Crumpled, Folded, Dipped: Our Latest Ink Experiment

I hope you all had a lovely summer! Our experimental ink painting sessions are back, and this time we explored two traditional Japanese paper techniques, one after the other: momigami (揉み紙) and orizome (折り染め).

We started with momigami — meaning "kneaded paper" — crumpling and working the paper by hand before applying ink, which gave it a soft, textured, almost fabric-like surface. Then we moved on to orizome, meaning "fold-dyeing," folding the paper and dipping the edges into ink and colour — the folds act as a resist, and the pattern only reveals itself once the paper is opened.

Fold-and-resist dyeing shows up in textile traditions around the world in different forms — a reminder that people across cultures have long discovered similar ways of letting material and process create the pattern, rather than the hand alone. We had fun again!

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New Sumi-e course starting on 22nd August — only 1 spot left for the Saturday course. Please send an e-mail if you'd like to keep the spot.