I have been intrigued with Indigo for almost 10 years. My husband and I moved to China in 2008 where I discovered the beautiful Indigo prints at the Nankeen Exhibition Hall in Shanghai. I fell in love with the beautiful blue prints and purchased many and used them in my quilts. Then I began a journey to learn about indigo dying, the lime paste resist, the stencil carving – the entire process called lanyinhua.

In 2011 I took a trip with Dalton Textile Tours to visit some of the minority villages in Southeast China and was able to learn and observe more about Indigo dying and the wax resist method used by the Miao. Subsequent visits to other parts of China, Tibet, Thailand, Laos, Korea and Cambodia added more information.

With the help of friends living in Shanghai, I was able to purchase several books in Chinese about indigo textiles and I was fortunate to have a family member, Nicolette Mah, translate text from one of the books “ Blue Color Print Fabric, Chinese Folk and Culture Book Series” on the Chinese soy flour resist, method of Indigo dying and stencil carving. I took a class with John Marshall and learned to carve katazome stencils and make and use the Japanese resist paste.

Classes over the years with Kathy Hattori, Catherine Ellis, Joan Morris, Akemi Cohen, and Aboubakar Fofanna all exposed me to various methods of textile design and techniques. A Fall workshop with Bryan Whitehead in Japan and a workshop last year with Yoshiko Wada and Hiroshi Murase capped off my recent experiences and influence my design and technique.

I fell in love with Shibori and especially stitch resist Nui Shibori. I have focused mostly on learning and perfecting my stitch technique and the past two years have explored the use of stitch resist with indigo dye to create non-traditional Shibori art pieces. As lifelong quilter I incorporate piece and quilting into many of my pieces. Recent exploration with collage quilting with Susan Carlson has lead to another area of interest and the creation of some new pieces.

I hope you enjoy my website and the gallery of pieces I have created. Most items are for sale, unless noted otherwise. Please contact me if you are interested.

I leave you with this thought:

“All flowers are beautiful, even though each individual flower is different in form and color. Because of this difference, “all are good”.

Because everything has the same life, life cannot be measured by a yardstick. It is this individuality that makes everything meaningful and the uniqueness of each thread that creates the tapestry of life.”

Misao Jo – Saori Founder (1913-2018)