It has been a while since I have posted on this blog. I have been busy sourcing antique and vintage fabrics and dyeing katazome textiles. I have also been working on a new website and blog. Please visit our new website for blog posts on antique Japanese textiles and my new indigo dye projects. We also have a shop where you can purchase fabrics and an experiences page where you can learn about upcoming classes and textile tours. Visit the new website at: www.nsomerstextiles.com
This summer I spent several weeks in Japan. The first week was spent on the island of Amami where I learned about the fabric traditions of the island. Amami Oshima is located in Kagoshima prefecture and is 2.5 hours by plane from Tokyo. Amami, like Okinawa, was once part of the Ryukyu kingdom and developed its own unique culture and textile tradition.
This fabric in the process of being woven is Amami Oshima Tsumugi. It has been woven on Amami for generations and its production is extremely technical and time consuming, but the final product is a strong and durable silk fabric. Many people told me that the fabric can often be worn by three generations being passed from grandmother to daughter to granddaughter.
Amami Oshima Tsumugi is a tabby woven, double ikat fabric. In this technique both the warp and weft threads are dyed before being placed on the loom. The designs are first sketched, the sketch helps the first set of weavers know where to bind the threads so that the final product will create the desired design. This binding is done on a large sturdy loom and the warp and weft threads are sent to the dyers in dense panels of bound silk threads measuring from between 2″x 14″ to 20″x 20″. Subsequently the threads will be dyed before being picked loose from their panels and placed on the loom for their final weaving.
Above you can see a weaver adjusting individual threads with a sturdy needle. The design becomes obscured by the weaving process and needs to be lined up after every inch of weaving.
Below you can see that these looms have two warps. One solid black warp is fixed on the loom by being wound around the warp beam, but the second warp is tied as it needs to be tensioned and adjusted after the weaver completes about 20cm of fabric. Due to the complexity of its weaving it takes a weaver at least 6 months of full time weaving to produce one bolt of fabric. This accounts for its cost of $15,000-$30,000 per bolt.
I also spent several days with the Kanai family at their dye workshop.
Yukihito Kanai stands between two of his friends who also work at the dye shop. Yukihito learned the traditional process of dyeing from his father.
The silk treads are first soaked in a dye made from boiling wood chips from sharimbai, or Japanese hawthorne, which is a native evergreen shrub. After the chips have been soaked and boiled for several days the resulting liquid produces a dark maroon dye.
The thread is washed in the sharimbai dye mixed with lime many times to produce the desired color. When the threads are washed in the iron rich mud of the island a chemical reaction turns the maroon thread a deep lustrous black.
Above you can see the deep black warp threads. Below you can see the panels of bound silk threads which after dying, picking loose, and weaving will produce the desired design. These panels have been dyed with indigo.
Yukihito continues the tradition of dying silk for Amami Oshima Tsumugi, but he also expands the dying and traditional patters to create new products. This tenugui has been screen printed with a traditional pattern representing the village where the Kanai family live. He dyes these with indigo, sharimbai, and mud.
The Kanai family was extremely hospitable and welcomed me to a huge family dinner. A family friend and local fisherman brought amazing fish which was used to make sashimi. Okasan is an exceptional cook, who must have made 20 dishes for dinner. She also used the fish bones to make rich miso soup the next day.
I also had the opportunity to visit a woman who manages and runs a beautiful museum dedicated to Amami Oshima Tsumugi. The museum takes up the top floor of the lovely ocean side Thida Moon Hotel. Her collection is amazing and it is easy to see her passion for teaching others about Amami Oshima Tsumugi. She was a phenomenal host and treated me to an extraordinary dinner made by her and some of the other weavers from the island. 
Below is a piece of Amami Oshima Tsumugi I was given by the members of a small weaving workshop I visited.
I have been inspired recently by African strip woven cotton fabrics, many of which are dyed with indigo. I used my own hand spun cotton to weave a strip 20′ long by 8″ wide. After the strip was woven It was dyed in old indigo to leave an inconsistent pattern on the fabric. The strip was cut into shorter sections and then sewn together with hand spun thread before being over dyed with a strong indigo dye to darken the fabric. The over dying left the fabric with a beautiful mottled color that matches well with the inconsistencies of the hand spun thread.
I started a new project a few days ago. I used a natural linen for the warp with hand spun indigo dyed cotton and kudzu for the warp. I am pleased with how it is coming along.
This vintage Japanese cotton plaid was hand woven using machine spun thread during the first half of the 20th century. The weaver included chunky silk threads in the weft to mimic the texture of hand spun threads. The deep indigo colors are great and the fabric has a wonderful worn feel. this fabric had been used as the top of a futonji.
Here is a new piece of cotton zanshi fabric I found. Zanshiori is the fabric woven at the end of a bolt that has a random pattern due to the use of leftover threads. I love the feel of this fabric. the knots give it a homemade rustic feel. The worn colors of this piece are also really nice. some of the strips seem like they may have once been red or pink probably from a commercial dye that was prone to fade over time. the indigo blue has held up well and still holds a deep dark blue in some spots. 
this fabric can be purchased at: https://www.etsy.com/listing/158501070/antique-handwoven-japanese-zanshi-indigo?ref=shop_home_active
This is a completely hand made cotton textile. I think it dates to the late Edo or early Meiji period. The fabric is soft and worn and has probably seen many different uses in its long life. The pattern is odd and I haven’t seen many others like it. I love the way the indigo has worn to produce an almost ikat pattern under the applied katazome decorations.
I’ve been spinning cotton for about 3 years now. I started by using a drop spindle and then moved to a spinning wheel and charkha. I have experimented spinning short staple, long staple upland and naturally colored cotton. Its really rewarding to dye upland cotton thread with indigo. Because of the luster in upland cotton the resulting color is bright and picks up different levels of color due to how much oxidation occurs. 
The process of spinning my own thread has allowed me understand the huge amount of patience and talent held by spinners dyers and weavers in the past. 
Here is some Zanshi or “left over thread” fabric I recently found. Zanshi was traditionally woven at the end of a bolt of kimono fabric. Once the kimono length had been woven the weaver would use up left over threads and bits and pieces left at the ends of bobbins to fill up the end length of warp. The resulting fabric was used for domestic purposes while the kimono bolt was more than likely sold. Zanshi was used most often for futon covers or work clothing. Notice the variation in pattern due to the different colors of left over threads.
In these last two photos you can see the numerous knots used to bind the left over threads.
Nathan Somers Textiles 