I'm Married to Japanese Embroidery

Well, I must say, I am proud. I am delighted to have completed another Phase of Japanese Embroidery, Phase V (Kumihimo Cord Design). There are 10 phases. I have a wonderful teacher named Tonie Evans who teaches as part of the Japanese Embroidery Center in Atlanta, Georgia. She has been studying Japanese embroidery for over 20 years and is a fabulous embroiderer and teacher.

I began my Japanese embroidery training in 2002 when I lived in Japan. All of my instruction was in Japanese which made the class extra challenging yet very rewarding. aI completed Phase I and II in Japan before returning to the United States. At present, I have decided to take two phases at one time in order to "graduate" by October, 2007. "Graduating" means that you have completed the 10 levels of instruction and are eligible to become a teacher and attend "teacher's classes" (really cool techniques only available to the "graduated elite"). Each piece takes hundreds of hours to complete so I feel kind of "blog boring" since I have spent most of my creative time getting to my goal of "graduation". So here, I present my latest accomplishment. It is a kumihimo cord design. Kumihimo is the art of cord making via braiding. Kumihimo are used to tie an obi around a kimono in Japanese dress.


This piece will be made into an evening clutch with the cord "flower" being the front of the bag and the tassel on the back of the bag. The other section will be the inside flap of the bag.


My next piece is called Queen of Flowers which is a peony design which I love. It is very impressionistic and uses an embroidery technique called "fuzzy technique". I'll post an update pic on the peonies in the next week. I need to complete the peonies in order to begin a geisha design on July 29. Hence, for now, I am "married" to Japanese embroidery...