MY SAKI-ORI FROM JAPAN.

When going to Japan last year I were fortunate to visit the two biggest and most famous fleamarkets in Kyoto. One is held at the Toji Tempel on the 21 each month and is known by the locals as Kobo-san. Also on the 25 there is another fleamarket held at the Kita no Tenmangu Shrine known as Tenjin-san. It was at this last fleamarket I was so lucky to find my Saki-ori.
A Saki-ori is a rural clothing made in rags. I was surprised to see that the japanese have used rags to make these very simpel workwear, which I just love. In Sweden they are famous for putting rags into carpets, also known as "trasmattor".
In Kyoto I came across a stunning and beautiful gallery/shop Gallery Kei. Keiko Kawasaki, who is the owner, is collecting textiles made out of bast fibers. The textiles is known as Simple Textiles. In her gallery it is possible to find very exclusive Saki-ori, textiles from the Ainu people, SASHIKO stitch and much more. She has just started a webshop.
The simplicity of this workwear is so amazing. The beautiful shades in the indigo is fantastic. This Saki-ori have become one of my faourites in my own textile collection.

In the end of the fleamarket, I was so tired I almost went back to the hostel. Today I am glad I didn't. Just a couple of stalls left, I saw an old man having several old textiles. There my Saki-ori was hanging. Eventhough my Saki-ori is very simple comparing to what Gallery Kei have, I am so happy I found it. It was just hanging there waiting for me.
Today it is hanging in my bedroom with a big textiles, also in blue shades, from Kutch in India.
The vest is held together in the sides by a very simple SASHIKO stitch. When I saw this technique for the first time, I thought it was the deflected weave technique, but instead on a very plain background, people have been stitching all these beautiful patterns.

I can recommend two books about this, I am sure there are several more.

Riches from Rags. Saki-ori and other recycling traditions in japanese rural clothing. San Francisco Craft & Folk Art Museum.
Kogin and Sashiko Stitch. Kyoto Shoin's Art Library of Japanese Textiles. Vol. 13.

GALLERY KEI IN KYOTO.

Last year I went to Japan to study a special weaving technique called MOJIRI-ORI.
When I was in Kyoto I came along this very beautiful gallery and shop owned by Kei KAWASAKI called Gallery Kei.
I visit the place three times and the last time she let me take some photos.

Gallery Kei deals with old folk craft and pottery, textiles known as Primitive Textiles. Many of them in a combination of indigo and white. The materials used in these textiles is different kinds of bast fibers, such as linden, elm, banana, ramie and hemp.
View from Gallery Kei's shop and gallery in Kyoto, located at Teramachi street close to Kyoto Gosyo.

Komebukuro bags, also known as rice bags. Made of samples of clothes; woven, printed and stitched.

A beautiful jacket from the Ainu people.

Beautiful examples of the technique called SASHIKO. A textile is woven and stitched afterwards to make these beautiful patterns.
I were so lucky to find a jacket, very simpel at a fleamarket in Kyoto. This one I will later show in another post. Mine is much more simpel than the ones shown here from Gallery Kei. Today it's not so easy to find them anymore.

Detail of SASHIKO.

Sampels of woven textiles in indigo and white. Some in stripes and others in kasuri. Simpel and still so amazing.

In the top of this photo there is samples of printed textiles and in the bottom jackets, made in leather. These I only saw a very few of and only at museum and here at Gallery Kei.

RAGS or Saki-ori.

Workwear for ordinary people.

I was so lucky to find one at a fleamarket. Mine is a vest in indigo and it is hold together in the sides with smal clothes of SASHIKO stitch. Very simple. I will later show it in another post.

Beautiful jackets and coats in different kinds of bast fibers. Simplicity is so beautiful.

If you are interested in these textiles, Gallery Kei have made it possible for people to buy selected items through her webpage.

Sri is an american textile galley, specialised in japanese folk textiles. They have a nice blog too.

Of books I can recommend several. Some I have bought in Japan, all have an english translation.

Shin-Ichiro Yoshida and Dai Williams:

Riches from Rags. Saki-ori & other recycling traditions in japanese rural clothing.

San Francisco Craft & Folk Art Museum.

David Sorgato: BORO.

Kogin and Sashiko Stitch. From the Kyoto Shosoin's Art Library of Japanese Textiles. Vol. 13.

The Clothes of the Ainu People. From the Kyoto Shosoin's Art Library of Japanese Textiles. Vol. 16.

THE KARINA NIELSEN RIOS' COLLECTION BY KVADRAT.

My first collection from Danish Kvadrat has been exhibited at Orgatec in Cologne.
It consists of Checkpoint for upholstery, which is my favorite.
I have been working with black, white and the grey scale in between.
For the whole collection, my idea was to make an upholstery fabric which on the same setting on the loom could have different kinds of structures, tactility and expressions.

Checkpoint is made of Trevira CS and coated polyurethane.

Checkpoint exist of 8 different fabrics.

In the collection there is also a fabric which helps about the acoustic, called Toto. This one can be mounted on the Soft Cell frame, developed by Kvadrat. It has also been made in a curtain quality, called Yoyo.

Toto is made of 100% Trevira CS and is piece dyed.

Toto exist of one fabric and comes in 18 colors.

Finally there is Zeze, a curtain fabric.

Zeze is made in Trevira CS and here I have been working with the twist and colors in the yarn.

Zeze exist of one fabric and comes in 4 color shades.

MY TEXTILES FROM PERU.

When I went to Peru in 2007 to study textiles at the Museo Amano, I also travelled a little bit around. I went to Cusco and some of the surrounding villages. Here are some of the textiles I bought, many of them have a lot of history behind. All the textiles are about 50-100 years old.
The belt to the far left, I bought as the first one in Lima, in the area of Miraflores where I were living. It has small bells in the ends and also small money is hanging.

Number two from the right is very small and not so long belt. The story behind is when two men like a woman they fight about her. They both have this little woven belt around there ankle and the one who manage to get the belt, also gets the woman. I never where told if the woman really wanted the man.

The first belt from the right I bought at a village called Pitumarca, near Cusco. I went there for a whole day. Me and my husband rented a taxi.
When we got to the little community I were the only white, and all the childred said "buy buy" to me.
As I could not speak spanish, my husband (who is Peruvian) deceided he wanted to go out and make some friends to me. The first one he was able to talk to was a woman (see the post on Textiles from Cusco, there is a picture of her). She was sitting and cutting old textiles into small pieces and sew them into dolls. I manage to save a beautiful "golon" a border for a skirt or perhaps it is a "jakimas" hat bands. It costed 20 soles. Later on I was told by the man who were in charge of the weaving community it was over 70 years old.

A bag from Cusco. Just around Plazae de Armas there were the most beautiful shop with textiles. As I remember the owner were a man which mother had been collecting textiles all her live. Inside the shop it was a paradise for textile people like me. Downstairs there were ponchos. I bought several cocabags there.

This cocabag I bought at the Pisac market near cusco. We went there on a Tuesday and it was huge. With a lot of stalls with food, textiles, silver / gold, pottery etc.

When the sellers saw I was a professional weaver (I were walking around with my magnifying), suddenly they found the most beautiful textiles they had, hidden under tabels. Many of them were antiques and from the different Peruvian Cultures. I never bought these items, only textiles which were 50-100 years old.

This cocabag and the one on top have small pockets. Probably used for money or perhaps for amulets, something holy.

This cocabag is very simpel, all in natural colors from the alpaca. I love it for its simplicity!

In Ayacucho were I went on my honeymoon I found these two braided belts. In the Inca Empire they were made into a string and used as a weapons.

I am amazed, they (mostly men) are able to braid by holding it in there hands. In Japan this technique is called Kumihimo and is made on special equipment, so this is fantastic work.

In Cusco there is a special shop and museum, run by Nilda Callanaupa Alvarez.

Different communities sell there handwoven and knitted pieces here, all of very high quality. I bought a chullo which is knitted in 100% alpaca and in the technique called "popcorn".

To read more about textiles from the Andes there is a beautiful boo by Nilda Callanaupa Alvarez called Weaving in the Peruvian Highlands. Dreaming Patterns, Weaving Memories.

PRE-COLOMBIAN DOLLS.

When I went to Peru in 2007 to study Chancay Gauzes at Museo Amano, one of my friends, who had been in Peru 20 years ago, told me to look for dolls at markets.

Many of the weavers in Peru buy antique textile and then they cut it into small pieces and make dolls out of them, selling to the tourists. My friend told me that she thought there was Gauze textile on the head of the dolls, and she was right.

I was able to buy two dolls. On one of them there was a very simple Gauze textile on the head. On the second there was a more complex Gauze technique. Today I am a happy owner of two small pieces of Chancay Gauzes. I chose to cut the dolls apart and have had the textiles framed.

I think it's completely crazy that the weavers make dolls out of the antique textiles, eventhough it's a way of making a living for them. At the markets there are many dolls, but not a lot of them you can find today have Gauze on the head, so I have been very lucky. I also walked around with my magnifier all the time.

The following dolls belongs to my friend.

The following text in " " is from a little book written by M. K. Hodnett: Pre-Columbian Dolls in the Amano Museum.

"The Pre-Columbian Chancay culture developed on the coastal valley north of Lima, Peru. Their ceramics, textiles, and other artifacts exhibit definite characteristics. Of these, the objects which attract the most attention are the "dolls" exclusive to the Chancay, whose presence next to funerary bundles remains a mystery.

Dolls made of fabrics such as these could have been preserved only under very special conditions. Fortunately, the central coast of Peru has an unusual climate, where a great deal of other fragile textile material has survived. This area is a dessert cut by a rives originating in the Andes. Burial in these dry sands was like placing items in safety deposit boxes to be covered by later generations."

A beautiful piece of simple Gauze on the back.

"While the poor were wrapped in plain cloth and deposited in shallow graves with only a few objects, the most sumptuous tombs were two or three meters in depth with well-finished walls of clay. These had cane roofs supported by vertical poles and horizontal wooden beams, and occasionally, even a stairway leading down from the surface. Such tombs contained an abundance of funerary offering such as ceramic pieces, textiles, silver, and sometimes dolls."

TEXTILES IN CUSCO.

In November 2007 I went to Peru to study textiles. The purpose of the trip was to study the Chancay Gauzes at Museo Amano, located in Lima.

Besides these textiles I also wanted to go to Cusco, as many textile people I have had contact with through the internet have suggested me to contact Nilada Callanaupa Alvarez, who is living in Cusco.
Nilda estableshed the Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco in 1996. CTTC is working with 9 small villages located around Cusco, where the weaving is being madeon backstrap looms. I was able to go and visit Chinchero and Pitumarca.
These 9 villages have each own features, in patterns, colors and designs. Everything is made in natural materials and dying methods. Nilda is originally from Chinchero and have woven since she was little. She simple learn by watching.

CTTC has been established to keep the pre-colombian crafts alive, to encourage youth to weave and knit, so their amazing craft are not going into oblivion. It has also been important to promote their work and to achieve a house / assembly of arts and crafts where they can meet to work.
It is like so many other small communities only the eldery who have maintained these skills, so it is clearly one of CTTC's big goals to get youth started and it has succeeded.

Chinchero is according to the Incas: "Birthplace of the rainbow."
It's a community of female weavers where textiles is made on the backstrap loom. The children weave narrow "jakimas", which is hat bands.
The clothing is different from community to community and can be as occupier of course recognize each other clothing, and again at the little details in each community.

I have bought a book Nilda have wrote, where the local is quoted. Initially, they were often ashamed to take into Cusco, for they were laughed by the city-dwellers, but today they are proud. One reason for this is the large influence of tourists, textile interests as me and other visitors who admire their skills, the whole way of live. The book gives an icredible exiting insight into traditions, culture and crafts.

Chumbivilcas is a community located 249 km from Cusco.

There clothing is very special. From the "pollera" skirt and to the "kurpino" jackets.
These 3 women are from Chumbivilcas. They came all the way to Chinchero to take part in the dying day. They became my favorite, always smiling and extremly hardworking. Finally I took several pictures of them, which I subsequently sent to Nilda so she could pass them on.

What I thought was amazing was all the wool, each woman had spun, and which they could recognize, unbelievable. They recognize it in the way it was spun and there were never quarrels, they always found their own right yarn.

Here my favorite from Chumbivilcas hang up yarn and in here bare feet. Remember this yarn have just been at boiling point. She is so sweet.

We were told there would be others to come and have a look and therefore Nilda had arrange a show. Actually only two more came, but it was interesting to see.
The show consist of the entire Chinchero society suddenly had laid out all their beautiful work under the new lean and had started to weave and prepare new warps. Unfortunately it started raining and they moved inside the new house, which was completed earlier this year.

This old woman became my favorite and today I have regret I didn't bought anything from her, but I was and still is more interested in old. antique textiles.

In another message I will show some of the textiles I have bought from my trips.

Pitumarca lies in the Ausangate region, south of Cusco. Here textiles are made in alpaca and sheep wool.

They are famous for the technique TICLLA -two weavers seated facing each other weaving at linking, so they meet in the middle of the fabric.
Since 2001 they have produced textiles equal from the Paracas and Nazca people.

Pitumarca society sonsists of four small communities, as reflected in the women's "manta".

Here there are both male and female weavers.

We had rented a taxi for a day and I thought often that we never reached.
When we arrived there, I was the only white, but everyone was so friendly. The actual leader was not there, so Freddy deceided he would go out and make me some friends. The first we were lucky enough to get in touch with was a woman who sat and sewed dolls of old antique textiles. I was fortunately to rescue a "golon" -woven border for the skirt and bought it for 20 soles. The leader later told me it was 70 years old.

This society was interested in may ways.

As unmarried, both women and men make more out of their clothing in the form of colors, assembling etc. Naturally, in order to attract the attention of the opposite sex.

This remarkable young man, I could not help but smile a little. He was completly dressed in synthetic colors, but sat and wove the finest textile in natural alpaca colors.

A meeting was taking place during the day, and as my husband didn't understand Quechua (he speaks spanish, eventhough he lived in Lima), we went out for a walk. We meet a woman who wanted to show us around. In the end of our trip she asked my husband if I didn't wanted to see what she was knitting. She was making "chullos" -hats. Freddy told me just to buy one and this time not to bargain as she was poor.

I had admired her "pollera" -skirt, while walking and said I were more interested in buying it.
We succeeded after a lot of giggling and of course we ended up bargaining, as I didn't had much money left as I had to pay the taxi in the end of the day.

We bought the skirt for 80 soles amd when she took it of, she was wearing another one underneath. So sweet.

Recomended books of the Andean textiles.

Nilda Callanaupa Alvarez: Weaving on the Peruvian Highlands. (English)

Adele Cahlander: Sling baiding of the Andes. (English)

La Trama la Urdimbre. Textiles Tradicionales del Peru. (Spanish)

And many more...