A Life in Weaving

Join master weaver and contemporary textile designer Misao Iwamura as she takes the audience on an illustrated tour of the weaving life.

Misao was brought up in Kyoto, Japan, a major centre for traditional textiles, and learned textile and graphic design at Kyoto Art and Craft School. She now lives just outside Kyoto, and from her studio she can see Mt. Hiei, which both inspires and delights her.

Misao worked for a textile manufacturer for many years designing fabrics and yarns. As a designer she had many ideas for weaving but no actual experience of hand-weaving technique. She wanted to understand the whole creative process from a spool of yarn to the finished fabric. Eventually she decided to leave the company and start weaving for herself in order to master the entire process.

In 1988 she built her own studio. Since then she has been able to freely design and create her own textiles. She has held a number of exhibitions in Japan, Bulgaria, Sweden, and the United States. Her textiles have been featured in various weaving textile magazines and on the Japanese television program Oshare Kobo.

From 1998 to 2010, Misao was a regular guest lecturer at the Kawashima Textile School in Kyoto, and she has been a member of the Japan Craft Design Association for ten years. Her book, Plain Weaving, was published by Bunka Shuppan Press in 2001.

Misao will be joined by her protégé, Chisako Hisamatsu. A gifted and exhibited artisan in her own right, Chisako is an associate at the Silk Weaving Studio on Granville Island. She presently lives in Japan.