Soaking up, catching on

by Kit on March 7, 2010

in Katazome, Natural dye, Process

I ran out of rice paste working on a long piece of my minnows and mussels pattern with 2 repeats to go. With each experience like this I refine my understanding of the amount I need to make. Nevertheless I decided to go ahead and dye the work. I tend to make my rice paste a bit too thick/dry, and along with this, the paste was cracking a bit. This is not something I want generally, but you could encourage cracking on purpose and make it work as in batik. There are a couple of additives that can help prevent cracking — salt is one, glycerin is the other (either/or). I dissolved a bit of salt in water for this batch, which is supposed to help the paste hang onto humidity. As it is still winter here, the air is quite dry. More water and more salt next time.

I really enjoy how a fresh layer of wet dye shows up the contrast in the pattern. It makes me anticipate the final wash-out. This photo shows the 2nd of 3 layers of pigment dye in progress. The ochre+rust I used to make orange is at this point the same value as the rice paste. The indigo is just that — oxidized indigo pigment from an indigo vat.

dyeing 2nd layer on minnows and mussels

dyeing 2nd layer on minnows and mussels

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image of book cover

new used book

Scanning the textile shelf at my local used bookstore yielded a serendipitous find: a small paperback entitled Dyes from Nature: Plants & Gardens (Brooklyn Botanic Garden Record, Vol. 46, No. 2). Published in 1990, the 96 page volume features 28 articles by 21 different authors, experts and/or dyers, describing natural dye traditions from Mexico, Turkey, Japan and many other cultures around the globe. Each article includes color photographs. Fanning the pages in the bookstore, I noticed two articles written by M. Joan Lintault, a fiber artist and author of two blogs I follow (Magic of Light, Mystery of Shadow and My Wabi Life).

I’ve wanted to link to one of Joan’s posts for quite a while, so here you go! Check out this inspiring project using natural dyes in the Japanese tradition of kusaki-zome (grass and tree dyes).

image of Kusaki-zome dye project from M. Joan Lintault

Joan sent me a few paragraphs describing her background and passion for natural dyeing:

“I can hardly remember when I became interested in natural dyes.  It was certainly when I was in the Peace Corps 43 years ago. I was living in the mountain village of Quinoa, Peru.  The village ladies taught me to spin, dye with walnuts, cochineal and dahlia flowers.

My interest continues today because I do love a mystery and I still can’t believe it works.  I especially love indigo dyeing because it is the mystery of all mysteries.  I love giving control of my work to the dye pot and receiving in return the random flashes that can be likened to fire marks on a piece of pottery.

I like that indigo is considered a living entity in many cultures.  Most importantly learning about natural dyes is empirical knowledge handed down from one person to another. My love of dyeing led me to research the processes from India then to Japan.  I wanted to go to these places and see for myself what processes existed and how the process changed from culture to culture.”

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180 nails later …

February 25, 2010

I’ve conquered procrastination (just this once) and have made a 40″ long set of harite. Each set I make gets longer. I started with 20″ wide. This set will allow me to stretch fabric up to 36″ wide.

Every Sunday evening I make a little plan in my head about what I intend to accomplish during [...]

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Tropical paradise down the street

February 22, 2010

To get through the winter we frequently visit the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory, which is a 15 minute walk from our home. We savored the humid air and lush green yesterday and here are a few photos. The conservatory opened in 1915, and was one of many features of Como Park, which was born when the [...]

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Light and dark: completed stencil

February 17, 2010

I completed carving my new stencil today. I tinkered and tinkered with the design until I was satisfied with the shapes and curves. This is a repeating design along both horizontal and vertical axes, so I had the opportunity to work on registration skills following instructions on John Marshall’s new DVD, Journeys in Katazome: Stencils. [...]

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Fiber Frenzy at Textile Center

February 12, 2010

Tomorrow is Fiber Frenzy, a fund-raising event at the Textile Center of Minnesota, 10am-3pm. Buy  handmade textiles and help the non-profit Textile Center.
I have donated two items from my inventory – a Coneflower pillow and minnow runner.

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Major doodle

February 10, 2010

Continuing the minnows and mussels design from the previous post, I created a half-drop repeat from my favorite variation (item C). This means the 2 units on the right side are offset on the vertical dimension by 50%. I doodled with my black marker to define the positive and negative parts of the basic unit. [...]

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Minnows and mussels … alive, alive-O

February 9, 2010

Several moons ago I began to re-design my minnow stencil. I got back to the task last week with a lot of wheel spinning and not much progress. Over the weekend I perused some of my favorite design books (especially Principles of Pattern Design by Richard M. Proctor.)  I want the final stencil to be [...]

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Snow hats on seed heads

February 8, 2010

We are having a fluffy snow this morning. The flakes are making hats for the Rudbeckia and Echinacea seed heads.
Birdxbird was a great success. My owl hanging found a new home, as did many other bird themed works. Birds will benefit.

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Pattern, color, rhythm

February 4, 2010

I enjoy repeat patterns – a challenge to design and a fun to discover variations on a theme. Perhaps I like them for the same reasons I enjoy traditional Irish music, Mozart,and the Delta Blues. Visual rhythms, process rhythms, keeping time, leaving space for imagination, practice for my hands.
I’ve washed the rice paste from the [...]

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