Finding Textiles in Tokyo

Here are some of the places I found in Japan as well as links to other people's blogs, websites and information. Please feel free to let me know of other places to find fabric or craft materials in Tokyo.

Amuse Gallery
Closed Mondays
2-34-3 Asakusa, Taito Ku, Tokyo, Japan 111-0032
- East side of the Sensoji Temple compound,
adjacent to the national important cultural property "Nitenmon Gate"

The gallery has a permanent exhibition of Boro.
Special exhibition on working women's clothes till April 2011.
Amuse Gallery is very close to Sensoji temple in Asakusa. Go right down the shopping street, Nakamise Dori then at the main shrine turn right into a side road. Amuse Gallery is on your left opposite a Duty free camera shop.


Blue and White Shop.
Azabu Juban.

Bunka Womens University Textile Museum
Closed Sundays and public holidays
Instructions and map on the website.
Shinjuku Station South Exit. Turn right, walk about 5 minutes, museum is on the other side of the road.

Bunka Fashion School
Click for info.

Nuno Corporation

Nippori Textile Town
A road of textile shops.
Check out Floating World blog for instructions on how to get there.

Yuzawaya 
This is a craft/hobby/textile shop.
Shops in Kamata, Kichijoji, Yokohama and more, click on link to see a list.

Kichijoji store
Go to Kichijoji Station, exit via Park Exit, walk out the station exit and straight ahead. Yuzawaya is on the 7th and 8th floor of Marui Kichijoji store (head for the store with the big OIOI on it).  It is no longer in the station building (which I found out by wandering around for ages). Click on this link to see a picture of the logo.

Tokyu Hands
Mega DIY/craft shop with shops in Shinjuku, Shibuya, Ikebukuro etc. Branches in cities across Japan.

Kinokuniya Bookstore
Has a good range of English books, craft books in Japanese and English as well as calenders and magazines. The best one I found was in Shinjuku but there are other stores in cities across Japan.

Day 1 "Artist in Residence' experiments! -screenprinting

Today was my first day as 'artist in res' at Whitireia Polytechnic in Porirua, New Zealand. I have the use of an office to store my stuff and to work on small bits and pieces as well as the use of the textile studio and darkroom when the students aren't using them, On Tuesdays and Thursdays I help out with the new Textile Mastercraft class.The Mastercraft class is 6 months long and is level 5. Many of the students will go on from there into the degree course.

The black and white pictures are my first experiments. I wanted to see what would work best as a photographic screenprint. I have always done designs with strong black lines but this time I wanted to find the thinnest line I can get away with, as well as which drawing/painting media are the best.

From left to right these are
Graphite pencil, permanent marker, B&W photograph, sharpie
Fern, doily, enamel pen, weed seed heads
10-24point text(bold), magazine photo, scraperboard, comic book

Light charcoal, lino print, indian ink splatter, gaphite pencil
Indian ink drawing, charcoal, monoprint, black paint
oil pastel, rotring pen, oil pastel, Indian ink (drawn with twig)

The purple print shows the results. Amazingly most of the media worked. The light charcoal, rotring pen, graphite and scraperboard pattern were the least successful as the lines were a bit too thin or the mark was too pale. The 10 point text worked better than I thought and the text didn't work at all on the comic picture (it says '...what the' ).

Best was Indian ink, lino block print, enamel pens, sharpie, laser printer text, objects like plants and doileys, oil pastel.

That's enough for today. I did do some more experiments but I'll save them for tomorrow as I don't know how to put the photos in the right order. At the moment they all end up at the beginning of the text.

Long time no blog

I didn't realise it had been so long since I wrote anything here. I have been working on several commissions, a set of quilts to go to Germany for an exhibition which Dijanne Cevaal is curating called 'Southern Lands' and I have had bits and pieces of casual work. I just forgot about the blog. However, for the month of March I will be 'Artist in Residence' at Whitireia Polytechnic helping the textile department get their new Textile Mastercraft course off the ground. I get a room to work in, the use of the studios when they are not being used for teaching and a chance to take time for some experimentation with techniques that I have always wanted to try but have never made time for.

So I am currently trying to finish all the outstanding exhibition and commission pieces. Here is the very nearly completed grasses piece which is going to the U.S as soon as photography is completed. The first picture is a detail shot, I forgot that I needed to put the photos in first then do the writing!

How to Print with a Fish

Fishface 50cm X 50cm

Step 1
First select your fish! It needs to be one that has scales and fins that stick out. Don't let the fishmonger remove the scales. The one I am using is a New Zealand Terakihi which was being disposed of at the supermarket. Poor thing had lost it's tail and was past it's use-by date so couldn't be sold to be eaten. You can't eat it after you have painted it but you can refreeze it to paint again another time.

Step 2
Dry it off with paper towels and put it on some old newspaper.

Step 3
Using fabric paint and a 2 inch housepainting brush, paint the fish upwards towards the head. This forces paint under the scales which gives a better print. Try not to paint too thickly and don't leave brush marks as they will show on your print.








Here Fred has been painted with silver fabric painting ink. Move the fish off the paper you painted it on, onto a clean sheet. Try to make the fins stick up and spread the tail out.








Step 4
Lay fabric on top of the fish and gently smooth the fabric over the body and around the sides, making sure you don't squash down the fins or close the tail up.









Step 5
Peel away fabric. Hopefully you have a good print. You can also print using acrylic paints and tissue paper or other thin flexible paper if you don't want to use fabric .








Step 6
Wait till the ink is dry. Iron the print to set the ink. Hand wash to remove any fish smell.