a quick glance. It is a sashiko stitched furoshiki...
View ArticleA Silk Boro Cloth: Safflower Dyed Paper Patches
I bought this boro textile on my recent April trip to Japan, but it wasn’t until I returned home and had a good look at it that I realized there was some something special going on: some of the patches...
View ArticleA Story on PRI’s “The World” Featuring Sri
Many thanks to Alina Simone for her wonderful reporting, and for PRI for featuring me in their story today, ” Some Japanese will pay $4,500 for an old Missouri prison uniform. Me, I collect Japanese...
View ArticleA Beautifully Colored Sakiori Sleeping Mat: Indigo Dyed Rag Weaving
This beautiful, indigo dyed cotton textile was used as a sleeping mat, either by itself or as a mat on top of which a futon would be placed. It is a sakiori textile, or a rag woven textile. In old...
View ArticleA Fantastically Good Boro Kaya: Rustic Hemp or Ramie Mosquito Netting
I brought this magnificently beautiful thing back with me from my April buying trip to Japan–and when I first saw it my heart raced. Such good, boro mosquito netting–woven from rustic hemp or ramie...
View ArticleA Resist Dyed Bashofu “Kimono Dress”: Okinawan Banana Fiber Cloth
Cloth from the Ryukyu Islands, or Okinawa as it is now called, is some of the most admired and prized cloth in the Japanese cultural sphere. Of the several types of traditional textiles produced in...
View Article“Raw Japan” at MUDE, Museum of Design and Fashion in Lisbon, 9 October 2014 –...
I’m thrilled that Lisbon’s Museu do Design e da Moda, or MUDE, is presenting “Boro: The Fabric of Life” under the title “Raw Japan.” This title represents two exhibitions sharing one, large gallery:...
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