Day 1 / Part 2 – More About Meisen Weaving in Chichibu. This is the front of a brochure from the studio we visited: Arakei Textile. An image is printed on a warp.
First temporary wefts are woven very far apart in a warp of white threads. Then the extremely loosely woven cloth is taken to the printing table. Here you can barely see one weft on a diagonal. See the next photo.
Here you can see that temporary weft in this photo of the printed warp. I brought home a piece of the printed warp. The warp threads are barely held in place by the temporary weft–just enough so the warp can be put into the loom. If I disturb these printed threads they will separate some so they must stay put or all the threads could get out of line.
Here you can see on the loom where the cloth has been woven and also the printed warp threads not yet woven.
These young women were wearing lovely kimonos of Meisen fabric while shopping in the showroom on the day we were there. I am not on a tour for this trip but am traveling with my travel partner on many previous tours. Dear friends drove us to Chichibu which is three hours from Tokyo.
2 thoughts on “My Japan Weaving Tour – Day 1 / Part 2”
i always wondered how the warps were held together for printing. I knew they were woven first but did not understand they were so loosely woven. mystery solved! enjoy your trip- it can’t be helped!
This is fascinating; I’ve never heard of the technique. How do they re-attach the cloth to the loom after printing without distorting the weave? I would think it would be difficult to tie on and keep everything in exact alignment.
i always wondered how the warps were held together for printing. I knew they were woven first but did not understand they were so loosely woven. mystery solved! enjoy your trip- it can’t be helped!
This is fascinating; I’ve never heard of the technique. How do they re-attach the cloth to the loom after printing without distorting the weave? I would think it would be difficult to tie on and keep everything in exact alignment.