amonia, lichens and mahogany

a few weeks ago in one of the dyeing lists deb mcclintock published her doings with lichens.

i remembered i had some survivors from my throwing away rampages that could easily qualify as antiques. locating them was not too hard, but their state was doubtful. they were still attached to pieces of wood and rocks( ok in the early days we were young and not environmentally aware, remember?) the clumps dry and brittle and to the touch some disintegrated into dust. 

half the job done as they would not need to pass the mortar pestle routine! cleaned all the dirt and foreign matter and put them in a plastic jar with ammonia. 

a month later i needed 100 ends to complete the summer top warp and threw them in a pot with warm distilled water and some of the lichen liquid.the liquid as you can see in the photo is reddish brown sort of mahogany color. i was expecting more red or at least less brown , but after this soak  i'll try and shift the color towards red  with some lime juice. if worse comes to worst i'll make do with the color as is. don't think it will look totally bad with the rest of the warp.
 

neki desu

creating textures on fabric

a while ago i came across this product and curious as i am i set on a quest to get it and run some tests.
i lucked out when i discovered it was sold in madrid and last month when i was there i finally got it.
it also served as a good excuse to explore a neighborhood we were not familiar with and take one of our famous marathon walks. 2.6 kilometers each way!
when i opened the pack i became dubious about the sort of fabric, it was similar to a plastic tent, but taking a beep breath i realized that if it was going to shrink both ways hence creating texture it had to be plastic.

the steps:

• cut a piece larger than the finished size you want.
• pin it to the back of the material to be textured.  
• stitch, either hand or machine.
• place an iron over never on ,remember it's plastic, and steam.
•  edges will curl and  you may need to pin the fabric so that the steam gets to the center.
• it will stop shrinking when it's done.

by altering the spacing of the stitching  more or less dramatic texture can be achieved .

 according to their weights fabrics can give interesting textures, i even ran a test on a handwoven sample. the only caveat is that it feels stiff and the fabric won't be reversible.but i think it has possibilities for book covers and tapestries.

you can see samples on various  fabrics in the slide show.

have fun!

neki desu

blurry but in focus

  silk bourette knit onion and aizome dyed shibori

not the photo, me.
one of my on going obsessions is feeling that i am too scattered, jack of all trades,  dabbler all those things rolled in one .i admire people that just do one thing and  do it well, not sidetracking into what their minds suggest. the photo can be a good metaphor: there's machine knitting, dyeing, not just sticking to aizome, but onions too,shibori, photography, digital treatment. it's a good thing i stopped because i was thinking about making an animation out of the knitted fabric.

i sometimes go into severe self beating sessions after which i'm grateful i don't live up in  northern europe where daylight is is scant to say it gently, as i could go into the glooms for months (^_^) but in my self defense i can say that i try to delve into the topics of study as much as i can.

 those who have been around here for a while know that i'm also perpetually trying to integrate all the activities that i get involved with into one piece of work, or at least some of the activities.  the japanophile in me loves the wabi-sabi way,i start wabi but end baroque. as a result  there are contradictions and  well, i digress.that could be the topic for another post .

 i'm trying now to put together the knitted samples with stitching and felting, wait i forgot felting and stitching, into a coherent series of work. it may bomb, but no one can say about me that i don't try.

so the other day i was reading  think it was either selvedge or fiberarts and there was an article on mary walker philips.  the article  brought relief  and  a revelation.
first let's clarify that i'm not so presumptuous  as to compare myself with her, but she was a role model in the 70's.
it was reassuring and refreshing to read about her involvement in many different disciplines while  managing to produce a body of coherent work. and work she did. 
i mused over the read for a long time and the feeling was that of relief and i could also say exhilaration. see you're not that weirdly scattered!  you're not alone there are others out there too and  maybe many more than what you ever thought. a whole league of hard workers in love with all that we do.
ok we don't walk straight, but we arrive where it was  intended.and we manage to have fun.

shibori silk knit

neki desu