Friday 28 September 2012

Denman College pictorial sashiko course



At the beginning of last week, I taught a three night residential sashiko course at Denman College.  This course focused on using pictorial design sources for sashiko, so it benefitted from having more time for developing designs at the start of the course. It is the second time Denman have run this course - click here for photos of the first one.  This time we were in the Textile Studio, so there was plenty of wall space to display pieces at the end.

We used various sources for design inspirations. This bamboo panel was marked using a template for the leaves and the bamboo stems drawn freehand, starting with a small illustration from a Japanese embroidery book but developing the design. It is stitched in hand dyed perle threads.  I'm hoping to have the finished piece to display at Quiltfest in February.



There were several pieces on a pine tree theme, with the pine boughs filled in with various hitomezashi stitch patterns.  It isn't easy filling in irregular shapes like these.




I started a new panel myself (far left, with triple comma crest and cherry blossom), which I might develop into a kit or a magazine project.



This is the small hitomezashi sampler at the bottom of the photo above - lovely!


There were several fan panels and two kimono designs.  The chrysanthemums on the second one were made with a template, the same way as the fan motifs, with the petal details filled in by hand.

 


The circular crab motif (lower panel) is adapted from a sword hilt.


This butterfly panel is based on a design by Eiko Yoshida, with moifications to make the most of the size of the fabric.



The main house at Denman has some interesting design details that could make good sashiko designs - I wonder if anyone is up for a challenge?  ;-)

 


  

 My next residential course will be at The Royal, Bridlington, at the end of October - click here for details.

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