Sievers School of Fiber Arts

Michele, Maryanne and I went to the Island to sew! Check out Michele's blog for more pictures! I apparently didn't get a picture of Maryanne but Michele did!

I went away for a long weekend to Washington Island to take a class at Sievers School of Fiber Arts. The class was learning about a Korean stitching technique called Pojagi. The patched Pojagi(Korean Traditional Wrapping Cloths) were made many generations ago in Korea . Traditionally,Chi'ma and Chogori ( Korean skirt and jacket ), have been made by women at home. Pojagi is patchwork making use of the scrap pieces left after cutting the cloth to make their suits. From nobles to commoners, irrespective of their social positions, Korean women have handed downthis handiwork, from grandmothers to mothers and daughters. Practically, Pojagi plays the same role as Japanese Furoshiki. It can be used for wrapping a book or a lunch box. A piece with a knob in the center can be placed over a meal set out ahead on a table ready for eating. A bigger one can be spread over Futon as a dust protector. Pieces of thin cloth such as silk, cotton or hemp are used to tie diagonal corners easily. A variety of shapes of pieces of cloth -circle,triangle, rectangle, and hexagon-are patched together to make a new, beautifully designed cloth. Pojagi can be made of a few pieces of plain cloth of different colors, or of pieces dyed with leaves and seeds into natural colors. All the works of Pojagi have a calm, gentle feeling as they are made of cloth with light colors such as pale blue or pale pink. The process of making Pojagi is simple. Imaging the finished product, scrap pieces of cloth are cut, sewn together horizontall ywith forward and backstitches, all the parts are joined together, and then the whole piece is hemmed. Korean women were clever enough to think of a way of hiding the sewn seams, and to make Pojagi durable by sewing the seams three times.

I had a wonderful time and can't wait to go back to the island!

Lynda

Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights;

it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.
Miriam Beard