02.17.2012

02.16.2012

All in a Week's Work

Doesn't look like much, does it?  This is a week's worth of winding and binding.  That handstitched mokume takes a LONG time.  The dark green piece, just to the left of the bigger white pole on the right, is handwoven.  Until recently it was a piece of woven shiboried art cloth, woven of silk and tencel.  Soon it will be discharged.  That piece alone took me two days to stitch and gather.

The light khaki colored piece in the middle is another handwoven fabric that already had shibori threads woven into it.  It's been on my shelf since it was woven, maybe four years ago.

I took a break yesterday, to prepare for quilting a second challenge piece for Fiberactions' March 15 reveal.  But it's back to shibori prep for a while.  It's quite a meditative process, and I'm enjoying building an inventory of fabrics to be shiboried in the near future.  It's called delaying gratification.

02.14.2012

02.13.2012

02.11.2012

Taking the time...

My post earlier this week was so revealing of my long-held tendency to focus on results rather than process.  Since getting the message, I've slowed back down again, and perhaps newly.

For years I never had the time to do much more than graze the surface of some techniques.  Now I've got all the time in the world.  There's a lot I've wanted to explore with shibori...now I am.  And my internal excitement is building.

I'm wrapping poles and doing a lot of hand stitching in preparation for dyeing later.  My current focus is on manipulating fabric.  That's it.  Back to basics.

Have a great weekend!

02.09.2012

Random Acts of Dye & Discharge

Dyeing continues, and yesterday I did a bit of discharge as well.  The first two pieces are cottons processed in a jar of various dye colors.

The third piece is black cotton flannel, discharged.  It has a kind of pale aqua tone that's very appealing.

The last two pieces are silks.  The first one was dyed a few years ago, discharged yesterday.

And the last piece was underdyed a few days ago and discharged yesterday.

With all the dyeing and discharging I've done over the last several years, I confess that in my mind I am always seeking "rules," as it were -- in an effort to have some sense of control over the outcome now and in future.  For example,  Which fabric works best with each different technique or process?  Which fabrics don't work well with one process or another?  And by "work well" I mean get the result I'd hoped for.  It's also in large part due to my investigative mind that I seek answers -- I need to know how and why things work to create order out of chaos.

I think as the years go by and I continue on with the work, some of those rules are becoming obvious through experience.  And I need to qualify that as MY experience.  Because everybody seems to have different results often with the exact same fabric and dye.  So I can't say that what I'm finding would necessarily be so for someone else. 

I suppose this whole train of thought is just more of my seeming to like others' work more than my own, dyeing included.  Sometimes that fact immobilizes me.  Lately, I'm glad to say, it's making me want to carry on, to do more, to keep working it. 

You win some, you lose some.  Some finished fabrics are spectacular; some aren't so hot.  Just like life itself.

02.07.2012

Best of the Batch

I did a batch of jar dyed fabric on Saturday ~ this piece is the best of the results.  It's always iffy using colors you're unfamiliar with, and this time was no different.  This piece of silk rocks, though.

I want to push the envelope with this dyeing method for shibori, and have my next few batches planned for this week and beyond.  I also have some discharge shibori coming up.

I'm finding myself gravitating more toward shibori ~ even more experimentation than I've already done in the past few years with numerous methods of dyeing.  And more shibori quilting.  It's such a natural, organic process for me to quilt shibori fabric, it feels totally right.

I'm not much of a football fan anymore although I was for a while, a few years back.  Anyway, I just had to watch yesterday's Superbowl to see if the Patriots could pull it out of the bag on the rematch against New York.  Oh well, I still love Tom Brady.

Have a great week.  I'll be back tomorrow with a new collage.

02.04.2012