On Friday evening, Kumi told
us how she came to "upcycle" worn fabrics into stitched pictures
and handbags, almost mosaic-like in their intricacy. Using linen, silk and
cotton fabric scraps and kimono cast-offs she combines textures and limits her
colour range. Flowers however, appear in her work as they appear in nature,
often in brilliant colour!
Kumi draws on her natural surroundings for
inspiration, be it twig or bloom. And of course she likes to depict birds
also.
Her pictures and her bags evoke a calmness and a serenity. But Kumi
possesses quite a humourous side and she kept us laughing all through Friday
evening. Dressing herself in one of her kimonos, providing little anecdotes as
she added layer after layer of clothing, we noticed her Doc Martens peeping
out! So definitely: "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts!"
It was a truly delightful evening.
On Saturday Kumi led our workshop
making Cylinder Bags. We used Kumi's starched fabric or our own. This was
for the bag exterior and for our 'decoration'. We cut, stitched and
constructed our bags. We all included flowers in our compositions! Here is one in the process of being created by Vanda.
Then we used
unstarched fabric for lining the bag and stitched the two together. Magic. And here are finished bags by Shirley R, Mary B and Lyn R.
words and photos by Judy O'Neill
