I’m working on a pretty Mother of the Bride jacket, sewing little glass beads onto a gorgeous kimono silk. It has a traditional garden design with Japanese houses and buildings tucked in, under and between flowering trees. The beads add a sparkling, 3 dimensional edge. Beading is a long process, but welcome. I find it very relaxing, thinking about the placement of each bead. I take a stitch, add a bead, take a stitch, add a bead,….. it’s a meditation.

Can you see it? The way the design flips every few inches? See how one house is right side up then the next is upside down? It’s because of the way kimonos are sewn. There are two main pieces of fabric that make up the body, one for the right side, one for the left. For each side a width of kimono silk is run up, over the shoulder and down the back. If the design went in only one direction, half of it it would be upside down. With a design that flips there is no right side up. Clever, don’t you think?