This time I would like to talk about the time when I visited Mr. Mikiya Toyoshima’s workshop, the second design of “Online Textile Factory tour in Kyoto by the sea, Yosano-cho.
Mr. Mikiya Toyoshima said, “I grew cotton because I thought it was from cultivation if I traced the roots of cotton fabric. Since there is a garabo spinning machine, the thickness of the thread can be adjusted and even commercialized. I thought it would be nice to be able to spin fluffy yarn on the machine, and indigo would be interesting.”
The work unique to the handicraft is made of fluffy fabrics that have a pleasant feel.
It will be woven firmly on a machine, so it is made by hand when they make fluffy fabrics.
Even though it is made, it is cultivated from cotton and even twisted yarns are made.
What I was particularly interested in when listening to the story was that Kibiso yarn, thread made from a collection of yarns that do not become raw silk (rubbish), has excellent moisture absorption-desorption, so it’s gentle on the skin, prevents stuffiness, and also it’s gentle on baby’s skins because it’s as light and soft as feathers. Mr. Toyoshima is an interesting person because while he makes works with such threads, he also makes works that are woven with metal and fibers.
It was a piece of wire mesh that drew Mr. Toyoshima into the world of textiles at once.
The light shined on the abandoned wire mesh and it was so beautiful.
It was made of very thin stainless steel.
He started making his own work, thinking that he could use it for architecture.
He started by making parts, sometimes reassembled used looms, and made them from scratch, all of them were self-taught.
Currently, with traditional textile manufacturing technology of Kyoto Nishijin and ultra-fine metal wire (mainly stainless wire), the only one jacquard fabric that creates a modern interior space has revived by the charm of materials such as “metallic shine” and “expression that changes depending on lighting” and they propose a wide range of designs from classic textile patterns to the latest design art. The DESIGN TOCHI’s stainless steel fabric is said to have become the decoration of the world’s big maison space.
This time I visited this online textile factory tour, design-tochi, and I thought “What is sustainable?” and textiles and the machine shops like Mr. Toyoshima should be like this.
I wondered if it would be similar to go beyond stereotypes and try new things.