Lining silk and new frame

After my fan arrived back from Japan I was so pleased with how it looked that I stated thinking about variations on colour and different designs.  It occurred to me that when the design/s are made available for students they may want a different colour background for their fans. 

Because of the nature of the fan the silk fabric needs to lighweight, lining fabric is perfect for this.  My normal source for kimono silk is Ichiroya. They always have hundreds of bolts of kimono silk but not always linings.  However the kami of Japanese Embroidery must have been looking on and I found a number of lots with just lining silk, 5 bolts in each, and also some haori lining with plain designs.  Perfect. What could I do but order them?

After collecting them from the sorting office I spent some time playing!

Such lovely colours.

There are one or two repetitions of colour.

When I first started buying kimono bolts from Ichiroya I didn't really know what I was looking for and couldn't judge the quality.  It is interesting to note that now I have much more experience of handling bolts of silk I can tell the difference in quality just by feel.  These are a mix of qualities and weights, some are so lovely you just want to sit and stroke them. 

A few have some age marks, but they tend to be at the start of the bolt so shouldn't cause too many problems.

A great source of colours for new designs.  Plus I think my fan might be lonely on her own so I might have to make her a companion.  I've got my eye on the gray variegated one below. Oh, but the green one is nice too.  And that blue one above with the fan label is so lovely.  And the lilac one, and .... and .... and ...

I think I'm going to have trouble choosing.

On the back of one of the variegated bolts was this picture.  It shows where the colour will be on your kimono lining when it's made up.

And I got a new toy.

This is an extra long frame at 49".

After some discussion with Ian, who makes our exotic wood frames, we decided on beech for this one.  It's only going to be used once in a while, so no point in having a fancy one.

Of course, it was made with his usual attention to detail and beautiful finish.

Tracey, Ian's wife and my colleague, makes bags for their frames.  A great idea, it makes keeping all the pieces for each frame together easy and helps with transport.  This one, as always, was finished off with a hand woven braid made by the lady herself.

Thank you Tracey and Ian.

And why do I need an extra long frame?

Well, that is a story for another day.

Must finish the lotus, must finish the lotus, must finish the lotus.

 

 

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Keywords

Fan | Frames

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