Entries from February 2008

February 27, 2008

more indigo and gyotaku too!

If you read my other blog, Elementary Art Exploration, you know that March is printmaking month.
We will be exploring various printmaking techniques including gyotaku. Made we wonder how it might work on silk using
some special instant set dyes…….more on that later.
In the meantime…..

more indigo silk ribbon. this is 5 yards of 1″ ribbon done [...]

February 14, 2008

shibori silk ribbon flower class

We will now have a brief commercial interruption…..

For those of you who just received your supply list for the Joggles online Shibori no Hana class, here’s another photo of the silk ribbons that Barb recently restocked. I’m looking forward to meeting you all in the forums and creating shibori flowers together. Feel free [...]

February 13, 2008

indigo shibori nine patch

playing nine patch with play-day indigo shibori samples……
things i learned so far about indigo dyeing:
-it’s messy- keep separate tools for indigo
-i like the variations of blue that can be achieved-i’m not so interested in solid shade dyeing which is good as that seems more difficult!
-the indigo vat is constantly changing
-i like to remove the texture [...]

February 11, 2008

oxygen gives birth to indigo blue

turning from greenish-blue

to blue

-working on the depth of shade
oxygen is the life force of indigo, like a baby taking it’s first breath of air- it comes alive.
mysterious but chemically predictable.
watched a youtube video on the extraction process of indigo-

February 11, 2008

play day

Today I played with the indigo vat. Last post I thought it wasn’t working properly but turned out it was just fine- I was just having a hard time seeing that the color below the surface was yellow green. It had sat for a couple of days now and required “sharpening” with a [...]

February 7, 2008

studio time

this week:
base dye black, mustard, teal, pink, red
iron and roll 200 yards of ribbon
pole wrap 200 yards of ribbon
discharge, overdye, steam set and dry said ribbon
unwrap, skein, invoice and ship.
made the indigo vat using synthetic indigo from prochem. i carefully followed the instructions on the website but i’m having problems (i think) with the [...]