As a third generation Japanese American, I am interested in Japanese art and culture. When I
saw this photo of a meisen hitoe (repeating patterns on a kimono), I bookmarked it on my computer, knowing that I would return to it sometime for inspiration.
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After the paper was dry, I sprayed it with a fixative so
that the ink wouldn’t run when it got wet. I set aside some of the paper for
the soles, and then proceeded to prepare the paper for weaving. I folded the paper in a “w” shape
horizontally, and measured and cut ½” strips so that I could get a long,
continuous length. It gets roughened up
in preparation for spinning, and misted with water. Then I
used my bobbin winder to spin it into cord. This is based on a Japanese weaving
art called shifu. Historically, shifu weavers prepare much smaller strips of mulberry paper, perhaps
2-3 mm wide. However, I am trying to
make a cord that is the size of 4 ply waxed linen. This is called koyori.
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| Part of a strip, ready to prepare for spinning |
 the results
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I then made a slipper “sandwich” of sorts. The bottom piece was the torn, decorated
paper. I glued it (white glue) to the
bottom of the watercolor paper sole, leaving torn edges extending past the
edges.
In the middle of the sandwich, I glued the warp pieces to
the edge of the sole. One end pointed
inwards, and the long tails (about
7 ½”) radiated around.
The top of the sandwich was another water paper sole,
covered with my decorative paper. This
time, I cut the decorative paper exactly
the same size.
I glued all of the parts together, and let them dry
overnight, weighted down between waxed paper.
The next day I proceeded to twine around the sole with my koyori
paper yarn. Twining is a basketry technique that uses two moving weavers (or
weft) that are alternately placed in
front and in back of a stationary warp cord. I used the plain twining technique,
going up to the right, or an S twist. I
immediately started the sides of the shoes.
After 5 rows, I glued the decorative paper from the bottom
of the sole so that it would go up over the sides, and cover the bottom two or
three rows. I continued weaving upwards,
applying gentle pressure on the front warp cords, so that the vamp would start
forming. In order to make the vamp area
‘grow,’ I had to do short rows in just the front of the slipper, followed by a
complete row, all the way around. Some
spokes were cut out of the front since it started to get too tight for the
weavers to pass smoothly.
When the sides were close to one inch tall, I decided to
stop weaving with the multi-colored cord, and switched to two black weavers to
finish it up. The last few rows formed a
solid black band.
To finish up, I did a two part rim. The first row around, I took a spoke (warp
cord) and had it go in back of its neighbor to the right, and then out, and
continued all the way around. For the
second row, I did a row of a basketry rim called Gretchen’s Border. To do this, 3 spokes are laid in the left
hand. The farthest spoke to the left
goes over the two on the right, and then is pushed down. Then a new spoke on the right is picked up,
and you continue all the way around. I
had originally planned to do more rows, but found that paper isn’t the best
medium for this border. After I trimmed the
spokes to ¼”, I had some slip out, and they were too short to insert back into
the pattern, so I ended up with the rim as it is now, and applying a bit of
watered down glue with a paintbrush to keep them from moving.
When I started the right shoe, I did it in the same manner
as the other. However, at the end, in spite
of my measuring the left shoe, the right one turned out a bit shorter in the
vamp area. I didn’t realize this until I
had already completed the rim and cut the warp ends off. The finished shoes are each 6 ½” long, 2 ¾”
across.
Photo of meisen hitoe from http://dailyjapanesetextile.wordpress.com/author/dailyjapanesetextile/
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