The botanical balls
This collection is called “the botanical balls”.
By taking inspiration from nature and in particular various trees, flowers, lichen and moss, Emi creates her own handmade kaleidoscopes using dried flowers and leaves which inspire an endless variety of patterns. The result is an intertwine of traditional techniques gathered from her own heritage in Japan and skills acquired from European lace making.
The pieces within this collection are composed of two different types of fine silk yarns and one type of Kibiso yarn. This collection was made for the "Selvedge Magazine" in London.
Silk Kibiso yarns with natural dyes and hand knitting
Emi has created this collection by using hand knitting with silk kibosh yarns. The silk kibiso yarns are recognised as an ethical and sustainable material by Japanese silk masters.
Emi researched all the process of making silk from silk worms in Japan. The silk kibiso yarns are made using the outer layers of the cocoon which are normally thrown away because they are hard and thick, but some silk yarn masters started making yarns with them. These kibiso yarns have a very unique texture and they will become very soft after some use.
Inspired by this kibiso yarns, she did hand knitting and tie-dye or dip-dye them afterwards using natural materials. This collection was made for a hotel in Kyoto.
doki bag
This one-off bag are made by smalls cuts and bits of fabric left from my other creations. Inspired by the shape of ancient Japanese pottery (Doki), Emi has created the unique shape of this bag by putting together the small pieces of fabric with thousands of stitches. She has also added prints based on her drawings used to design her collection of botanical balls using a Japanese traditional print technique called Katazome.
Materials; vintage Japanese cotton for kimono, vintage French cotton, vintage French linen, handwoven Slovenian linen, handwoven Romanian linen, handwoven kibiso silk and others.
Hand dip-dye with indigo dyes.
