Resistance at Kent State 1

No, I'm not revisiting bad politics from the Vietnam War era, I'm reporting on a recent visit to the Kent State University Museum, in Kent OH, which has an exhibit on resist dye techniques that was well worth a detour.  Having dabbled in dyeing myself over the years, I was familiar with the techniques, at least in theory, but seeing examples of magnificent master work was exciting.

Today I'll show you several examples of what the curators call "mechanical resist."

Here's a cotton textile from India, wrapped and tied in several dye stages to make a plaid.  Here it's out of the last dye bath but only partially unbound.  First, the still-wrapped portion; then the opened-up end of the package.

Here's a detail of a silk kimono from Japan, about a century old, with stitched resist.  I love the way the binding crinkles the fabric forever, even after the threads have been removed.  (And have always wondered whether the crinkle disappears over time as the garment is washed, and how you take care of a garment like this in the first place... maybe not washing at all....)

Moving ahead to the 1970s, here's a caftan by Halston, using a clamp resist.

The exhibit continues through March 17.  I'll show you more in later posts.

Sign of the week

Daily art update

Another day, another daily art!  It's day 289 and I'm still happy with my hand-stitching project (good thing, because it would be a drag to be sick of it with so far to go, and an embarrassment to give it up).  Since I wrote last about that project  I have been featured in the blog "Make Something 365," which has people doing all kinds of daily art.

I've gotten all my hand-stitching posted to the new blog I created to document all my daily art.  Well, not exactly all -- it often takes me a couple of days to photograph and post the new work, but I do have everything there going back to the beginning of the year.  All my daily and weekly photography projects are also there on the new blog.  Some day when I'm snowed in or under house arrest I hope to get some of my older daily art projects documented there as well.

As the end of the year approaches, I've been thinking about whether I will do a daily art in 2013 and if so, what it will be.

"What shall I do next????"

Right now, I'm leaning toward collage.  I was tempted by a project I read about on the 365 blog in which the artist made a postcard every day, generally with collage elements.  I spent several  years doing daily postcards and could happily go back to that routine, but decided that I'd rather focus just on the collage aspects.  That's the part I find most challenging and interesting, and I think that mailing the art would just add unnecessary complications.  (For instance, I'd have to choose recipients.  The cards would have to be the right size and thickness.  They could have no dangly parts or 3-D elements.  Too many extra things to worry about.  And postage is going up again next year.)

Still undecided about photography.  I'll probably keep Sign of the Week, because that's easy and fun.  Not sure I want to do my weekly Photo Suite again next year; the second time around might not be quite as fresh as the first.  But I do like the discipline, both of having to find art to post every week, and of having to go out on photo walks as frequently as possible to feed the beast.

I'm open to suggestions!!

 

Photo suite 42 -- peeking through

Sign of the week

Finishing the collaboration -- 2

Yesterday I showed you the hand-stitched piece that I have been working on with Rosemary Claus-Gray.  When I did my part and sent it back to her, I still didn't know what the map was showing.  She explained that it was about a bumblebee flitting from flower to flower:

"I read once that a bee will start the day with a particular blossom, like clover, and will only gather nectar from other clovers that day, or perhaps forever for that hive.  So bees would have to have a kind of inner map to take them from one blossom to another.  I've watched bees buzz along in a lovely circular path.  The vintage kimono fabric had some blossoms, and thus I chose it for this collaboration."

I had added two rectangular areas to the embroidery, which Rosemary naturally saw as beehives, even though I hadn't planned them to be that.

Last week she added a new layer of stitching and declared the piece finished.

She said, "Essentially, I added numerous bees.  You had stitched a few of the small shapes with a single white thread.  I thought they might represent the fluttering wings of a bee, especially if I added a body.

"The composition needed something light, as the whole thing was medium to dark values.

"I did not stitch all of what could be used as bee shapes, nor all the flowers, to give a sense of depth to the piece.  The ones not stitched tend to fade out in the distance, giving some perspective to the scene."

We both love this piece!  Collaboration certainly gives you a different result than working alone, and we both think we might like to do another project in the same vein.

Meanwhile, I've linked this post to Nina-Marie Sayre's weekly blog feature, Off the Wall Fridays.  Click here to see what other fiber artists have been up to this week.