At the end of last year I did a self portrait of myself in an unusual way. Based around a kimono and the ancient tradition of the Japanese using this piece of clothing to represent an event or even sometimes tell a story depending on the family. Of course the design, of the kimono, was originally created due to the humidity of the country, allowing the wearer to bend down and sit on the cool floor and air to pass air through the large sleeves to keep the wearer cool.

The kimono has various techniques used on it, mainly dying old fabrics given to me by my mum and patched together the way the pheasants used to do ‘Boro’ style. Then I decorated the front by shabori dying it. On theback is the self portrait, it’s an image of my child bearing hips and spine which I glued to stiffen. There are quilted wings just above my hips to show protection of my family and the fire below is the fuel that keeps me going. The quilted wings are the close up image I use for my home page. I experimented with knitting with denim for the sleeves keeping the theme of reusing what you have.

I’m carrying over to my final year the warrior theme but now I’m looking at mythological female heroes