the dignity of simplicity

have a good weekend

neki desu

 

technically it's not a dye

therefore you apply it. again and again and again. however kakishibu creates wonder.

have a good weekend

neki desu

 

for those who can

 your're welcome.

have a good weekend

neki desu

 

dying to dye

and now solar kakishubu on silk. it's going to be here until total absorption

.

see you!

neki desu

 

kakishibu 019- things i've learned

• on paper it is most effective if it's brushed on.
• time and many brush ons give more depth of color.
• although it is a tannin and theoretically does not need mordanting, great tones can be achieved using sodium bicarbonate or alum  mixed with the liquid.
• letting the solution stand for some hours improves solubility, also using boiling water.

more work to be done.thinking about concentrating efforts on kakishibu as it is a lot more manageable than aizome in my present living situation.



neki desu
 

kakishibu- second installment

even after uva exposure and the consequent goldenifying the color was not very pleasing.i mean it's ok,but not kakishibu.as i mentioned i am waiting for the one i bought in japan so i am not suffering bcse i am going to run out.

another session, more powder and this time i heated the water. the take up is better and darker.

still wet but the difference is noticeable.

it's going to stay in the bath for 24 hrs, then it will have the uva treatment to develop the orange undertones.


there's the yearly carnival in my hood,peace and quiet gone. luckily it's just 4 days and it's ending today. my headache has developed into a vintage one.



neki desu

kakishibu again

dyeing with kakishibu again.  fearlessly using the powder i bought years ago because i got more in japan and it will eventually get here.used a ziplock bag as i did not want to dilute it excessively,using enough water to cover the yarn. even though it came out on the pale side.

the silk hank getting the uv treatment to modify

the color.will need some more dips.

note the new background. my former grungy sienna wall no more.

on another note today is field tuesday in asturias.

people go out to the countryside or a park in a sort of good weather at last celebration. there's special food ( chorizo stuffed buns) and wine or the first cider of the season and general jolliness.

good times.

neki desu

a pattern

wet finished and pressed,now it's time to source a pattern. there's 1.5 mts of  it.if i weren't such a chicken i'd try to draft one myself,but that would mean endless muslins  until i get the fit and the look. maybe next time.really pleased with the nubby rough look of this silk. it gives character to a simple crepe weave. less is more.

only one meter of the kakishibu weft. thinking about piecing the pattern for color blocking as i'm not sure the ai meters are going to be enough.

can you see the iridescence?

neki desu

woe transformed

and now is color block. the last meter of the yardage and i run out of weft yarn.looking in the dyed silks i found a big bobbin of kakishibu dyed yarn of the same grist. the good news is that it weaves with some iridescence,the bad news is that the mistakes are less forgiving. hoping there's not much undo.

neki desu

dying to dye

but the weather is foul.have to revive the vat from last year as soon as the weather improves,no rain no storms. the white knit, a gift from a friend, will also get a kakishibu treatment. want to experiment overdyeing ai with kakishibu. or vice versa.

there's also a silk yardage that has been waiting to get printed.hope the screens are still operative.















neki desu

did i mention i got my life back?

weaving has never been so pleasurable and stress free.think all the stress i was capable of has already been spent. hallelujah.

yardage of crepe for a skirt. no designing here it's an oelsner crepe because i wanted an r&r no brainer.  silk doupioni dyed in shades of ai and kakishibu. 

 

the weft is tram silk dyed in ai.
one of the darkest shades i've got so far.

the skirt is going to be in 4 panels with pleats still to be devised.


neki desu

 

chicken

the raddle i have is too shallow for  my silk yarns and consequently these get caught and twisted-if lucky- and do not advance during beaming. they can also, in the worst scenario, break. its also an issue with the way the teeth were designed , they are not straight at the top. no problems with thicker yarns or wool. actually it worked very well while warping my other loom with wool yarns.

 therefore back to front to back warping.( awkward sentence or what??) taking it super slow because i don't want to hurt my cervicals again. if it takes me two weeks, so be it.

the warp is aizome and kakishibuzome  doupioni silk in various  color values.

 lately notice the photos with lens flare? playing with a ps action !

neki desu

frying

the beginnings, two dips

 the skeins are ok, it's me who's frying. have been reading bryan san's posts and to my delight they have corroborated what  i  intuitively did. don't want to sound like a lot of these people in the lists, or in life, that in answering questions they inevitably end up talking about themselves and you get no answer. therefore head there and read his post.

after a month of uv rays the color has perceptively changed.










on to other things: this blog will be in hiatus mode until it cools a bit, i finish wrestling with plan c and take a short but much needed break.

stay cool.


neki desu

time rewarded

if i or anyone else had doubts they should be shed. everything is about time: love, life, crafts,weaving.....
  my own processed kakishibu, aged for over 4 years yielding beautiful color. these skeins have various dips,forgot to count, but it is  actually the uva rays effect that gives those colors. no modifiers have been added yet. the silk has not been degummed either. bryan -san explains here some things that were an intuition for me. i have been quietly dyeing  un-degummed doupioni silk for a while with no adverse results. quietly because this goes against all general knowledge and i did not want to start a battle in the dyeing forums ^_^

this silk will be combined with ai, of course, for a warp for this winter weaving.

neki desu

the meaning of summer

dyeing , little or no weaving.getting yarn ready for winter weaving. aizome and kakishibuzome. fortunately the colors are meant for each other they go so well together! The yarns were dipped twice in kakishibu and left a day each time. they were sunned until i was pleased with the color.no color modifier was added so the color is the natural peachy brown.
dying-note the spelling ^_^ to get back to the loom.


neki desu
 

a little bit of sunshine

and i ran to do some kakishibu . silk yarn for a future project. this may or may not end in a  recently commissioned scarf. the yarn has been exposed to uv rays as prescribed. more dipping and exposure today since sun was forecasted.

also waiting for my Vivien Prideaux indigo book to start my vat. thanks to Paula Burch  of the dye forum for the contact!! the inetrnet community never ceases to amaze me.

for some more amazement re kakishibu go here. howzat for eco whatever!!!

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

the magic of slow

my kakishibu. this has been a long project. it started  with a friend giving me some kilos of green kaki which i processed and aged.just to give you an idea this started in 2007 so i think it  does merit the title of slow magic.
the kakishibu liquor that had been aging since 2007 saw part of its day of glory yesterday. i took about a pint of it and slowly reduced like  when you make cooking reductions. to that concentrate i added hot water and simmered it. all in all i got a relatively dense, dark liquid. i had heard it stank like the dickens, but mine doesn't. perhaps i've done something wrong along the way although i'm not complaining about the lack of odor (^_^)

funny how when i was young i just wanted to live and experience things, the faster the better. now i am in a situation where i don't care if it takes time, except of course the minutiae like waiting in line, and doing paperwork, i'm sort of distilling those  accumulated experiences relishing and enjoying them.

this is a combined project, the weaving, the fulling of the wool scarf and dyeing with akane(madder) the preparation and fermenting of the kakishibu, the shibori tieing and finally the challenge of making it work on wool.apparently it is not successful on wool.

we shall see how it all wraps up.

neki desu

old rockers die hard-trust me

whomever said it was spot on. thanks to all you wonderful folks for your good wishes! i must realize i'm not 20 anymore and the bod is going to take longer recouping.i had to grab a dose of patience and stay in bed. some reading got done, lots of  hot tea drinking and by day 3 i was already doing some occupational therapy work in animation.how ironic that sounds!

the photo is this weaving project which got transformed into this and now it has become the above patted with kakishibu. are you still with me?a few more steps and it will be done. i'm praying for much needed  sun.

by the weekend i was already full steam again  and  i managed to make this number.

in spite of my being sick i'm  very pleased

with how it turned out.  for the first and perhaps last time i'll include a link , click here for more info.i was also able to finish a book which will be posted sometime during this week-nothing like a good rest to get going again!

now i have to do what didn't get done during downtime :)
however, tomorrow i'm off to sant sadurni d' anoia

for a cava sampling tour. i promise to be good and report.

neki desu

still waters run deep

Yes they do Do Wa. Gallery of my natural dye soups. First one is kakishibu which has been fermenting for 2 years, needs three at least.This is a once in a lifetime thing if you're interested in dyeing. Akin to making croissants. Next comes the walnut soup. i'm keeping the hulls in and just adding water as it evaporates. Like having a pot au feu and making soup. Last photo,pomegranates which have been soaking for a week in the balcony getting some weak winter sun, a stratagem so that husband -san doesn't get cardiac foreseeing all the future dyeing activity.
It seems that everybody's involved with the same dyes lately. Sort of a secret sisterhood.

neki desu


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