Design a Kimono fabric print with the help of some natural materials!

What is a kimono?

The kimono is a traditional Japanese garment, and the national dress of Japan. It is a T-shaped, wrapped-front garment and is worn left over right. It is usually worn with an obi belt, alongside a number of other accessories, such as zōri shoes and tabi socks.

The word “kimono”, literally means a “thing to wear” (ki “wear” and mono”thing”)

The Kimono, remains fashionable to this day. Though no longer considered an everyday item of clothing, except maybe for some of the elderly population, these dressy robes are reserved for special events and activities.

For your Art this week, I would like you to have a look at some kimonos and the fabric patterns that are used to decorate the cloth they are made with.

See if you can spot any special features which may include flowers, animals and other plants and wildlife.

Next time you are out on a walk or in your garden, see if you can collect an assortment of flora. The hedgerows are full already with Cowparsley, Hawthorns are still flowering and see if you can find any other type of blossom. I have also seen an abundance of Dandelions, Speedwell, Forget me nots amongst quite a few other hedgerow favourites. Of course with permission select a few flowers that you may be allowed to pick from your own garden or any that may have dropped onto the ground before they spoil. I also found interesting leaves just starting to sprout, fernlike and interestingly structured (rather than large Autumnal types) and perhaps twigs and small branches with new leaf or blossom shoots. Having said gather a collection, do be mindful not to pick too much as once picked most of these will die off quickly and we don’t want to waste plants and trees whose features such as their blossom go on to do further jobs through the seasons!

Here is my selection I foraged with my children! I did pick some bits from my own garden such as Hellibores/Bluebells/Camelias/Wysteria and Violets amongst other things-but definitely don’t forget to get permission before you pick anything!!

Bearing in mind, you’ll have to work quite quickly, at home first see if you have some coloured paper. Bold colours work well. I selected blues, greens, reds, yellows and black. Some paper I painted on top of to create a bolder colour or paint white paper if you don’t have any coloured.

When you are researching some Kimono images, also have a look at some of the common flowers and blossoms that feature on some of the fabrics. You may want to include Japanese Cranes, garden birds, goldfish, perhaps even dragons and tigers -see what you can find and consider what would look nice amongst some of the flowers and plant stems you are picking; for instance a bird on a branch.

With your selection of natural materials I would like you to have a go at arranging them on a coloured piece of paper, perhaps like this:

You may want to work from one corner up to the other side of the page in a burst.

You may want to make some repeating floral patterns, you can section your paper into 4 or 8 by folding to create a grid to follow without having to draw anything at all, like this:

You can then carefully create a similar repeating image in each rectangle like the two examples on the last page.

You may want to use pens, paints, chalks or whatever you have to hand to create some extra details on your piece of work. I used my youngest daughter’s metallic felt tips to draw extra marks around these Camelias, Roses and Hellibore seed heads, I tried to recreate some of the features | noticed in some of the Kimono fabric prints:

Next I decided to include some creatures and thought how they could space nicely amongst my floral compositions. This time I drew my drawings first, having considered where they should go and I then laid my plants and flowers on afterwards:

A couple of points to add, let any foliage run off the edge of your paper, don’t feel you’ve got to squeeze the whole of something onto your page, let it look as if it continues off the page, this will help your picture layout look more natural. Also I decided to put any spare flowers into our birdbath at home, not sure the birds will enjoy it!!? -however I liked the idea of not wasting anything and in my mind they having a spa day!!

Now, what is really important, is that as soon as you’ve created a design that you take a photograph, sadly the shelf life for your wonderful creations is not going to be long!! If you could take a photo of as many of the works you create and send them to Mrs Clark and I that would be brilliant! If it is tricky please ask your adult to help you with this. Try and photograph from high up, looking straight down on your work to create an even depth of field and try to include the whole picture, it doesn’t matter if there is a border of the background behind the picture, I can crop those bits off later.

What is also super important is that as soon as you have finished is that you wash your hands! Some plants can be more irritating to your skin than others, some plants can also, as you know, even be poisonous, so do take care!

Lastly, I hope this is a nice opportunity for you to get outside whilst we are having to stay home and have a look around at everything nature has to offer at the moment. It’s a beautiful time of the year! I’m hoping to collect all your work and put it together perhaps like this:

..Or I could use one of your individual works, repeated together to create a repeated image like this:

I hope you have creative fun and fresh air with this! Do improvise in any ways you may have to, we all have different resources at home and shopping is not the easiest thing at the moment.

I can’t wait to see what you produce! Mostly please, have fun and hope to see you all soon!! Mrs Taylor