Katazome & Textile Arts
Art of Pattern
Fire Rabbit Studio is a working practice in katazome and related textile dyeing traditions. Articles, resources and occasional work for sale.
Fire Rabbit Studio
Stencil dyeing with rice paste resist — a tradition that spans Ryukyuan bingata, Japanese yukata cloth, and centuries of East Asian pattern-making. The stencil is called a katagami; the resist is rice; the rest is chemistry, pressure, and time.
Articles
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Nihon Akane Diary, Pt. 1
In December of 2025 I acquiring 6 packets of Japanese madder seedlings. This was done with the help of a friend living in Japan, and the seeds were imported legally through the USDA inspection process. The box arrived smashed, and open, but luckily the seeds hadn’t fallen out. As a note, you must use Japan…
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Indigo Katazome Adventures, Pt 3: Soymilk
This post is part III of a series of posts on learning about dyeing katazome with indigo. It’s the last post for now, until I can dye with indigo again in the spring and summer. It’s common with indigo katazome to brush soymilk on after laying down paste. This does two things: it strengthens the…
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Indigo Adventures, Pt 2: Sizing
Last fall, I did some preliminary trials with different types of fabric pretreatments – soy, funori, and konjac. Konjac, a root vegetable, comes from the Okinawan tradition. Funori, a seaweed, is a very common pretreatment for fabric in katazome and its sister, sodum alginate, is often used for pretreatment and thickening in procion mx dye.…
Katagami
Antique Japanese paper stencils — collected, photographed and digitized. Many are available as repeat patterns on fabric through Spoonflower.
![[四季の花々 (Shiki no Hanabana)] Flowers of the Four Seasons](https://firerabbitstudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/IMG_9422-2-1024x439.jpg)
![[芦雁] Wild Geese and Reeds](https://firerabbitstudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Black-and-white-geese-1024x454.png)
![[花の縁飾り] Flower Border](https://firerabbitstudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Flower-Border-Thumbnail-1024x419.jpg)
![[魚と梅花] Fish and Plum Blossoms](https://firerabbitstudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Vector-Raster-copy-590x1024.jpg)
Shop
Katazome work is made to order or available when pieces exist. A noren or bolt of cloth represents a week or more of work and significant materials — prices reflect that. Each piece is documented here with its pattern origins and process.
Resources
Katazome resource guide
Suppliers, tools, dyes and references gathered from years of practice.
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Katagami archive
Antique paper stencils — restored, documented, available as printed fabric.
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Fabric sources
Where to find quality natural-fiber cloth for dyeing work.
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Kyoto studio dyeing
Studios practicing sarasa and surizome — contemporary and traditional.
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