Last week I went to a
Saori class with Lara and her friend visiting from the UK, Jen (who I think is really cool and I'm glad I got to meet).
Saori is a type of weaving. Upon further
research I discovered that the woman (
Misao Jo) who created
Saori did so b/c she felt that the Japanese people needed a way to express themselves and to be unique. Japan is very much an assimilated society,
ie. everyone dresses the same, looks the same, thinks the same (mostly). They have a saying that goes something like this, "the nail which sticks out will get hammered". Basically meaning, don't be unique; conform or you will get beaten (Ha!).
Saori is a way for
people to show their individuality. The weaving allows for mistakes and in fact a mistake makes the piece unique. I think that this is type of weaving is very forgiving in it's design. It's nice that some people in Japan really think about being different and reclaiming concepts close to nature (rather than buy more stuff; make it). Anyway the three of us went to the local
Saori instructor and took a class. Her house is up on a tall hill overlooking
Momoyama with a separate little studio for
Saori. The studio holds quite a few of the weaving machines (pictured above with me weaving on it) and an entire wall of amazing yarn. Loopy Gals, you would have loved it! I
went crazy trying to pick out yarn for my scarf; it was a bit overwhelming. We probably spent 2 hours weaving. Thanks to a few volunteers that prepped our yarn, all three of us were able to weave some great scarves. Pictured on the right is Jen, me, Lara, and our teacher (sorry I forgot her name) wearing a great
Saori jacket. The photo on the left shows off our scarves really well. Mine turned out to be really colorful and spring inspired. Lara made a scarf that is so long that it is practically double her height. It looks great wrapped around her. Jen's scarf had beautiful gold thread in it and reminded me of fall. I truly loved this class and it was nice to have a finished product in such a short period of time. I'd love to go back and try to make something else. I guess I better do it quick, I have less than 2 months left in Nippon!
AAAAHHH!!!
Last week I went to a Saori class with Lara and her friend visiting from the UK, Jen (who I think is really cool and I'm glad I got to meet). Saori is a type of weaving. Upon further research I discovered that the woman (Misao Jo) who created Saori did so b/c she felt that the Japanese people needed a way to express themselves and to be unique. Japan is very much an assimilated society, ie. everyone dresses the same, looks the same, thinks the same (mostly). They have a saying that goes something like this, "the nail which sticks out will get hammered". Basically meaning, don't be unique; conform or you will get beaten (Ha!). Saori is a way for
people to show their individuality. The weaving allows for mistakes and in fact a mistake makes the piece unique. I think that this is type of weaving is very forgiving in it's design. It's nice that some people in Japan really think about being different and reclaiming concepts close to nature (rather than buy more stuff; make it). Anyway the three of us went to the local Saori instructor and took a class. Her house is up on a tall hill overlooking Momoyama with a separate little studio for Saori. The studio holds quite a few of the weaving machines (pictured above with me weaving on it) and an entire wall of amazing yarn. Loopy Gals, you would have loved it! I 
went crazy trying to pick out yarn for my scarf; it was a bit overwhelming. We probably spent 2 hours weaving. Thanks to a few volunteers that prepped our yarn, all three of us were able to weave some great scarves. Pictured on the right is Jen, me, Lara, and our teacher (sorry I forgot her name) wearing a great Saori jacket. The photo on the left shows off our scarves really well. Mine turned out to be really colorful and spring inspired. Lara made a scarf that is so long that it is practically double her height. It looks great wrapped around her. Jen's scarf had beautiful gold thread in it and reminded me of fall. I truly loved this class and it was nice to have a finished product in such a short period of time. I'd love to go back and try to make something else. I guess I better do it quick, I have less than 2 months left in Nippon! AAAAHHH!!!
How cool! That looks like fun!
ReplyDeleteSorry, i am just now getting caught up on my blog reading...How fun! I'm so glad you got a chance to take a class and experience that. I'd love to see your scarf in person too! Glad to hear you will be back in SD soon!
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