Eclectic Echoes

I recently completed Jane Dunnewald’s workshop Complex Cloth Intensive at a local quilt and surface design supplier, Fabrics To Dye For. It was definitely intensive, I arrived home each night pretty well exhausted. So much to learn and experiment with. I am really excited about the possibilities layering all the techniques Jane showed along with Rozome or batik and katazome. (I seem to be constantly reminded of the World Batik Conference happening in Boston this summer, but even with it’s closeness, I can see no way easy to make that one.)

One of the techniques Jane uses in her Complex Cloth workshops is the use of stamps to apply thickened dye, paint or discharge agents to fabric. When I showed my son the stamps I had carved from soap erasers and carving blocks, his eyes went wide with the possibilities for his own uses. Since the class (almost two weeks ago now) I have made a habit of carving one or two stamps each day. My process now is to sketch an idea out on paper then duplicating it in Illustrator so I can scale the same image for use as a small stamp (under 1″ square), a medium stamp (up to 3″ square) or create an image for use on a silk screen.

Below are four stamps I recently carved. The first stamp is a flower in a woodcut style, the second is a whimsical face my 4 year old drew directly on one of the stamps for me. I redid it in illustrator so I could scale it up to use the entire eraser surface, as he originally drew it somewhat smaller. The next stamp is a monkey face that my wife sketched out for our son. The last stamp is for a series of fabric I plan to do based on the local area.

Another nice thing about using Illustrator for the designs is that I can print the designs on the inkjet, dampen the receiving stamp’s surface and then press it onto the printed image. After a minute of firm pressure the image is transferred to the stamp as a guide for carving. This also makes it very easy to create stamps with images that must have a specific orientation like lettering — such as the last stamp.

Things are turning around here, I’ve been talking with a local store owner who is opening a second store. After talking about fabric decoration (he carries a good bit of batik) he expressed interest in seeing some of the stuff I have been doing. Since most of my work lately has been straight shibori, I took some in for him to see. He was genuinely excited about the possibilities. Some of what I had (mostly fabric yardage as opposed to finished garments) to show would fit perfectly in his current store (casual spring and summer wear) but mostly he was interested in the things that would go for the new store, which he is aiming at higher end–more linens and silks. We talked today a bit about my influences and the direction I would like to take it– further exploring and combining rōketsuzome (wax resist), shibori (bound resist) and katazome (stencil pasted resist) in pieces.

So now I have to figure out how to carve a genuine studio out an apartment guest bathroom. Luckily I have some silk and linen on hand, enough for a handfull of scarves and some loose men’s shirts. With Tammy’s seamstress skills she might be able to squeeze one summer dress out of the linen as well. Of course this also means I will need to buy or rig a safe steamer for silk, invest in acid dyes and find some larger poles (and the space to use them) for arashi, not to mention get scales and fabric. Man, it’s good to have these types of problems! They’re sort of sweet worries, as opposed to sour ones!

The sample above is being used to create “ditty” bags for knitters and other craft people. It is heavy cotton canvas, 9″ wide. The circular patterns are bai shibori. Conical peaks of cloth are gathered up and roughly shaped with the fingers, then bound with sprial wrapping of thread (in this case artificial sinew) up the peak of cloth and back securing it at the base of the cone. The meandering lines are created with awase-nui shibori, a stitched technique in which two folds of fabric are created and stitched together. The stiches end up going through 4 layers of the fabric, in this case where the valley between the folds is very shallow it creates a strong central resist along with the broken resists on either side. When using the same technique to create a shippō-tsunagi pattern, the elliptical shape of the valley allows more dye penetration, often with very interesting patterning.

Hmmm… I wonder if I could get the VA to allow me to use my GIBill to attend the Kyoto Seika University’s Textile Design Department? Probably not…