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Wabi-sabi, boro inspired fabric for jewellery making.

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Boro Inspired Patchwork Update.

A wabi-sabi, boro inspired stitching project for making jewellery

a close up of boro style stitching on indigo and neutral patchwork Japanese fabric

The stitching story so far - a quick resume

If you read about my boro inspired patchwork using Japanese fabric scraps and fine sashiko thread, I think I left you at the point where the piecing and base stitching was complete and I wanted to distress the fabric and add more patches (to be fair, I was distressed and my fingers needed the odd patch by this point too!) 

Now that I'm slowly getting back to good health, I'm going to write up a more comprehensive DIY step-by-step guide plus a series of tips for working with sashiko stitching and boro in the near future, so please subscribe and follow me on social media to be notified of new posts. Don't forget to leave a comment if there's anything  particular you would like to see. 

Next Steps - Craft Process

Constructing and deconstructing

a faltlay picture of the finished piece of stitched patchwork cloth, with tiny boro style, decorative slab stitches and added patches

After snipping a few holes and carefully sanding small areas (see below for info), I washed the fabric and added some small patches of the same Japanese fabrics used for the base, randomly stitching around the edges or across with slab stitches without turning the edges to allow some fraying for effect.

At this point I couldn't believe that having stitched it I was going to cut it all up! It had always been my intention to create some jewellery and pincushions with this piece but wielding the sharp scissors I have to admit I felt a bit regretful. 

placing jewellery findings on the cloth to determine where to cut the fabric.

TIP: For tiny areas of light sanding on textiles or paint, I like to use an ink eraser pencil; it has a rough, gritty texture and the ability to sharpen to a point. I use the Faber-Castell Perfection pencil, which comes in ink only or dual tip for ink & pencil. 

Inspiration

A nod to wabi-sabi and Japanese aesthetic

Originating in Japan, boro textiles use simple running stitches to mend and patch together scraps of fabric. The end result is a beautifully imperfect piece that embodies the wabi-sabi aesthetic, which celebrates the beauty of imperfection and impermanence. 

As well as having small scraps of Japanese fabric from my travels, which I didn't want to go to waste, I've had some beautiful findings especially for textile jewellery waiting to be used and some gorgeous, dark wood, vintage treen eggcups screaming out for some special treatment. 

The indigo colour palette and texture of the the textile marries so well with smooth, dark wood and reflects the aesthetic of the old style houses, shrines and temples of Japan. Similarly, the stylish simplicity of the findings highlight the beautiful imperfection, time and mindful handiwork of each little piece of stitched, boro style cloth. 

Japanese wabi-sabi aesthetic indigo and dark wood mood board. Traditional machiya tea house, Japanese pottery, shoji doors, indigo fabric and zabuton seiza cushion
Japanese aesthetic mood board

Finishing the project

Quality control and sustainable crafting

Sadly, although the finished fabric was very sturdy, once I had constructed the pin cushion I didn't think that the tiny patch additions would fare well being stabbed repeatedly with pins and needles.  

I decided to concentrate on making jewellery and was really happy to find that the small pieces left from the pincushion trial and after using the metal jewellery findings were just large enough to fit in some dark wood cabochons I had bought for a mosaic project (the pincushions will come soon though and be made with a more suitable piece of cloth that I have been stitching recently).
progress pictures of handcrafting a wooden eggcup pincushion and jewellery with the boro style fabric
Every piece of fabric was used and any minute scraps left over are going be used for a planned papermaking project, which I'll detail when I finish what seems like a mountain of work in progress that was left when I became unwell; I learned to make paper in Japan so am excited to share some accessible DIY projects with you soon. 

I'm so pleased with how the boro style fabric jewellery turned out and am excited to share it with you in full glory when I take some fancy photos and add the pieces to my Etsy shop - I'll post here and on social media when I do.

See you soon x

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