More on Sarasa Vegetable Pigment Making Techniques

Madder Plants


Boiled madder roots. Note that the outside skin of the root is pigment rich not the tough sinewy inner core.


Madder pigment settling to the bottom. Repeat this several times to neutralize the dye bath.


Filtering the sediment with a coffee filter.


The final madder dye pigment ready to be refrigerated.

Madder, akane '茜' is the root that produces alizarin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alizarin the only completely light fast and stable red dye. Every brilliant red color on cloth found anywhere in the world through out history up until 1860ish was made from this root. Think of deep red Turkish and Persian carpets, Indian print cloth, red colored tartans etc. The Japanese version grows wildly around Fujino.

Here is the wiki link for a quick read on madder. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubia

Keeping it short...bring to a boil 100 grams of the roots in 2 liters of water, turn down the heat and simmer for twenty minutes. Remove the roots and filter the dye liquid through a medium mesh. Repeat the boil with another 2 liters of water. The roots can be used again and again to get paler shaded of pink on silk and wool. Making an extract you want the real dark stuff from the initial two boils.
Combine the two dye baths from the first and second boil. Add 10 grams of creme of tarter or the equivalent amount of aluminum mordant. The pH will be around 3. Use full spectrum pH paper to test. To neutralize the pH to 7 pour in ash alkaline until the mixture clouds up. (Creme of Tarter naturally clouds up when neutralized.) Pour the mixture into jars and let settle. Madder settles in about an hour. Remove the clear liquid and add more water to make sure the mixture is pure and neutralized. Repeat this three to four times.
Finally remove the clear water and pour the sediment into a coffee filter. You want the paste left in the filter. Scoop this out and put it in jar and keep refrigerated, It should keep for months if not years. This red pigment can be used as a stable paint with some binder on cloth or paper wood etc.

Madder has a long history and there are more than a few ways to extract the dye to get clear and deep colors. Another blog.

Sorry I was so cheap with lifted photos of sarasa on yesterday's blog. Here are a few from the kitchen today.


Left: Onion skins and cochineal. Middle: madder. Right (Yamaguchi san cut this stencil): combination. These are not finished yet. When it gets warmer they will get a background or accent color of indigo.

Monday Sarasa Research

Jars of settling cochineal purple dye.


Pomegranate skins ready to have the pigment extracted.


Cedar ash to make the alkaline solution.

There is a field/mountain of Japanese textiles that seemed just too difficult to run into. The bunny hill even seemed intimidating. There just isn't that much information out there either. So on Mondays these past few months Eri and I have been experimenting with making vegetable dye extracts and fixing them on cotton and linen. Our goal is to figure out how to make a vegetable pigment paste from the dyestuffs available in the area to use with a brush and use with Japanese stencil dying techniques. We will repeat the procedures enough that we are comfortable with them and can work with a dozen or so useful dyes. We have a stack of old books written in Japanese which individually nibble away at the different overlapping and confusing techniques. Going through stacks of actual antique materials we are very slowly figuring out which techniques were mixed and used with each type of cloth. Instinctively we are maneuvering through these to find what cloth we would like to make ourselves. We have pulled off a few lucky minor masterpieces already. Smells like beginner's luck.

The topic of sarasa itself is a tough nut to crack in Japan. The techniques came to life in some obscure corner of India in the 13th century. Fixing color on the surface of cotton with woodblock mordant stamping, metal stamp beeswax resist. cut out stencil dyes used with a paste resist and/or as a positive stencil, hand painted and endless combinations of techniques mixed with endless varieties of vegetable, animal and rock pigments. The cloth was imported to Japan in the 15th century on Portuguese ships. It spread and was both valued and despised for the foreign aesthetic brought with it. And the genius of Japanese adaption, refinement and technical improvement took off.

The authoritative reference books we got our paws on are often contradictory and not written by practicing artisans. Often edited/written by someone smelling a tad nationalistic and unable to place the techniques on a larger horizon and decipher them historically, aesthetically and technically. Great information is out there somewhere but for the time being it is better to swim around in the unknown and let a few bottom weeds tangle our ankles and cause some panic. Classrooms and detailed 'how to' books seem to deaden the actual work. The time will come to polish up what we learn but now is the time to run with the potential of each color and technique as we discover it. This is the dilemma of teaching. How to show just enough technique to create enthusiasm and have the students play and discover for themselves.

First the cloth has to be impregnated with a protein from soy beans. Then the cloth should be impregnated with a mordant. So far we have just used creme of tartar and aluminum. It won't be long before we will move onto woodblock and metal stamps meaning more experiments with iron and copper. Working with tannin heavy barks and nuts will also be necessary to get at the potentials of these techniques.

The extract method varies slightly for each dyestuff. Most require an alkaline solution made from wood ash. Take some wood ash and pour on boiling water and strain it. Let the sediment settle for two days and take off the clear water on the top. This ash alkaline solution is necessary as both a mordant (naturally occurring aluminium) and acts to help draw out the pigment and make it soluble.

So far we have made pastes from onion skins, cochineal, pomegranate skins, madder, suo, gardenia pods and cedar bark. You usually end up with a pigment mud the consistency of a rubbery toothpaste.

Basically you are making a paint that needs a binding agent to the cloth. Hide or bone marrow glue is the easiest and most direct method. The cloth ends up being stiff. Not the best for clothing. Strong mordant with a protein isn't as color fast but the cloth remains soft.

I will keep you updated as the experiments go forward and share insights and techniques.




A few images taken from the Internet.

Lynette Anderson San

I was up early in the morning and the thermometer read minus seven. It had snowed a few more centimeters but this was easily shoveled away. Layers are the best way to go with clothing on a trip into Tokyo on a day like this. Leave the heavy leather coat in the jeep and make a mad dash for the train. The heat was on in the Tokyo Dome for the 'Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival'. (Couldn't they come up with a name that slid a little easier off the tongue?) I could swear I heard the old Sesame Street tune, "One of these things is not like the other , one of these things just doesn't belong...." on the PA system as I walked in. Thousands and thousands of quilter women and one rough looking snow shoveler bumbling in.

I was still bundled up toasty warm not quite sure why I was even there. I suppose I wanted to see quilts made with old Japanese textile scraps and there were some antique textile dealers from all over Japan. Great stuff. Always makes me smile. And to check out potential shops that the tour members would be interested in visiting. I brought along a few recent magazine articles about my work to make it easier to approach someone and strike up a conversation. For Japanese I can look a little scary with a beard fresh off the road cleaning crew.

My first stop was at Lynette Anderson's booth. She is beautiful and holding down her fort with her daughter and a Japanese translator. I was not quite in sync with the mood of the of the place, slightly sleepy from the snow and train ride and ten layers of clothes. I was fumbling around in my bag to find magazines and explain what I was doing at a quilt show. My face was red for some reason and then I realized it was partially because I was a walking sauna. Try peeling off a few layers of sweaters and keep a casual conversation going with someone you just met. Suddenly wet sweaty hair stuck to your forehead...
I couldn't find my camera to take a picture of the booth until Lynette reminded me that it was hanging around my neck and not in the bag. Her daughter giggled at my stupid face as I struggled to get it off my neck and take the picture. What a geek. Jeesh.
Look a the expression on their faces....entertained by the bumbling silk farming dork.



This is the same view yesterday morning as the 'Fresh Green' on the right side of the blog.

It snows and it gets shoveled, then it snows again....someone has hit the repeat button.

I have trouble getting links in this blog. I have a feeling it is Japan. Here is Lynette's quilting website. http://www.lynetteandersondesigns.com.au/

Tokyo Quilt Festival

It is hard to digest all the work there. It is impressive to see how much thought and work go into making the quilts. An old line from a high school text book popped into my head. It was from Kennith Clarke in his "Civilization" TV series on the BBC. "It is hard to define what civilization is but not so difficult to see what it is not."

I prefer the quilts that would actually be used on a bed to keep warm. Most are made to hang on the wall. This is fine but still... A little wear and tear would make them look more beautiful. And hundreds of quilts hanging up under fluorescent lighting in a huge sports/rock concert arena. I would be nicer to see them in a venue more respecting the the millions of hours spent on the stitching and designing.

So many things impressed me. Here are some pictures.




Small scraps of silk Oshima tsumugi. It was good to see this precious silk used on something that will be kept for many years. Often these old kimono are taken apart and made into western clothing.



This was a clever usage of the old linen/cotton bags that were used to filter miso and make soy sauce.






Here the overall design is Japanese and the colors are very Japanese. The small shape motifs are so clever as well.




Of course their were plenty of blossom theme Japanese quilts.








This one was just crazy creative and cool.


A lot of indigo in the quilts,

The Crazy Ones...

I have been a Apple/Mac fan and Steve Jobs admirer my entire adult life. OK. He wasn't the perfect human but he stood where humanities met technology and did about as good as a job as it as I can imagine. I read and re-read his biography over the winter vacation. And checked out that old ad campaign for the Crazy Ones...


Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes... the ones who see things differently -- they're not fond of rules... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things... they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.
Steve Jobs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rwsuXHA7RA

(the link might not work from Japan. Just search on youtube for 'Think Different.')

The ad featured short clips of Bob Dylan, Amelia Earhardt, Picasso, Muhammad Ali, Jim Henson (muppets) , Martha Graham, Maria Callas, Alfred Hitchcock, John and Yoko etc.

Near my house two dear friends live and work. Their studio is called, 'Saiseiryu'. Recycle Way. They are both Japanese. She was born in Japanese occupied China and grew up in Tokyo and Moscow during the cold war. She later worked for several top Japanese designers,(Issey Miyake) and later worked as a clothing designer in Hong Kong and then many years in New York with their own brand (Pluto Cat on the Earth) with her husband. They never thought about selling as a priority. The fun and integrity are priorities. They don't think about integrity but instinctively work with materials that reflect their ever evolving relationship with this over-crowded and over consuming human species that is amusing itself and the planet to death. They make all their own clothing. Like John and Yoko they sit and talk about ideas and then actualize their ideas. (In their clothing.) After September 11th in New York they moved back and live a quiet life in the mountains near me. My town is famous for artists and I often wonder where they are....there are a few talented and famous and successful writers and painters and potters near by and I have been lucky to know them all these years. But Saiseiryu are special. They are still growing and their work has substance because it is real time as well as connected to the world at large. We had circled and eyed each other from a distance for a few years before becoming friends. Now I tear up thinking of the privilage it is to be near them.


They use only cloth they have picked up and re make it into...I could write volumes. But this post is about the New Years precious present they gave me.

They are almost universally seen as crazy. To me they are about the only sane ones in the town. They showed up at my house to pick up some stuff dressed in The Jetsons meet Space Janitor self-designed white nuclear clean-up uniforms with comical non-functional hard hats and Dalai Lama pictures and 'Toxic Waste Beware' printed on their plutonium clean up crew jumpsuits a week or so after the nuclear accident. "We were either ten years ahead or ten years late when we were wearing these in New York." I just kept a straight face as we had coffee and cookies but my other visiting friends thought they were actually heading up to Fukushima in these nutty outfits to clean up the reactor. I had a much needed laugh for days at their genius and guts.

Last year just sucked. Nuclear......grrrrrr.

It is an old tradition that the neighborhood guys put on a dragon/lion suit and come in through the front door and dance around your house uninvited to clean out the last year's bad energy and bring in new energy.

They showed up on New Years Eve with Jun dressed in a hand-made green robot bird and danced around my house with incense purifying the house and bringing in fresh energy for the coming year. Why a bird? "I don't want to be a human anymore....look at the stupid things they do. I'd rather be a bird and fly away from this mess."

Snoopy was feigning disinterest but she later winked and said that it is better to just play along with a straight face. I could have swore I heard her giggling insanely in her sleep that night.

Indigo Fermentation Started

Posted on my tour blog...sorry for repeats.







I got two decent harvests of indigo leaves from the same plants this past summer. Stripping the leaves off the stems gives you cleaner indigo balls. It is debatable if the is really worth it. (Some good sake and some friends talking as you work is enough to tip the balance.) The leaves were dried in the sun and kept up under the rafters to keep them as crispy as possible. It is really cold now and time to start them fermenting three or four months to make the bacteria laden sukumo/indigo balls. First we gathered some oak leaves and laid a good solid 50 cm bed on the dirt floor inside the recently cleaned out kura. The indigo leaves were wet and then half wrung out and placed in a straw bag. The wet indigo leaves bag gets put on the oak leaves and covered with another 50 centimeters of oak leaves and then a heavier straw mat placed on top and heavy stones to weigh it down and keep out oxygen. You want a slow ferment not a quick rot!

I am hoping that the fermentation goes slow so I can open it up when the tour is here in April. If it gets too warm it goes a little ripe. Fingers crossed!

Wishing everyone who reads my blogs a peaceful and meaningful winter holiday season.

Bryan

Loom to Go.

There are just too many looms in the house. I've collected a dozen or so old Kanagawa Takabata over the years. They were an easy find not so many years ago. Easy to spot in barn lofts and attics. Always missing parts and always slightly different from the others so spare parts had to be made from scratch. This one had to be over a hundred years old and like a three leg dog it got a little more love than some others that ended up as firewood.

Suzuki san is the infamous miser in the village. He had heard that I had bought a loom in the neighboring village and asked if I needed another. His grandmother had woven on it. It was black from the fireplace smoke. It was just pathetically rotten and eaten. As well as missing just about everything. When I loaded it on the truck and then went in for tea I asked him how much he wanted. I expected a "just take it" and I would hand him 10 000 yen and there would be show down to make him accept that. I laughed out load when he said he wanted 30 000 for it. I counted out three bills and told him what a great deal he was giving me. ( So he could grind his teeth all night that he didn't charge me more.) When he was young he was the only guy in the village who could read well. He worked on the board of education and he found out that the government was subsidising the mountain villagers to grow cypress that was needed for the rebuilding after world war two. He then leased all the land off as many willing villagers he could convince for a pittance and collected the subsidy money for himself. What a crook.
I love to hear the old stories from the villagers. Twenty one houses for hundreds of years...the same families and a whole spectrum of characters.


Anyway, I used the loom on and off and figured it was time to retire it to the wood stove. Takeshima san came to the rescue and it is now living in Adachi ku in downtown Tokyo! It practically fell apart as we attempted to dismantle it and lower it out the second floor window. Takeshima san will put it to good use.