the beauties and the beast

just in time before the store closed for the month i got these waxed linen spools. guess what i'll be doing this summer?even thinking about weaving with them, but their price is something to be seriously considered.

as we are waiting for some issues to be resolved we're on stand by mode, in case the magic call comes through. meaning we're not going very far this summer. just occasional day trips to nearby places. not complaining because there's a lot to be seen and eaten in tarragona and girona .

and i'm also sparing myself of the usual studio frenzy finishing projects before going on holidays.

moving on here.the beauties are evident, but the beast behind needs some explaining. it is a machine knitted sample worked in silk bourette in a tuck stitch pattern.  dyed with dharma's mx navy and it turned out purple :(

apparently the red in the mix was fuchsia, notorious for fast striking. has your navy ever turned purple on you?

as there's nothing to lose now the next step will be overdyeing to see if  the color can get shifted.

and tell me, how do you like th is place's new look? hope i haven't gone from stark to too funky.

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the thrifty dyer

 wasn't going to leave all those drips full of indigotin go to waste. no sir. grabbed some ancient  esparto  handmade paper and let the drips fall on them. the tie threads are given in the dyeing project and so is the test strip.

tried papermaking in the late 80's as everyone else. but albeit some interesting results and a paper press i bought at the flea market it wasn't my thing . fun, but not my thing.

 i'm accumulating tie threads. there's a lot of winter stitching coming up.

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i want to dye!

sounds like garbo, but now don't get excited and pay attention to the spelling.   i've not made a reputation for being patient. weaving has helped, but my patience is still not quite there.

the ph meter will be picked up on friday a long stretch by my count. it's also been raining, but i still want to dye.some test strips with good ol' faithful procion mx. also testing the cotton i recently bought, locally, no carbon print, and more than reasonable price wise. that's a record for materials and supplies are hard to come by here.

testing some itajime folds as a therapeutic measure.

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all about words lately

the warp is almost finished. however, there are still some more words in the inkwell as they say. re warping now that  the forecast says it's going to be cool again. bad news for dyeing. 

there is some dyeing excitement building up, getting techie i ordered a ph meter. can't  afford to funk  up my 250 grams of sukumo.

the weaving backgrounds are becoming more complex. that has to be furthered and see where it goes.

it has nothing to do with inspiration, it's just work,work,work.

the photo, well, some inspiration here. but it's red in real life☺




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in the making

beauty is in the eyes of the beholder and for most these shots are not your regular beauty shots.

however with time and patience the yucky water will transform into ash lye which in turn will feed the ai vat and convert it to beautiful dyeing power. the rest as they say will make history. nor not.

 the lye water will be used in a natural fermentation vat whose process is different from  the more commonly used reduction vat.one of the main differences is that contrary to reduction vats a fermentation vat needs oxygen to thrive. no wonder when i visited the aizome workshop dyers were so careless letting the yarns drip into the vat. a huge no-no with reduction vats.

 on another note, from now on the outdoor activity will slowly increase  as it gets too hot to work in the studio.this blog will  be more  dyeing rich in  content.

here's the cold dyed  madder yarn from this post. it was quietly left in the pot in the sun for 4 days. not a bad color and the dye has not fully exhausted so there's more yarn in there.

but for now the weekend  with  my usual  blog hiatus is coming . some visual  dyeing goodies here

and  here.note the splashing!

enjoy your weekend.!

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finishing the wet finish

getting ready to tie on some little knots to the dummy warp and doing the wet finishing. then pressing to bring out the shine in linen. the last piece was a real joy, i'll post photos as soon as the piece is in the post, don't want to spoil the surprise.on the other hand i had never been able until now to weave right to the very knots touching the back of the reed. is this a sign of adulthood?

i have also been experimenting a bit with ps brushes as i'm a brush hoarder and what's the point of having too many of them. if i use a size multiple of 24, which is my shaft capacity-ergo liftplan - and then index the result to 2 colors i can get pretty nifty weavable images that range from the precise to the very abstract.  serious fun here. in short i've had to time myself  at the computer or else one day would run into another.

and the photo is a find in the mythical bottomless drawer.an ancient 90x90 silk twill square dyed in an arashi shibori pattern using procion MX dyes. it's so old i can't remember when i made it.could easily qualify as vintage  :)

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runner up

finito. the actual fun will be next week when i give it to my friend. watching his face. still have some more warp and will either weave another runner for him in another color or make linen bread cloths. gave this a real hard press with lots of steam,  my arms are still aching from it. the hot spots in the photo are  because of  the shine of the linen.

i'm also mordanting and extracting dye from madder. have begun doing some dyeing, but right now i'm at the second dip.doing it very slowly- the operative word is slow- and at very low flame, because  as you all know, if you hurry it and pump up the flame the color gets brownish. so far the color is pale,but clear. however that can change any minute. photos tomorrow. coincidentally-or not, who knows-the color of the runner is also madderish color.

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seems that many moons ago

i was able to get an ai vat going. found this  silk shibori sample while doing some spring cleaning in the studio. it was part of a  project  when i was doing tapestry at the arts and crafts school ca. 1990. the notes say morrocan ai and most likely  i bought it in lausanne at  filambule when visiting the tapestry biennale. at that time i was beginning to get my hands on shibori, mesmerized by it.

also found silk yarn samples in a gradation.
ignorance is bliss: i burned all that silk not knowing the outcome. i'd be much more cautious now.

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an implied promise

Battling with a book cover and trying to fit it to a book in the impossible quest. Doing things that Etsy doesn't like, like using dark photos.
The rebel in me came out in these photos, too"artsy" to get a clear idea of what they are about.
We all have similar sensibilities, travel to the same places therefore our photos tend to look alike. i'm trying to change directions photowise. Perhaps this blog will end up looking like this other one, who knows.
Anyhow the actual narrative of the photos is very straightforward. A woven silk sample,no scouring, machine zigzagged and dunked in the pomegranate soup that has been steeping for 2 weeks now.
No romance.

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the importance of keeping records

One of the universal truths.And it seems i always manage to skip it.This scarf was found this morning. i really like what's happening here, but because of lack of records i cannot duplicate the whole process again.The ori-nui is pretty evident, but what about the rest?
Truly a one of a kind.

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the killing of the cream colored weft

Don't tell me this doesn't look better than this? Perhaps it has to do with envisioning something.The silk weft has a beautiful luster and is a good complement to the matte dark blue wool warp.And the color has the right amount of red.
Anyhow i think you have noticed there's a tendency towards aubergine color in this blog, haven't you?

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more combobulation and walking on the wild side

before after

A second layer of blue to tone down the white and mask the green.The things i've done to that fabric could easily get me in fabric jail.And still more to come.Will i become a fabric jailbird?


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instant book

It's really exciting turning fabric samples, remnants or plain ugly dyed fabrics into books. Right now i'm mesmerized by accordion books and all the possibilities.i've been using some image transfers with a double purpose; as embellishment and also to give a bit more body to the book. Lots of stitching, trying to have it do a narrative. Lots of stamping too.Go to my flickr for detailed views.

This weekend will definitely be studio weekend.
i'm trying to put together another accordion book, this one with a cover. It has finally cooled off and i'm weaving like a fiend. At last!

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hip hip for decon printing!

This is my kind of screen printing.Absolutely.i enjoy taking so many liberties.The process is open to the serendipituous and because there's no right or wrong, we're free from dogma and printing talibans :)
The fabric will be conbobulated further , perhaps most of the white areas will get a light blue wash and a unifying element.
Just waiting for the sirocco to go away so that i can work in the patio.40º yesterday :(

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8 big misconceptions about dyeing

photo by Liz Plummer

The other day the periodical alarm regarding dyes went off again.It has always annoyed me and the tales about how incredibly toxic MX dyes are have always amazed me. Yet everyone goes about the house happily spraying oven cleaner, window cleaner etc etc. etc without giving them a thought. The reasoning behind the lack of concern might be that as they are household products they are perceived as safe. WRONG! and yes i'm shouting.

Hand in hand with that myth, -excuse me you're not going to eat the powder as a spread or breath into the jar as you judiciously would not breath into any unknown jar, right?-the following go around and around in the ferris wheel of dyeing and they periodically re-surface causing varying degrees of alarm to new dyers and fiber artists.
And now without further delay and not in any specific order here they are, the MoD s - those magnificent myths of dyeing

• you should use hot water to dissolve MX dyes.

If you do that what you'll be doing is activating the dye making it react with the water before it can hit the fabric.It means waste of dye and weaker color yield.

• MX dyes cannot be used for silk.

Yes, they can be used, provided you use acetic acid as the auxiliary chemical. Colors are as bright as you are able to dye them.

• Avoid using soda ash with silk.

This is a half truth. While in strong solutions it may weaken and dull silk, weak solutions do not present problems. In fact silk is scoured using a mild soda ash solution in a number of short baths.

• Salt is needed to fix the dye.
  

Not really.What salt does is reduce the solubility of the dye in water and this favors the adsorption of the dye by the fiber.It also acts as a surfactant by suppressing the negative surface charge on the water so that the dye molecule can move towards the fabric and attach to it. (Knutson.p 51)

• Dyes have a shelf life and after that they are useless.

Another half truth. They will probably not work with cellulose fibers, but will perform satisfactorily on silk with acetic acid as the auxiliary chemical. Shelf life depends on the storing conditions, light and humidity. We too have a shelf life.

• MX can be used to dye in cold water.

Well, depends what you call cold. They need at least 70ºF(20ºC) to perform optimally as immersion dyeing.below that, you're throwing dye way and wasting your time.
And i will not discuss batching temperatures here as this is a topic all by itself.

• Fabric/fibers should be rinsed in hot water.

Not the first rinse. This one removes the salt and chemicals. Then you can rinse the fabric in hot soapy water until it runs clear. The last one -and this is me- should be with Synthrapol just to be sure there's no more unfixed dye.

• Natural dyes are greener and eco friendlier. Yes, provided you do not use any mineral salts as mordants. However there's a debate as the amounts and dilutions a home dyer uses will not change the eco system in ages. There's a personal choice here as with most things in life. Yet there's also the issue of toxicity in plants. Not all plants are made equal and being plants is not a synonym of being pretty and friendly. This is my all time favorite myth, seems that not too many have been attacked by a nettle plant :)
  

And the onions you may ask. Apart from the fact that their skins give beautiful oranges and yellows they also make me cry just like the above.

There is an excellent on line resource all facts as it is kept by a chemist. It's also a labor of love . If you have doubts about dyeing visit Paula Burch's site

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kangies

November TIF is now housed in Sharon's new blog, Pin Tangle as you may all know by now.
The theme is typography as a design element.
And to me, japanophilia aside, kangies are the epitome of typography as design.

Kangies are Chinese characters used in Japanese writing. They are somewhat stylized graphic renderings of objects and nature. And they possess the beauty of the brush stroke sometimes energetic and bold other times soft, diffused and demure.

The work above was a UFO that had been lying around waiting to come together.
The background silk fabric was bag dyed(LWI) and the inset was shibori dyed in black with a resulting interesting color haloing or separation.
Then i overprinted a section of a Japanese newspaper with my beloved Print Gocco, one of the most versatile tools for surface designthat have been invented.
Seed and running stitches were added as well as a machine stitched border framing the piece.
And some metallic printing of kangies to direct the eye.

i feel accomplished in having cleared another UFO and completing this months challenge albeit life happening.
And that the list keeps dwindling. :-)

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Esta obra está bajo una licencia de Creative Commons.

aizome show and tell

Some of the work. As the vats are quite healthy i'm getting hold of everything i find and blueing it over :). i'm especially happy with the rust and indigo sibori cottons. More of those to come.
And the wool yarn is not bad either.

i don't care if monday's blue,
tuesday's grey and wednesday too..
i'm in love...



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since we're dyeing

From Narablog

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double weave

This is the fabric i posted about here for my Jackie dress.
My hand trembled while cutting it as the pattern was created with a pattern design program and i don't have time for styling or fine tuning right now. So it was cut using the pattern straight from the printer.
Weavers may enjoy looking at the closeup and they can even re create the draft :)
The fabric was scanned at 1200ppi. Thank you Alice for the tip!
And no, i did not weave it.

On to dyeing. The vat is still going with a bit of daily sharpening. As ever have lost count of the dips, but the woven shibori looks as if it's going places. i'm having a hard time refraining myself from opening the itajime.

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aizome-the return

This year setting the vat was a breeze. Practice makes perfect? Only 10 summers.
As the vat now knows who's in command i'm contemplating running a sukumo vat when i come back from my holidays. i located Indigo from seed to dye by Dorothy Miller which gives pretty good instructions on handling sukumo.
(Look at those little toesies :- D )

Here 's the day's work.

The light blue rope is a woven shibori shawl on it's second dip. The yarns were dipped many times last year. This year i continue dipping aiming for very dark indigo blue.

And this is my contraption for doing itajime



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