These card holders were stitched from fabric hand dyed by Toyokazu Ono at his Yotsume dye studio.

Ono works in the katazome dye tradition and each piece of fabric from his studio uses a stencil and rice glue resist process to achieve its finish.  The stencils used for these holders feature patterns and motifs, each cut by hand.  

The outer fabric is 100% cotton with a linen inner lining.  Typically in Japan the holders would be used for business cards, with a stock of the owner’s on one side, and those received on the other.  But they function just as well to hold travel or bank cards.

As the fabric was hand dyed, it is reasonable to expect a bit of run and fading after the first few washes if you put them into the laundry.  Also it might be wise to avoid placing them onto white fabric while wet, at least in the early days.

Each holder is around 11cm x 7.5cm in size.

About Yotsume

Yotsume Somenuno-sha is the dye studio of Toyokazu Ono.  Based in Kunisaki on the north-eastern tip of Kyushu island, Ono practices katazome, or Japanese stencil dye.  From a family who have made dye works for temples and Japanese businesses for more than a century, Ono takes his influences from the mid-century revival in katazome led by Keisuke Serizawa, and modern stencil based graffiti.  The results are handmade dye works rich in colour and pattern, that offer both a contemporary riff on a traditional craft, and tap into a rich aesthetic seam.