A collaboration between a Japanese flags & textiles studio and a Dutch textile designer

THREADS OF ALLEGORY

In the work of Laura Luchtman, colour is the unifying element, woven into every design, concept and experiment in my studio. With a background in communication, fashion and over a decade in textiles, she approaches design as a tool to connect people, stories and materials in a way that is both meaningful and evocative. Driven by a fascination for colour’s transformative power, she experiments with pigment in its broadest sense, from natural dyes to bio-based innovations.

Tsuyoshi Kato is the founder of kiten.kyoto by Katouken flag studio, a studio that has produced Japanese traditional textile products since 1950. They have explored the method to produce the luxury textile products for traditional festival, shrine, temple and individuals and shops with strong preferences.

Laura explored during her residency the depth and diversity of Japanese textile traditions. Centered on exploration and process over product, the residency blended European embroidery with Kyoto’s Yuzen dyeing, inspired by Laura’s long-standing fascination with Japanese culture. Together with Tsuyoshi Kato, she visited numerous artisans across Kyoto, Kyotango, and Shiga Prefecture, engaging with techniques such as chirimen weaving, Kyo-shishu embroidery, raden weaving and bokashi & hikizome dyeing. Immersed in centuries-old practices and contemporary innovations, Laura gained insight into the cultural, technical, and emotional layers of Japanese craft.

These experiences directly informed her exhibition pieces—experimental flags and freestyle embroidery samplers that highlight the beauty of imperfection and the traces of the maker’s hand.

To respond to Laura’s strong vision on colour and colour gradations combined with graphic elements, she partnered with Okayama Kogei— a collaborator of Katouken Flag Studio for festival flags and happi coats—to create a flag blending European embroidery traditions with Kyoto’s Yuzen dyeing.

Throughout the residency, both Laura and Kato-san discovered a shared language of curiosity and subtle rebellion, moments of connection that transcends cultures for building longlasting relationships and collaborations blending innovation within tradition.

A collaboration between a Japanese kurume kasuri craftsman and a Bulgarian fashion designer

CATALYST OF THE SUBTLE DRIFT

Stefan has been captivated by Japan for many years, drawn to its rich history of fashion design, the nuanced textile techniques, and the profound connection its artisans maintain with craft, materials, and the general philosophy focussed on process, appreciation for imperfection which is very different to the European views.

As a third-generation Kasuri artisan, Shimogawa weaves not only fabric but also heritage, philosophy, and quiet innovation.
Rooted in over 220 years of tradition, his mission is to reimagine Japanese textile culture for a global audience.

The residency project of Stefan explores the quiet, often overlooked elements of the Kurume Kasuri weaving process, particularly the ephemeral marking knots of yarn—normally hidden or lost in production.

By collaborating with Kyozo Shimogawa, Stefan reimagined these threads as central visual elements, stretching hand-dyed cotton yarns across repurposed wooden boards to create layered compositions of rhythm, transparency, and tension.

Inspired by the preparatory stages of weaving, and using traditional tools like a bamboo comb gifted by Shimogawa-san, the works balance structure and fluidity while honoring the individuality of each thread. Hand-dyed cotton yarns, previously tied with handmade kukuri, are stretched into a landscape of layered transparencies.

Through limited intervention and deep observation, Stefan’s engagement reflects ”Aun no kokyū” ((阿吽の呼吸): an unspoken harmony between artist and artisan, where gestures align in a shared breath. Alongside these works, fragments of industrial and natural processes - from compressed and cross section cut aluminum patterns to abandoned yarns that have transformed from the power of nature - echo the subtle balance of craft, memory, and transformation.

Shimogawa-san gave Stefan the opportunity to connect independently with the broader Kurume Kasuri community, allowing for a deeply personal and intuitive response to the process. The result is a poetic reinterpretation of a tradition that speaks equally to its roots and its potential for contemporary expression.

A collaboration between a Japanese contemporary artist and silk virtuoso and an Armenian art historian and curator

HIGH TIDE - LOW TIDE

Nairi Khatchadourian is a Paris-born curator, art historian, and founding director of AHA collective, an award-winning independent curatorial practice rooted in Armenia since 2019. Her work brings together visual artists, architects, designers, researchers, craft masters in museums, public spaces, abandoned factories, villages, and heritage sites to renew the place of art within territories and societies.

Born 1949 in Okinawa, Japan. Michiko Uehara studies weaving under YANAGI Yoshihiro in Tokyo, then returns Okinawa to learn techniques of traditional weaving in Okinawa from OSHIRO Shizuko. In 1979, she set up MAYU TEXTILE STUDIO. Starting to create the gossamer weaving with silk threads (about 27 deniers) that are one-seventh as thin as the silk threads used for weaving kimonos, and she named it “Akezuba-Ori". The silk threads she handled gradually became thinner, and in 2006, she made from a single thread spit out by silkworms.

Nairi’s residency unfolded as a profound cultural and spiritual exchange with Michiko Uehara rooted in the shared language of silk weaving.

Despite the geographic and historical distance between the Armenian Highlands and the Ryukyu Islands, the two discovered deep resonances through the language of silk, mutual respect for landscape, and a shared sense of connection to ancestral knowledge. Day after day, they wove side by side, one weft at a time, one thread at a time, one shade of blue at a time. 135 denier, 83 denier, the finer the thread, the deeper their dialogue.

Their collaboration, inspired by Edouard Glissant’s concept of “Archipelagic thinking” and “Poetics of relation” became a living constellation of dialogue, weaving together not only threads but also histories, landscapes, and hopes for future connection.

It’s a mysterious thing, this understanding between people. Beyond words and generations, beyond countries, ethnicities, and religions, there was something that resonated deeply within their hearts. Through concrete objects and actions, this connection grew even stronger.

They met, resonated, and even found hope for what comes next.

A collaboration between a Japanese sakiori craftswoman and an Austrian artisanal shoemaker.

RE-IMAGINE SAKI-ORI

Matthias Winkler is an Austrian artisanal shoemaker. As both a fine artist and footwear designer, his practice has always been deeply intertwined with craftsmanship and research. Over the years, he has studied and explored traditional techniques while seeking contemporary reinterpretations.

Etsu Ishigashira is the founder of Saccora Share Global, a social design company based in Iwate, Japan. Her mission is to revive the traditional textile craft of sakiori—a weaving technique using torn fabric—and to create meaningful work opportunities for people with disabilities.

Matthias’s residency project resulted in a rich cross-cultural collaboration with Etsu Ishigashira rooted in traditional craft and contemporary design. Immersed in the cultural landscape of Iwate, Matthias explored the historical technique of saki-ori weaving from Tohoku and Iwate, engaging deeply with the tools, materials, and philosophies behind it.

Working closely with Ishigashira-san , founder of Saccora Share Global, a social enterprise reviving sakiori through inclusive employment - they transformed antique and recycled textiles into new, precious sakiori pieces. Their shared commitment to sustainability, craftsmanship, and cultural preservation wove a dialogue between Japan and Europe, much like the layered fabrics of sakiori itself, elevating each individual cloth strip into a new fabric, elevating them into a unique form of expression.

Living and working side by side allowed for profound exchanges not only in craft but in everyday life, reinforcing the idea that tradition can be a powerful, evolving force for connection, innovation, and social impact.

This project celebrates the vitality of craft when it is reimagined across cultures. It shows how traditions, far from being static, can evolve and connect, shaping design that is sustainable, inclusive, and profoundly human.

A collaboration project between a Japanese ikebana artist and a Latvian contemporary embroiderer.

INVISIBLE GARDENS

Elīza Māra is a contemporary embroidery artist and designer working interdisciplinarily in visual arts and cultural heritage interpretation. She is the first and currently the only Latvian to graduate from the prestigious Royal School of Needlework in London with a Bachelor's degree in Hand Embroidery. 

Eliza’s residency project weaves together Japanese post-war housing complexes (danchi), the traditional art of Ikebana, and hand embroidery to explore the meaning of home and living. Drawing from her personal connection to Soviet-era housing, Eliza sees parallels between the structural nature of danchi and the architectural qualities of Ikebana—both shaping how we experience space and it’s about living. Through walks in Kamakura with Ikebana artist Toru Watarai, and in learning Ikebana’s principles alongside traditional Japanese embroidery, the collaboration sought not to combine embroidery and Ikebana merely as techniques or for visual effect, but to find where they resonate within the continuity and interrelation of Japanese culture.

Danchi building being a unit in the fabric of the city, itself being made from multiple apartment units, it’s a home that can be viewed in multiple scales. And similarly with ikebana - it’s a smaller scale of nature brought inside a home to stay connected with the outside. Architecture in either form - built or arranged in flowers - is shaping how we are making and experiencing a home.

Toru Watarai is an ikebana artist and educator, and the founder of Tumbler & FLOWERS, a contemporary ikebana studio originally established in Omotesando, Tokyo, in 2012. Drawing on a background as a fashion editor and writer, Watarai brings a fresh and editorial approach to floral expression, focusing on seasonal materials, spatial awareness, and the visualization of gravity.

Now based in Kamakura, he teaches both traditional and experimental forms of ikebana, including private sessions held in a 90-year-old Japanese house. His classes are especially popular among creatives in fashion and architecture visiting Japan. Wataraiʼs work has been featured in exhibitions, hotels, and retail spaces, adapting the art of ikebana to diverse contexts from quiet interiors to luxury brand environments. He often incorporates vegetables, branches, or wooden blocks into his arrangements, exploring themes of balance, transience, and natureʼs silent dynamism.

Through this experience, Toru Watarai came to recognize once again that craft is the wisdom of daily life, rooted in the practices of local people. Even in an era driven by capitalism and efficiency, placing oneself in nature or devoting oneself to embroidery can connect the visible and the invisible, and guide people toward living with sincerity.