Tjap time

Today, I went to an Austin store I had not discovered yet: Silk Road Fabrics.  Lovely fabrics - I bought two beautiful pieces of silk to make up for an upcoming wedding in San Diego.  Two good things came of the visit besides the fabric; They had a basket of overdyed silk brocade pieces, plus the original - that got my mind going! - and they had a basket of wooden tjaps, or stamps for dyeing, made in India and doubtless used there for MANY years.  I have always wanted to try using them, so I bought a couple to try out.  Productive outing, PLUS a stop at the Austin Public Library to check out the most amazing book:  The Worldwide History of Dress.  Check it out on Amazon!  (http://www.amazon.com/Worldwide-History-Dress-Patricia-Anawalt/dp/0500513635/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274911384&sr=8-1)

Windy Monday!

Why oh why is it that whenever I set up to dye on the back porch the wind absolutely HAS to start blowing?  It was a duel to the death between me and the plastic wrap every time I wanted to seal off another layer of fabric to batch.  As I have to leave it for 24 hours before rinsing, and as it needs to stay at least somewhat moist during that time, I make a stack of layers - a cut-open black trash bag on the bottom, and between each layer of fabric, sheets of plastic wrap.  As you can imagine, the plastic wrap continually tried to wrap around ME instead of laying politely on the wet fabric.  I finally resorted to bringing out lots of canned goods from the pantry to hold down the stack.  Hmmmm - I only need two more hands.  Or four.

Today I used yellow, brilliant blue, lilac, turquoise and kelly green.  I hand-painted some t-shirts to play around with cutting them up to re-fashion into different shirts, and then switched to my new linen and rayon blend...  on that yardage I poured the dyes onto the folded material - one was wrapped flat and one loosely hand-pleated before wrapping.  So I have a bag of linen and a stack of t-shirt cotton.  Can't wait for the big rinse tomorrow.  I'll post pictures and start deciding whether I like the result and am ready to start sewing, or whether to do a new layer of surface treatment.  Stay tuned!

Color has taken possession of me; no longer do I have to chase after it. I know that it has hold of me forever... Color and I are one. I am a painter.   Paul Klee

Did I forget?

Yikes..  I forgot to carefully press the Publish button and make this post come to life.  OK - Here is the second shirt I made:  cotton, very comfortable but it would have been lots more vibrant in rayon or silk.  This one was handpainted in front and back panels, carefully wrapped in plastic wrap and batched overnight.
Rinsing out is the best part.

All colors are the friends of their neighbors and the lovers of their opposites.
Marc Chagall 

I have been having a great time working inside my head - but it is time to actually dye more fabric.  In the morning I am going to work with shades of violet - blue - fuschia.  I am going to follow the low water immersion dyeing process from paulaburch.net on rayon twill.  I have looked at all kinds of postings about the process, but her directions are the most extensive.  Here are pics of the latest shirts that are already completed.  This series of tester shirts has been a blast to make, and I love having lots of new t-shirts.

This vest is rayon, has great drape and fantastic deep color.  Here is the back:

Looks shapeless on the hangar, but hangs really well on me.  

And here is the last, a Kona cotton shirt that I vat dyed and then discharged.  The top panel is hand painted, the center and lower panels are hand painted and tied.  I love working with the discharge.

But now all I can think of is getting to work early in the morning.  More pics soon!

Narcissism - what a lovely word, and how central to blogging.  Ah well, back to work, saving the world, one artisan at a time.  So I started out my dyeing adventure by deciding between Dharma Trading and ProChem as my supplier.  Dharma's website is much friendlier and after all, who can resist such a hippie name?  Not me.  So I started to work on the initial order, and it went on for at least two weeks, the ruminations and tweaking and looking-just-one-more-time at the variables.  But I finally sent it in and let me tell you it is not cheap to get into dyeing... The first order totalled upwards of $260 and there have already been two more orders.  But oh the glory!  Then there was the amazon order to buy the fearsome dust/vapor mask (3M R6211 Low-Maintenance Half-Mask Organic Vapor, P95 Respirator Assembly), and various trips to walmart, etc to get more accoutrements.  There was lots of checking and rechecking the procedures, the number of tablespoons of this and that... slooooooow start with a steep learning curve.  But did I mention the glory?  I used the wonderful if pricy Dyes and Paints by Elin Noble as my primary source for directions with assistance from Color by Design by Ann Johnston.  Here are pics of my first shirt made from the experiments of the first day:

Let's get moving

I have decided to start a blog to track my journey as a fiber artist.  I hand-dye, weave, sew, spin (slightly), embroider, knit, crochet, needle felt, and also paint, sculpt and try just about every kind of craft that comes along in one form or another.  My path was set early by my mother, a truly terrific cross-stitcher and embroiderer, and also my grandmother who taught me to crochet as a child.  My mom also saw to it that I started art lessons as a youngster at the local art museum.  So she was my first role model as an artist, though she might be surprised to hear me say it.  My theme is color - its movement through fiber of all types, paintings too, and how it moves me.

The beginning of the current leg of my journey was a trip I took last year - parts of the trip took us to Highlands NC and to Washington, DC.  In Highlands, I went to the wonderful Bascom Museum, where they had a show about Helen Frankenthaler and the Color Field Painters.  The show invaded and possessed me, and I left with the germ of intention to learn to hand-dye fabric in a painterly way, that I would make into clothes so that I could wear paintings.  So that is where I am today.  From Highlands we went to Washington, DC, or as I like to think of it, Museum City.  I was very influenced by the Mary McFadden show at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and by lots of other pieces I saw in the National Gallery, etc.  

OF course after the trip I immediately had the huge detour of learning to weave, and working for months to earn the money for my new loom, (a Schacht 8-harness Baby Wolf) and I know that the weaving will be a permanent part of my life, but right now the hot months are upon me, and it is time to take advantage of the heat for dyeing.  Done.

So I am spending my days dyeing on the porch on my little plastic-sheet covered card table.  I am looking for a more expansive situation where I can spread out to dye larger yardage... the game is afoot.  But right now I am trying different things, different materials, and different styles.  I am at the BEGINNING.  In the fullest sense of the word, I have barely begun, but I do have several new hand-dyed shirts.  And the plans for oh so many more.  My plan is basically to make myself an entire new wardrobe over time, so that I can wear things that express me as a woman and as an artist.  So many other artists inspire and teach me through their blogs, that I thought I should give back as well.  There.  My mission is out there for all to see.  Done and Done.

baby steps

... beginning a blog just has those birth pangs - can't stop them from coming in waves.  But what the heck - no pain, no gain.