Fabric Story
Boushi Boots’ original textiles were born from a desire to explore graphic expression, abstract art, form and colour through paper collage and ink.
My main inspiration came from the Japanese landscape and culture, hot summer days, my two children and the randomness that is the medium of collage.
Paper collage is tactile, experimental and a fun way to express my creativity.
Through trial and error, digitisation, scaling up, scaling down, adjusting colours and hues, I was able to produce sample prints and finally four textile print designs; 「KAIGARA」「IRITA」「MOJI」「KAMIFUBUKI」 .
The finished compositions I hope reflect a genderless and ageless range of uplifting textiles.
I hope you enjoy them:)
KAIGARA
「KAIGARA」or「Sea Shells」was an accidental merge of two collages. The first collage is of my favourite Japanese snack - Onigiri. Ripped nori, furikake and rice grains being the main motifs. The second collage is of crushed shells of the Izu Peninsula.
I wanted the final design to be abstract, conceptual and large in scale. Doing so meant that no two hats would be the same due to the minimal pattern repeat.
IRITA
「IRITA」 is a favourite family vacation spot. The lookouts, rolling hills and waves and even the local pizza shop inspired this particular piece.
MOJI
「MOJI」 or 「Letters」 was inspired by my two boys.
When they were younger and played with tsumiki (building blocks) I would often find myself creating letters around their train tracks and mini towns.
Paper rectangles, circles, semi-circles, triangles and squares became my tsumiki as I had fun arranging them into a typeface.
KAMIFUBUKI
「KAMIFUBIKI」 or 「Confetti」was the result of collage clippings that wound up on the cutting room floor. Unlike the other three designs, 「KAMIFUBIKI」was not altered in any way. I liked the composition and colours just as they were.
On a side note, the kanji for 「KAMIFUBIKI」紙吹雪 when broken down translates to 「Paper Blizzard」ie, confetti. My studio did look as though a paper blizzard had blazed through it at the end of this process.
