Boutis Blossoms
Boutis and Pojagi
The language of needlework and textile arts is universal. It crosses barriers of time, generations, cultures and language and connects us through our common love and respect for the needle arts.
Boutis Blossoms incorporates Boutis, a traditional, artisanal needlework technique from France, with Pojagi, a Korean needle art dating back to12th century Korea and is made in Canada to celebrate the Japanese custom of Cherry Blossom Season in Vancouver.
“Boutis Blossoms” ©Elizabeth Janzen, 2022
The story begins with ten orphaned boutis blossom blocks. After having made ten of them for a specific project, when the design plan of the intended project changed, it left me with ten orphaned blocks.
This left me with an opportunity to be creative with the finishing technique. Since Boutis can be finished in a variety of ways, depending on it’s purpose, when I was introduced to pojagi in the book “Boutis de France: La tradition revisitée”, co-authored by Hubert Valeri, master of boutis and Maryse Allard, a Parisian artist passionate about traditional Korean Pojagi, I instantly recognised the appeal of combining these two traditional techniques. When a few years later I was looking for a way to frame “Boutis Blossoms”, I was reminded of this combination.
“Boutis de France: La tradition revisitée”
Written by Hubert Valeri and Maryse Allard
Published by: Libella, Paris 2013
As illustrated in their book, the authors have successfully combined their talents and brought these two traditional techniques together. When brought together in one piece, their individual qualities accommodate and balance each other, creating an elegant blend of delicate and graceful lightness.
In 2016, Maryse published her own book, “Le Pojagi: Art du Patchwork Coréen”, a tutorial teaching the basic technique of pojagi. Although written in French, the photos and illustrations do an excellent job of walking you through the process.
“Le Pojagi: Art du Patchwork Coréen”:
Written by: Maryse Allard
Published by: Éditions Didier Carpentier, 2016
With book securely by my side, I proceeded to try my hand at pojagi. (below)
Materials used:
For the Boutis: cotton batiste, cotton cording yarn, silk thread
For the Pojagi: silk organza, silk dupioni, silk thread
Pojagi, just like boutis, is reversible, with no raw edges visible. In pojagi the fabric pieces are sewn together using a triple stitched seam, similar to a flat felled seam. They are stitched with either a running stitch or a tiny whipstitch. As this was my first go at it, I used the running stitch.
The finished panel (below).
Thanks to the excellent instructions in Maryse’s book, I was pleased with the result of my first attempt at pojagi.
When the finished panel is held up against the light, the interplay and luminosity of the two techniques becomes apparent.
Read more about Hubert Valeri and his work on his website:
https://boutisarchi.42stores.com/category/Boutique
To see examples of his work:
https://boutisarchi.42stores.com/pages/Galerie
Read more about Maryse Allard and Pojagi in this article from “Textile Artist”
and on her website at http://www.maryseallard.fr/
.
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