Link – Winter 2013.

Yay, Link’s winter furoshiki are out! Please take a look …

My latest design ‘Dots‘ is available in blue, black and rust. The design continues along the theme of folding and wrapping. Hours of paper folding and experimenting went on behind the scenes, which was a lot of fun … perhaps I’ll share some sketches at a later date.

Also launched this winter season is ‘The Hida Express‘, another beautifully intricate design by Hannah Waldron (designer of the Maze furoshiki, Winter 2012) based on a train journey she took through the Japanese Alps.

Update … Link

 

It’s February 2013 already, and this blog has been so neglected!

There’s been a lot of activity amongst the Link collective since I last wrote. 2012 has been busy! We saw the introduction of Link’s popular leather carry strap (designed and handmade by director Kyoko), some beautiful work from a new collaborator in London, Hannah Waldron, who also presented with Kyoko at PechaKucha Night in Tokyo. A fresh collection of new furoshiki designs and colours, and some really great photos from photographer Martin Holtkamp.  An interview with Link’s printers was published online by spoon-tamago in July, giving a rare look behind the scenes. To end the year, Winter colours were released and Kyoko flew to New York where she ran a small Link furoshiki workshop.

2013 is already underway, keep your eye’s peeled for more …

Hello

I have been rather absent from this site for a while. It’s hard to squeeze these things in, in between looking after two young children and relocating from one city to another, amongst other things. I’m hoping soon things will normalise and I can once again redirect my focus towards other interests!

As our lives get organized, my daughter is attending a very nice art camp this week at LUX, down the road from where we’re staying. I was very happy to discover this rather unique place. She’s doing the printmaking workshop. When I pick her up I get itchy fingers looking at all the lovely pieces they’ve been working on. So much fun!

Wrap yourselves up in love.

Link furoshiki are still for sale at Plastica, Etsy and Loopto.

At last … LINK is officially announced!

After lots of work, we are very excited to officially announce the launch of our limited edition furoshiki!

Two original designs, hand-printed in Japan on 100% cotton. Please take a look at our site: http://thelinkcollective.com/.

Coming soon …

Recently I’ve been very busy working on a new project that we’ve named ‘LINK’.

Established with a good friend in Tokyo, LINK is a collective that produces collaborative textiles and design from around the world. With so many things to prepare and consider, while juggling work and our busy lives as parents, it’s been a long time coming …

but finally, very soon, LINK’s first product will be available – our limited edition furoshiki (traditional Japanese wrapping cloth) in two designs – one design by Hennie Haworth (a British illustrator) and the other is by me!

We will soon announce the launch of our new website showing when and where you can find our furoshiki, in the meantime please join LINK on facebook for updates!

Work in progress

We just received a photo from our printer in Tokyo showing our new project in progress … I’m very excited. I’ll announce more about it very soon!

+81 jinbei

Take a look at +81. Keiko made this really lovely tiny jinbei for her new born daughter using some space-to-think fabric. It makes me so happy to see this fabric being so beautifully used. I can’t wait to see it being worn … more pictures to come!

Work in progress

Sample

Eclat

Eclat was designed by weaver and printmaker Anni Albers. She originally designed it in 1974 as a printed upholstery, but now Knoll Textiles has reintroduced the pattern as a woven textile named Eclat Weave, available from Knoll for $61 per yard.

I absolutely love this fabric and was so excited to spot it in Elle magazine. In fact I’m a big fan of Anni Albers work in general and aim to write another post about her very soon!

Blooming spoons.

Quick design submission, based on spoons and flowers. Last day to vote on www.spoonflower.com

Linen-Cotton blend – new!

Some limited edition space-to-think yardage just in!

Tenugui

I’m immersed in thoughts of Japan …all this talk about furoshiki, dreaming of friends in Tokyo while I sleep, and wishing I was there right now for a week of Tokyo summer with my husband on his business trip … I miss it. Still.

It’s been almost two years since we left and seems like a lifetime ago. I must get back there some time, before it just becomes a figment of my imagination!

While we were living in Tokyo I fell in love with tenugui – a short length of printed cotton 33cm x 90cm. The name ‘tenugui’ indicates ‘that for wiping hands’, however it was originally used as a towel when taking a bath, or for covering the head like a scarf. Similar to the versatile furoshiki, tenugui can be used in multiple ways – used to wipe your brow on a humid day, as a kitchen towel, for wrapping, given as a gift, tied as a bandana, used as a handkerchief, or even ripped up into bandages (the edges are left unfinished). Tenugui are still used in everyday life in Japan – on the heads or around the necks of workmen, or in festivals, given as thank you gifts or handed out as promotional pieces for businesses. The uses are endless.

The printed patterns on tenugui immediately seduced me and were the main inspiration behind my initial interest in printed textiles. I’ve always loved the everyday object, the random or not so random array of overlooked details that surround us. When Japans Edo Period (1603-1868) saw the development of popular culture, fine designs based on features of everyday life were created in abundance. Graphic designs depict useful objects, kitchen tools, animals, even grains of rice! Some are simply geometric patterns.

Recently new, more cost effective digital techniques are being used for printing tenugui, but the traditional form of printing tenugui still remains, requiring skilled workmanship. The traditional technique results in a design that beautifully carries through the fabric, so the design appears on both sides.

I collected many tenugui while I was living in Japan. I couldn’t resist them! And of course now is the season for tenugui; during the hot and humid days and summer festivals, you can find different designs in abundance!

Here I’d like to share a few Tenugui that I particularly like from my collection. Some I use regularly, some are kept unused.

Soon, to follow on, I’ll post some material from my experience on a course in Tokyo
printing some tenugui in the traditional way.

Furoshiki design

space-to-think was commissioned by Samsonite Japan to design a limited edition novelty ‘furoshiki’* (90 x 90 cm traditional wrapping cloth) to be presented alongside the launch of their new line of limited edition Cabin Size suitcases launched in May.

Using three colours on chirimen (traditional Japanese crepe cloth), we wanted the design to compliment and add a little burst of colour to the Cabin Size suitcase range (beige, apricot, brown) – something a little retro and fun, that would appeal to customers of a 30-60 year old age group.

As Samsonite is all about travel, it seemed obvious to me that the idea behind this furoshiki design would be ‘movement’. Keeping in mind the multi-purpose function of furoshiki, an important aspect of the design was to create something that worked as a beautiful pattern when folded, but when the furoshiki was spread out in full, the image worked in it’s entirety. By using repeated shapes and patterns rushing across the fabric, I wanted to create a sense of movement and direction in the imagery. In addition to that, the swallow being a true traveler – fast, agile and migratory – leant itself perfectly to the overall concept. See some sketches for the project here.

I was very excited to be invited to work on this project, especially as I have a passion for traditional Japanese textiles … and it was very enjoyable to have the opportunity to work with Kyoko, at Samsonite in Tokyo. I look forward to future creative collaborations!

* Furoshiki
The Japanese Ministry of the Environment promotes the use of furoshiki as an eco friendly, alternative way to wrap gifts and to carry things around. The name ‘furoshiki’ translates as ‘bath spread’ as it was once most used for wrapping people’s clothes at the Public Bath houses. They are also used for bundling up or gift-wrapping all sorts of things from lunch boxes or books, to watermelons and bottles of wine!

Shodo Iwagaki

Design by Shodo Iwagaki.

This exhibition card took Shodo two days to carve.

Yesterday I spent a lovely afternoon in the sunny yard of Tortoise, a lovely Japanese store on Abbott Kinney. I was attending a two hour woodblock printing workshop with Shodo Iwagaki, a Soto-Zen Buddhist monk visiting from Japan. I felt very privileged to be attending the class, as it was limited to only eight people. Shodo Iwagaki lives at the Mairai-ji zen temple in Okayama, Japan, where he has worked on his woodblock printing for many years. I wish I could show some of the photographs taken by Keiko Shinomoto (founder of Tortoise) of the inside of his temple – huge, minimalist, geometric woodblock prints on the panels of the sliding doors, alongside Noguchi lamps. It looked so striking.

For the workshop we were supplied with a Japanese woodcarving set, two small panels of wood and a postcard sized piece of handmade paper produced by a friend of Shodo. Also plenty of paper to sketch and test print on. Shodo suggested we work on a design using three shapes – a circle, triangle and square. These are apparently very zen shapes and can be interpreted in endless ways. And it was a simple enough brief to achieve a design within the two hours we had! It was interesting to see how varied the designs ended up. Everyone’s image was very unique. Some were abstract, and some were arranged to form a representation of something else. The actual process of carving the wood was so peaceful and enjoyable. I feel totally inspired to continue doing some printing in this way … and hopefully applying it to fabric as well as paper.

Shodo Iwagaki currently has an exhibition of some of his works at Tortoise, 1342 1/2 Abbot Kinney Blvd, Venice, CA 90291 – until the 7th June 2009.