I had taken off some time in July and August from working all the time, after finishing my goal of 24 shibori hats in 12 months. Summer activities, family gatherings, staring into space filled the available time. Suddenly, the urge to MAKE something sprouted up as vigorously as the weeds in my garden. NO, not hats! My mind went directly to a very specific piece of fabric purchased at Nuno in Tokyo last June. I went to work immediately and spontaneously; inspired by the outrageous texture that had attracted me in the first place. I cut a stencil of freezer paper to use with Shiva oil paint sticks. I used four colors brushing yellow, pink, green and turquoise from he edge of the stencils onto the fabric (negative space) on the textured side. I used charcoal on the reverse for the circle shapes (positive space) placing them carefully among the shapes I had created on the textured side. The idea was to use the centers of the circles on the textured side as the centers for tegumo shibori designs, i.e. to have the tegumo (spider design) be contained within the circles created with Shiva. Well, it didn't quite work out as planned for the simple reason that the dye used for the shibori was much more intense than the colors of the original circles. The circles showed up only very discretely. OK, no problem. I get it. Adaptation is the name of the game in experimentation. Make lemonade! I painted the shibori designs within the circles with dye. The reverse side with the charcoal circle outlines is very subtle as well. Oh well... it adds a subtle complexity. OK with me. I ended up liking the piece very much. It just is very different than I thought it was going to be.
Lesson: Two possibilities for the Shiva circles idea to work: 1. either the Shiva needs to be applied thickly and in relatively dark colors. Then the shibori would need to be more pastel within those circles.... or 2. if the Shiva designs are light colored, choose a lighter value for the shibori dye, so the Shiva circles don't get overwhelmed. But that would take away from the drama of contrasting values. As usual, there are trade-offs. What is it that I really WANT? Can I have it ALL? Maybe! To find out, all I have to do it experiment some more. But I have no more fabric like this... good! that's saves me from feeling I HAVE to do more experiments. I can just go on to something else. So, now what? My response to the fabric was immediate. I want to make a garment. What kind? What can I make with this small piece (51x28)? Stay tuned.
2 Comments
Linda Riley
9/4/2016 07:52:15 am
What a landscape of color, texture and form!
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Jodi Welliver
9/8/2016 09:25:22 am
This is not what I expected either, after seeing your work in progress. But OH MY! Still an EXCELLENT result! I look forward to seeing what this becomes.
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October 2016
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Hue & Dye