ENTWINEMENTS

I received this email:

hi! i followed your instructions for an indigo vat and it reduced perfectly to a yellow color and i was able to dye my shirt evenly with no trouble.

however, i wanted a REALLY deep shade of blue and found that I had to dip the shirt about 15 times to get the color I needed! and even then it wasnt as dark as I wanted. in between each dip i let it hang outside and air out for about 20 to 30 minutes, and eventually I started rinsing it after each dip to try to build up the shade.

if i were to double the indigo in the recipe along with the lye and thiourea dioxide (but keep the water the same) would this allow me to get a deeper shade with minimal dips?

i understand that the chemicals would make the solution more harsh to the fabric and irritating to the skin - but I am only dying 100% cotton fibers and i will wear gloves.

have you ever tried this?

Indigo is not an easy dye to work with and I congratulate on getting a dark indigo color. Try more indigo in the pot!

Darker indigo colors are very prone to crocking. Going slow and building up the layers slowly, up to 30, are used to get a non-crocking deep, dark indigo color. The indigo in the dye pot needs to be replenished as it is used up.

Not every one cares about the crocking and in that case a dark color can be achieved in 3-5 dips. It is always a compromise, fast vs. crocking. Here are directions for a large fast dark vat.

There are many ways to make an indigo vat, and this one has salt. The Japanese advocate, 30 dips and 24hrs. airing between dips (even so they have an abundance of dark indigo dyed textiles). Another source of info on an indigo vat is ProChem.

Finally I wash the indigo dyed piece in the machine with Synthrapol . Then I neutralize the alkali with an acid, tannic is my preferred one as it tends to darken the color. I boil up a pot of tea and keep the goods in it for a while, hot. This tells me if I've done a good job of washing also, if the tea turns blue it needs more washing. There are other post-treatments, with things like hide glue to reduce the crocking but I have less experience with them.

I use gloves because I don't want blue nails , a common occurance in traditional indigo dyers.

I hope this helps.

Posted by Karren at 10:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Returned from Evanston show in my PT Cruiser, fully loaded.

Filled the tank with gas after leaving the show, dropped my daughter at O'Hare and made it home on a tank of gas (map) Treading as lightly on the earth as I can.

Anyhow, you can see the 4 chests that I use to transport/sell my work fit in on top of the display and still leave me a clear view out the rear view mirror.

I have to apologize for all the recent changes in the appearance of the blog. I tried to install a blogroll....
The book will be back soon, as well as other features. Hopefully I'll have a blogroll soon, too.

Posted by Karren at 04:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tomorrow I drive up to Evanston IL beyond Chicago for the American Craft Exposition. Everything arrived safely back from San Fransisco, thanks to Fed Ex. Yesterday and today we have be unpacking and repacking making sure everything is ready for Evanston. We opened my portable walls to dry them out in the studio. Opening two 25' walls in my studio is no small feat, but here is a shot of the pleated paper walls made by Molo from BC.

Neat,eh? Everything folds up and packs into the PT Cruiser after we take out the back seats.

We still have room to add the four chest that hold the stock and my suitcase. Here is the company fleet loading.

All the teamsters who load are women.

On a more serious note, I'm taking all the special pieces (i,ii, iii) with me to Evanston. I don't see any traffic to this blog from the Evanston people like I did before the San Francisco show. Still hope to see a person or two from the blogosphere.

Posted by Karren at 04:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Time is nearing to send the Sting Ray outfit to Minneapolis, so we need to work on it. The runway show is 21 Oct. at the Bloomington Art Center but the garments have to be at the Center 29 Sept. When I get back from Evanston that is all we will do until about 11 Sept. when Grace leaves town. To review previous post on this outfit check here. I took the fabric for the dress, a silk matelasse that I dyed black with stitched shibori stripes placed in the skirt. It took Grace over 3 hours to steam and get the fabric on grain before she could cut out the dress. I did, in a moment of suspended judgement cut the fabric on the bias but we decided that all the difficulties were really inherent in the fabric, it was like dealing with dyed chiffon--which you can iron any size. Grace cut and basted the dress together adjusting for the shibori pattern.

In the snapshot taken in her small studio, you can see some of the adjustments we have made and all the basting in colored thread. Because of the instablity of the matelasse we decided to underline it with 5mm (very light weight) black china silk and Grace made many stays of black illusion/organza that we are using for the ruffles. I'm glad she likes the texture and drape of the matelasse because it sure has been more of a pain than anticipated. Even the ruffles have been fussy, one side would have 5 waves and the other 6!

I made two different stitched shibori patterns for across the front, one curved that I thought might look different and one on the grain that ended up looking more like the ones on the skirt. The top front yoke has lost its V -cut so matching the two patterns has become an issue.

For all the problems, I think the dress is just the right softness to go under the black leather jacket. Here is a side view and you can see the slim shape and the placement of the shibori stripes. Sorry about the bell-shaped paper with our notes right in the middle.

The jacket is also coming along, I took the pleated leather to Grace. Here is a backview of the jacket on top of the dress.

The sing ray leather with its pebbly texture is in the center back. We added a collar stand to help the collar stand up. The pleated leather will go in the open spaces at the side waists. Stitching the pleated leather to the right side and then turning it seemed pretty trickey to us so we decided to sew a thin black cotton to the opening turn that then top stitch the finished edge to the pleated leather. You can see how the ruffle of the dress carries the movement of the bottom of the jacket into the dress.

The front view show the collar and how the waves start there and continue into the bottom of the jacket. You can see the holes at the waist where the pleated leather goes. And a final shot of the side.

The sleeves have been made, except for the pleated insertion at the cuffs (only if we have enough pleated leather). Hopefully most of the technically problems are out of the way and it is just putting it together now.

Did I mention that we have another outfit we are making for the same event! More about that when we move to working on it.

On Thurs. this week I packed up 3 outfits, we made last year, to ship to a runway show in Ft. Collins CO --all part of ARTWEAR: Fashion Week. Pack them up, write up how to wear them, and write up how to return ship. It took all day! I find this a real pain, and when I attend the shows I'm not sure anyone has read any of the instructions. Anyone have any hints on how to make this easier?? I try to think of the people on the other end recieving many peoples works, each with different instructions and requirements. But it is hard to be a happy camper when the model wears turquoise bra and panties that can be seen thru the dress. Here are some collages of the three outfits I made to send along---hoping that a picture is worth a thousand words. I don't have the thousand words in me.

Posted by Karren at 07:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Mirian Clayden, based just south of San Francisco, has had a line of clothing for the past 20 some years (her line). She started as a tie-dyer and has continued to dye/discharge her clothing. To a dyer, many of her designs were visually stunning, she could add just the right bit of dye or discharge. I never handled any of her clothing and do not know the quality of the construction. It looked good on the runway.

I heard that she had a stroke recently and that there are further complications. She appears too young to expect this kind of health problems. I ask if we can take a few seconds and send a silent blessing her way in this moment of personal distress.

Posted by Karren at 06:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

At the San Francisco show I took some photos, with permission, of Mark Thomas's clothing that incorporates shibori. It is all flat shibori, but this one is arashi shibori. His clothes are beautifully made, one of my criteria that is rarely met. The scarf above is silk organza. Below you can see both the back and front of the jacket, photos taken in his booth.

I did meet two of you readers, quite delightful! Now I have to get ready for Evanston, I leave next Wed.

Posted by Karren at 09:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'll off in a few hours, be back Tues.

August 11,12, 13, 2006
American Craft Council Fine Craft Show
San Francisco CA
Ft. Mason Center
Festival Pavillion, Booth 505

I hope to see one or two of you.

Posted by Karren at 11:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here is a great pillow covered in a spikey shibori cover.

Ummmm...meringue! Wonder if the filling is yellow.

Posted by Karren at 12:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well here are some wraps that are NOT packed for SF. I did pack 4 wraps, from current colorways: in pink diamonds, bing salsa, anthracite and black/champange.

These are special pieces, much like the ones already dicussed here and here with extra layers of shibori dyeing, capped, mountain path or something. These I can take along in my suitcase if they are of interest to any of you.

This one is purple passion with a capped border in green tea around all the edges. Very upbeat.

This bright red one has three canary yellow motifs, here is the large one in the center; a crescent, the other two are smaller near circles.

This is a bold color statement and bold motifs.

Next is a more analogous color combination, the base color was bands of purple and bright blue. They do blend together n the photo, but if you peer hard you can see both.

Now I present before and after pictures. Before--wrapped on the pole. It is a wrapped wrap (sorry). You can clearly see the two colors called thyme and garnet.

And here is the finished wrap.

This is not all of the collection of special pieces but a start at sharing them with you. You can contact me- comments, email- if you want me to bring along one of these wraps.

*** Remember the color you see on your monitor may not be the color it is.***

Posted by Karren at 02:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This is a continuation of special pieces. I am also taking a few sets-composed of an opera shawl and a feather pleated scarf- with me to San Francisco ACC show next week. Five got shipped and I can take others if some one has interest. Here are some professional photographs of a sets.

These two pieces are dyed together every step of the way and so must be sold as a set (ordering one of the pieces is an option), but they can be worn together or separately, giving at least three different looks from the set.

The simplest, made upon request, is a green tea set. Green tea is an oreintal version of lime green, no extra layers of shibori.

Then I have some with capped borders. This one is nasturtium (oranges) and cyclamen (rosey coral).

This one is chili red with black.

And this one is a mid-tone grey, called dawn mist, with black.

And the most complex extra shibori layer, stitched and white shadow, in a soft cameo color overlaid with chocolate.

A REPEAT
WARNING! WARNING!

If you have ever looked at a row of televisions in an airplane and noticed how each is a different color you have noted how reliable the color is on your monitor. I have no idea what color you are seeing. One time I recieved a color of the week from Pantone, labelled Moroccan Orange and I was looking at an olive green! You must see these pieces in person to know the color.

Posted by Karren at 06:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When I use the term pole wrapping I mean arashi shibori and it looks like this:

Now I think that shibori has the knitters a little crazed, but they sure have given a new dimension to pole wrapping.

Posted by Karren at 10:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

We packaged our stuff for the San Francisco ACC show, they will pick it up tomorrow and hopefully everything-booth, stock, lighting, packaging, office stuff- will be there when I arrive next Thurs, the 10th. I can set up and be ready to serve you all on Fri., 11 Aug. in booth 505 in the Festival Pavillion (a new building for me).

We make many special pieces, mostly in the larger styles, such as opera shawls, opera shawl and feather sets and wraps. To make these pieces more complex extra shibori dyeings are added before the final arashi shibori process, sometimes capped shibori other times stitched or white shadow shibori.

There are two reasons why I only do this on these larger styles. First I need a large space on the silk to make a bold design that will show after the arashi shibori is done. Littler designs just get lost in the pleats and color varations. Second these are time consuming steps that carry a fair amount of risk. It is quite common for the delicate silk to be damaged in the capping process, and then we have to discard that piece. Anyhow this adds considerable cost to these pieces and only the largest ones can absorb that price increase.

Lets talk about opera shawls. These are large pieces, 6' x 7.5' or rug size, to start with, much smaller after it is pleated. It is a large rectangle with an opening about half way down the center lengthwise, giving it a ruana shape.

It is called an opera shawl because an old friend of mine was going to the Santa Fe Opera and liked my shawls but didn't think they were quite grand enough for the occasion? Could I make her something grand, appropriate for the Santa Fe Opera. Thus the opera shawl was convieved. Spirit of the Earth in Santa Fe still carries quite a few.

There are basically two ways, and a thousand varations, to wear the opera shawl. You can ignore the slit and treat it as a large rectangle to wrap as a shawl. Or you can use the slit to get your head to the center of the rectangle, this way it covers you all the way to the floor, like so.

There are two classes of opera shawls, opera shawl 1 and 2 (inventive names, I know). The opera shawl 1's are all just a colorway like our other pieces. The opera shawl 2's have the extra dyeings and are more costly. Here is a photo, without the distraction of a model, of an opera shawl 2 inspired by the patterns on the wings of a Creole Pearly Eye butterfly. This had stitched, capped and white shadow shibori to create the eyes and lines.

Now finding the right person for these special opera shawls 2 is a bit like arranging a marriage; they can both be willing but the chemistry has to be there. I have more of these special opera shawls than I can take with me to San Francisco, so I thought I'd show you some snapshots of what I'm taking and if you want something different I can tuck some other ones in my suitcase next week.

Here is one with with beautifully placed capped shibori.

The base color is a delicate celdon green, then it was capped and a cyclamen, a rosy coral, was added. You can see the wonderful diffuse edges charateristic of shibori.

The next one has two base colors a steel grey and taupe, then black was added in another step involving bound and capped shibori.

This is the same piece shown in the first photo in this entry. Here are two others, that just have capped borders of the darker color at the bottom. The first is a bright yellow green, we call green tea, with an inky blue. The second is a mid-value water blue called thistle blue (like one thistle flower) with a vibrant cobalt blue.

Now I have more. If you are interested, suggest a color range and I can post pictures and/or take some more with me. Leave a request in the comments or email me.

I'll do the special sets and wraps in separate entries.

WARNING! WARNING!

If you have ever looked at a row of televisions in an airplane and noticed how each is a different color you have noted how reliable the color is on your monitor. I have no idea what color you are seeing. One time I recieved a color of the week from Pantone, labelled Moroccan Orange and I was looking at an olive green! You must see these pieces in person to know the color.

Posted by Karren at 09:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

On Kathleen's blog, Fashion-incubator, Miracle Wanzo deals with the complaints of a novice maker:

I am having a fashion show of my handwoven accessories next month. I have woven 42 pieces since Jan. 1, 2006 and done about a doz. beaded necklaces. I called people at Vogue, W and InStyle for the correct contact information and sent off my media kits to each. They were good about phone calls until I actually sent the media kits. No one even acknowledged with a form post card....

This maybe another case of not ready to be helped as Kathleen describes in "Why on one will help you". I think this maker, full of energy and zeal, is not yet ready for prime time and is complaining about the industrial fashion world not taking notice. You need to do your home work first, find the answers to such questions as:

•was this fashion show targeted at a retail or wholesale customer? From the quanitity produced I suspect retail. These magazines are focused on trade shows, that is those ones for wholesale customers. You need to focus on your customers. Do you have a mailing list of potenial customers for the fashion show, did you send them each a postcard with a lovely image of one of your handwoven shawls? (I'ved made an assumption, maybe mistakenly, that the goal of the fashion show is to sell the 42 pieces.)

•have any of these publications featured handwoven accessories in the past year? If the answer is no, then in what publications do customers who want handwoven shawls look for information?

My rate of attaining publicity is directly related to the quality of the IMAGES that I produce of my own work. I produce the images, share them with PR companies, and if they find they intriguing they might use them. None of the magazines or other print media I have had the good fortune to be published in has ever generated images on their own, they always use mine.

I am part of a sub-world that makes and sells handmade accessories and I do not really want an order from a big retailer. I rember an article I read , it was an interview with Carter Smith say in the early 90's. I was impressed because I had seen some his shawls in some of the fashion magazines. A recognized designer had ordered silk chiffon shibori shawls from him. In the interview, as I remember it, Carter explained how big an order he had gotten from the designer. I think Carter delivered one order then recieved an even bigger reoder. He had to gear up for the massive,fast production. New equipment... Everything else went by the wayside to make and deliver the second order. Then nothing, a new season and the designer was on to some new accessory. Carter had no orders because he had neglected his small galleries that had ordered from him before, to meet this huge demand. He has obviously recovered and was kind to share his experience.

Because I hand make each piece there are no economies of scale. I am NOT interested in making millions of pleated shibori scarves this year and hundreds next year. I'm am interested in galleries/boutiques that can sell my work this year and next. This is a different market than the big industrial fashion market that changes fast, wants new things each season. Maybe it is "slow fashion". Some thought needs to be made about the role of the handmade in our society and how you can fit into that.

Posted by Karren at 04:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Entwinements makes and sells, only at craft fairs, what we call small scarves. We sell then for $55 each. These are ready made blanks we buy in plain white silk, usually 14" x 60", a normal scarf size. All our other scarves start out as really big pieces of silk. We then-- dye, wash and iron, pole wrap,discharge, overdye, sett the pleats, dry --just like all the other scarves in our production line. The finished pleated scarf looks much smaller, hence the name small scarf. I think they look very small altho' I have many patrons who like to wear them just like this.

Since all that silk is still there I think sometimes you want to show off more of the silk and colors. Here is very simple way to tie it that opens up the scarf.

One problem I had taking these pictures was needing my hands to tie the scarf and also needing them to take the pictures. I substituted pins for my hands in the tying process, probably better not to have my hands blocking part of your view anyhow.

Arrange the scarf around your neck as in the above picture then tie it in a simple overhand knot like so.

You can place the knot up tight against your neck or down low, where ever you want the embellishment to be.

Then somewhere along the edges or hem of the scarf you pinch out two little ears, think mouse ears.

I said little ears, if you get the whole scarf in the ears it doesn't work very well, it just becomes a bow.

Now you take these ears and tie them in a simple overhand knot, just like the one you did first.

This snapshot is not as good as seeing it done, but it is what we have today. Then you pull on the ears until it is tight against the first knot. Voila!

Usually the tighter you pull the more the scarf opens.

I think that this tie is magical for this small scarf. It is almost as difficult to control as magic too. If you don't like it just do it again, it will be different.

Where you make the ears does effect how big the flowery poof is and how long the tails are. If you are not liking what happens when you tie it, try making the little ears closer to the neck, this will usually make the poof part smaller and the tails longer. If you make the ears lower the poof gets bigger. Don't be afraid to pull tight when making the second knot, if it is not tight it will fall out just like a loosely tied bow would.

DISCLAIMER: This is for those of you who call me up on the telephone and want a verbal expanation of how to do this. That is a challenge I have not been able to meet, I hope this is more helpful. This is by no means the correct way or the only way to wear this scarf! Anyway you like is fine for your scarf.

Posted by Karren at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)