My chaotic wanderings through creation and restoration.
Flocks Of Cranes In Flight Against Clouds Of Gold On Black Silk. You know I'm sitting over here with a digital pile of photos of my work to sort through and process for sharing, and then a literal pile of kimono that need to be finished and then photographed for completion. But I just received … Continue reading Meiji Furisode–The Birb Flies At Midnight
As you can see, even though I do a lot of restorations, I'm using the word preservation in this title. Well! Now seems like a good time to have this conversation, because I do make a distinction between the two, and it's a good question to ask: When do I decide that the goal is … Continue reading Preservation In Progress: Meiji Uchikake–Majestic Minogame
Flamboyantly Colored Phoenixes In Flight Over Bright Pines And Chrysanthemums On Red Silk. I picked this piece up recently, and it's already up here because I get real goddamn excited about things that qualify as oddballs. And there's so much delightful strangeness going on with this piece that it makes me vibrate with joy. Ever … Continue reading Antique Irotomesode–Flashy Phoenix
Every so often, I get a question or nine hundred about what certain terms that I use mean. Usually they're questions about the Japanese words, motifs, formalities, eras...you know, the hard stuff. But most recently, I've received a few emails and messages about what I mean when I comment on the condition of a kimono, … Continue reading Random Tidbit–Shattering
Vivid Pink Plum Blossoms Against A Gilded Temple With The Seven Treasures On Purple Silk. If I'm being accurate, I have been finished with this piece for a few weeks now. I wanted to wait until my new iko (kimono stand) was ready to do this entry. Originally, she was the first piece I was … Continue reading Castles & Dreams–Restoration Complete
Well, I've gone and done it. I bought myself a proper kimono stand. If I'm going to pretend to take this blog very seriously, then I should have one, right? I built one for myself awhile ago using some raw materials and by modifying an existing clothes hanger, and I was and still am pretty … Continue reading Restoration In Progress–Meiji Era Iko
As I mentioned in my post about resizing haori, I was handed the opportunity to create another tutorial about patching a hole. Since that haori was decidedly sewn together by a...crazy person...originally, it led to some damage that I had to repair on the fabric as I removed the stitches. I'm not going to go … Continue reading Tutorial–Patching A Hole
Before we get into it, I want you to know that I lost my goddamn mind creating this tutorial. I picked this haori to use for this tutorial because it's one that I want to wear in the super near future, and because of my -looks down- large tracks of land, I would have needed … Continue reading Tutorial–Resizing Haori
Alright, buckle up, nerds. I've been driving myself absolutely insane on getting satisfactory images and video to use in this tutorial for the better part of a month now, and I gotta tell you, I absolutely suck at taking video of things I'm doing with a tripod. In the end, I had to check with … Continue reading Tutorial–Couching Repairs
I'm making lots of great progress on this piece, gifted to me for restoration by Nancy from Kyoto Kimono. As predicted, most of my work is sewing. I had to wait for awhile to get the proper weight and color for threads in to get started, but now that they're here, things are going very … Continue reading Update: Restoration In Progress–Castles And Dreams
Silk & Bones 