Momigami sun hat

[BrendaP]

I have spent much of today sorting samples for the momi-gami workshop I'm leading at craft club in a few weeks time - samples need to be made for the month before.

Momi-gami is the Japanese technique of kneading paper (ie screwing it up!)  Whilst I very much doubt that anyone will get more than a basic card or small bag done on the day I though it would be nice to try something a bit more ambitious, and apparently back in the day,  Japanese monks used to make their clothing from momi-gami paper.

Here are my creations.  The hat is bog standard A4 copier paper from Amazon, coloured with acrylic paint using the gelli plate, screwed up, cut out and hand stitched together.

Sewing it wasn't difficult but getting the cast ons and cast offs to hold was!  In lots of places I've had to restitch. 
It has a lining made in exactly the same way as the outside and really it's the blanket stitching which is holding it together as much as the joining seams.  It is very light to wear.

The colour is better in the photo of headless Agatha modelling it.

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[realale]

Gosh, that's inventive. I hadn't heard of this so it's really interesting. That hat is something else!! Well done 

[Bill]

That hat really is something else!
I could've sworn it was fabric when I saw it. Wish I could hand sew like that! Too marks @BrendaP

[SewRuthieSews]

wow, thats a very cool technique!

[Bumblebuncher]

Wow! Never heard of that. Really interesting and sending me to the Google graveyard for a bit!

[BrendaP]

Doing momi-gami is easy, just be patient and do enough scrunches.  Ir should be soft and supple when scrunched enough.

Main thing is not to overdo the oil, you don't want to end up with paper like fish and chip wrappers    The oil is mainly to stop your hands drying out.  Magazine pages and printed crafting papers tend to have a lot more chalky sizing than copier paper, and I think that the acrylic layer helps too.

[jintie]

Did you waterproof it in some way?

[BrendaP]

Did you waterproof it in some way?

No, I didn't although acrylic paint, albeit a very thin layer should be slightly water repellant.  I understand that he traditional Japanese way of treating the paper with konnyaku paste before scrunching it up adds a fair degree of water resistance.