Working today with Cas Holmes as guide and inspiration at Bilston Craft Gallery was a transformatory experience. I have been moving in this direction recently -a mode of patched, upcycled, repurposed paper and fabric - and this was a wonderful consolidation day.
I am enthralled by the use of paper made into cloth by the Momigami technique from Japan, where the paper is scrunched time and time again and "fed" with oil. It becomes almost like chamois leather in softness. I could then hand and machine stitch into it with ease. I believe the Japanese layer this and make a certain style of clothing from it. Paper was once made from rag and pulp and we are turning it back to cloth again this way.
The above image uses only three papers - a waxed batik type paper, a magazine page and a photocopy of some ancient Japanese brown manuscript. There is a little cream lace too. I am going to work on this further and create another piece from the off-cuts from this one.
Cas Holmes has written a wonderful book:
Many of these techniques are covered in here.
Below are some images from others in the group:
I love stitching on paper....that top piece is FABULOUS!
ReplyDeleteI love your bird, the colour combination is just perfect.
ReplyDeleteThis is great Clare on your blog. The Momigami is a Japanese techniques which I have adapted for use with Found Papers, rather than Japanese Washi papers, using oil instead of Konnyaku NOri..root of the Devil's Tonge plant
ReplyDeleteWonderful work. My Embroiderers' Guild had a talk by Cas, her work certainly is very inspirational. Love her book too.
ReplyDeleteWow, fascinating - Thank you for this inspiration - your bird is charming. I will be looking up Momigami and Cas! -sus
ReplyDeleteYes do - there's plenty of scope here for development
DeleteA fantastic piece and such gentle colours.
ReplyDeleteI like how the indigo blues faded with the crumpling.
DeleteFascinating
ReplyDeleteooh, you have got me thinking, scrunching up paper and feeding with oil? I must investigate more!
ReplyDeleteIt looks like you had an inspirational workshop.
yes it was incredibly. I recommend her book
Deleteyes it was incredibly. I recommend her book
DeleteWow! That is very pretty, such an interesting technique. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful work Clare!
ReplyDeleteReally like this! Paper can be so many things...
ReplyDeleteWonderful post, thanks for sharing - I, too, love Cas Holmes' techniques, and her book.
ReplyDeletecool... another book for my wishlist!!! of course, you don't need to saturate the papers with oils in order to stitch them together. how comes the angel?
ReplyDeleteWhat an exciting technique with astonishing results!
ReplyDeleteI just love your bird, Clare - it's great - both motif and background!
I tis a wonderful book - just wish I had more time to experiment with the ideas from it! Your bird is wonderful. :o)
ReplyDeleteI LOVE your paper and fabric piece Clare...you have inspired me!
ReplyDeleteSo that's another book on my wishlist....
:-)