Photo Shoot of three tapestries

Today George Young photographed a few more of the completed tapestries. Below are the images. Each has elements that come off as hats or hair ornaments.



























This piece above, Butterfly Papa Hu, is inspired by a Japanese print in the de Young Museum textile collection as well as by the Chinese and Japanese fireworks of my childhood memories. My Dad called these fireworks by the Hawaiian pidgin name, "Papa Hu". My favorite were the fireworks that reminded me of exploding flowers. I tried to capture that exploding flower imagery here. The paper butterflies behind the brown netting are all recycled bit of postcards and print material from the de Young Museums recycling bins. The brown netting is recycled netting donated by Walker Bag of San Francisco before they moved to their new warehouse location.























This piece above, Fortune, is inspired by the intersection of histories of Japanese American families, the Japaense Tea Garden of Golden Gate Park and the creation of the Fortune cookie.
The below piece is inspired by silk riots in London and by a tapestry in the de Young Museum collection. The silk strips in the back represent the slashing of imported silks by frustrated textile workers and blade shapes are echoed in the form of the silk fragments. I have earlier postings on all these pieces.

Photo Shoot of Hats from tapestries

Last Friday I had a photo shoot of a few of the hats that come off of the tapestries. Stacie Tamaki was my lovely model. Armando Sarabia created the amazing hair style and make up. George R. Young was my fantastic photographer. The below two images are of a Ginkgo Leaf hat that come off of the Ginkgo Tapestry.


























The below Hat comes off of the "Ties that Bind Tapestry"

Refining Elements

Today I am adding the final touches to two of the four tapestries I have completed. Cole and Emily have been my little assistants in prepping some of the materials. Here they are cutting the produce netting to add to the tips of the blue wire flower stamens.







































I like the way the flowers look with the red produce netting at the ends. It reminds me of exploding papa hu ... old pidgen term for fireworks in Hawaii.




















Below are the fortune cookie fortunes for one of the tapestries.















Below are the recreations of Japanese Internment Id tags. Names are of family friends in Hawaii who were sent to internment as well as the family names of the Japanese American manufactures of the original fortune cookies in San Francisco.

Butterfly Tapestry

Here are in progress images of my butterfly tapestry. There are two hair ornaments that come off of this one. The center of the wire flowers are mini shoyu bottle caps. The paper butterflies are recycled postcard and print materials from the de Young Museum. The butterfly pattern is inspired by a Japanese textile in their online image collection.


























































































Cardboard sketch and the beginning of wire work.




















Mesh being added. This mesh is remnant mesh from Walker Bag of San Francisco.

























































Below, one of two large hair ornaments that come off of the tapestry.