thelmasmith

Here is a photo of my colleague, Tanya Watanabe. Although she lives in Japan she is one of those citizens of the world.

When I come back from a trip I empty the suitcases first. I put the art supplies and the dirty laundry in their place. That’s after sleeping for about twenty hours.

Today was my day for opening the mail from the last ten days. I paid the bills and shredded all the sucker bait mail including all the blank checks with my name on them. Then I got to the large, nicely wrapped package that I knew was from Tanya. I had saved it and savored it as the reward for getting all the boring work done.

I am totally blown away ! ! ! Look at the treasure trove that came out of that small box.

I folded each in half and pinned them up over other things on the pinning wall. The two shorter ones may be - - - oh, rats, I cannot find the John Marshall book on Kimono that gives the proper names. The orange has a lovely lining.

And look at the hand painting on the sleeve. The back has a much larger hand painted mountain scene. The front has a similar painting on each side of the front.

The lavender kimono in the back of the first picture is a lovely brocade. This floral pattern is either hand painted or print in an overall design. Although it has relatively short sleeves it is a much more formal kimono as the long length indicates it is designed to be worn with an obi that will take up some of the length.

This last detail is from the middle kimono. The color in the photo does not do it justice; it is a rich café au lait with delicate, restrained hand painted motifs.

Tanya, I do not know how to thank you enough. These kimono are magnificent. There is no way I can cut them to use in textile art; they are much too gorgeous. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!