rusting 101 June TIF

My rust story for June TIF. i found my old tjantings while shifting stuff around in my studio.When i was still fielding my way into surface design i started doing batik, but couldn't be bothered with ironing off the wax. In fact as i hate ironing i knew i'd never become a batik artist. Nonetheless i had bought assorted tjantings, the good copper ones, and MX dyes. Those got me into dyeing, while the tjantings rusted away.

Oh that lovely patina on copper, that's what i want! This is my project!
i took some of the copper wire knits i have been trying and added acetic acid and salt. But it didn't work.Then my friendly chemist from around the corner suggested what's used here to decrust (is that English??) calcium encrusted taps,faucets toilet bowls and and voila mesdames, lovely patina i got! It is a potent and vile substance called salfuman. Don't ask me the name in English as i haven't been able to find it.

Ok now how does one give that idea a textile body? Think. Think more. And time was fiercely ticking away as i remembered i had some linen and silk fabric as a permanent resident of my stash. Why not use it and destash a bit?

The fabric was dyed first in an alkaline bath for the linen and then in an acid bath for the silk because i wanted the silk to be more saturated in color than the linen. i was pleased as the color came out very similar to the patina.
The next step was to do some sort of reverse shibori.This was accomplished by masking some lines and brushing Fiber Etch to burn away the linen. This Fiber Etch has also been a long time resident of my supply stash.

As a final step i located one of-if not the -last pleating shops in town and had them custom pleat the fabric.
You can see the result. The shawl is very simple, but has a lot of movement.

All in all this has been a challenge albeit a fun one. Conceptualizing while destashing or vice versa.
i could not refrain from giving one of the photos a cross process look so it would also look rusty and aged. :)

neki desu

tools to make it easier

The flower here was generated with
http://www.zefrank.com/flowers/
Lots of fun, useful for making stencils, stamps or pattern tiles . There's also a link to make a garden for those who are not in possession of a green thumb.

Here's a screenshot of the flower generator.
This page has multiple java applet texture generators based on math algorithms. Useful for pattern ideas.

And last but not least these two are for you indigo lovers out there, courtesy of JaJa Pankova
from Czech Republic. The name will ring a bell if you frequent the dyerslist or Paula Burch's
dye forum .
Both are old indigo dyeing businesses still operating. They have on line shops and also do custom dyeing. Dye anyone? :)
http://www.modrotisk-danzinger.cz/5/vase-moznosti-.html
http://www.arimo-modrotisk.cz/konfekce_modrotisk.htm#metraz

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first summer weekend

It was too gorgeous outside to keep on weaving inside. Worked on this shibori scarf outside instead. It's a take on a rust dyed fabric. Currently going through a rust phase rusting all i get hold of.

Here's a fabric i'm working on. Even the photo gets the rusted look :)

neki desu

summer sky

happy solstice!

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destashing. HA!

Yesterday i took a friend to Mokuba. And tell me pray thee how could i resist these iridescent lovelies?
Especially after finding they were less than a Euro? There's not a thing that costs lees than a € these days. Plus they are full of stories that will be. Eventually :)
Notice they come with a lollipop. Need i say more?

Other snippets.
This is for dyers and weavers, especially silk lovers. The project is a very interesting sustainable cottage industry and the article is via Design Boom. Enjoy!

Downloaded last night the new Firefox in a rush as the organization was trying to establish a record for one day d'loads. So far so good except that my beloved Pera-pera kun for reading Japanese pages is not compatible with the new version. Neither is Rikaichan. Guess that after doing my good deed of the day i'll uninstall Firefox 3 and go back to the older version. Can't live without Pera-kun.

neki desu

june TIF more thoughts

Altered materials are embedded with potential stories.
i spent my time off the loom this weekend doing some machine stitching on
Solvy.It's a funner as you dissolve the backing and the threads remain, curling in place. i'm building a small (emphasis on the small) stash for projects i want to tackle and it will also serve the purpose of this month's TIF
The next fun thing i discovered was that i can use some odd yarn remains from past projects as bobbin thread.These are hand dyed silk yarns and you can guess what a fine grist they are, like sewing thread! Therefore this stash creating project comes along with destashing too.

i finally located some poly felt. And it came with an anecdote. i asked the man at the store whether the felt was poly and if it would burn. Oh no madam!, our felt is 100%wool felt said he. Looking at the dubious shine in the felt i said - it's just too bad because i'm looking for felt that can burn. He looked at me with a very serious look and said -in that case this is your felt, madam.
Isn't this a case of Harry -put- on -the -green-light -the- man- wants- a -green- suit- or what?

neki desu

the best gift

Samples are the best gift for a weaver. Then comes yarns.
Samples concentrate so many stories in such a small physical space.

These tate-yoko kasuri samples were given to me by my weaving sensei.
Some of the motifs are weft or yoko kasuri while others are double or tate (warp) yoko kasuri.
The warp is black and woven in dark blue which gives it tonal depth and richness.

The fabric is cotton and woven for every day wear. i beleieve they were woven by sensei's father or a relative as she comes from a family of weavers from Hachioji , a town in the outskirts of Tokyo. It is a weaving town and one of the reasons to visit is this.


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tradition

A rice straw coat worn during the winter by farmers in the past. It was on display at a museum in Takayama.Sustainable economy, where resources were scarce, yet used to a maximum. Nothing was discarded.

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textile induced coma

Got these gorgeous fabrics from Jude.Slowly coming back from the coma. Stroking them has helped. Possibilities these fabrics present are uncountable.Started out by cross processing the photo.

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June TIF

June TIF is a challenge. It's about potential, about becoming, about transformation, about possibilities.
We all work with materials that are transformed, sometimes coaxed into something else.
A hairy mass transforms into yarn. Yarns and threads stop being linear and become tri dimensional, white fabric gets dyed, cut and shaped. Materials alter their look by getting distressed in so many ways...

i have been thinking lately of how the stitching that i learned last year from the TAST challenge
has slowly found a place in my work, sometimes more successfully than others.
And all the techniques that i've come across with have stopped being just techniques and have also filtered down adding new vocabulary to my work, trying to be part of it, not just sitting on top.

It's an exciting process from learning to production, from borrowing to digesting to incorporating.
Although i'm not sure yet where i'm going. So don't follow me. :)

neki desu

ode to domesticity : sample, sample, sample

It's Tuesday, the bread machine is churning away and i've just finished untieing the loom controlled shibori sample. It will be this summer's indigo vat victim, if the vat runs well, that is.
i'm not well known for my sampling, an activity i have a dislike for. But lately i've come to bite the dust as i have no other option. Or is it that finally i've grown up?

This is a lovely 20/2 cotton with a 20 singles weft from a Japanese company (surprise, surprise)
that had a mill near Girona. The company closed down some years ago and my friend got hold of some yarn cones for me.
The supplemental weft was a bit thicker than what it should have been and created that lacy effect.
i'm not sure if i like it or not. Also in the not sure department is the white background. It is too white for the bold blue motifs and i'm thinking about dyeing it a very light blue before gathering the shibori weft.
The loom is already warped so there's no chance of dyeing the skeins. Therefore i'll test the blue background by doing some p-shopping to it. Bless the program for color sampling!
i said i had no option but sample, but this means warp the loom and weave 20-30 cms, cut and move on..Not like regular sample champs who put on a whole warp for this sole purpose.

i'm also not crazy about the baby doo-doo color of the borders. This was what i got from the murasakizome. No beautiful deep, rich purple here. After 10 i lost count of the dips and was still not getting there. Even bought bottled water as i think my tap water is very hard and heavily chlorinated too.
Hopefully the indigo will take care of the color and add some interest to it.

Now i have to weave the shawl, which is on the 12 shaft table loom. My romance with this loom continues.
i think i have definitely grown up.

neki desu