a little shop update-indigo sky and more

i’ve put a few new things in the shop this morning..
(go straight to the shop and view all new items on one page)

mainly, some indigo sky fabric: 4 -1/2 yard cuts of cotton lawn sky. each comes with a little indigo silk sky as a thank you.

sky on cotton lawn

also, some more silk shibori ribbon combo packs each comes with a clip of one of the new organza ribbons

3 borealis baby!

and some indigo diffusion organza ribbon with an indigo solid blue sky ribbon to match. i’ve been experimenting with indigo a bit. wondering and what-iffing. something new…
included just for fun is a silk cocoon i raised last time

shiborigirl indigo organza ribbons

also, one of the carry the moon bags remains. these are really special-one of the favorite things i have made i think. i’m really looking forward to keeping one for myself out of the next batch. i will also add that i like making practical things that can be used every day. this is one of those things.
wrapped in something special.

front

back

i am making more to take to houston. i will be in booth 903 next to my friend jennifer who has some pretty fantastic vintage ribbons and across from helen gibb of flower and ribbon fame herself! i think we will have a ribbon and silk party! flowers too~
my houston class schedule is:
~monday october 31 all day shibori dye class (and indigo too)
class # 110 9am-5pm still a few openings
~wednesday november 2 fashioning fabrics in silk-flowers & insects class #243 9am-12 noon-
sign up here at the Quilts Inc site.
even if you don’t get into one of the classes, come visit the silk experience room during the lunch break to see what the silk experience teachers have to offer. we usually try to have someone in the room and available during that time.

folks are still adding themselves to the group for the high desert silk experience.

on the horizen~ the JANM has asked me to add a two-day workshop in january (the 21st & 22nd). this in addition to the one already scheduled in march.

and here’s today’s photo of the tiny masters:
day 4

tiny masters day 4

hoping forward…and a little indigo entertainment

we are here thinking of all of you on the east coast, from SC and up, knowing you are busy with preparations for the storm. no matter when you might be back at the computer after settling in for the weekend with your loved ones, i thought i would post some visual entertainment to lighten up the tension nature creates as she winds up to release her pent up energy. you certainly have had your share this week from the earthquake to this and we wish you all well-know we are watching and thinking of you.

so, this week began a week of catching up and indigo was first on the list…

lots of stormy energy in this one...

white to near black indigo

this one turned out to be one of my favorites- i liked the high contrast and luminous quality of it. it ended up being difficult to translate what i liked about it in a photograph. the beauty of textiles…sometimes you just have to be there.

a couple more views follow. this was given to me by my friend donna…it had been hanging around her studio for quite some time. seems to be a sheer soft dotted swiss-ish cotton. it had a lot going for it to begin with. after dyeing with the indigo, it ended up with an interesting luminosity.

detail dotted cotton

another view- this captures some of the quality

then there was the silk gauze- haphazardly pole-wrapped, i like this effect every time i do it. it has a very topographic quality. like a silk map leading you onward.

and

always have to have some arashi…this on cotton lawn

indigo arashi on cotton

and this was done on the cotton scrim. i am loving this stuff.
more transparency…

there was just something about this section that spoke to me, like indigo stick figures. or maybe it was just me wondering.

there was more but it was getting late in the day (week!)

moon shadows

that reminds me, i named my first cat moonshadow (first meaning the first i adopted on my own when i was living out on my own at 18) . she was a longhair light grey tabby with yellow eyes. i think i was in love with cat stevens at the time…

but as you can see, new moons are on the rise. we have some orange and indigo moons and also some moons rising against a few clouds. it doesn’t look too stormy…yet.

new moons rising

ok, i’ll throw in a photo of the silk hemp fabric i brought back from Japan, also transparent. and done in indigo ombre.

indigo on silk hemp

i’ve also been doing some wondering about organza…silk shibori ribbon organza. plan to have it ready for my Houston workshop. those in my ribbon class there will be the first to try it out. it will be added as an extra to their class kits.

Class # 110 is an all day shibori on silk dye workshop with a little indigo worked in and class # 243 is about fashioning silk shibori ribbons and fabrics into beautiful things.
Both can be signed up for by going to the Festival website linked above.

organza on fire-it suddenly got hot here today..and for the next several days so they say.

i’ll end it with a little lonely moon. it’s almost forlorn.

little lone moon

well, that’s it for now. this weekend is devoted to pocket squares. i don’t speak much about them. but i will.

and all you who have been patiently waiting for your indigo they are on their way. with a few extra goodies, moons, threads, and more. thank you for waiting.

in other news, jude harvested her indigo and got some fantastic blues from fresh leaf dyeing.
and india flint’s new book is out! i hear it is fantastic.

may the storm pass swiftly and keep you safe.

more working backwards…

(my son was at the grocery store one day and texted me this random photo…he’s often thinking of (how to tease) me- funny photo-also an example of how quilting is sold via magazines in the grocery store-magazines are just weird to me these days anyway)
since i am working backwards here- there was something i forgot to mention in the last post which i wanted to make sure to tell you. one day during the show a woman came into the booth holding up a $50 bill in front of me. there were several others in the booth and i was quite busy attending to them all. this woman proceeded to tell me she had come by to give me this $50 because a couple of years ago she had charged something with me and there had been a problem and the amount had never been collected. she had hoped to come last year but couldn’t and had felt so badly about it she wanted to make sure she came to me first off. she gave me the bill and sped off leaving us all to marvel at her actions. certainly there had been a circumstance that needed rectifying (i had long given up on it-the cost of doing business and moving forward) but still it just was a lovely gesture and a testament to the quality of people who attend the quilt show. just wanted to say…thanks for exemplifying that -whoever you were!
prior to the show opening i taught two classes in Houston. i flew in early to help Maggie set up the Silk Experience classroom. it was really such a luxury to come in early to set up and have my own key to the teaching room so i could set up not only the room for all the teachers who would be teaching that week, but also so that i could set up for my own (first) all day shibori dye class at my own pace without being rushed. truly a luxury. after setting up the room as a whole with Maggie (of Silk Things ) i took a few photos of the displays we put up.

we had a display panel for each of the teachers who would be teaching. this serves not only to decorate our room but to educate all who enter for the week of classes about the other teachers and classes that are offered. they can then see what classes and teachers they might want to sign up for in the future. Judith Baker Montano also had a beautiful display and taught for us there but her display wasn’t set up when i took the photos and in all the goings on i neglected to go back and get a photo of it- just plain forgot-darn! she has a new book out which is just beautiful. it was great to see all the silk teachers again this year!
and just to let you know- i got absolutely zero pics during the all day workshop- was just too involved and busy- guess ya had to be there, sorry. maybe someone else did and will post them. but everyone had a good time and i even made a small indigo vat for everyone to take a dip in-most had never experienced indigo (used the pre-reduced indigo crystals and while they worked for our purposes the vat was fairly short lived and needed reviving part way through-there were 26 students though).
another thing of particular interest to shoppers in my booth was my Square Up device that allows for real time swiped credit card transactions via my iPhone. i’ve waited patiently since May for it’s arrival and received it just before the show. i discovered a few flaws but overcame most quickly. an unexpected delay in accessing my funds is still plaguing me but i get what they are doing and should have read the fine print first. this too will resolve itself with time.

i’ll start at the end, i’ll work backwards…

it’s been over a month now since the last post which is pretty rare for me but with so many moving parts and unexpected surprises (putting it mildly) i just have not been able to get myself to write a blog post. this will be a long post and i might break it up over the course of the week-we’ll just have to see.

i’ll start at the end
i’ll work backwards
from where we began
we were young, and ambitious
-back then…

-this song has been a favorite of mine since they recorded it and it just seemed appropriate here
(lyrics by Tristan Dolce, song title- Lou…give me a milk, album title Arrivals, Delays, & Departures by From Cities to Oceans
(iTunes link provided to purchase download)

i’ve felt things have been moving at a snail’s pace in some areas and i found this little guy while out walking the dog…a reminder that even at a snail’s pace progress gets made.

so, starting at the end, and working backwards- i’m back home now. the Houston Quilt Festival was successful by my own definition- which means i made some money, my classes went well and i got great evaluations on all, my lecture proceeded albeit with a potentially fatal mistake on my part which was thankfully avoided in part due to a very kind and forgiving audience (and a cell phone). the show attendance was reportedly up with somewhere around 55,000 between Market and Festival.
since i am starting at the end, i will say that the last leg of the return flight had us mysteriously circling out over the Pacific for 20 minutes or so after we made our initial approach to the runway without landing. upon our arrival we were told that the landing gear would not come down and that we were not informed until afterward because the pilot was just too darn busy taking care of business. glad i didn’t know. upon retrieving my luggage i found my brand new samsonite case had it’s wheels sheared off completely but after seeing the line at the US Airways counter of people whose flight had just been canceled due to our plane’s “mechanical difficulty” i decided to fore go complaining about such small details. ces’t la vie-literally! back to Marshalls for another case next time round. part of the cost of doing business.

speaking of costs…during the question and answer portion of my lecture, i was asked a couple of very basic questions. while i was surprised, looking back i guess i shouldn’t have been. my initial intention with the lecture was to offer up some very basic and practical thoughts for those considering starting out on their own in a small creative type business-after all, i only had an hour to broach such a large and involved subject. i did not intend it to be a “how to” on starting your own business but what i realized was that some of the questions which were asked showed me that people really wanted some real help on pricing their work, on figuring out how to get more of the $ trickling down to the bottom line. good questions and i did my best at answering them in the very small amount of time available.
i will say though, if you aren’t making enough money, you basically have two solutions-
1.) raise your prices
2.) lower your costs
the question on how to figure out how much it costs you to make something and how to go about pricing your work was basically answered by saying there are no shortcuts to this. list out your labor and materials, supplies on each item and each step of the process, do time studies, then extrapolate and do the math. this will give you your direct cost of goods. then there is the even trickier and more elusive overhead costs (not to mention the profit you are looking to earn). you also need to figure out what the market will bear- basically, it’s a numbers game and it will serve you well to know your costs. otherwise, one should not bother with having a business. better to keep it a hobby and enjoy!
i didn’t take lots of photos but here are a few of the booth before it got too chaotic-

-plus i got to meet several online friends in person-one in particular you may also know-what a treat! she (Kristin LaFlamme) also has done a great job reporting on the show from the perspective of a first time attendee. this is about all i can manage right now so will continue going backwards from here….later.

new in blue…

very busy here in preparation and some new things in blue- just a peek of the week in review-

one very happy development is that i have finally figured out a decent way to reuse the d-core thread i wrap the arashi poles in- not liking that i have been throwing it away for the most part all this time. seemed like such a waste. so far i have used over 80,000 yards of this stuff! not that i will be able to reuse all of it but for now i will start saving it and sending it to YOU! like this:
each indigo boro fabric pack will have some to stitch with!
and maybe some of this if you are doing some weaving…
indigo kasuri thread

-new style arashi indigo silk gauze is going into the packs as well-sheer and transparent, it catches the wind of your imagination…
it matches the sky, the ocean or a river…
in detail…

and if that wasn’t enough blue this week, we have added a new pup to the mix, her one blue eye
is always watching me…it’s been a busy week!

and if you were wondering, the indigo shibori timpani mutes worked perfectly! a good performance, reportedly. next week i will see for myself- a quick trip to hear some music performed.

(and all the ribbon scrap bags are gone for now…but the boro packs and subscription videos are still available if you are in jude’s cloth to cloth class and have ordered a pack they are on the way to you within a day or so of ordering them…enjoy! i understand some great things are going on there!) and a new subscription video series is forming here…don’t think i want to miss this!

see you in houston!

the age old question- “what if?”

a comment on a recent post reminded me of this story:

“According to legend, silk was discovered in 2640 BCE by Empress Leizu. One day, the Leizu was drinking tea under a mulberry tree and a silkworm cocoon fell into her cup. The cocoon became loose and the fiber could be unwound: by twisting together fibers from several cocoons, she made a thread strong enough to be woven into cloth. Silk making (sericulture) is even older than the legend suggests. Archeologists have found ancient cloth and even a 6000-7000 year old cup decorated with pictures of silkworms.”

basically, however it came to be, sericulture surely was a result of someone asking “what if?”. a unique moment when things all lined up and a person wondered…

(a brief excerpt from View from the Dyepot, available here.)
meanwhile, the Silk Study Tour to Japan is picking up steam…get on board while there are still spaces! it’s exciting to see the wide variety of folks coming along.

dinner break…

a break right now between wrapping poles and discharging on my way to overdyeing and steaming. had to come in to check the inventory for colorways and make some decisions on what was going to get dyed what color in the overdye stage and what was going to be discharged (or not). this decision is based on me eyeing the ribbon and scarves on hand and making a list based on what i feel my “eye” is missing, what i think will sell at the show…blah blah blah. it’s a crap shoot basically but i do like to see a nice well rounded selection. basically, there is a person for every color i dye and part of the best part is seeing who chooses what color and helping them decide if they do in fact want help (many do!). often colors i personally love are the last to sell but that’s been true of the things i make and sell for a very long time. i try to think outside myself and also think about what moods and feelings the different colors and their combinations evoke as well as how they appear visually-which is of course how we take in this information in the first place. sorry, rambling a bit.
interestingly, there has been a conversation going on here that went in an interesting direction and reminded me that i DO in fact make to sell but with other intentions as well.

on another front (there are many), the following piece of silk (an 18 x 90″ scarf) will be going to one of the video subscribers as a gift. to qualify, subscribers who leave a comment on the video page will have their name thrown into a hat (once for each week they leave a comment) and at the end of the month i will pull one name out to receive this piece. it is just a sample of something that was done on the video- a shared quickie technique using the colorhue dyes. it’s not pleated but could be.
this piece feels pretty strong-stormy almost.

also, as promised- a few quick clips of last year’s Silk Study Tour. sorry, don’t have time to do a formal edit on the clips-just too much to do. but you get the idea. on this day we were with the Tama Silk Life 21 group at the Metropolitan Research Institute. we spend the full day there and everyone gets to try their hand at everything from reeling, spinning and making silk caps and mawata. both classes exampling what we learned here are sold out at the Houston show. i will be assisting in one of them.

some traveling money will be required so i restocked the shop with some indigo boro packs (selected indigo fabrics for a new stash of them last night) and as soon as i get some more ribbon scrap bags organized i will be putting them in the shop as well. be ready, they always disappear quickly! might also offer a scarf or two-as soon as i get the beads sewn on…
back to work, it’s gonna be a long night.

momijigari…momiji to momizu

“The word “momiji” means that trees are changing to their autumn colors and it originates from the old word “momizu”, which means to dye something red.” this from a site “created by ordinary Japanese folks to help foreign nationals better understand the fascinating culture of Japan”, called Treasure House.

“momijigari” refers to the national Japanese passion for viewing the colors of fall leaves as they change throughout the country- much like the spring passion of cherry blossom viewing (hanami).

the seasonal and short-lived beauty of nature is not only a passion in Japan but one artists worldwide have reflected in their works forever- a constant source of inspiration.

the more colors start to change, the more i get anxious to hover over the dyepot. here in southern california we don’t get the full impact of the riotous colors of fall leaves i remember from my time living in Japan and Virginia, so hand dyed silk will have to suffice. i am working on so many things right now in preparation for the Houston show. however much you enjoy the images i post of my work, i encourage you to come and see me in person at one of the upcoming events. there really isn’t anything like meeting you in person. online culture can only take us so far.

and…colored cats being fed colored chow for colored cocoons!

…coming up- some video of last year’s Silk Study Tour and details about the upcoming trip in 2011. spaces still available but we plan to see those filled by the end of november as we are promoting it heavily at the Houston show. happily, we can report that at this point, 75% of the Silk Experience classes at Houston are filled with many people being turned away and put on overflow/waiting lists. interest in silk is definitely on the rise! when i first started doing the shows with my silk the only other booth devoted to silk was maggie’s booth- Silk Things. we will have our booths back to back and up front at the Houston show– come see us in booths 1100 and 1200!

summer turns to fall

things continue to change around here and this piece reminded me that colors are changing too.
summer colors turn to fall.
the magic of the dyepot yielded this beauty which seemed even further proof that fall will arrive soon, even here in southern california.

over at the dyepot, indigo has been the color of the week. new video up tomorrow along with your new password. also a little test of an organic lime vat. something new. (you can subscribe anytime during the month and still see past videos)
~for anyone interested in the history of Japanese internment in the LA area, there is this on Saturday.

…also posted the latest events over on the event page only to realize that the Houston all day shibori workshop was already sold out. the silver lining is that you don’t have to go all the way to TX for a shibori class. my workshop at the Japanese American National Museum on Oct 2nd, 1-4 pm still has spaces. those attending will also get to see the sneak preview trunk show of some of the new shibori i will be featuring in Houston. i will also be bringing a taste of indigo to play with too- a preview of a longer, all indigo workshop coming up at the JANM-details to follow. call them at (213) 625-0414 to reserve your spot.

makiage, indigo, and a new Japan silk study tour!

a recent trip to Seattle allowed me to have a little stitching time, something that seems to elude me when i am home at work with all the other things there are to do around here. but in anticipation of the short trip i prepared a couple of things i could work on should i be fortunate to get the chance. i did, and was able to stitch up one makiage piece on a fine lightweight cotton. something someone sent my way that was no longer of use to them. a lovely piece of fabric.

here is the piece in progress- shot next to some lovely hosta leaves at maggie’s house. we don’t grow these in socal-probably too hot and dry i expect-and they were just magnificent.

it is now confirmed and i can now announce some exciting news- the formation of a second Silk Study Tour to Japan in may of 2011! details are in the works and the tour itinerary and costs will be available in PDF form around June 1st. i was in Seattle to work out details and meet with our Japanese coordinator. we had a planning session at maggie’s-

(i started a facebook page for the tour which i will add to soon. feel free to visit it and “like” it if you want to see regular updates in your feed.)

while i was there we practiced degumming silk cocoons and making silk mawata. mawata is a japanese term meaning “spread out”. each mawata consists of a number of degummed silk cocoons stretched over a frame. these mawata can then be used in various ways- for spinning silk yarns, creating silk paper, felting and stitching projects. maggie is teaching a class at the Houston show on how to do this and we were practicing what we learned in Japan last year on the silk study tour. see the complete list of silk experience classes here.

so today i unpacked and got back to where i left off and started pulling up threads on my stitched makiage piece. it is approximately 1/2 yard of 45″ cotton. pulling up the gathering threads is always a little anxiety ridden-one broken thread and poof! fortunately the shibori gods were on my side (plus a little experience and patience) and this is what i was left with-

several dips into the natural indigo vat-

here you can see the piece while it is oxidizing-note the greenish color

and finally-

the exciting part is releasing the fabric from the stitches to see the result- hopefully without cutting any holes in the fabric. i managed to get past this pitfall as well resulting in this:

the whole cloth drying-

just a reminder, i am giving an indigo workshop May 28 & 29. there’s still a spot available if you are tempted…