Aizome - The Craft of Japanese Indigo-dyeing at the Embassy of Japan in London - May to September 2023

I am thrilled to tell you about exhibiting at the Embassy of Japan in London’s exhibition on Aizome, the name for Indigo dyeing in Japan.

“Ai” means both indigo and love in Japanese and so is the perfect word to convey all that I find appealing in the Shibori resist and Katagami stencilling I do, where indigo is the dye stuff of choice.

It was a great honour to be asked to exhibit at the Embassy of Japan in London so I decided I needed to make a special, new piece just for the exhibition.

I created a Japanese Shibori art quilt, dyed in various shades of indigo and containing 32 different shibori patterns, which was exhibited from May 11th 2023 through to September 29th 2023 at the Embassy of Japan in London.

Here are a few pictures I took of my work and of some of the exhibition (not all exhibitors had set up when I was installing my quilt, so apologies there aren’t photos of everyone’s work).

There were eight exhibitors altogether:

  • Rob Jones - Japanese textiles artist, Designer-maker and teacher

  • Emi Fujisawa - Japanese textile and ceramic artist

  • Jane Callender - Textiles artist working with indigo and Shibori stitch resist

  • Janice Gunner - Stitched textiles artist and quilter

  • Erna Janine - Saori weaver

  • Yatsumoto Kaori - Indigo dyer and fashion designer

  • Asai Naoyuki - indigo grower and dyer

  • Luisa Uribe - indigo grower and dyer

  • Rhyannan Hall - Arashi shibori artist

Here is my Shibori art quilt with its 32 different shibori techniques. The plain square are dyed in various shades of indigo. Indigo is an incredibly versatile dye, not only yielding a beautiful range of shades of blue but that can also be used to overdye fabric dyed with natural dyes to create greens and purples.

The Embassy has asked me to give a talk/demonstration about Shibori at some point during the exhibition so watch this space for information about that.

If you are interested in trying Shibori and indigo dyeing yourself please check out my Workshops page.

I run a variety of classes online as Live Zoom sessions and i’m person at my studio in Muswell Hill and at other venues around the South East.

JANE CALLENDER

I have an enormous amount of respect for Jane. She is a highly technical and gifted Shibori and indigo practitioner and I highly rate her Shibori book, Stitched Shibori: Technique, innovation, pattern and design. If you buy it from Search Press books and use this discount code - DD37 you will get 20% off the list price and I get a small commission from the sale. (You can use the code to buy any of their other titles too and delivery is Free to UK addresses.

Jane’s exhibition pieces show off her incredible technical skill with Shibori. The mandala, in particular, is a tour de force!

LUISA URIBE

Luisa co-founded Indigo Garden London in 2020 with artist Liza McKenzie, an educational space where they run workshops and community events to promote sustainable indigo growing and dyeing.

Luisa grows Isatis tinctoria and different varieties of Persicaria tinctoria and uses various methods of extracting indigo pigment and other colour dyes produced by these plants..

Her exhibition artwork shows off the beautiful complementary shades of blue that can be created through careful indigo dyeing.

EMI FUJISAWA

Emi Fujisawa is a Japanese textile and ceramic artist/designer based in Oxfordshire, England specialising in hand weaving with natural materials and natural dyeing. She trained as a Japanese Sukumo Indigo Dyer in Japan and she is planning to set up a Japanese Sukumo Indigo Studio in England.

Her exhibition artwork shows off her weaving skills in her framed pieces and her combination of shibori with katagami stencilling and indigo dyeing in the skirt shown.

Rob JonesComment