Métrica
Katagami — Her Name Is on Every One of Them — Book
Katagami — Her Name Is on Every One of Them — Book
A 66-page hardcover on twelve Japanese dye stencils from the gift of Helen Snyder, each shown beside the cloth it would have printed.
Free US shipping on two or more pieces. $8 flat on a single one.
Printed to order, then shipped with tracking. Shipping policy
Add a second — shipping’s on us.
Couldn't load pickup availability
The book
In 1976 a woman gave the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, two hundred and ninety objects, nearly all of them Japanese dye stencils: about seven in every ten katagami the museum counted three years later. It was the only gift she made them. Her name is on every one of them; almost nothing else about her has survived.
This book shows twelve of her stencils twice: as the objects they are, and as the cloth each would have printed, rebuilt from its own openings. With an essay on the gift and the craft of Ise katagami, and a catalogue of the eighty-two stencils the museum has published.
Why this book is different
A katagami is a tool: a sheet of paper, cut so that dye paste could pass through it onto cloth. Museums keep and show the tool; the cloth it printed is long gone. This book shows both. On one page, the stencil as it is kept today, with the museum’s record. On the facing page, the cloth it would have made, rebuilt from the stencil’s own openings. The cloth is a digital reconstruction made from the stencil itself, not a historical textile.
Where the museum’s measurements allow it, details are shown at actual size. The book ends with every stencil from her gift that the museum has published with an image, eighty-two in all, as a catalogue.
The object
A hardcover book, printed on Mohawk Superfine: a 120 gsm uncoated art paper with a soft matte surface, heavier than a magazine page and without the shine of a photo book. The cover is matte-laminated. A4, 66 pages, in English.
It is printed to order in the USA when you buy it, one copy at a time.
Continue reading ▾
Inside
- I · Her name is on every one of them — the gift, and what is known about the woman who made it
- II · The ones that need holding together — the craft of Ise katagami
- III · From the paper to the cloth
- The plates — twelve stencils, twelve cloths
- IV · From the stencil to the screen — how a katagami led to our own screen-printed shirt
- The eighty-two — the catalogue of her published stencils
Specifications
- A4 portrait · 8.3 × 11.7 in (210 × 297 mm)
- Hardcover · matte-laminated cover · white endpapers
- 66 pages · Mohawk Superfine 120 gsm, uncoated, matte
- Text in English · notes, chronology, sources and image credits
- Printed to order in the USA
Stencil images: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, open access. The cloths are Métrica’s reconstructions. Published independently by Métrica; not affiliated with the institutions credited.
Book details
