The day in late July when the lotus' are blooming in the pots outside the front door is the peak of summer. Cicadas are buzzing, Snoopy is panting. It is sweltering hot at 6:00 am. Fruit goes bad in days and the mixer is busy all day making fresh fruit ice slushies.
The thread was dyed last autumn with Harlequin Hornblower berries with Gardenia pod under-dyeing with an aluminum mordant. The silk is from cocoons from last spring. Ten cocoons reeled together and six of those threads thrown at 150 spin per meter. Slightly de-gummed in boiling water. The warp was intended to catch the coolness of these green shades against a background of white un-dyed silk like the partially opened petals of this white lotus. (In bloom this morning!)
Not a bad match! This is a narrow three meter long test weave to see how the balance of stripes and checks between the warp and weft work. The real one will be wider material for more shifuku cloth. Fedora san and I work on this project together. I don't have time to wind thread frames, thread heddles and reeds and she needs the practice. I have a more than a life time's worth of silk that needs to be used up. Win/win for us both. We weave half the warp each.
Perfect dyes, the colour combination shouts "lotus". Poor Fedora san :-)
ReplyDeleteBryan,
ReplyDeleteCaptivated by these colors, I have to ask:
I understand that you sell some of your lovely creations in a shop in Fujino...but have you considered selling online for those of us unlikely to cross the big water anytime soon?
the lotus is stunning, have you planted any in the new pond? the weaving is a perfect reflection of the lotus in every way. A 3 metre sample? wow! it will make beautiful shifuku
ReplyDeleteI planted two in the pond but the tadpoles eat every new leaf. They look kind of sad. The tadpoles have back legs now and eat anything. I was reeling silk today and threw in the boiled chrysalis. They had a feast! I never thought that pond would be so much fun.
ReplyDeletelovely colors, especially woven up. reflect the lotus. snarky tadpoles, critters so often eat the stuff you want to keep!
ReplyDeleteLove the colours of those silk threads
ReplyDelete