Block prints, woven stripes, overdyed cottons and vintage prints patched in the boro style
Today I did a bit of decorative stitching, mostly because it's so cold in my workspace that my hands hurt while I was laying up new patches. So after running warm water on my hands until they thawed out I climbed into bed and turned on "Versailles" and mindlessly stitched. A pretty great way to spend an afternoon. Anybody else watching it?
A list of the steps used in this shibori stitched denim as it's being untied after four dips in the indigo vat
Often I think the photos I take of the indigo process are as lovely as the piece it when it's finished. There's something especially intriguing about the moment of reveal. Often I've been thinking about and working on a piece for a week before I actually see what it looks like. It's a multi-step process:
I start with fabric that comes from the mill prepared for dying, or if I'm using other fabrics I scour them by boiling in Soda Ash and Synthrapol. I do this in batches so I always have fabric ready to go when an idea strikes.
Here's the rest of the process: (someday I'll take photos of each step, but usually I get so involved in what I'm doing I forget)
1. I imagine what I want to make
2. I figure out how to make that happen. This is subject to change as I try something and it doesn't work.
3. I do the pre-dipping processes. In this case I stitched it on a Pullen Pleater, which is a wonderful little machine that I recently acquired. They're a bit hard to find these days, I added a link to ebay which is where I found mine.
4. Presoak it in clean water. In this case, I left it outside in the rain overnight for zero water use, important even though our drought is coming to an end.
5. Pull up the threads tightly to create areas where the dye cannot penetrate
6. First dip in the indigo vat.
7. Let it oxidize by hanging in the air and on this piece using a chopstick to get into each fold and allow air to penetrate.
8. Rinse in clear water to finish the oxidizing and remove excess dye.
9. Repeat last two steps until it looks about 2 or 3 dips darker than I want it to end up. (Dye is lost in the rinsing process and the color is lighter when it's dry.)
10. Final rinses. When I want the whites to stay really white I use the chopstick again to separate the folds and let the rinse water penetrate the folds. Repeat until the water runs clear.
11. Unbind the piece.
12. Rinse again to be sure all the dye is gone.
13. Soak in a citric acid bath to brighten the colors. If it still looks dull after this I boil it in a citric acid bath for even brighter colors.
14. Launder in Synthrapol to set colors.
Hand-dyed cottons patched in the boro tradition.
I'm running out of things to say about my stitching. I stitch. I photograph. I blog. I do it again.
Stitch A Day 2017, Day 15 by Carlyn Clark
I'm half way through the first month! If you've been following along you'll recognize the overdyed Laura Ashley scrap in the top left. Below that is a piece of percale that I folded, bound and dipped in the indigo vat, known as itajime. It looks dipdyed, but that's just because it's such a small piece of the whole fabric. I'm not sure where the stripe on the right came from. It appears to be a handloomed cotton, probably from India. I'm using a lighter colored thread here, again, leftover poly core cotton used to tie up the hiranui bundles.
Stitch A Day 2017, Day 13 by Carlyn Clark
I showed a close-up of this section on Day 2 and today I've added a couple of pieces around it. The far left is the scrap of hem from a pair of pants my daughter shortened, the center is a scrap of upholstery fabric left from a client project and on the right are two pieces of ikat. The bottom is a vintage piece of Japanese cotton that I bought years ago at Yoko Japanese Antiques, a wonderful little shop in South Pasadena. (I can't find them on the web, I'll have to drive by one day and see if they're still in business.) The top piece is a modern indian ikat fabric. The old japanese scrap is a beautiful weight and quality. The indian piece is a bit thin and loosely woven.
Stitch A Day 2017, Day 12 by Carlyn Clark. Overdyed vintage Laura Ashley cotton
Once again I've overdyed a small scrap of cotton I had. This is an old Laura Ashley print from the 80's. Laura Ashley was one of the first designers that got me hooked on prints. Although most of her prints seem a bit dated to me now, a quick dip in the indigo vat makes them work here. The book "Laura Ashley Style" is a great resource for understanding her use of traditional historic fabrics and seeing how they're interpretted for modern applications.
Stitch A Day 2017, Day 11 by Carlyn Clark. Adding a bit of block printed cotton.
Today I've added a piece of block printed cotton. If you've been following along you might have some sense of where this is, having seen the piece on the right and the piece on the bottom in prior pictures. I'm going to continue photographing close up pictures until I begin the decorative stitchin. Until then, it remains a mystery. To me most of all!
Stitch A Day, 2017: Day 10 by Carlyn Clark; adding a bit of serape
Today I added a little scrap of one of my favorite textiles, a serape. It's more serape-inspired, but it definitely makes you think it's a serape, just without the bulk and the propensity to fray faster than you can stitch. The weft yarns are an orangey-pinkie sort of color which relates to another little scrap that you can't see in this photo. At the bottom is another section of the block printed cotton I overdyed in the indigo vat. At the top is a scrap leftover after trimming a pillow cover that had been machine topstitched. I really never, ever throw away any scrap. I have one of these cheap plastic drawer bin things and have one drawer dedicated to bits and bobs. After I trim something I scoop all the scraps into the drawer. I use them almost as quickly as I stuff them in there.
