Takeshima wove some paper thread weft on a linen warp. It was her first time to weave anything.The paper thread came from some odds and ends picked up on Yahoo auction. Once woven she cut out a Buddhist cloud pattern (her first stencil) and we made the rice and bran paste and then dyed it with indigo. Then we took off the paste, shifted the pattern slightly and re-pasted it. I dipped it in the persimmon tannin every morning for three weeks and it came out looking like smoked salmon skin. She is a very imaginative bag maker and we are all looking forward to see the salmon bag. Her first weaving and first stencil dye project in one.
Kamei san has been working on her obi step by step by step using shibori and katazome techniques together. Again it was pasted once and dyed with indigo six times. The paste removed and the obi dried and ironed. Next a second pasting of the same stencil slightly shifted and dyed twice to get a light blue shadow. The obi will be folded in half and the back pattern is shibori. Next step will be to dye the shibori half with an orange dye, perhaps madder with gardenia pods. The blue will be greenish.
The back side of the obi stitched and ready to dye.
Pasted for the second time with the stencil slightlyshifted. Use fine cedar sawdust on the still sticky rice paste to make it slightly stronger. We looked at several samples of Japanese karakusa (arabesque) and combined several ideas and from that she cut out this particular stencil.
Looking refined and timeless with a few more steps left!
that obi is simply spectacular. please tell Kamei san it took my breath away!
ReplyDeleteSimply beautiful! Omedeto to both sensei and kohai. Love the complex depth of ai. Can't wait to see the finished obi. -CG
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