Boro Books

This past weekend I taught the last workshops of the year in Wishi Washi Studio: two separate workshops called Boro Books.

My samples materials and tools

If you have been to my studio lately, or follow me on Instagram, you know that I am enamored with a certain kind of Japanese textile called Boro.  Follow this link to learn more and see examples on my Pinterest board here.

In the workshops this weekend we made small sampler books inspired by Japanese Boro that contained Boro-like repair techniques on fabric or paper pages.

I brought in some Boro pieces from my collection to show the classes:

As well as some of my own Boro inspired artist's books and class samples:

My boro inspired artist's books in fabric and paper

 

We began by warming up and making some stitches and practicing some mending techniques on muslin:

  

 

muslin sampler by student Diane Ritch

 

I also threw in a little demo on image transfers and provided them with some hand carved blocks and stamps to print with:

Students transferring images on paper and fabric

I encouraged students to bring in papers, fabrics and threads that they wanted to work with. They practiced the mending and stitching techniques on their book pages in very artful ways:

 

Sampler pages in progress by student Cheryl Maruyama

Student Rene Chock used mostly paper with some fabric

 

At the end of the day we bound the pages into little books that the students can use as reference when working with mending stitches in their future artwork:

Some completed sampler Boro Books

As usual my students were not only talented but very generous bringing papers, fabrics and threads to share with one another, and me! I was gifted these gorgeous textiles:

 That wraps up another year of workshops in Wishi Washi Studio. I'll try my bestest to get the Winter/Spring 2015 workshop schedule up on my website by mid-late January.

Happy Holidays!