good to have adequate tools

the weather is overcast and muggy, awful  for being outside brushing dye to a pre mordanted scarf.

i know i am going to regret my wishes for sunshine, but at least it is dryer. i have been working inside after creating some space out of  my ever chaotic studio full of lots of everything .

anyhow  paraphrasing my beloved sennet and the craftsman it is good to have the required  tools  to complete a task.

note the harite on the foreground stretching taut the scarf. underneath some shinshi completing the task. 

i was mildly upset because all the tool nomenclature at tanaka nao has been changed and i was left in the dark.that said no one fabricates craft  tools like the japanese. they have elevated tool making to a craft itself.

the brushes;  works of art in themselves. the fat one is a small ground dyeing brush. if you regulate the amount of dye / paint you can get nice gradations. the other brush is for painting edges sharp. i think painting  fabric is my excuse for using these and getting extra pleasure from the job.

the scarf will be cured for a couple of days, then folded shibori like and dyed in ai perhaps? stay tuned.

neki desu
 

and now wools

fluorescent orange!!these mushrooms are awesome. the wool was mordanted in alum + cot then put in the dye  simmering liquor for about an hour. left there to cool until next day and resulted in this very bright orange, very similatr to mx deep orange.
the other skein is boiled over madder yucky brownish red. it will be overdyed in cochineal today, but need to throw away some dye to liberate at least one pot. such is the life of a wanna be dyer!
waiting for the weather to change to start the ai vat. in the meantime sewing a muslin for a skirt. need to get the fitting right before cutting the actual fabric. i have lost weight-not complaining- and what was valid last year isn't this year.





neki desu
 

a to dye weekend

i have a new favorite dye;  Cortinarius  semisanguineus  mushrooms. 

the silk on the left was dyed with them. the color although yellow is less yellow than the photo and has a red pink tinge. the silk on the right was a madder blah orange and i overdyed it with cochineal. the color is a very nice red  redder than the photo.but in the various processes the silk lost its luster :( temperature control is not my thing, actually control is not my thing. makes me so very curious all those people who are control freaks!

still have more mushroom stock and will be dyeing some wool today. hoping to get the reds now.

the indigo stock solution for the new vat has reduced beautifully - took 2 days mind you. i am using the 1-2-3- ratio for a reduction vat. it worked very well last year,let us hope it wasn't beginner's luck.

in the geekery dept: i'm taking photos of some pages of a japanese dyeing book,  opening in photoshop, saving as pdf then opening in word and translating them there. oh rapture! oh bliss! even if it's cherokee english the instructions are understandable. life is good.

neki desu