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Hand-woven Cotton Floor Mat / 182cm x 49.5cm

In the middle of the Edo period, in the Tohoku region, there was a custom of not discarding used fabrics like cotton but repurposing them for other uses or reusing them in new fabrics. From this tradition, a technique called “Saki-ori” was born, and even today, there are artisans who incorporate this technique into their creations.

One such maker is Noriko Matsumoto, a weaver based in Nagoya City. Matsumoto-san works with natural materials and dyes to produce hand-woven textile accessories using the saki-ori technique.

Matsumoto-san came across the Chita Momen (cotton) produced by Aichi textile maker, Niimi Textiles, while searching for new fabrics. She was captivated by their high-quality cotton fabric, while discovering that they also faced problems regarding waste fabrics, which are fabrics that cannot be shipped for various reasons and end up being discarded.

Matsumoto-san made use of the high-quality leftover cotton fabric, and in the tradition of saki-ori, used torn strips of the leftover fabric as the weft (horizontal threads), for weaving the mats.

The cotton was hand dyed using natural plant based dyes (Bayberry Barkchips, Japanese Green Alder, Walnut, Indigo). The ends of the mats are bordered with jute.

*Torn fabric is used for the weft threads, so loose threads and natural fraying at the edges is characteristic of the textiles.

*Please note that the mats do not come with non-slip backing, so please use commercially available non-slip pads.

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Noriko Matsumoto
Born in 1966
2004 The Surrey Institute of Art & Design University College
MA Contemporary Crafts Woven Textiles（UK）
2004-2007 University College for the Creative Arts (UK) Artist-in-residence