not yet dry

ok, but do not tell me it's not a handsome color.when dry it will be a tad lighter but nothing serious.

this silk yarn is part of a warp, a simple  number just to highlight the color of the yarn.

the remaining color, still enough,  in the bath, is going to be turned into a lake pigment.need to check the process bcse it will be a first timer for me.

neki desu

 

akane bounty

and a few others ; the red is cochineal,the mauveish  as well as the beigeish are alkanet the yellowish escapes me.

 

this one is  dark brick with a glow.

happy that silk dyes in the cold bcse electricity prices are nestled in the stratosphere. either we eat or i dye (mind the spelling)

planing the warp, would like to weave a turned taquete. yes, taquete.the term is french bcse the silk industry in france devised the name for the structure and thus it reached us. it was called jin in china and as we all know all comes from china. the cultural appropriation debate is so unpleasantly foolish and so guilt ridden first world. no one thinks that pasta is as much  a cultural appropriation as anything else. so boring and futile. accepting  disagreeing comments  as long as  they are kind and civilised.

neki desu

 

the redcoats are coming

finally akane red that used to dye the coats.and achieved with the help of the mega guru jenny dean

who suggested to pump up the chalk. i had been overly conservative on the chalk bcse of the panicto kill the gloss of the silk. so the quest of red is accomplished and over. waiting now for better weather to start on the benibana.

neki desu

 

taming the orange

 there's more red now and eventually it will get redder.just aiming for that although word has it that indian madder is less red.

the silk skein above  has been left to cure for a week then dyed mordanted and it's drying now waiting for another round.

anxiously weaiting for good weather and the end of tai chi class to begin the benibana explorations.

this was the yarn before the last dye round above.

nice orange, but not what's intended.have all summer to get to where i want.

neki desu

 

the quest for madder red

chugging along dyeing the japanese way. more time consuming,but colors develop nicely and with a certain depth.

getting orangier. will i ever be able to get red? everyone else does, but on wool. silk is a different animal so to speak.

dulling a light value skein with some copper and a tiny bit of iron.

need to try that for purples, i was advised.

neki desu

 

the japanese way

more akane processing for the second dye layer.think that after this batch will need some more fresh matter because the browns might statr coming out.this is a looong process, but if results are good there is going to be no turning back.(doesn't this sentence sound awkward ?)

this is the second mordant layer,then rinse and dye.

i'm also going to start on the benibana.aiming to learn and understand it.

happy international workers day. already may!

neki desu

 

the season has opened

doing it the japanese way and keeping more or less notes of the results.this is wandering madder which can be qualified as antique. used 85% wof but madder red is still elusive.it did improve somewhat by adding some chalk to the bath. doing the cold dye method over a week. the luster of the silk remains intact which is good news. we shall see.

neki desu

 

closing august

exhaust madder bath.could have gotten one more dye, but browner. naaahh

modified with alkaline becomes redder. care must be taken in order to preserve the silk sheen.

i used  sodium bicarbonate which is alkaline but milder than soda ash.

neki desu

 

and now akane

it's dyeing season, no doubt.  an ancient batch of madder bought on my first! trip to japan. now hot dyeing with whatever pigment was left from solar dyeing. there's a lot left and i'm processing it with heat and patience, watching over the pot,raising and lowering the heat so it doesn't boil and turn brown.

so far this has been the best akane results ive gotten.

paid off. lovely shades intense color. will be altering some towards the red with an alkaline modifier.

more to come

neki desu 

 

what i've learned about madder

during these gloriously sunny summer days taking advantage doing solar dyeing.

first : time .this was after one day.

second: amount is usually underscored in favor of temperature. one needs LOTS of dyestuff to get good color. a lot over the 50% wog .

after 5 days in the ssun. did i mention time? it's easier to control temps when solar dyeing.  more than once i've left the stove unattended and ended with browns.

some remaining dye doing its magic overdyeing brazilwood. see you next week!

neki desu 

 

witche's brew

back to the pot.
things i've learned:
keep a hawk's eye for temperature increases
dye the skein for 10-15 minutes then  take it out add lime water stir and put it back
lime water is essential ph should be around 8-9
Liles says all one needs to know about madder dyeing.(or any other natural dye to that effect)

i'm getting red finally! a dull red but  nonetheless better than coral red






neki desu
 

akane 014

or monkey see monkey do.i saw someone getting the red we all want with madder using a huge amount of dyestuff .and as soon as i got home i tried.

 this silk warp boiled a bit so the color is more of a terracotta. fine with me because it works with the hemp that will also be used as warp. and the design  and concept i have in my head.

the silk skein is too corally yet. it's going into 

the pot again.the madder i'm using comes from 

a company in the netherlands and it was a

 gift from a friend.the yellow has been

removed and the instructions say to raise the temperature and keep it at 99-100º for 80 minutes.

i found that to be the difficult part.

excuse the photo drama but don't tell me you'd rather see this boring photo



neki desu

anticlimactic

pun intended on various levels. the scarf above started last spring  went on dyeing through spring and summer went on into winter with mokume shibori and kakishibu. i really wanted to try kakishibu on wool because i had heard it was not very successful. and it's true, not even after aging and exposing it to uv rays it blooms. so now i have a wool scarf in the middle of spring. take climate and climax!

although this really can go on because i'm thinking of shifting the color a bit. either overdyeing it in some of that gorgeous brazilwood or a weakened walnut hull dye.

as murakami says in 1Q89: sony and cher, the beat goes on.

neki desu

poetics in color

silk dyed with madder. the foreground yarn was overdyed  with pomegranate and  left in the dye for a week. excuse the ties.

the next experiment is going to be with persimmon. getting the colors ready for a colorful warp.

this has been going round and round in my head for some days now:

the man who puts his arm around your shoulders when the winds blow cold.

neki desu

dye oddity

had a great time with my visiting friend. we had known each other for 8 years through the wonders of internet and we finally  met. she was also responsible for putting my friend Holly and i in contact, a fact  for which i'll never be thankful enough.

she came along with a goodie bag and one of the goodies was madder extract- the chocolate will be the topic of another post :)

consequently, yesterday instead of doing errands i took to the dye pot. i was part fascinated part terrified by the dyeing  instructions which stated, contrary to all common knowledge, that the dye had to boil in order to give red.they then proceeded to illustrate the temperature rise gradient- sharp rise in 20 minutes to 100ºC   to be kept at that level for 80 minutes. then sharp drop to 40º. the yarn was supposed to stay in the pot and cool off.

now if those aren't instructions for the industry... how am i supposed to achieve the sharp  temperature curves in my kitchen scenario? play by ear, never mind the temperature gradients, but get a boil.

the literature said that  boiling  would bring out the red  and the lower the temperature the orangier the dye would be. i used a solution  of 2 teaspoons (10ml) in 5-6 liters of water with alum mordanted materials.they also recommend a higher alum concentration than what is usually recommended, thus i proceeded.

as you can see from  the photo they know their business.

the left hand side skein is silk at a low temperature, the middle skein is a thicker more lustrous silk at full boil and on the right a wool shawl, the one with the madder overdyed with GORK.

the redder silk is actually somewhat redder.

there was some remaining dye in the pot and i put another silk skein in then let it cool in the pot.i am checking on the color and will transfer it to a sunny spot in the terrace today.this dyeing session has been very interesting and fruitful. i have a feeling that the lower alum concentration i was using was partly responsible for my dyeing woes. 
here is  a madder extract convert. yes sir!

neki desu
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make it or fake it color woes

 

i'm pleased with the weaving, very wabi, but the color......
the color is more like the left photo.but i want it redder.i really want "turkey red" madder. been at it for over a month and the best is this light cantaloupe. i'm aging some more madder with calcium carbonate as per this recipe and keeping my fingers crossed.in the meantime if i cant get the color i can make it or fake it, photo on the right. yep, more time at the computer with good ole ps.

last resource will be over dyeing with cochineal.

neki desu
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a relatively unsuccesful one

the scarf. already finished and in post prod phase, stuck in a pot of akane (madder), slowly dyeing. the plan was to use felting resist paste to resist large areas, but to my disappointment, the felting resist paste didn't resist much. have to keep at it. however, the felting came out nice though with the planned tracking on one end.
has anyone had any  fortune with the felting resist paste?

loom already warped with a linen warp for a table runner gifto.trying to finish before the studio gets too hot to work in. still  deciding  on the color of the linen weft. note the new template contraption on the selvedge. looks a lot less low tech.

and speaking of tech, have been learning to use the bamboo tablet . retouching has never been easier!wiping out whole windows and cars from photos in a whiz . this looks like a late life career :)

there are also 2 small books parked at various stages of completion  and  the stitching  challenge that has been neglected for two weeks now. all this frenzy is because i want to finish all before the good weather sets in. meaning indigo dyeing again and a new book to explore along with it.

 on the other hand, the week ahead looks pretty gloomy as there's a lot of domestic bs to clear. seems that lately  the bs multiplies exponentially.which makes me wonder how on earth i managed it, did studio work and had a job.

neki desu


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shibori with a story behind.

This sample from my collection comes with a story.i will refrain from qualifying it and leave that up to you.
When i was in Japan in 1994 i visited Sensei and she invited me to stay overnight as she lives in Hachioji. The town although it is 40 kms from Shinjuku station in Tokyo, is still considered Tokyo!

She lives in a traditional Japanese house behind her brother's modern occidental house and surrounded by a bamboo forest and of course some momijis.
There are two rooms in the house, one that serves as general purpose living space and studio, with her loom and her bedroom. A tiny kitchen and even tinier bathroom complete the house.
When she wants to cook for real, or soak in the o furo she goes to her brother's and uses his facilities.

That night she she treated us to a delicious yosenabe and she even took the trouble to go to Kinokuniya and get wine for me.
We laughed and talked and had a small show and tell . She was going to have her yearly woven kimono exhibit some weeks after and i promised not to miss it by any means. At that time my Japanese was pretty pedestrian, barely survival, so my friend Atsuko was working overtime translating for me whenever Sensei switched to Japanese to fully explain something.

At some point she pulled out a silk kimono covered with kanoko shibori and dyed with akane . i sat on the tatami in awe examining it. Yards and yards of hand bound kanoko patterning the surface with flowers, fowing streams and leaves and creating that wonderful puckered surface.i just couldn't take my eyes from it. After a while she carefully folded it between tissue papers and and put it away.
Two bottles of wine later we decided to call it a night and started clearing the space to extend the futons.

Next morning when i woke up and opened my eyes the first thing i saw was the kimono hanging on the window in front of my futon.
Sensei then told me that as i had liked it so much she wanted it to be the first thing that i saw next morning.

And as i was leaving she slipped a wrapped packet in my hand
which later i found out it contained a sample of the fabric.

Atsuko, watashi wa and Sensei at the exhibit, one of her woven kimonos behind us.
God how young i was!

neki desu


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