Pojagi

Last year I had the privilege of working with a great group of students for after-school art. I had ten students total. It was a mixture of 6th, 7th and 8th graders. We spent the first couple of weeks experimenting with different ways to create pattern on cloth. We did some good old hippy tie dye, some itajime (folding and clamping), marbling, rubbings with paintstiks, thickened dye, potato dextrin resist, and sponge painting. It was messy and fun! What to do with all these samples? A pojagi banner seemed a great solution.



We were able to buy some books on pojagi from Amazon Japan.

http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product/images/4877512365/ref=dp_image_0?ie=UTF8&n=465392&s=books

http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product/images/4579107977/ref=dp_image_0?ie=UTF8&n=465392&s=books

We followed the great illustrations to figure out the steps for creating our pojagi banner even though the text was in Japanese. We did do our stitching with a sewing machine instead of by hand however as we were rushed by a deadline to finish. The students had a hard time with making straight seams, but who says it had to be perfect? It has lots of character and the students can look at it and they know which pieces of fabric are theirs and which parts they sewed together. Originally we wanted to hang it where it would be lit from behind, but as with most schools there was no money in the budget for anything like that.

I am hoping to get a grant to go to Japan on a fiber tour and maybe will find a shop that has some of the fabric they traditionally use for Pojagi. Pojagi is actually a Korean technique but seems to be gaining some popularity with Japanese crafters.