Kimono Project Preview

Hello Miss, please excuse Thea for this week's absence from her blog as she has been very busy and coping with much work-related stress. Now that we have that out of the way, the following is a little of what she's been up to.

As many of you know, I am participating in Melanie's Reincarnated Kimono Project. My initial idea was to overprint the Japanese floral fabric with an Australian native flora design as a meeting of the two cultures.

Printing tests proved that my water-based inks were definitely going to bleed on the vintage silk crepe.The clear print you see is off that fabric and on the cotton canvas drop-cloth. Time to execute Plan B.

I decided to print on a lighter cotton muslin, thinking that it would be quite diaphanous. This is my sketch of an Australian gumnut that I then used to cut a stencil.














Here is the screen-printed muslin that I hand-stitched over the kimono fabric. Mmm, not quite the effect I was looking for either.


I really wanted the Japanese fabric to be more obvious so the cutting away of the muslin layer begins. Ah, this is more of what I was looking for to signify the meshing of the two designs/cultures.

This is the wrong side of the work which I quite like.


Screen-printing, hand-stitching and fabric cutaway detail.

The finished work has been framed in a vintage wooden frame that I painted with glossy black paint to keep a Japanese flavour.

I hope you liked my preview. I didn't want to reveal all as I am hoping that local readers will pop into the exhibition this month. I am really looking forward to seeing everybody's work.

My piece is entitled "An Aussie in a Japanese Garden" and will be for sale at the exhibition with all proceeds going to the Japanese Red Cross as a small contribution to the Tsunami Relief efforts.