Kimonos - Marion Plumb

 Marian told us a lot about the Kimono, its history to modern day. They are beautiful objects in themselves and are made from single Tans - single length of silk 11yards long.

It can take an hour to put on the traditional Kimono, but with modern fastening, they can be put on much faster today, and there are over 200 rules as to how to wear them.

Kimonos have a tradition going back over 2000 years and can cost from £2000 for a hand made one.

They tend to be worn today for special events and occasions, such as weddings.

Thank you Marian for both a fascinating talk and allowing us to look at and touch your beautiful collection of Kimonos.

Trip to Ally Pally - Stitch Show

 We had a great day at 'Ally Pally' on Sunday. On entry we saw some of the exquisite quilts on display and other exhibition pieces and there were many, many stalls. We all came home with additions to our stash (things we didn't intend to buy of course 😁). See below for some pictures of the work on display - there are a lot of very talented people stitching in a one way or another.

A tiring, but great day.

Thank you Mandy for organising the trip and both Ruth Duffy and Margaret for their 'behind the scenes' actions. 

Textile Vessels - Emily Notman - 21 September

We had a wonderful day making textured surfaces to be made into textile vessels.

Emily gave us a bag with white and cream fabrics and thread. We started the day by making a textured surface using these fabrics and threads.

We then painted these surfaces

And finally we added stitch and fabric embellishment 

And here are the finished and work in progress pieces. Some are going to make them into vessels whereas others are going to frame them 

                      

 

Thank you Emily for a lovely day

 My Crafty Trips - Ruth Tykiff 6th July

Ruth gave us an insight into the textile trips that she has made during the last 12 months. She saw and did so much I was exhausted just listening to her !!

Nepal

Her first trip that she told us about at the end of last year was to Nepal. She arrived exhausted in Katmandu after an overnight flight. Although you can normally see the Himalayas there was cloud cover all the time that she was there and only got to see Everest on a flight before they left

Ruth's trip took her to refugee camps and women's skill centres where she saw weaving and painting

 

At the women's skill centre she saw cotton from India being dyed and woven. This form of weaving is strap weaving and you can see a selection of the finished rolls

Ruth also went to a centre where felted balls and pads were made 

Indonesia

Ruth's next trip was to Indonesia with her daughter Heather

She informed us that Indonesia consists of 17,000 islands of which 6000 are inhabited

Apparently as an aside Ruth told us that the currency is very complicated - 100,000 rupiah to 5 GB pound, which resulted in her paying £160 for a bottle of wine !!!!

There are lots of volcanoes but they didn't see the nearest one as it was shrouded in mist. Sounds familiar !!!

They visited a puppet museum and puppet painting workshop, where the puppets are made of leather, animal hide and horn. 

They had a go at painting one too

Their next workshop was Batik. They were shown how to use a Tjanting to apply the wax 

 and then the fabric was dyed

Heather even did her own thing and painted an image of her fiance

Ruth and Heather also visited a Batik museum where they were told that only the royal family can wear certain colours. They saw beautiful examples of these fabrics

They were also shown examples of Ikat weaving

Towards the end of their trip they were able to try eco printing

This is only a small amount of the talk but gives an insight into the experiences that Ruth had in Nepal and Ruth and Heather had in Indonesia.

Thank you both for an interesting and entertaining talk