Slow Fiber Studios’ Workshops
by Master artisans around the globe:
Exciting Opportunities in 2022
SFS had a great response with growing interest in learning from our Masters this year! We plan to offer these popular courses and more in 2022, next year. Refer to the “Upcoming Events” button below for further information. Please note that dates are still to be confirmed.
Are you a serious beginner or an experienced dyer? Interested to learn textile techniques and/or deepen your conceptual/creative foundations with historical and cultural understanding? Do you enjoy sharing your work for communal critiques and suggestions, and exchange with others for inspiration?
In 2021, Slow Fiber Studios introduced our new Hybrid Workshops for artists and artisans at all stages in their practice. The pandemic challenges brought us a silver lining. prompting us to make a technological paradigm shift. Our masters in France (Michel Garcia) and in Japan (Hiroshi Murase) are working with SFS founder, scholar, and artist, Yoshiko I. Wada to offer online & studio workshops for students in different time zones. Instructors and non-local students participate via Zoom while a limited number of fully vaccinated students work in the studio. This interactive platform enables each student to experience a close connection to the instructor and other participants. Currently our program focuses on authentic Japanese Shibori Craft and the Alchemy of Natural Indigo Dye.
Learn from our Master Artisans
Wada and Murase, have developed 5 series shibori foundational workshops as part of the our program, covering Kumo, Miura, Kanoko, the variations and adaptations of shibori innovations, including historical and cultural background. The artisan shibori classes are supported learning to use the materials and tools used or designed by artisans in Japan. All workshops are taught by Murase, in Japan, while Wada facilitates from the SFS Annex in California.
Hiroshi Murase was born 4th generation into a textile family of shibori-stencil pattern making artisans in the traditional shibori production center of Arimatsu / Narumi. He has been deeply rooted in the art of shibori his whole life, well versed in a wide rage of shibori techniques. An internationally respected artisan and an enterprising designer, he has more than 40 years experience in the textile field. Currently, Murase is the chairman of the acclaimed Suzusan corporation. Having assumed the reins of the family business in 1971, Hiroshi Murase is widely credited for the “Suzusan innovation” due to his passion and experience.
Dr. Tomoko Torimaru received her PhD from Donghua University, Shanghai, in 2004 for her studies on the history and technology of Chinese textiles. From 1995, she spent 15 years among the Miao People in Guizhou, China performing field research in collaboration with Sadae Torimaru. She is the author of and co-author of three books. She traveled around the world in search of tablet weaving and published her findings at the Textile Society of America’s symposium. She is currently a University lecturer in Japan.
Asif Shaikh has been dedicated to the rich tradition of embroideries in India since a young age and continues to work tirelessly to promote the artistry and sustainability of this heritage craft.
He initiated WALKING HAND-IN-HAND in February 2016. Asif Shaikh and Villo Mirza, both Ahmedabad-based textile and fashion specialists, founded the Craft Design Society Art Foundation (CDS Art Foundation) with the aim to take beautiful, handcrafted Indian textiles to the world’s stage, to share space with the best global textile and fashion brands.
CDS Art Foundation organizes a one-of-a-kind fashion show in India, Walking Hand-in-Hand, with focus on co-design with artisans. They aim to connect artisans and leading designers as knowledge partners to produce a line of couture garments. Symbolically, the artisan and designer walk together on the fashion ramp, showing the vital role of the artisan in contemporary fashion creation.
In collaboration with Michel Garcia, our workshops on persicaria tinctoria and indigofera suffruticosa, we aim to demystify natural indigo by breaking down the colorant’s diverse extraction possibilities. Sourced from Michel’s life work, he delves into various indigo plant forms of: dried, fresh, compost, powder, paste and paint into our NEW five Hybrid Workshops. Our courses are inspired and modeled from over ten years of the Natural Dye Workshop film productions with emphasis on Michel’s sustainable methods, and extensive ongoing research by Michel Garcia. All Natural Indigo dye used in our workshops are grown and produced sustainably from Stoney Creek Colors, Tennessee, USA.
Michel Garcia is a botanist, chemist, dyer, and naturalist. He is the founder of Couleur Garance (1998) in Lauris, France, and established Le Jardin Conservatoire de Plantes Tinctoriales (Botanical Garden of Dye Plants) in 2000 as a horticultural resource for chemists, natural dye researchers, and botanists. He has been instrumental in revitalizing the natural dye practice in France and abroad.
Atsushi Futatsuya was born into the third generation of a surviving Sashiko family in Gifu prefecture. He grew up with Sashiko, surrounded by thread, needles and lots of fabric. He launched the “Sashi.Co” project with his mother, Keiko, who has over forty years of experience with Sashiko stitching, to introduce their masterful works. Starting in 2017, he introduced the beauty and concept of Sashiko to the world through his storytelling and workshops.
Our international workshops are taught virtually by master artisans on topics such as shibori and natural dyeing and will be streamed through Zoom Webinar. A small group of fully vaccinated participants will be welcomed at the SFS Annex in Berkeley with indigo vats for their use. You can bring your own laptop, and the Annex will have a large monitor as well as a staff with a camera capturing participants’ work to show to the instructor.
Recordings from both sessions and all documents and PowerPoint presentations will be shared with the class and the students who are in different time zones. During the week between two sessions, you will be given assignments and may ask questions using an online Google Form which will be answered and added in the Q&A document which will be shared with the students. The students of indigo workshops and shibori workshops are invited to a PRIVATE FaceBook Group to post your progress, images, and questions.
How to Sign Up for a Hybrid Workshop:
Please visit our “Events” page where you can browse upcoming workshops and events. To sign up for a 2-day workshop, please click on the event page for the first session of a two-day workshop (title “Saturday 1”)- a link to the online registration will be available.
Hybrid workshops have a max 20 people on Zoom webinar along with the studio experience hosted by Yoshiko for max 6 people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 before the workshop at the SFS Annex in Berkeley. For more information contact: staff@yoshikowada.com
*World Shibori Network members will receive registration details 3 days before public announcement.
