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Archive for the ‘indigo’ Category

Its Raining, Its Pouring

Monday, August 20th, 2007

Yep, we had lots of rain in Portland, today. But I didn’t care. I have been making a mess in my studio and I produced another work using some of my art cloth from my summer classes. This one is titled Indigo Moons (what else).

I needed to make the piece a little larger than the dimensions of the art cloth that I started with. So I cut it and auditioned some fabric that would work in the insert as a background for more moons. Here are two that didn’t work for me. Clickable to see larger. The first one is the same fabric before the indigo treatment. The second is a piece of indigo cotton from my workshop.

moons2.jpg moons3.jpg

I decided that I needed more punch so I went with a more colorful fabric.

indigomoons.jpg

I like how the brighter colors are in the main piece in a very light value. This has a satin stitched edge.

I am so excited because I get to sleep in my own bed tonight. Mr C finished the painting. Now I am busy doing laundry and getting the guest areas ready for Mark and Jayme. They are down in the Sisters area camping with M & M and their parents. I think the rain stayed in the north so hopefully they have had a nice dry time. Everyone is coming back to Portland tomorrow. I have to plan a big family dinner for tomorrow night.

I just have to add that I love, love how the new paint looks in our bedroom. I need to get busy and get the new curtains made to finish it off. I am also looking for a new duvet cover to go with the new decor. I have one I bought at IKEA ages ago, and it looks pretty good.

Moonraking and Mole Wrangling

Tuesday, August 14th, 2007

I finally got my little butt down in the studio today and started work on a piece that has been percolating since I took the indigo shibori class. The fabric is all linen. I bought some red linen which I really like with the indigo. I have started doing some stitching with red perle cotton. I am going to leave the linen pieces with raw edges. The working title is Indigo Moons.

linenindigomoons.jpg

Here is a closeup.

linenmoonscloseup.jpg

My friend, Dee, called our mole escapade, mole wrangling. We have had some success. Kelly, the mole lady, came by today and we have one less mole to contend with. She thinks it may be the only one. It seemed unbelievable to us that one mole could make the mess in our yard. She says that they eat their weight in worms and grubs every day so they have to cover a lot of territory.

Tomorrow, after I do my post vacation weigh in at Weight Watchers, Steph and M & M and I are going to check out the new IKEA. I have a shopping list ready.

Shibori Wrap-up

Tuesday, July 31st, 2007

This morning I got my hair dyed and discharged. So now I have some summery highlights in my red hair. It took 2 and a half hours so I feel as if the day is passing me by.

I want to finish uploading and making notes about my shibori pieces as this will serve as my virtual notebook of my work.

Judileigh knew that I was having a carpal tunnel problem which made the arashi wraps very difficult for me. She suggested I try stitching a tube to fit over a pvc pipe. Here is a silk dupioni wrap that I did by pinning and marking. I brought it home and stitched it.

shiborisewnwrap.jpg

Here it is after dipping in dye:

shiborisewnafterdye.jpg

Here it is coming off the pipe:

shiboristitchedremoval.jpg

Here is part of Sunday’s work. I bought a yard of linen from the school fabric locker. It was a very lightweight and loosely woven linen. I did lots of different techniques so that I will have pieces to collage.

shiborisaturday.jpg

  1. On the left is this scarf (second photo down on the left) wrapped and dipped in indigo.
  2. Next is a piece of red orange dupioni silk folded and clamped with washers and dipped in indigo.
  3. Top of the third row is a piece of the linen. The lines were created by making folds and doing a running stitch along the folds. Then they are drawn up tightly and tied off for dyeing in indigo.
  4. On the left underneath is the heavily stitched piece from earlier in the week that I folded and clamped with circles, probably film container lids.
  5. On the right is another plaid shibori. I used the linen and made half inch vertical folds which I stitched and pressed. Then I did the same thing, horizontally. The fold cause a resist, making lighter areas. The stitching also leaves some lovely fine lines.
  6. Top of the next row is the linen which was folded and clamped with two canning jar lids held in place with rubber bands.
  7. Underneath is the linen that was folded and clamped with different circles.
  8. Top piece in the last row is the dupioni silk that was stitched into a tube to make an arashi wrap.
  9. Beneath are linen that was tie-dyed and folded and clamped with bag clamps. (I am on the look out for these. they are like large barrettes.)

Here are close-ups of some of these pieces.
siborisaturdaycloseup.jpg

shiboriscarfoverydye.jpg

Here are the remaining 3 pieces:

shiborisunday.jpg

  1. Top left is a piece of the linen on which I tried to use a piece of bamboo as a resist. I didn’t get the results that I want, but it is a nice organic looking piece of cloth.
  2. The bottom piece was a hand-dyed lime green which I tie-dyed around screws and then arashi wrapped on a pole.
  3. The final piece is the linen which I hand sewed around the pvc pipe for an arashi wrap. I love this piece. Here is a close-up:

shiborilinenwrapcloseup.jpg

My table mate Rita was obsessed with the triangle wrap which I tried on two pieces. She did it on silk first and got the mushy results that I got. She then used cotton and some very precise pressed folds and wrapping. Here is how it looked after coming off the pipe.

shiborifoldedtrianglewrap.jpg

Here it is after unwrapping. It is really gorgeous. Her tenacity paid off.

shiboritrianglereveal.jpg

It was interesting to watch all of the working styles. I was after lots of textures and fabrics to use in quilts. Some class members were very project orientated. Some just played and experimented with fabric with no intended use.

Aerobic Shibori

Friday, July 27th, 2007

I am a very tired old lady tonight. I had a marathon dyeing day with the big old natural indigo pot. Here it is being readied for the day’s activities. The sludge which lies on the top has to be removed and saved to be put back in at the end.

naturalindigopot.jpg

Here is one of the pvc pipes with an arashi wrap that has been dyed in the big pot.

arashiwrappedpole.jpg

Imagine a pole a couple of inches wider that that one and about 5 feet tall which is what I use to wrap a large silk charmeuse scarf. Silk requires several dips in the pot and then oxidation in between. While this gigantic pole is in the pot, it must be held so that it does not touch the bottom where it will disturb the sludge that develops over time. I think I dipped it about 10 -12 times. Here is the resulting scarf hanging to dry. It is the large scarf on the left.

shiboriindigoscarf.jpg

I did several other pieces and pulled the threads on some pieces that I made yesterday. I am just too pooped to take photos so you will have to wait. Here is my old lime green t-shirt transformed, however.

indigotshirt.jpg

We could only use the natural indigo until 2 pm and then we had to put the scum back in and add some lime to bring it back to life and then it needs to rest overnight. Here it is all bubbling and full of life. The slimy stuff is called the flower.

indigoflower.jpg

This is a college level class for which one can get credit and so a final project is expected. That is to be our work for the next two days. I am one of those follow the rules kinda people so when asked what I would do for the project, I proposed dyeing fabric to make a bog coat. It is a patternless, kimono like coat. I left class early to come home and prepare some fabric. To be honest, I ran out of gas and don’t have the energy to do it. Instead, I am just gonna keep dyeing scarves and making fabric which I can use in quilts.

I thought this was a cool site – the indigo gloves.

indigogloves.jpg

Shibori for Sure

Thursday, July 26th, 2007

First of all, where is everyone? Did you all go on vacation at once and you didn’t let me know? Yesterday, was my first post without a single comment, since I can’t remember.

On with the photos from my fantastic shibori class. Here is class work from yesterday. We are all discovering the elusiveness of indigo. It can get too much oxygen and become “tired.” Then you have to add more indigo and warm water and let it rest for a while. It is also important to soak the pieces in warm water to get a better penetration of the indigo.

indigostudentwork2.jpg

indigostudentwork.jpg

Here is some stitching that I did on some linen. Al the stitches have to be pulled up tight and tied off. This piece is still drying so that it will be easier to remove the stitches

indigostitchesonlinen.jpg

Yesterday, we used synthetic indigo and today we mixed up a batch of natural indigo. It comes in a lump that has to be ground to a powder.

indigopesto.jpg

Here is the work that I brought home to wash and dry.

indigowork.jpg

The upper left is linen that was folded and ironed and clamped with wooden triangles. the one next to is is a previously folded and dyed piece that I got from June Underwood. I folded this on the diagonal first then folded it in the other direction and clamped it with rectangle wood pieces. The top row of reddish pink pieces are dupioni silk dyed in Brazilwood with different mordants — copper, rust and alum/ I have no idea which is which. The bottom pieces were dyed in logwood. The smaller indigo piece is one of the dupioni pieces from yesterday that I overdyed by scrunching it on a pvc pole. The first of the longer pieces is a chiffon scarf that was folded in triangles and then wrapped on a pvc pipe with string — arashi shibori. The next piece was a very ugly lime green chiffon scarf on which a batiked image did not show up very well. I wrapped and scrunched it on a pvc pipe and I really like it now. The last piece is silk organza that is done arashi style — wrapped on a large pvc pipe then wrapped with string. Here are the arashi pieces waiting to be dyed.

indigoarashiwraps.jpg

Tonight I am going to prepare the scarf in the background for overdyeing by wrapping it arashi style.

Here are some closeups of today’s work that are clickable for larger views.

indigolinencloseup.jpg indigoscargcloseups.jpg naturaldyes.jpg