ENTWINEMENTS

 What concentration to make your stock soultions?

Again to follow up on what Peg said  that I used 0.01% stocks.  Well sometimes I do and sometimes I don't.  When I worked with stock solutions all the time , I usually made Lanaset Stocks at 1%.  The Lanaset, and most acid dyes, have limited solubility and 1% is achievable with most of the dyes without additives. Fiber reactive I usually make 2%, they are more soluble and require higher DOS.

When I started dyeing batches of 2500-3000g of silk the volume of stock was too large.
For example dyeing 3000g of silk, a medium DOS of 3% with stocks that are 1% requires

3000g x DOS of 3%/1% stock =9000g or mL of stock

9000mL= 9L 

That is a lot of stock!  Now I used to make the stock in 1/2 gallon canning jars, that would only hold 1800ml so this would be a big, big chore to make 9000ml of stock. It is easier just to weigh out the dyes  powders for each batch.  90g of dye, even if it is divided up into 5 colors is still doable  even with a balance that only weighs to 1g.

But dyeing 450g of silk to the same DOS would require 1350ml of 1% stock which is convenient.

But when I sample for new colors I dye 5g swatches of silk.  So the same formula

5g x DOS 3%/1% stock=15 g=15ml 

gives me 15ml of dye stock.  So what would the effect of a drop of dye stock solution falling off the out side of the pipet into the dye bath.  Now a drop of aqueous solution we can guess to be about 0.2 ml, and

Posted by Karren at 05:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Peg is  continuing her samples, now she mixed orange and blue. 

She talks about the using the Lanaset Mustard yellow, which I call Gold, instead of the Lemon Yellow.  Actually the gold is the work horse in any dye set.  In Lanaset dyes the 2 colors I buy the most are black (high DOS) and gold.  The Lemon Yellow is very weak tintorially and I only use use it when I must.

What does weak tintorially mean?  It means that you can't get a very high DOS with the color.  It means that if you add one drop of Royal Blue you will have green and even adding lots more yellow it is hard to get yellow green.  It means that when dyeing neutrals, a mix of red, blue and yellow, you will be in the pale range and it will be difficult to get the yellow based browns and golds.  In Lanaset I usually use the Gold to mix neutrals.  It is gives greater DOS and closer in tintorial strength to the reds and blues making a larger ranger of colors possible.

So when would I use the Lemon Yellow? (Warning:I am now going to use terms to describe the color from the Munsell Color Theory.) Lemon Yellow is a dye with high chroma, that is it is a clear, bright color.  Gold is a dye of much lower chroma, it is a dull color.  There is no way to brighten a color, that is increase its chroma.  So if I want a final color that has high chroma, that is bright, I must start with high chroma dyes.  So If I want to mix a bright Spring Green I would need to start with the Lemon Yellow but the Gold would be fine for olive.  Mixing colors always decreases the chroma, I don't know anyway, just mixing dyes, to increase the chroma.  Thus the chroma of the pure dyes of a set limit the brightness achievable with those dyes.  Thus one can not use Lanaset to mix neon colors.

So using Lanaset dyes,  I might use Lemon Yellow with a tad of Turquoise (both high chroma) to achieve a bright Spring Green. 

I might use Gold, Navy and Magenta (a red with black in it) to mix a dark Olive-- a deep, dull color. 

Sage Green might be Gold and Royal Blue.

 The terms hue, value and chroma are used to describe colors.  I learned this from Munsell Color Theory.  I had to work hard to understand color and the most critical step was the The New Munsell Student Color Set.

This set has a a booklet with the Theory and exercises, notebook,  and color  chips.  You have to glue the color chips in the right places.  In this glueing you will learn more about color that you thought there was to know.  You will see browns are oranges and how many browns there are. You will see that black and yellow give a green.  Your eye will be trained to to see more colors.

Posted by Karren at 03:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Getting the color you want is an essential skill in dyeing, this is usually why you are dyeing. There are several components to this skill, at least in the way I think about it.  I could write an entry on each part but today I'll just mention them.

1. Knowing color.  This is more than red+yellow make orange.  It is the difference between mixing a bright tangerine orange and a dull terracotta, both oranges.  Some people know how to do this because they have spent a lifetime mixing paints; watercolors, acrylics or oils.  The one big difference between dyes and paints is that there is no white dye.  Your undyed cloth is your white.  I did not have a lifetime of painting so I had to go with a more formal study of color. 
   
2. Knowing your dyes.  This involves dyeing up each dye color that you will be using to mix your colors at two different DOS.  Few dye colors are the true colors were would like for mixing so you have to learn ift the red is bright or dull, the yellow is a tad red or green...  This is a time consuming step for some people but it is essential when you start with a new dye set.  Ideally should be done on your fabric; each fabric is a different white and the colors are slightly different as a result.
3. Testing.  Dyeing is in no way, a "what you see is what you" get endeavor. Some dye goes on the fabric some goes down the drain.  Wet and dry fabric look different.  Making samples is the sign of a good dyer.  To make samples work you need to kept accurate records so that you can later dye the project.

Peg in South Carolina at TALKING ABOUT WEAVING, is currently doing dye samples for her next project.

Here she has 7 hues at 2 different DOS.  You can see larger picture on her blog.  Now she is tackling chromatic neutrals, you know those wonderful neutrals that still have a tinge of  a color like blue grey or pinkish beige.

This series she got by combining yellow-green with red-violet.

Neutrals are always a challange when dyeing.  They are basically a very controlled mix of all 3 primaries--yellow, red and blue-- here the blue is combined with the other primaries (yellow+blue=yellow-green, red+blue= red-violet).  These colors can change a lot with one drop of dye; a drop of blue can change a color from brown to olive. 

I love these colors, the chromatic neutrals.  They are chamaeleon colors,one color  beside blue can look like goldish, then beside yellow  look mauve.  Joseph Albers  illustrated this effect in his studies. They are marvelous in multi-colored shibori dyeing since they increase the complexity of the color.

Posted by Karren at 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Previously I have discussed how to make Chinese Butterflies, Part 1, Part 2, and some of the limitations about fabric and size. Here is a link to watch a video of a Chinese maker, LUI DA PAO, making butterflies in indigo.

Posted by Karren at 01:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This is a detail of a yukata that was posted on the shibori Flickr pool by narablog.com. It is just indigo on white (or the natural color of the cloth. It has generated quite a bit of interesting technical discussion about how it was made in the comments at Flickr. The keystone in the discusion in another piece of cloth of posted by narablog.com. It appears the this piece was pole wrapped with precision twice and indigo dyed the same shade each time. Try it, it will make you feel humble.

Narablog has explained that this is cotton, handspun and handwoven. Hand spinning takes about 5 times as long as hand weaving. This is extremely labor intensive (but made before we had labor saving devices and longer lives). The effect can best be seen in a larger view of the yukata.

One sees darker patches in the blue across the cloth caused by tiny variations in the spacing of the arashi shibori lines that in the detail seem impossibly perfect. This color blue that fades in and out is much more like the colors I see in nature. Reminds me of the flight of a flock of birds or the sound of cicadids in the August afternoon. Seldom does nature produce a large expanse of uniform color. To me this is the kind of beauty and patterns I see in nature and aspire to create.

Todays questions are different:
Is the beauty worth the time?
Can you get the same effect faster, cheaper?
What's next?

Posted by Karren at 10:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This is a maki-age hankie that a student of mine bought in Japan and brought to a class where I photographed it. Lovely.

If you have been following this blog you have seen the technique if not the name. I have seen the Japanese name as both makiage and maki-age, or pattern within a motif. I have also seen maki-nui, maki zome, kawamaki, bo maki ( bo means pole). Maki-nui is a stitching technique with overcast stitches, thus I have an idea what the Japanese maki means to wind or bind.
I have referred to this technique as stitched and bound.
I showed how I did this when I was doing the Hydrangea Jacket--process. Further instruction are in by book, Shibori: creating color and texture on silk. On this blog you can see some at
samples, jacket . The Chinese use this technique extensively.

The Chinese are also making much of the Japanese style shibori these days. It ia a general consenses that the crafts are disappearing in Japan too. Their young people are not interested in time consuming training and the cost of labor is high. John Marshall said to me to buy handcrafted Japanese textiles now; they are cheap and disappearing.

Posted by Karren at 08:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

You can see some more images of student work here.

Posted by Karren at 01:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

What a loss, a man that loved his scarves. He seemed to enjoy them for their sensous qualities and colors.

Posted by Karren at 12:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Exploring the links left in the thoughtful comments, thanks Fiona and Peg, led me to a few tidbits I'd like to share:

The action of stitching, the repetitive, monotonous process was a relief, and again I experienced the overlap in thinking and making. The making seemed to clarify my thinking, to resolve ideas and enable me to express for a questioning audience.

From Tips for Mindful Living:

"

Practice the 'philosophy of slow,'" suggests Helgesen. For example, when cooking, choose a recipe that takes longer to prepare, like a stew.

The payoff: Doing something slowly diminishes your stress level, builds patience, helps us appreciate things that don't offer "immediate gratification," and often produces better, more satisfying results.

And then some of my notes about the Tea Ceremony. There are parts of the ceremony that don't appeal to me and parts that do:

Charateristics of Tea Ceremony

beauty of imperfection
simplicity
limitation of things
doing things for others

harmony
respect
purity
tranquility

Zen concept of living fully in the present—very special----one time, one meeting
heightened sensory awarness

quiet inerlude for spiritual refreshment and harmony with the universe

clarification of the senses

complex combination of sensual and spiritual elements

________________________________________________________________________________________

Glennis brought up body scanning. I saw this first about 10 years ago in a university in NC. It requires a booth and a person with few clothes-underware or leotard. Otherwise the scanner can't tell which is body and which is clothes. As with much of technology, the buy in price is very high. At that time the scanner, software I think would have cost a mere $50 000. And the body scanning software did not interface with with the pattern drafting software. Only for a geek to fiddle with. Then Levi tried it a few years later. You could be scanned in a few stores like San Francisco and Boston and pick out the style of the body, legs pocket... and then have your jeans delivered in 2 weeks. It was touted as the coming of mass customization. Then it disappeared. Now Levi is working with one of the discounters, Wal-Mart I believe. These big companies never share why or what goes wrong but from a few comments I suspect that the problem is visualization. The people ordering had no idea what all the parts were going to look like together, and were less than thrilled with the results. Better to have a pair in hand and try them on to accept or reject. Or the delay was not satisfying.... Anyhow works better for Scion than Levi. Read an old article about custom Levis.

We working artists don't realize how special the ablility to visualize a a future product is. The other part of visualizing a custom product was explained to me by a friend, Gail Kort, I met at Village Artisans who did lovely pen and ink drawings of buildings around town. She said you are often trying to make a drawing that the client has in their mind; they can't make it and are asking you to make it. Difficult if not impossible. I think this is a common problem with custom work.

Posted by Karren at 01:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)