Japanese Textiles Festival

Image credit: Alex Hagen.

The Japanese Textiles and Craft Festival 2020 takes place 13 – 15 March at Freeweaver SAORI Studio, Craft Central in London. Part of the official Japan-UK Season of Culture 2019-2020, the exhibition features artists from Japan and Europe working in a range of Japanese textiles and other media including Saori weaving, sakiori, shibori, boro and katazome. There will be a variety of demonstrations and workshops during the festival, including some free workshops, a pop-up Japanese bakery and an exhibition shop.

Image: Karine N’guyen Van Tham.

Exhibitors include Yutaka Obuchi for Kosyokunobi, a store specializing in Bengala Dyes. It was established in 1965 as a producer of Bengala paints for temples, shrines, and Japanese wooden homes. Bengala is a mud dye made of iron oxide, the dyes do not require hot water or a mordant, are gentle on people and environmentally as well as ecologically safe.

Rob Jones for Romor Designs; Romor Designs was founded by Rob in 2015, a Japanese textiles inspired designer and natural dyer. Alex Hagen for Refold; Alex is a textile artist specialising in the use of botanical dyes and the Japanese resist techniques of Shibori (stitch resist) and Katazome (paste resist). Alex works with abstract patterns and employs the concept of Ma (Japanese for interval or empty space). Sarah Desmarais, a textile designer maker, who produces fine hand-printed silks and hand-sewn garments using traditional means: drawing, resist printing, hand dyeing and stitching.

Hideaki Takayama for neutraal a surface design company. Hideaki founded the London studio after completing a sculpture workshop and continuing to experiment and testing making his own products. Hideaki is originally from a small town in Japan, he studied Architecture in Tokyo and Interior Design in Brighton before moving to London in 2012.

For more information visit www.japantextilefestival.co.uk

Note: Sarah and Alex are hosting workshops for us in the summer on Shibori and Katazome, for more information visit our Workshops.