seasons don't matter

at least in the med. when a vat is good, it is good. first dip. note the scarf on the left and the way the ai is acting on the stamped paint. the silk yarns came out great.
more dipping today.

neki desu

is it halloween yet?

booo!

second step of the upcycling  shibori project:many,many marks  following a tutorial from bryan-sensei.
curious to see how this turns out, because it has some stamping, but then again i have nothing to lose and whatever gain is all gain. it feels great to be so free:)
our share of sandy: rain, cold and bad satellite and internet connections.but i'm not complaining, just sating facts.


neki desu

if you follow this series

i promise  entertainment ^_^





neki desu

the two year scarf

two years ago via joan lintault , another inveterate japanophile, i came in contact with the movie sakuran and the concept of oiran.it is carelessly signified along with geisha as prostitute. however as all things japanese it has many  nuances that for most western eyes go unnoticed and thus concepts get grossly mistaken.

i was taken by the lavishness of sakuran's costumes which kept popping back into my mind until i had to work on that and  create my own modest interpretation of such lavishness. 

color etiquette in japan follows very strict rules.

red of course, which carries connotations of sexual desire, flashy and vibrant for a tayu kimono.  red paired with white, Kohaku, means happiness and celebration in japanese eyes, not a bad start for a shibori scarf.nuances of red, using my then new peony brush.black, no mourning here, just contrast.

folding, dyeing, creating a subtle gradation in the red background, folding and dyeing again.

then a need for gold;lavish, opulent, flashy.a sakura flower printed with my already qualifying for vintage metallic pigments bought at  uematsu in tokyo.

cutting the stencil, finding a proportion of binder to pigment that would not alter the hand or at least not too much. stamping, curing.

this in a nutshell is the story of the oiran shibori scarf aka the two year scarf.

         

 will be in the shop on friday

neki desu

a long rest

the oiran scarf remember? stored away because i had come to a dead end and wasn't pleased with the light red ground. dug it out and been working on it as if time had not passed.haven't used the botan brush  on this session yet, but it's coming.

on another note today is st. jordi, catalan valentine day of sorts. if a woman you get a rose if a man you get a book. and if you're cool you get none because you don't celebrate it.

comments allowed ;)

neki desu

thinking about doing

people who make things don't understand what they're doing.

this was hannah arendt, not me. but is it always like that or just sometimes? (this is me not she.)

for her, the mind engages once labor is done.

for richard sennet there's another view in which thinking and feeling are contained within the process of making and that the process of making reveals to us things about ourselves.

i'm reading richard sennet's the craftsman, still on the prologue where he talks about his teacher, hannah arendt, and her unrest about the los alamos/manhattan project. it's that kind of read where you need a set of colored pencils to underline what strikes you in color coded fashion. it is one of the most exciting reads i've read in a long time, and i'm just on page 8 underlining like a fiend and stopping to think about what i read.

 i started the scarf in the image some years ago, during the failed ai vat era. folded and dyed it three times with blahh results. on monday i looked for it and decided to give it a dunk in the vat i was running as a prize for having finished the weaving. then re folded and re dunked it twice on tuesday. what i saw when i unfolded it this morning  pleased me.

so according to sennet what  can the shibori scarf above teach me about myself? and the image of it which  i created?

i'll be discussing sennet here for a long time i'm warning you.

neki desu

mishaps serial

i should call this stole trompe l'oeil or fooling the eye. the silk knit came out well and i put it in my sucessful ai vat. the color came out well, but it was crocking. badly dyed, hurriedly dyed, not properly fixed  etc etc. the rinsing washed away all the unfixed dye leaving an uneven washed out jean  color .

the kumo shibori was also not a very good idea as the untieing became difficult and produced some holes.

note to self: remember te  kumo is the pits on knits.

no way the frugal textilian was going to trash the stole therefore out came the thinking hat. perhaps i could  print something to blend and hide the uneven color plus give it some zing.

i  decided to go on the direction of the ai painting tutorial  i posted a while ago using a stencil my sister cut for me. 

i think it worked and i saved the number. however as sensei says good, but not perfect which in this case is fooling the eye, and not perfect

of course honoring the craft i won't dare to sell it and will wear it myself.
i could never work on wall street i'm not a good p.r. person i know.

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

or something similar

 there have been positive things during the disaster. a friend from the uni was in town and we had some very pleasant chats and dinners. we hadn't seen each other in 20+ years so there was a lot to catch up on.
i also started knotting a knitted scarf and was able to finish and start with the aizome.the knotting was very soothing:  hands working swiftly  emptying the mind  like meditation.
the ai god was not 100% helpful, but something was accomplished so i cannot complain.
i am sampling controlled grunge  with the knitting machine.
the week holds some promises.


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

no small feat

one of the things that gives me pleasure is inventing, well let's say devising, systems to carry out tasks.

i've been  steam blocking and  folding lengthwise the silk knit as a first step for the itajime i want to dye using plain wooden blocks. i wanted the folds as evenly stacked as possible,but a knit has a mind of its own. have you ever tried to steam fold a knitted rectangle?

prodding around the studio i found some plexiglass rectangles and thought they'd give me a consistent fold when steaming the piece.

 

it did work, but as sensei says good, but not perfect. to which she added now try perfect.

that's not going to happen here because if i'm pushing the limits-excuse grandiloquent me here- i can also be tolerant when dyeing.

now i just need to gather courage  and start a mini ai vat, mini because it has to be inside and will be using a 4 liter olive jar. with a lid so that husband-san doesn't faint.

meanwhile back to carrot top dyeing.

and last, this small gem i found in you tube  with no puzzling nihongo  for you. (^_^) enjoy!

neki desu

back

and second step.just opened the rope. onion dyed silk bourette knit. happy with the result although not earth shattering-yet  (^_^)
this week and the following i'm afraid posting will be scattered as i'm solidly booked with doctors ,dentists and all that boring patience killing stuff. we'll see if i'm able to accomplish something fun.

speaking of fun we were in madrid  and it was very cold, i know, i know you people spent weeks in the cabin, but i'm not used to cold weather. bumped into a friend  from barcelona, whom i had not seen in two years, at the caixaforum ,went to some serious eateries which included some yumm wines.and also did some serious walking. 3+ kilometers in one go. thanks to that i burned all i ate. and  believe me, it was a lot. do try the restaurant link as it has a fascinating story, it even holds an annual short story contest. sorry you will need google translate  (¡__¡)

neki desu

lying low

taking it easy, doing low impact work and very little computer. got inspired to do some dyeing using onion skins. the silk bourette knit was scoured and mordanted in alum and then dyed. the color turned out fierce, but i'm planning to overdye with ai, inspired by susan 糸で( ito de).

having fun imagining the outcome. stitching a second piece from the annotations series and the cloth on the loom is finally done!!!!! wet finishing today.

the weather's changing.cold front ahead.

neki desu

gasphorrorshock!

good olive drab

the last skein, this one treated with copper sulphate (GASPHORRORSHOCK)!!

getting real here i don't think that an amount close to a  grain  of rice is going to kill the planet and life, animal, plant or human. it's the same amount that you get from using scrap metal and ammonia, but somehow that seems and looks acceptable.it's almost impossible  for me to find scrap metal on the sidewalk in my town, perhaps others are luckier. i could stand in watch for elderly people though, push them on the floor and run away with their walkers. but that has some minor inconveniences such as the material walkers are made of and ultimately the risk of  jail. LOL!! 

seriously now, i'm going to keep doing my dyeing in the same responsible way, but i'm not going to be intimidated by the dyeing talibans anymore.

more dyeing, but of a different kind.did my usual
san silvestro cleaning on new years day.
lots and lots of throwing away making space for whatever the new year brings literally and figuratively.
some surprises in that mythical bottom drawer such as this silk scarf from my very early shibori days.

on the loom. if i get going i might be able to finish
the gray beige fabric this weekend.


for those celebrating epiphany andt the maggi, la befana or any such traditions be good and go to bed early. let's see what presents you get tomorrow.

neki desu

the legend

tanabata  七夕 form the nihon sun 


"Separated by the milky way, two star crossed lovers are only able to meet once a year on the seventh day of the seventh month based on the lunisolar calendar.  The legend of Hikoboshi (the star known as Alter) and Orihime (the star known as Vega) has roots in China but has been associated with Japan’s Tanabata festival since the sixth century.

Orihime, the daughter of Emperor Tentei, was a skilled weaver and made lovely clothes for her father.  On day as she sat alongside the the river of heaven ( Amanogawa – the milky way) she was overcome with sadness as she had been so busy with her weaving that she hadn’t had time to fall in love.   Tentei, believed to be the ruler of the heavens, witness her woeful state and arranged a marriage for her with Hikoboshi who lived across the river.  The couple was very much in love and were very happy but Orihime was neglecting her weaving.  This angered Tentei so much that he decided to separate the couple putting them back on opposite sides of the river.

Tentei decreed that the couple would only be allowed to see each other on one night each year – on the seventh day of the seventh month.  On that evening a boatman (the moon) comes to ferry Orihime over the river to her beloved Hikoboshi.  But if Orihime has not given her best to her weaving Tentei may make it rain causing the river to flood so the boatman cannot make the trip.  In this case the kasasagi (a group of magpies) may still fly to the milky way to make a bridge for Orihime to cross.

The Tanabata festival (also know as the star festival) celebrates the reuniting of these lovers separated by the milky way and the word tanabata can be translated as “weaving with the loom (bata) placed on the shelf (tana)”.

it will be tomorrow in the shop.

neki desu

working with a legend

taking my time. interesting, at least to me, how this one has been evolving over time. encompassing,without being consciously aware, the work with words in weaving . solving what i first thought were formal challenges, only to realize yesterday as i was talking to a friend, they were also content challenges .

happily working.  just a peek here.

neki desu

japanophilia part II- my way

as the saying goes improvisation is the mother of invention. in need of harite on a long weekend with no possibility of buying anything. but minutia wasn't going to stop me. here is the home made department in all its glory. suffice to say the invention worked and it is also portable.

on with painting the reserve.i wanted to try a gum arabic rice flour resist, because i was going to paint the background with mx dye treated as acid. acid curls alginate hence the gum arabic which does not react with  acid. the flour was going to give the gum arabic some flexibility because the silk was going to be stretched and i  did not want it to tear. i was  experimenting with the different consistencies of the resist too.

                                                                            beauty shot

saturday's work:first red layer it looks wonky, but it is kosher, trust me.

sunday after batching for 24 hours. second red layer.
the big time bummer is that my beloved botan bake 牡丹　掃  aka  peony brush  is falling apart.it is great for paining gradation backgrounds and  i bought it in japan. i wanted it to last my lifetime so use was sparse. little did i know that the less you use it the quicker it falls apart. it seems that getting a replacement will entail a trip to japan unless i find a kind soul that can ship me one (hint, hint)

and why the all the flurry  you may ask. last week i posted  this  and mentioned sakuran. ever since joan lintault posted the link i've been under its spell and in a red black white colourway mind frame in  a mix of techniques including shibori. inspiration comes from unforeseen sources when you're working.

take a look . do you understand me now?

neki desu