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.

Examining the Old to Make the New

You may not know that when I was a senior in college I received an undergraduate research fellowship through Buffalo State College. It was through this fellowship that I got a taste of curatorial work with the Historical Society of the Tonawandas. For a summer I was the curator of the clothing and textile collection of this organization. At the time the collection was not cataloged and some of the boxes had not been looked into for 20 or more years. Each day I went into work was another amazing opportunity to see old clothes and textiles. To me, the entire collection felt like my children; I brought them into the light, putting them on dress forms I breathed life into them, taking their picture for documentation was like watching their first step and posting it on social media for everyone to see, knowing full well that I was one of the very few who appreciated it for the true beauty it was.
I learned so much from that summer, and from all the work I did with the historical society. We mounted a modest exhibition of clothes from the collection at the local library and in order to do so we needed dress forms, so, I made them using information from Janet Arnold. I find all of her work to be most valuable; even if you're not a fashion historian it is very fascinating to see her illustrations of historical clothing from England. The book that I went to numerous times that summer was A Handbook of Costume, one of her lesser known books. It has since become a rather expensive out-of-print book, but if you can get your hands on a copy at your local library, I greatly encourage it.
In this book Janet Arnold explains how you can learn from clothing. She talks about having the actual garment in front of you but also how to examine art works, of all forms from paintings to stain glass windows, to better understand the clothes in them.
So, why am I telling you all of this? To me, clothing is a vital part of seeing who people were in past times. It can also teach us how to do better work with our fiber crafts. Since moving to Wyoming I feel as though I've fallen into being a vintage clothing dealer. I can look at clothing or textiles and tell you how they were made. That is something that I am proud of, and today will be the first of many posts in an examination of a certain garment. This post will be on the simple side, a late Victorian to early Edwardian full apron.

Description:
This is the apron with a dress underneath. The front is on the left and the back is on the right. It is made from a simple white cotton calico with a small floral sprig motif printed on it in navy blue. It is simply constructed with all straight of grain pieces. There are two patch pockets on either side at hip level. There is one button at the top of the yoke at center back.

How they made it:
The fabric was a mere 25 inches wide. One panel 43 inches long is the front. A second, the same length is the back, but split down the middle. There is a small gore at the side seam, placed on the selvage, measuring 13.25 inches with a height of 3.5". The bias side of the triangle is placed on back panel and the straight of grain is on the side seam.
The yoke and straps are a folded 4 inch piece of straight of grain material cut into 12 inch pieces. The little ruffled hem flounce is 75 inches long and 4 inches wide, so three 4 inch wide strips of the 25 inch wide fabric.
With the front panel, you would gather it down to 12 inches and sew the yoke to it. The back yoke is cut in half and the back panels are sewn into each yoke piece. The straps are top stitched on the yokes. The sides seams are open from the yoke down 11 inches. The fabric folded twice and top stitched. The rest of the side seam is felt felled. The hem flounce is sewn together, hemmed on one long side and gathered on the other. It is then mounted on the apron hem using a french seam. A 7/8 inch button hole is made, on the horizontal, 1 inch in from the center back. A matching button is sewn on the other side to form the closure. The patch pockets are a 6 inch square with a slightly rounded bottom. They are placed 4.5 inches down from the bottom of the armseye, with one side placed on the front panel side of the side seam.
Does that make any sense? If not, comment, and I will try and clarify!
Now you're probably say, 'Ben, this is an old apron and this would not fit me, nor can I find 25 inch wide fabric!' So, here's some thoughts on modernizing it:
You can shorten it, although fiber friends I think it would be helpful to have a full length apron to card or dye or spin in.
Substitute fabric. If you get a 54 inch, or so, wide fabric you can make the full length apron in 2 yards of fabric, less if you want it shorter. The only important thing here is to not pick a directional fabric or one that you will have to match a pattern on, then you're going to need more fabric. Or, if you wanted to use scraps of fabric you could piece them together into the shapes and have a sort of crazy quilt apron. The straps and yoke could be substituted for ribbons.
Make it fit you. I would make the front and back yokes 2 inches shorter than your across front measurement. This measurement it taken from one side of where your arm meets your chest to the other, pretty much right over your heart. For the front and back panels, I would measure your hips and add 6 inches for ease, more if you want it to be more full. Half of your hip measurement plus ease should be the width of your front panel.
Again, does this make sense? Contact me if it doesn't! I'd be more than happy to explain it more!
I hope this inspires you to examine the old to make your next new project! Be prepared for more in depth examinations too!