This aesthetically pleasing collection of stencils includes many elements from nature including flowers, fish and trees, as well as geometric design.They are offered as individual items.Most measures approximately 14” x 17”.These stencils are presumed from the mid-nineteenth century, as the human hair reinforcements used in these designs were replaced with silk threads after that period.
Katagami is a carved mulberry paper stencil that is used for resist dying(katazome) on Japanese Kimonos. The stencil is created with multiple sheets of mulberry bark paper with human hair reinforcement grid between the sheets. To create the stencil mulberry bark was treated with persimmon tannins, then becoming the mulberry "paper".The mulberry paper was then arranged in stacks, a pattern was drawn on the top sheet and the pattern was cut through the entire stack with a carving knife.The hair grid was then embedded between the sheets .The stencils highly detailed cutouts result in large areas of negative space.
