About Embroidery Studio Kida
In 1897, Grandfather Kunitarō founded an embroidery workshop in Kyoto.
Koyo Kida became independent as “Embroidery Studio Kida” In 1988 and continues to the present day.
Embroidery Studio Kida has worked for the creating, restoring, and repairing of embroidery items including costumes, interior furnishings, and festival textiles.
Technique of embroidery
There are many different techniques for embroidery. It has been cultivated over a long period of time, refined and passed down to the present day. It has been pointed out that some of the techniques used in the past have disappeared in posterity.
Different ways of installing the fabric will make a difference in the generation of techniques. The hand movement should be changed depending on whether you stick the needle on the cloth fixed to a wooden frame or on the cloth that you hold in your hand, and such differences make different techniques.
Silk thread, the material for Japanese embroidery, can be said as an excellent material in terms of modeling because of its good flexibility for dying, twisting depth, and choice of thickness. I think that is a reason why various works are created depending on how this material is used.
We design the colors and forms at the beginning of production, and then choose the fabric. We imagine the shape of the thread that resonates with the fabric, and select the thread that suits it. The work at this stage is called “Ito-mochi”. This is very important factor, and it should precede the matter of the skill.
The thickness of the thread, the twisting method, the strength of twisting, the density of the thread arrangement, and multiple techniques are combined to form each stitch.
I feel that the real thrill of embroidery is the creation of textures through this combination of materials and techniques.
Embroidery has more technical flexibility than weaving or dying, therefore it can be shaped relatively freely. In addition, I think it is also a feature of embroidery that it can be constructed while daring to consider the suppression of the presentation.
About Production
Japanese embroidery has continued changing mainly with the acceptance of the influence of Chinese embroidery from ancient times to the Edo period. After Meiji era, although Japanese embroidery has been influenced by Western cultures, the originality of Japanese embroidery lies in the commonality as the oriental silk embroidery fundamentally.
We have inherited them from the works that have been handed down and from our senior masters. In the long history and natural features, the culture of dyeing, weaving, embroidery and knitting has been cultivated and inherited. I would like to enjoy it based on them and create from a modern perspective.
Especially some unique appearances and textures are derived from the specific techniques and materials. I think it is important to pursue and develop the possibilities of formative design by the materials and embroidery techniques.