Freeform Boro: Layered Fabric Mosaics


Boro is the Japanese tradition of patching and layering cloth, stitch by stitch, until a humble textile becomes something extraordinary. We have spent years studying historical boro and sashiko textiles, and somewhere along the way our pattern-loving brains started seeing something new: an abstract language of color, overlap, and line hiding inside the patchwork. Freeform Boro is where that discovery led us.

In this workshop, you will create a layered textile mosaic from scraps of Cherrywood hand-dyed fabric. You’ll arrange patches similarly to the way you might lay down color on a canvas, glue-baste them in place, and lock each layer down with simple sashiko running stitches. You can work from the top down or outward from a single central patch. The finished panel has no backing fabric, so light passes right through. Hang it in a window and it glows like stained glass, mount it as wall art, or let it become a noren, the traditional Japanese doorway and window curtain.

All experience levels are welcome.

Students should bring fabric scissors. Everything else comes in a required $35 kit.