passionately | exploring | dyeing | silk

Again, along the line of a picture is worth a thousand words, here is the lovely Halyma spreading some silk wings that we created together. I dye and fret about details, construction and functionality; she’s an ingenious and nimble seamstress (who also frets about details) ; the relationship works!

I hope you’re all having a wonderful summer. It’s pretty steamy in the workshop!

… just one : stunning.

This great shot of Oklahoma dancer Arastya with her “Mythical” silk veil is brought to you by photographer Ryan Potter of Lrn2Go.Photo.

There, it’s out. I was great at blogging regularly … a long time ago. Remember Tribe? Apparently, it still exists, but like many regulars back in the day, we got tired of getting jerked around and hightailed it out of there to find more functional pastures.

Then Facebook happened. Need I say more? Everybody’s on Facebook; your grandmother’s on FB, I bet. I spend a lot of time in solitary working at my craft, but a world of like-minded company is at my fingertips there whenever I need just a little reminder that the world hasn’t stopped. Facebook has been wonderful for me to connect with others from far and wide with similar creative afflictions. The quick and dirty status update is just the right kind of micro-blogging for me. At a quick glance, I can see what everybody in my new tribe has been up to. Neat. I didn’t know there were some many of you!

So what the heck have I been up to? Well, it’s the busy belly dance season, don’t you know. I think most of you know that I also have a day job. I wish I had a clone, but … I don’t. I think we all wish we had one, so I don’t feel special. It just is. I could cut down on sleep, but … no; that’s not for me.

I have been distracting myself once in a while. Distraction more often than not still involves more dye, but the end result doesn’t have to be a veil.

It may involve trying to find the perfect black gutta. Gutta that will wash out easily — I can’t stand the look or feel of gutta that’s been left onto silk –, yet leave a neat black dyed line after it’s set and washed. A quick dooddle on a scrap of silk might look like this :

I know what you’re thinking. Eeeww; what the heck is that?! It’s my first attempt at black gutta, so please forgive my lack of elegant technique. It’s not so bad when you throw in a little colour.

Yes, I know it’s bleeding through in a few places. Disastrous if it’s a good piece, but not so much if the intent was purely experimental. I managed to cover most of it up with the next colours, and the border (no pictures of that, sorry) is black which hides an infinity of sins.

Pretty cool, if somewhat demented. I think I like it!

Anybody remember the veil from one post down, Am I Blue ? I’ve been hacking it up to pieces, all with the intention of preserving it. The back story on that is that there are parts of this veil that deserve to be presented as art. A piece of fabric can be magnificent, but chances are its reception in the art world wouldn’t be a success. You need to frame it — not just physically — but also put it into the standard gallery context. That means mounting it somehow.

My first attempt : gallery canvas pre-made frame, padded with cotton batting, silk wrapped around the lot.  Undecided on the results.

Is that an ugly light switch or what? I left it in there for effect : The Beauty & The Beast. Not a great picture, but if I spent my time taking the best picture I could, I wouldn’t have time to blog right now.

Experiment 2 : Dorland’s wax medium. I got my hands on a small jar of this a couple of weeks ago and have been itching to spread it on something. First, mounted the silk directly onto canvas board with iron-on fusible. You have no idea how this stuff simplifies the process! (I’m going to document this process properly someday; promise) I just wish my silk had been a bit thicker, or my fusible a lot lighter because it melted right through the surface. Praise be, Teflon pressing sheets, or else I might not have been able to peel it off the iron. Here it is, in process, silk fused to thin canvasboard, one coat of Dorland’s brushed on lightly with a soft brush. I already like it. The silk gets darker and the details more apparent, just like when it is still wet.

I can work with that. Adding another coat of wax, melting it in smooth and dropping it into the recessed frame just to see what it might look like finished made me happy. When it’s cured — whenever that is — I’m going to buff it with a soft cloth to a satiny finish.

Yum, yum; yes, I’m liking it indeed. More bits of silk and framing experiments to come.

Please bear with me as I test out a new-to-me plugin. If you click on the image, you get a larger picture overlay, which is an improvement to my old method of linking to a different window. Any feedback about how this works out at your end would be greatly appreciated.

Here is “Am I Blue” hanging on Bambi. The patterning is exquisitely detailed and I’m having a very hard time deciding whether I want to sell it or not. That seems to be happening a lot lately!

It has to be loved the way a laundress loves her linens,  
 the way she moves her hands caressing the fine muslins  
 knowing their warp and woof,  
 like a lover coaxing, or a mother praising.  
 It has to be loved as if it were embroidered 
 with flowers and birds and two joined hearts upon it.  
 It has to be stretched and stroked.  
 It has to be celebrated.  
 O this great beloved world and all the creatures in it. 
 It has to be spread out, the skin of this planet.

The trees must be washed, and the grasses and mosses.  
 They have to be polished as if made of green brass.  
 The rivers and little streams with their hidden cresses  
 and pale-coloured pebbles  
 and their fool’s gold  
 must be washed and starched or shined into brightness,  
 the sheets of lake water  
 smoothed with the hand  
 and the foam of the oceans pressed into neatness.  
 It has to be ironed, the sea in its whiteness.

and pleated and goffered, the flower-blue sea  
 the protean, wine-dark, grey, green, sea  
 with its metres of satin and bolts of brocade.  
 And sky – such an 0! overhead – night and day  
 must be burnished and rubbed  
 by hands that are loving  
 so the blue blazons forth  
 and the stars keep on shining  
 within and above  
 and the hands keep on moving.

 It has to be made bright, the skin of this planet  
 till it shines in the sun like gold leaf.  
 Archangels then will attend to its metals  
 and polish the rods of its rain.  
 Seraphim will stop singing hosannas 
 to shower it with blessings and blisses and praises  
 and, newly in love,  
 we must draw it and paint it  
 our pencils and brushes and loving caresses  
 smoothing the holy surfaces.   – “The Planet” © 1994 P.K. Page

Celebrated poet P.K. Page died January 14th, 2010 at the age of 93 in Victoria, B.C.  She will be missed.