Tsumugi weaving technique

DEFINITION

A ritualistic Japanese silk weaving method from Ohshima, this has a long tradition of silk production. The process involves these steps: 1)Making the design on graph paper. 2)Starching and drying a group of threads with a seaweed based glue 3) Gluing the necessary number of these threads together 4)Weaving preliminary blocks by binding silk thread (woof) with cotton cotton thread (warp). The number of binding spots can reach several million. 5)Dyeing the binding threads with a mixture of broken pieces of the local Teichigi tree, which has been boiled for 14 hours. This dye process is repeated 30 or 40 times to achieve a dark red. 6)Applying a secondary dye by immersing three or four times in Mud. When readied by these processes, the silk threads are arranged on the Takahata, a weaving machine. Polly Barton of Taos, New Mexico is a weaver whose work both references and transcends Tsumugi methods. Source: http://www.csuchico.edu/~mtoku/vc/Exhibitions/ohshima/process.html; AskART Biography (LPD)