the butterfly

For the last few weeks I studied the yuzen technique used in Japan to create kimono designs on silk(or chirimen) The fabric I used was chinese silk(Japanese silk is hard to acquire) It took me about 3 weeks to complete, this is by far one of the most intensive projects I worked on, and this is just a fraction of a complete kimono(lets say 1/20th part) It would be absolutely amazing to make one though.

Patterns used on kimono are picked by season, age and marital status as well as general status. Almost every flower and animal(and so on) has it's own meaning.
With this design I wanted to capture the fragility of youth(especially in japan) with the moon in the middle shining on a bright surface of clear water. purple branches of a weeping willow touch the surface. Above the surface a sky is hovering, bringing clouds that symbolize the coming adulthood. But for the meanwhile there seems to be nothing that can bring it to a stop. The youth is symbolized with peony flowers, lily's and the carefree butterfly that lazily floats near the flowers.