Miniature indigo pieces in the Tansa exhibition

These three miniature textile pieces in the Tansa exhibition are all linked by their use of indigo. ‘Shindigo 23-01’ is the work of master indigo dyer Hiroyuki Shindo whose studio was one of the highlights of our textile research tour of Japan. He expresses the hope that the Tansa exhibition can be ‘a bridge tying the UK and Japan’ and an opportunity to discuss tradition, nature and environmental issues.

In ‘Compressed’ Linda Brassington www.axisweb.org/p/lindabrassington/ references Japanese itajime resist dyeing which occurs between clamps, in lengths of cloth compressed into tightly folded packages. Protruding pins support the wrappings, while many sheets of washi paper are hidden between the folds where they act as a wick drawing up the dye. It is only when the wrappings are untied that the unseen spaces hidden between the clamps are revealed.

Kendall Clarke www.kendallclarke.com is a weaver who has studied the Japanese resist dyeing technique shibori. In ‘Formation’ she uses woven shibori to create a three-dimensional miniature sculpture, which is given texture and form by gathering the ‘pattern’ threads once the cloth is off the loom. The piece is completed by dyeing it in an indigo vat.

There’s still time to see the exhibition ‘Tansa – Japanese threads of influence’ which runs until 26 March at the Crafts Study Centre, Farnham, and then travels to Gallery Gallery in Kyoto