Description

Katazome-shi Black and White Swirls

Katazome-shi washi are elegant, boldly patterned papers made entirely by hand and are time-consuming to produce. The base paper is first treated with soy juice to allow the pigments to bind with the paper. A resist paste is printed through a hand-cut stencil onto the treated paper and allowed to dry before the soy-based colours are stencilled on. After these colours, too, have dried, the paste resist is washed off to reveal the white, or paper-coloured areas of the pattern. The strength and ageless beauty of these special papers makes them great for book covers and boxes, cards, collage, lampshades, and more.

“Katazome-shi” literally means stencil-dyed (katazome) papers (-shi). Developed during the 20th century in Kyoto, based on traditional kimono printing techniques, Katazome-shi is still made there today. These richly coloured papers are block printed by hand, one colour at a time, using persimmon-dyed kozo as the stencils, and aided by paste and “Gojiru” (soy bean juice), the pigments absorb deeply into the paper to produce long-lasting colour.