Workshop: Yoshiko at HATCH- Apr 16 (Asheville, NC)

Yoshiko will be teaching two 2-hr workshops in Asheville at the H A T C H festival (which I posted about in an earlier entry here)

"Boro transformed: patching, piecing, and stitching"
April 16 @ 10a-12p ; 1-3p
$30 material fee
BUY TICKETS HERE

This workshop is inspired by a group of Japanese folk textile and clothing from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, such as padded sleeping mattresses and comforters, fishermans coats, lumberjacks vests, and other everyday wear. These were dyed in indigo and extensively patched and darned as necessary, utilizing regional resources to the limit.

Participants will learn about traditional Japanese common textiles made with boro (rags and fabric scraps) and will reinterpret this folk tradition by creating a fabric collage using layering, piecing, sewing and darning. Participants will also explore the use of water-soluble sheets to create open, lace-like structures in collage. Scrap fabrics will be provided by dosa inc. of Los Angeles (www.dosainc.com), and participants are also welcome to bring their own recycled, used, stained scraps or moth-eaten woolens to incorporate into their project.

A note from Yoshiko:

In my forthcoming book, I am using the Japanese term boro to define a new aesthetic and to bring new meaning to an alternative creative process, e.g., darning = healing, meditative action = marking time, reuse/repair = recording history. "Boro" represents the transformation of inconsequential material to something precious and valuable. Ordinarily, these tattered, castaway rags and the articles pieced together from them would be considered of little to no value. Boro, on the other hand, are viewed as beautiful in a way that defies convention. This type of imperfect beauty possesses a power that resonates with people almost like an emotional barometer. It points to an alternative value of "beauty" slowly coming to surface in our social consciousness.