Kinusaiga

We are always looking for new crafts to teach for our Adult Craft Nights at the library. Recently, “kinusaiga” has popped up on my feed. This Japanese textile art was intriguing. Fabric scraps… foam board… scissors… seam ripper (or other pointed thin tool)… a drawing… x-acto knife… that’s it!
Created in the 1980’s, Kinusaiga means “silk color painting”, or so the internet tells me. Of course, I have to try it first… and, of course, I choose a difficult pattern versus the one we will learn in class. I’ve been on a “wise man” kick for Christmas decorating, so here I go.

Kind of a stained glass look. Will the detail be too much? Time will tell.

Double sided sticky paper is mounted on 1” foam board. We bought the purple stuff for the library, but I had this on hand from tearing apart the old dog house! This is an experiment, so why not? I cut through the pattern lines with the x-acto knife, turning the drawing into the pattern pieces I will need.

I peel up each section of paper one at a time, using it as a pattern on my scrap fabric. I cut the fabric with about an 1/8” extra… which is kind of tricky on the little pieces! The fabric is laid on top of the sticky area and then, using the seam ripper, I push that little extra border of fabric down into the foam.

I think it’s looking pretty cool! Some examples showed popping it into frames, but to save money on supplies for the library, the plan is to have the outside pieces of fabric wrap around the edge. Obviously, the double sided paper isn’t on the edge (though it could be if I use an entire sheet on a 5×7 picture… I may try that on the next one). Maybe I will use hot glue to hold down the edge fabric. I’m not there yet… and I have until the 19th before I teach the class to figure it out.

But what a cool start to a new craft!

Find me here!

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