Farewell Fabric

My friend J from the Neighbourhood House is moving interstate. She came over for a visit yesterday afternoon. We decided to dye a shibori silk cloth together for J to take as a farewell gift. There's always an element of the unexpected with these cloths. Here's how J's turned out. Two sets of dyes, each in a rough "fan-fold" pattern; all in different tones of blues-purples. That was J's choice of colours by the way. We had a cuppa and a chat while the colour did its thing. In fact it's the biggest chat we've had in all our years of association at the Neighbourhood House. We'd never sat down together for more than a few minutes in all the bustle of what goes on there.

Shibori Silk

"The job's not done until the paperwork's done", they say. In this case the "job" is my Shibori History assignment. The "paperwork" is the written report of my practical work. I presented my talk to the class last week and showed my shibori silk cloths. Now I need to choose a few photos and write up the marking criteria sheet so I can hand it in and tick it off my to do list.

Here's one of my photos: I didn't get very far with my world history project yesterday. I somehow got bogged down somewhere in the middle ages amongst the crusades and the plague. Maybe that's symbolic!

This morning I'm tired after teaching patchwork last night. The class is lots of fun, but I'm so revved up when I get home that it's hard to go straight to sleep and it's way past my normal bed time. I also have to have a fasting blood test done, so I can't indulge in my usual morning pick me up of porridge and freshly brewed coffee. My plan for the day is to bundle up warmly and get myself off to the pathology lab. Then I can shout myself a treat from the Lebanese bakery and get on with the day.

Time and Place

I gave my presentation on Shibori dyeing to my Textile Art class yesterday. It was exciting to share some of what I'd learnt and to pass on the bug to some of my colleagues. As this was a history class, placing a textile work in context was a central feature of the assignment. I dyed a couple of silk cloths as part of this project. I've planned them as head-scarves and my thinking reflects my experiences with the Arabic-speaking women's group I've been working with in the past year. To provide the historical context I'd like to make some paper-mache stands. I've collected the relevant newspapers:
--two Melbourne city daily papers and the local weekly paper. I still have lots of questions and possibilities to explore, but I guess that's what it's all about.

Shibori Experiments

I've been working away at my Shibori assignment. In the past I've played with patterning on cotton fabric. I've also done a fair bit of dyeing with wool yarns. In between of course there's been silk, which is just irresistable to colour. Now I've started to have a go at wool fabrics. There are significant differences between wool and cotton fabrics for home dyeing. The first is that the dye needs to be heated to simmering point for about 20 minutes. Another is that the wool takes a long time to soak.The fabric had been in the sink for half an hour at least when I took this shot. You can see it's still bobbing away and is nowhere near saturated.

I've got a suitcase full of books and samples for my class talk this morning. I've chosen to wear my biggest watch--I really will need to keep an eye on the time, there's so much wonderful material to share.

Silk Simmer Sauce

With two Fridays off from TAFE and a few Monday mornings off from the Neighbourhood House for Easter, yesterday morning really felt like a holiday. Not that I don't have projects on the go and a long list of chores backed up for the break, but there was time to kick off a few experiments. Here's one: It's a strip of knitted wool-silk simmering away in an enamel pot on my stove. I've been observing how shibori dyeing on knitted wool can bring in some coincidental light felting to make a marvelous structure. I wanted to see how the First Editions wool-silk blend would stand up in the pot. The colour isn't actually part of the experiment, in this case it has come out of the sample--twenty minutes of steady simmering is not recommended care for most luxury fibres! The results are good or not so good depending on your point of view--no felting. That was despite the prolonged simmering followed by a shock of cold water when I tossed the piece into the sink. Good to know when I'm washing that particular fibre, but I guess I'll put something else at the top of the list of things I hope to felt easily.

Generosity

I'd already had my share of unexpected generosity yesterday. My friend V rang to invite me to the Australian Quilt Convention. She was working on a stall in the afternoon and had a spare ticket. My first impulse was to just enjoy looking at everything, since I hadn't budgeted on a visit to the show. I'm afraid that impulse didn't last very long.

I hadn't realised how popular Japanese fabrics and techniques have become in the quilting world. Just at the moment my interest is focussed on things Japanese for several reasons. One being a presentation on Indigo Dyed Shibori which I'm working on for my course. Most of the stalls had Japanese printed cottons, but one had just the hand-dyed samples I wanted. Another stall was selling vintage kimono fabrics. I did my usual thing and asked lots of questions. They had shibori--yes--indigo dyed--yes, cotton--no. This was silk on the bolt. What was the minimum cut? Half a metre. I didn't get as far as finding out the price per meter. I'm guessing that my face gave away my anticipation of what the price might be. When I explained that I was looking for a sample for my class presentation out came the big scissors and I found myself clutching this amazing gift: Here's a close-up:

I can't get over how the silk holds the memory of all those little stitches. And I can't get over how someone would give a piece of lovely fabric away to a perfect stranger. Thanks!

Bonus Find

One of the tasks I've taken on in the flurry of wedding preparations is organising the tablecloths. I figure that I may as well indulge my love of textiles while contributing to the overall effort. Having said that, the most efficient way of covering the dining tables for the reception was to buy several rolls of synthetic curtain fabric in the theme colours. Measuring and hemming those is not exactly an inspiring task, but that's fair enough. With that mission nearly accomplished, I turned my attention to the other surfaces that need to be decorated: cake table, gift table, guest-book table, etc, etc . . . I thought I was doing quite well, having collected a variety of cloths from various family and friends, when all of a sudden an extra three tables were added to the list: two of them an unusual oval shape. So the hunt for more cloths was on.

My friend D and I spent an hour or so last night systematically searching through every possible hiding place for cloths of any kind. D loves fine cloth and handwork and has quite a collection of lovely items, which are treasured, but rarely used. Amongst them is a lovely white damask cloth which we thought might work for the signing of the register at the church. We turned this place inside-out looking for it, but so far it has eluded capture. As a bonus, though, we came across this: This indigo dyed cloth was a gift to the family from a Japanese exchange student. I couldn't resist pulling it out of the cupboard and enjoying it's complex beauty. I've done enough rough and ready shibori dyeing to appreciate the talent and effort that goes into creating something like this.

Today I need to pick up a hire car and wine glasses for the reception. Hopefully I won't find water blocking my route as it's rather unfamiliar territory to me. I'm also going to drop by an old family friend's house to pick up some tablecloths from her collection. They may or may not fit the bill, but at least it will be fun to see what's there.