An exciting new collection of Japanese NUNO Works fabrics are gloriously displayed at the DIVAN Studio (Art + Design Building). The new fabrics are colorful textiles with silk-screened designs ranging from florals, abstracts, stripes, dots, swirls, squiggles on cottons, polyesters, broad cloths, corduroys and exquisite silks. “Flying Carp of NUNO Works” also features an electrifying array of carp-stylized windsocks in varying sizes and styles.
The fabrics are creative, artistic prints made using various techniques, stencil, silkscreen, and transfer printing all done by hand.
Japan is rich in textile manufacturing with an unequaled technology that involves their use of heritage techniques, new materials, and new technologies to produce “new classic” textile with an up-to-date sensibility. The bold modern designs interpreted in bright colors are exactingly hand-printed resulting in a precise visual design.
Windsocks, or carp kites, are 16 feet long, made up of strips of fabrics, black and white with a peanut design. Orange and yellow pique strips and a gray mottled design make up the fantasy pieces hung from the ceiling of the design studio.
In another section of the studio are three sizes of the carp windsocks, in blue and purple printed designs with stars, yellow with turquoise, a fabric with a long repeat of an arrows design. The fabric is woven in 11-foot lengths. One design of interest is a silkscreen that imitates swatches of fabrics. At the edges of these swatches it appears that some loose threads are just hanging, and one has the desire to gently pull one of those loose threads away. Not so ” that little thread is well woven into the intricate design.
Panels of knitted fringe ” one 5 feet wide, and 11 feet long ” can be cut to the exact length after it is hung on drapery regular rods.
“The fringe is the firm’s most popular fabric used all over the world and is favored as room dividers by many people in San Diego downtown lofts and on their high-ceiling windows,” director Chad Patton said. “The fabric can be dyed in minimum lots of ten panels; it is sent back to Japan to be dyed. The demand for this fringe is very high and is being woven as fast as it can.”
Tote bags having a waterproof cover are very popular as are the giant-size tube bags that can hold anything ” in the San Diego area they would be the best beach bags. Waistband aprons made from spare pieces of fabrics with pockets in contrasting colors, solids on solids or solids on prints, with a tie-around front belt are very useful. A new series of sheer summer stoles in white, green and gray are embroidered in black threads with small, animated cartoon cat character designs that are just fabulous.
Whimsy continues to delight in the wee “baby hogs,” adult toys and delightful conversation pieces. The basic aperture for the little hogs is a recycled small plastic soda bottle that is covered with the bits of fabric with tiny stand-up ears, and a snout made from scraps of worn synthetic soles. The artist also made a limited edition of 20 mini norbi (flying carps) from scraps of NUNO fabrics. The miniature table ornaments are suspended from a bamboo stick on a wooden block.
Unisex thong sandals are made from NUNO fabric remnants by poor people in a village of Myanmar (old Burma) in Southeast Asia. The sandal-making cottage industry has given economic relief to the village. This footwear is a fun accessory for both men and women and makes a nice gift.
Stop in at the DIVAN studio, 7661 Girard Ave., and view the splendid array of fabrics, samples, gift items and especially the colorful carp kites. The store is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, call (858) 551-0873 or e-mail [email protected].