Project for Color & Design Class, Spring 2021
Text and Image Project

Created a tapestry for the Folktale “The Bridge of Magpies” using a combination of Fabric Dye, Acrylic Paint, Embroidery, Punch Needle Embroidery, and Beading. Text is incorporated by the red pieces of fabric, like wishes hung on trees during the Japanese Festival Tanabata.

The Bridge of Magpies Folktale
There once was a beautiful weaver who worked in the heavens. She wove the clouds that glided through the sky and although she was diligent and studious, she was lonely. Her father, the king of the Heavens, loved her dearly and sought out a worthy soul to accompany his daughter, Princess Orihime. Across the river of stars that separated the heavens lived another hardworking individual, the handsome Hikoboshi who herded cows. When the King introduced Orihime to Hikoboshi, they fell deeply in love and married. Their love brought them happiness and joy, but at the expense of their work. Instead of completing their tasks they would spend days in each other’s company, the skies cloudless, the cows lost and wandering. Angered by their frivolity, the King separated the two lovers and forbade them from ever seeing each other again. As they wept along the river, their tears fell down to earth and began flooding. The magpies, hearing their sorrow, took pity on the lovers and flew up to form a bridge for them across the river with their bodies. On the seventh day of the seventh month, the lovers are said to reunite with each other on a cloudless night, and in Japan, that is known as the festival of Tanabata. A tradition during the festival is to hang up slips of paper to bamboo trees with wishes written on them. They are represented in the night sky by the summer triangle, Vega in the constellation Lyra is Orihime, Altair in the constellation Aquila is Hikoboshi, and Deneb in the constellation Cygnus are the magpies