About this time last year, a long-time friend and fiber art pal took a new job and had to clear out decades worth of stuff in the basement to move to Florida. She asked me if I'd like to inherit a huge pile of vintage Japanese kimono, and of course I said yes. Many years earlier she had ordered a bale of kimono to sell at quilt and fiber shows and other vendor outlets. But before everything was sold, she had to give up the business and the kimono went into the basement.
If you've been following the fiber world for a long time, you too may recall those long-ago times when kimono and obis were for sale cheap, in the days when people in Japan were adapting Western dress and were happy to part with old clothes, especially those with stains and tears. Now they're realizing the value of those vintage garments and the price has gone way up.
When I got the stash, I suggested that my local fiber and textile art group hold a kimono challenge, in which everybody took stuff home and did something useful with it. All spring and summer we had the bins at every meeting for people to paw through and find stuff to strike their fancies. And last week we finally had the big reveal.
What a huge variety of results from the same pile of raw material! I won't be able to show them all in one post, so stay tuned.
Several people made things to wear. A vest:
Infinity scarves:
This is fascinating. The necklace of yoyos photo doesn't appear. I'm especially interested in seeing that.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like so much fun. I love those kinds of challenges. (Yoyo necklace doesn't appear for me either.) Did you make something?
ReplyDeletesorry about the yoyo picture -- I was having computer issues while posting this and got so frustrated I must have quit before previewing. now it's here!
ReplyDeleteThank you for adding the photo; the necklace is wonderful.
ReplyDelete