A Wonderful Sashiko Workshop with Lucy Arai


Here is Lucy teaching in her Sashiko workshop at Slow Fiber Studios in Berkeley, CA.  She gave invidivual attention to anyone who needed it. The workshop was 2 1//2 days. I had one day free before it started after I got back from Japan. Traditionally white cotton thread is stitched on cotton indigo fabric.Here near the end of the workshop she was showing how she stitches on paper that she paints and stitches on. Her art work is fantastic–sometimes has gold leaf and sumi ink. [click photos to enlarge]

A nice picture of Luci.

This is a square cloth used in Japan for wrapping things–called a furoshiki. The pattern technique is called sashiko. It is entirely done with running stitches. We learned about the culture of sashiko and the ins and outs of stitching. There was a lot more to it than one would think. Note that the corners are reinforced with the stitching.

This is how the furoshiki is tied to make a bundle for carrying things. The corners are reinforced where the knot is to be tied.

Here you can see the corner fringes where the tie was made at the reinforced corners.