Japanese Embroidery

I had the pleasure of spending some time with Kathryn Elms of Azumi Japanese Embroidery Studio from Roswell, NM when we were at the Albuquerque Fiber Arts Fiesta. The first time I was in her booth I was amazed at the framed pieces I saw. I spoke with her husband about it and he walked me through piece by piece and explained the different levels.

The next morning before the show opened I took Alan by to see what I was so excited about. This time Kathryn was free and explained some more about the process. She had a Power Point presentation that showed the history of Japanese Embroidery and the process.

She studied at the Japanese Embroidery Center in Atlanta, GA. This is the main source of education everywhere in the world, except Japan. It was founded in 1989. There are ten levels of instruction and one needs to complete all ten and pass their final in order to teach Japanese Embroidery. 

There is a lot more to it than what we think of when we think of embroidery. Think of the most beautiful kimono you have ever seen and the embroidery on it. This is the kind of embroidery I'm referring to.We are used to grabbing some fabric, needles and either perle cotton, floss or silk ribbon and that’s it. These are the tools that are used in Japanese Embroidery.

Tools for Japanese Embroidery

The fabric used is silk as is the thread. The designs are hand drawn onto the fabric at the Japanese Embroidery Center or JEC. Along with each design you get what is called a cartoon and a color version. The cartoon is where you document your stitches, threads, etc. That way if you want to reproduce it or in Kathryn’s case teach it, she has a record of what she did. These are very intricate designs. This is the design that she was working on in her booth.

The design Kathryn was working on. You can also see the thread she uses

 The embroidery is all done in a frame, similar to a quilting frame. The fabric is pulled drum tight and the first session of the five day Phase 1 class focuses on the mechanics such as how to get the piece in the frame properly and how the tools are used.

Kathryn Elms at work. She is using her left hand to help manipulate the thread. You don't just pull it through the fabric the way you would for a RedWork design.

The thread is silk and has 12 threads in a strand. There are techniques such as couching where a single strand is used. This is doubled and then is hand twisted. I played with some of Kathryn’s thread scraps. It is so soft and smooth. Just touching the thread is a very zen-like experience.  

This is the Phase 1 project. It consists of five days of classes, studying for 6 hours a day. That gives you the basics but just like in quilting and stitching classes, you learn the technique. Most of the time we don’t complete the project in class and that is definitely the case here.

Phase 1 Class Project

There are over 40 different Japanese Embroidery stitches to learn. Each phase of instruction adds more stitches and techniques. When you get to Phase 10, you go to the Japanese Embroidery Center to work on this project. It is a week of instruction. This is your “final.” They make sure that you have mastered every one of the stitches. When you have completed this and passed, you can then become an instructor. This is Kathryn’s Phase 10 piece.

Phase 10 Project

Here is a close up of the same piece.

I am absolutely fascinated with this. There was something very peaceful about the process. Meditation is actually incorporated into the instruction. One of the things that Kathryn told me is that her master teacher told her over and over again when she was learning that you need to forgive yourself. I felt so encouraged by this. The philosophy is that your work is your history. You learn from each phase and each project. So forgive yourself if you aren't perfect. Learn from the experience and you’ll do better as you progress. This is the way I teach too and I think for most people it makes the learning process more fun.

When I am off the road, I would definitely like to explore this fiber art medium. If you'd like to know more about Kathryn visit her website at http://www.azumijapaneseembroidery.com/. If you’d like to learn more about Japanese Embroidery and the Japanese Embroidery Center here is their website http://www.japaneseembroidery.com/nuido/index.html . You can watch a video that explains a little bit about it on their website. I have just barely scratched the surface.

Happy Stitching,

Carol

Learning to Spin

Last weekend I spent some time with my neighbor in Nevada Rosemary Hill. Rosemary is a well known knitter. She designs patterns and ebooks and she teaches too. She also makes gorgeous shawl pins. You can find out more about Rosemary on her website at www.designsbyRomi.com .

The last time I was there she offered to give me a lesson in spinning. She told me that spinning is a very zen like process. Given the crazy hectic life I lead that made it very appealing. This is something I've always been fascinated by. I love antique spinning wheels and can picture women sitting in front of the fire spinning their wool into yarn. I was able to squeeze in some time last Saturday to have my first lesson. I am usually on the teaching side of things so it was very good for me to be the student. It helped remind me how my students feel when learning something new. The one piece of advice I do my best to pass on to them is this. If you are a perfectionist, try really hard to let that go during class. I know it is hard but we are going for concept rather than perfection. Once you have the concept down, then you can work on improving your technique. I have to say, I heard those words in my mind a lot on Saturday.

I learned three different ways to create yarn from roving. This is one of the fibers that I worked with.

Hand Dyed Variegated Roving

I absolutely love hand dyed fabric. I couldn't believe that Rosemary was letting me practice on this gorgeous hand dyed fiber. The first thing I had to do was pull it to make it thinner. There is definitely an art to doing this properly. If it is too thin it breaks and if it is too thick the yarn will be thick at that point.

I can see that once you get the feel for how to do this, that it could be a very zen like process. It is quite soothing to just fondle the roving, as long as you're moving forward in the process. When I pulled it too thin I had a hard time putting it back together.

Once I pulled it and got it to what I thought was relatively even, we started twisting it. Rosemary took one end and attached the clip of a ball point pen to it. Then she took a few steps away from me and held it pretty tight. Then she started turning the pen. While she was doing that I was guiding my end and trying to make the twist even and she kept backing up. As you'll see below, that didn't happen so well. But I had to remind myself that this is my first attempt. After we had the whole thing twisted then we had my end meet hers to create a piece of 2 ply yarn. This is my first piece of yarn.

My First Piece of Yarn

As you can see it is definitely not consistent in thickness. But I love the colors. It was fascinating to me to see what happened to the variegation of the roving. When I sew with variegated thread I see the color change as I'm stitching. What happens here is that the colors twist together as well as in line and sometimes you get a spun piece of yarn that contains all of the colors. You can see this in the photo above since it isn't twisted as tightly as you'll see in other pictures.

The second technique I tried was spinning with a Drop Spindle. This takes some coordination because you have to hold the fibers in one hand, spin the spindle with the other and pinch the fibers so that they twist. You have to make sure that the spindle is always spinning and that you keep spinning it in the same direction. If the fibers are too thin then it breaks and the spindle drops. Rosemary told me she knows someone who makes glass Drop Spindles. I am definitely a long way from wanting to try doing this with a glass one. I'm pretty sure I dropped mine at least 10 times.

With this method I could really tell when it was twisting properly. It was almost magical the way the roving just twisted all on its own. My yarn was far more consistent with this technique. While I'm sure it isn't anything that Rosemary would want to knit with, I was pretty pleased with how it turned out for my first attempt. I love the colors of this one the best.

My Yarn on the Drop Spindle

Last of all I learned how to spin using a spinning wheel. I had no idea there were other techniques for spinning until my lesson. I think Rosemary told me she has four spinning wheels. She brought two of them down from her studio for us to practice on.

I used the Spinning Wheel in the foreground. You can see the one Rosemary used
in the background.

This is the Spinning Wheel I used

First I practiced the rhythm of pushing the pedal. There is a piece that moves up and down and when it is at the top point, that's when you push the pedal. Just watching the wheel spin alone is very soothing. After I had the feel for that, we threaded it and I started spinning my roving into yarn. This really is very magical. The thread just spins and twists all by itself. There is definitely a trick to it though. If you don't hold the fibers exactly right, then it twists too much and it gets very thick.

There are all kinds of benefits to hand work. There is something about the process that lowers our blood pressure and really helps us to cope in challenging times. It is far more relaxing when you are moving in a forward progression than when you are reverse sewing. However I have to say that even when I was getting frustrated with the yarn twisting too much, getting too thick, and taking it out to try to fix it, I still really enjoyed the process. Here's what my yarn looks like on the Spinning Wheel.

My Yarn - Again probably not something to knit with but
not too bad for a first attempt

While I'm sure it will take a lot of practice before my yarn is consistent, I can see where I could definitely couch it onto a quilt for embellishment. It would be very cool knowing that I created those fibers.

I know they make small, portable spinning wheels, but as far as portability for my constant on the road lifestyle, I think I will opt to take the Drop Spindle approach for starters if I decide to pursue this more. It is definitely portable. I might look into getting some roving and just practice pulling it. Rosemary told me that this is the key to the whole thing and I can see where that is the case. If it isn't thin enough the yarn is really thick at that point when you spin it.

I got the basics of the technique. Now it is up to me to practice and get better at it. I think I'll keep my eye open for roving and a Drop Spindle at shows. Maybe I'll find something at the Albuquerue Fiber Arts Fiesta in May.

Here's to a new medium to explore.

Carol