of dyes

would you believe this is buckthorn? ever since i am doing extractions the japanese way colors are clearer. the japanese way means boiling water oven the dyestuff off the fire let it steep. save the water and do two or three more extractions . add the waters and dye. since i am dyeing-mind the spelling- silk i dye in cold barely 36 º in the beginning and let the yarn steep for days.it is an act of patience, but i think i am getting much clearer colors as heat tends to bring out the browns in most anthraquinones and flavonoids.

not so happy with the kakishibu prints.kakishibu acts better as a coverage brushed on or immersion if you are lucky enough to have unlimited access to it.

not the case here therfore i am dosing carefully the two and a half jars i have.althogethetrer they must amount to 100 grams of precious powder.

changing pages, i think my new system of filing photos not according to subject but to season and year  is working.

i have separate folders inside with the subjects, whether sumi-e,dyeing, knitting etc.i stopped agonizing and frantically searching for photos.life is good.

neki desu

 

the law of desire

 

with apologies to pedro almodovar.

have a good weekend

 neki desu

 

over and over

last year's printing tests with natural dyes.was judicious enough(at last) to take some notes.

studying the adequate viscosity for stamping with stencils.

trying out kakishibu to see how it works

things i learned : better use a credit card  as a squeegee to scrape the color paste .

stamp brushes are finicky and most of the times pool the paste.

paste needs to be thicker.

kakishibu powder needs to be re-hydrated it tends to separate from the water no matter how much it is stirred.even with a frother it doesn't make a solution. 

my next experiment is going to be using a silkscreen.i'll use what i have but i'm planning to order a roll of mesh and cut it into viable sizes.there aro lots of possibilities without going the orthodox way of masking and burning the screen mesh.

neki desu