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Title: Kay Asahi Collection
Dates: ca. 1960-1990
Collection Number: 2013.1380.000A
Creator/Collector:
Asahi, Katsuko (1922-2010)
Extent: 3.5 linear feet. (2 file cabinet drawers containing 22 folders, and one oversize box).
Repository:
The Lace Museum
Sunnyvale, California 94086
Abstract: The Kay Asahi collection ontains sample books, prickings, diagrams, and examples of bobbin lace created by Kay Asahi and used
in her teaching and mail order businesses. Includes source material as well as hand-drawn diagrams and instructions.
Language of Material: English
Contact museum for access questions.
Property rights reside with the library. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs.
Kay Asahi Collection. The Lace Museum
Donated by Kathy Yamamoto, 2013-2015.
Biography/Administrative History
Kay Asahi developed an interest in handcrafts during her confinement in a Japanese Internment Camp during World War II, and
later took up lacemaking during the 1960s, when she wrote to Denmark for supplies and information. Kay's scholarship included
diagramming and producing samples for all the grounds illustrated in Gertrude Whiting's book, A Lace Guide for Makers and
Collectors. She seems to have been the first in the United States to use the now standard European color coding for her diagrams.
Kay also designed original lace, both on commission and for her students, and carved bone gimp bobbins.
Scope and Content of Collection
Contains sample books, prickings, diagrams, and examples of bobbin lace created by Kay Asahi and used in her teaching and
mail order businesses. Includes source material as well as hand-drawn diagrams and instructions.
Lace and lace making
Bobbin Lace
Bobbin lace -- Patterns