A very different extended meeting for December was well received by all members who attended. A fascinating talk, demonstration and hands-on session with Katie Chaplin on all things Japanese.
First of all Katie demonstrated ‘dressing a Kimono’ on a mannequin called Dolly! The layers of silk wrapped and tied onto the body was quite amazing – I think I counted 15 in all and some are shown in the photographs below. Most of these are used to ‘fill out’ the body to give a straight look and Katie started off with a white cotton base garment; padding around the waist to thicken (not many Westerners would need this I think!).
The next layer in pink, had long falling sleeves to signify that the wearer is looking for a husband. Yet more layers to fill out the waist area, then came the Kimono itself – mostly green and orange.
The Kimono Katie used was 45 years old – hand painted with some couched gold on the flowers of the front panel.
Mostly worn by girls at their coming of age at 20 and at New Year. They must be worn with the front crossed left over right as the Western way of women’s dress – right over left – in Japan, is only worn that way on a corpse!!!
The OBI that Katie used was gold thread woven into a heavy silk.
This gets wrapped around the middle, tied at the back and folded to form a bird (Little Sparrow) at the back.
Finally a fan is tucked into the front of the Obi and wooden shoes are worn with split toe white cotton socks.
Katie then performed the traditional Japanese tea ceremony – very calming and carried out in complete silence.
After a lunch break we then re-gathered for a ‘hands-on’ go at Furoshiki gift wrapping using fabric squares, which can be used to wrap almost anything. Some pictures are shown below. 
Some of our members with a collection of the work. I think some people might be wrapping their presents a bit differently this Christmas!!
A big thank you to Katie for a fascinating and very different meeting.
Katie, who has studied both in UK and Japan, uses vintage Japanese fabrics to create a variety of textile pieces, as well as doing talks and workshops – more information from her website www.japancrafts.co.uk
It was a great talk and workshop, we really enjoyed it and were glad that we were able to attend. I thought Kate was an excellent speaker and tutor. So pleased too that the weather was kind to us all.
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