I made this for my grandson Miles who graduated from Wooster College in Ohio. The body was of hand painted silk and lined with cross weave silk taffeta. I painted the crests (Kamon) of our Japanese Great Grandparents and attached them to the front. Not forgetting Miles was born in the USA, I added the red/white/blue ribbon. The colors of the college was black and gold. (on my ironing board to photo).
Geometric backgrounds are called diapering from the word describing a type of woven cloth. Here are some of the samples I painted. Most are of gouache, Fintec metallics on Arches text wove with my favorite brush. given to me by a dear friend, kolinsky sable #2.
It has been a year of studying Illuminations of old manuscripts with teacher Risa Gettler through UC Riverside. I learned a lot about using gouache, what was painted and how the illuminations were made in century's long ago. 2024 was the year I studied. Here are some of my pieces from the first session.
