The Long Kozo Journey

So, I bet you've been asking where I have been. Well I am going to tell you now.
Long story short I hand spun, hand wove, and hand sewed a kimono.
This all started over a year ago. A group of artists were contacted to see if there was interest in doing a communal art show with a through line being kozo.
Now what is kozo? Kozo is a plant that grows in Japan. It is harvested yearly to make paper. The stalks are harvested and dried.

Once dried, the stalks are cooked in soda ash to break down the outer fibrous bark.

Once the stalk has turned the proper grey color, they are removed from the boiling water and cooled by rinsing clean.

The dark outer bark is then hand picked off the fiber and it is then beaten with a mallet into a pulp.

The pulp is then added to water and paper is made. It is at this point that most of the artists went their separate ways to create their own pieces.

Traditionally in Japan, the paper was recycled by splicing the sheets into strips and spun on a hand crank, small, quill wheel. It was then woven into cloth with cotton or silk threads to make kimonos.

The process for spinning the kozo is fairly simple, although rather finicky. Most of the spun kozo is done by dampening the strips and spinning it an average of 7 wheel rotations before winding onto the quill.

I tried that, and it didn't work for me. So then I tried it on my charka, again with no success. Then I attempted to spin it on my Sidekick, it was working better but I had to get a slower whorl. Finally, I had the bright idea to core spin it with silk thread. Boom, I had yarn.

After that I needed to figure out how much material I needed to make a short kimono. I went to my closet and pulled out a few kimonos I had on hand; I went to Pintrest, the library, anywhere I could think of that had resources on making a kimono. I ended up figuring I needed approximately 9 1/2 yards of fabric. This measurement included loom waste. Now, I am not going to go through the whole process of warping the loom because, to be honest, this was the first big project I had ever woven. 

(photo courtesy of Joe) 

But about 3 days of warp measuring and threading the reed and heddles, the loom was ready to start weaving.

I collected all the kozo that I spun and in this whole process I formulated an idea for what this kimono was going to look like. It included many different fibers in neutral colors and a plain weave.

I spun cotton top, lint (right side), ginned cotton (left side); bleached linen tow, water retted linen top, linen strick (bottom); silk noil, silk top. 

All these were combined with the kozo to make something far better than anything I ever could have imagined.

To see the completed piece you will have to wait...

The opening reception is Friday September 8, 2017, at the Western New York Book Arts Center located at 468 Washington St, Buffalo, NY 14203. If you live in the area please stop by and see not only my piece, but all the other artists' pieces. I know I am excited to see what everyone has done with it!

This whole process was made possible by The Western New York Book Arts Center. I extend my deepest appreciation for including me in this wonderful journey.