Eclectic Echoes

Time for design

So I now have a commission to do some “banners” and wall hangings in shibori for a local shop. Of course the fun part now will be designing something that will fit in the theme that the shop owner has in mind for the store, and dyeing it in the rather, uhm… limited facilities I have available. I think the bathtub will end up being used for a day as a dying pot for the cotton pieces. The silk…well now that will be interesting.

I would love to use indigo for this, as it is a traditional dye and one that needs no mordanting. Unfortunately every recipe I know of for indigo produces a vat that has a rather unpleasant smell. Maybe as I read Jenny Balfour-Paul’s wonderful book Indigo something will strike me as a solution. A very big thank you to whoever sent the book as well. It is not specifically a recipe or technique book, but an excellent book on the history of indigo, it’s use in various cultures and the range of effects that can be achieved with it. I must admit I am drawn to the amazing effect of the calendered and “polished” indigo cloth which becomes very shiny with a deep purple sheen to it. I would love to find a sample of Indigo cloth from northern Thailand where they add bean starch, red peppers and persimmon juice (which is also used in production of katagami paper and has very good waterproofing capabilities, and persimmon juice’s tannin content would add to the purple sheen). This is the book I will be reading for the next week or so, and like the other books I have received from my wishlist, one that I will be constantly turning to for inspiration and experimentation.

Tidal Zone

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…

Loose Tooth

I am amazed at times how resiliant my son is. I’ve seen him fall flat on his face—hard—and then bounce right up with no damage done (well maybe a small bruise). Today we were having a bit of a pillow fight, he likes to jump on me and try to tickle me after hitting me with the pillow. Today at one point though he slipped off the pillow and his head collided with mine. When I say his head, I really mean his open laughing mouth collided with my open laughing mouth. Tooth on tooth collision. It really hurt like hell for me, yet he seemed entirely unfazed.

Tammy checked his mouth and his teeth very carefully—no looseness, no gum swelling, no fat lip, no bleeding. He swears it didn’t hurt either. Of course me, well I have one extremely loose tooth and one chipped tooth. Fortunately he is fine, and it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Unfortunately we have no medical insurance, and can’t really afford any additional medical bills. I am going to be taking it very easy for the next couple of days, and eating a lot of mushy food I guess. Oh, yea!

I did check WebMD quickly to assess how bad it would be and was pleased to see that a non-profit organization I worked for for some time, Healthwise, is now their primary medical information database provider. If I could have stayed at Healthwise I would still be very happy in Boise. Good going Healthwise.

More on Protectionism

Since my views on economic protectionism have been some of the most read entries here, readers may want to read Lawrence Lessig’s latest Wired article: “Protectionism Will Kill Recovery!” .

Katachi

I received another book from my wishlist recently—which also means I really need to get some more posts up here again. This one was Katachi: Classic Japanese Design. This book should be on any designers bookshelf! It is inspiring and highly educational.

Katachi is a visually stunning collection of photographs by Takeji Iwamiya. who was a photographer and professor at the Osaka University of Art. The book itself is the culmination of a lifetime collection of examples of katachi—a term that roughly translates as the essence of the form. He photographed thousands of individual objects ranging from the everyday such as brooms, chopsticks and combs, to tiles and metalwork on temples. In the book are six hundred photographs of his collection organized by material: paper, wood, bamboo, fiber, clay, metal and stone. The main portion of the book has no text, just page after page of full page black and white photographs. There is a wonderful essay as an introduction and in the back a brief, but informative, description of each object in the form of end notes.

If you are an artist, designer or enjoy Japanese are and culture you really should check out this book. I only wish it was available in a larger coffee table hardback edition.