A Look Into Our Classes 2 "Design Exercise I"

There are various people who teach in Kawashima Textile School’s Professional Course. In addition to the full time teachers, we invite artists, designers, and technical experts as guest teachers and lecturers from outside the school, to create an open, positive atmosphere. In this series we will introduce you to some of the classes held in the Professional Course.

Day 5: Design

The Design Enshū (Design Exercise) class was held over the course of 5 days, starting in April. By Dessan* (drawing from life), students were able to spend time observing and interacting with their subjects, such as fruits and vegetables. On the last day, students designed their free project for the Tapestry Weaving class.

In everyday life, there are a surprising number of objects that we think we know and understand. Usually we don't have many opportunities to observe fruits and vegetables, and most of the time we only look at them for a few seconds to check if they are in good condition. I think that spending hours looking at, touching, and imagining about an object, discovering new sides of them, and feeling the sense of how we perceive objects change, will become valuable experiences for creating things. By training the observational eye, inspiration can be drawn from anywhere, and the time and effort spent observing and interacting with the subject will appear in a design. Most importantly, everything becomes more exciting, as things such as what you see in everyday life will change.

For the tapestry designs, I asked students to draw their designs from what they found interesting about their subjects, and also imagine where they would be hung. By June, students had already started weaving samples in tapestry class, so the designs were drawn with consideration of what kind of thread and techniques were going to be used.

I hope the new experiences and viewpoints will be a foundation for the students' future work.

*The word Dessan is borrowed from French "Dessin," and in Japan means drawing from life in pencil, usually for 3-5 hours.


-What does weaving mean to me?
"Lenses"

I feel that the sense of weaving that I have learned by making, and my job at the school, is always naturally at work. I have noticed that I unconsciously see things through the lenses of weaving, such as arrow shaped road markings as kasuri (ikat) patterns, or weaving tools as units of measurement.
At the same time, I think about what my role can be in the long history of weaving.

(text: Emma Omote)


About Emma Omote
Instagram: @emma.omote
After graduating with a BA in Fine Arts (Painting) from Kyoto Seika University, Emma Omote completed the 2 year course at Kawashima Textile School, majoring in Kimono. She continues to weave Kimono and has taught students from Japan and overseas at Kawashima Textile School since 2009.