Miniature Tansa textiles with natural materials

This collection of miniature textiles from the Tansa exhibition at the Crafts Study Centre all incorporate natural materials. ‘Beckons to be known’ by Annette Mills www.annettemills.com was inspired by the exteriors of traditional wooden buildings in Kyoto. The vessel is made from willow bast and nettle to enclose a shadowed interior and is designed to be held in the hand and reflected upon in the same way as bowls in the Japanese tea ceremony.

Hermione Thomson www.hermionethomson.com was inspired by the tactility of old paper scrolls to produce ‘Mottainai: Making ends meet’. This reference to sustainability and the reuse of papers to produce a protective outer wrapping recalls the cloths traditionally used to encase quilted and patched Boro cloth.

‘Containing beauty’ is the title and theme of Sian Highwood’s www.sianhighwood.com miniature. Reflecting the Japanese expectation of finding beauty in the everyday this piece uses petals to form a three dimensional sculpture inspired by Oshibana, the Japanese art of pressed flowers.

Chiyoko Tanaka uses mud in her woven textiles to permeate the cloth enabling a transformation of time coherence into space. ‘Mud dyed cloth twig and white dots #6.7.7’ is part of her continuing practice to transform time into space and space into time.

The exhibition Tansa – Japanese threads of influence runs until 26 March at the Crafts Study Centre, Farnham, and then travels to Gallery Gallery in Kyoto