obi thoughts

I have recently fallen in love with maru obi. I really did not think that they would be an option for me but now that I have done some research I think they would work really well with my figure. I also love the simple patterns that are available.
Nagoya obi look weird on me, and I am thinking it is because I have such a long waist and well...everything. The pre sewn section just looks funky.

Speaking of maru...I have never wanted to spend $180 on something that has a  high chance of not being fixable, but this made me fall out-mah-chair. Blast you ichiroya!

Yabane arrived

My purple yabane komon arrived this week.  The color scheme is a bit more subdued then the pictures posted by the seller but I am still happy. It turned out to be a plumb and cream combination AND instead of rayon...my textile fingers tell me it is wool..or at least a wool blend.
Perks for that as if all goes well and I suddenly have money to spare to go to San Frandisco for the Cherry Blossom festival having a wool komon means that I will not freeze. San Franciso..even in the heat of the summer gets friggin cold at night and in the morning.

success!

I had a bit of downtime today and decided to try and alter my grey synthetic yabane komon kimono, so to minimize the " high-waters effect" of the sleeves. For those of you who have not read..I am almost 6 feet tall and am all legs and arms and most of the time I feel ridiculous wearing them because the sleeves are so short on me. It was a bit confusing as I am not terribly familiar with the stitching system of kimono, but all in all it was a success.  For the first time a kimono does not look so awkward on me ^_^.
Pictures soon!

50 cent finds

Thrift stores offer a wide variety of kitsuke items..one just has to dig a bit.While perusing a thrift store I found these little darlings. The silver flower is a clip on earring, and the gold one is a brooch with necklace option.  With a couple of alterations I think they will make nice obidome ^_^

yabane yet again!

Spending my nights scouring the web for kimono while my paintings dry has brought me success. I hope to get this fixed up and wear it to my city's Obon festival this summer and hopefully ( if finances hold out) to go to the San Francisco Cherry Blossom festival this spring with my sister.  It is rayon, which I feel has a bit more leeway as far as cleaning and mending. Also it will enable me to understand multi-part linings.

designers...money...dreams.

I have a secret desire:
 To make kimono, or at least the fabric for it. Big surprise -_-'. Being a textile artist/designer its hard not to wonder about it though. I have been in love with kimono and most especially the textile side of it since...well forever... as in elementary school forever. I am slowly moving toward it, but alas the cost of supplies..the education needed  ( most of which I will have to learn myself) is rather daunting. Maybe that is cop out and I am just a chicken. I also feel a bit odd about trying to break into the industry ( if..in million years that happens..which I am not counting on) because I can't say that I have  formal training and that will either seem like a joke..or just plain rude or dissrespectful to the masters who have spent their WHOLE LIVES studying it. Who knows....it makes my mind whirl.

  My interest falls in roketsu-zome textiles which is almost exactly the same thing as batik or wax resist dyeing. Roketsu-zome came about from the textile trade between Indonesia and Japan, at one time batiked fabrics for kimon were really popular. I am an avid batik-er and hope that it will one day be the mainstay of my textile art. I can't say that I want to be a famous kimono designer, because the chances of that are very slim if 0 but it has turned into a secret conquest for me. There are a few "gaijin" that have made it into the kimono world and have done well so that gives me less than an ounce of hope..but hope all the same. When I get down on my motives I like to look up new kimono designers and it flares my confidence a bit..just to know that someone out there is trying to renew kimono in the world.

My most recent find ( as was posted on immortalgeisha.com) is Saito Jotaro

                                                                 http://www.jotaro.net/


to end...Ganbatte...Ganbatte ( do your best)