“Is it ‘flowing’?”
Yours truly, trying on one of her prototypes, which, a year later, became a piece called “Aqua Dragon Dress 2”. What she’s standing in is called “pre-relocation mess”.
Autumn 2005, Kawasaki, Japan.
Tag Archives: textile art
May and I – a studio view.
Dye test in April.
Been conducting a little dye test between visits to local cherry trees at sundown. Also, spotted a few swallows swishing through the hazy late pm light today, the very first of 2016.
Nature as an Inspiration – March 7, 2016
Recap. Wing Dress (2007-2011).
Sado Island Purse, revisited.
Photographed and uploaded to Flickr on January 28, 2015, revised edit made on February 14, 2021.
The purse itself was created circa 2004, out of vintage futon fabric I found during my visit to the island in early August 2003. The peak season with very few tourists, I was often alone, the only car on the road.
The place has a unique history as an island of exile, “…was a place of banishment for those who had fallen out of favor with the rulers of the day. More than 70 people—notably aristocrats and artists—were exiled here” (within “” from Smithsonian magazine).
Strange, felt like home there. I wrote a bit about my visit on: Dried persimmons from Sado Island made me think of.
Published on February 14, last edited on February 15, 2021.
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Budding in Red, Brighter.
Just as salmons are swimming up the stream, my 5 swatches they had returned from the specialists, with dye particles steam set, settled between fabric grains. (What swatches? Refer to the previous post please.)
The photo above is one of the swatches – number 2, the first try at the “line drawing” – getting a quick bath in dye-fixing liquid.
In the following video I included a short footage of me washing off the excess dye in special solution, tap water and magic portion that prevents dye from staining the rest of the fabric.
Also in the video is the sound of salmons inching up the shallows of the river – the same river as I frequented to rendezvous with spider lilies just a month ago – if you listen carefully you’d hear them making splashes.
Like the lilies, they are here earlier this year. Well what’s up Nature may I ask, but then again, what do I know to question their timings.
As for the dyed lilies on the swatches, the color – red – came out brighter post-setting, sorta suitable for the budding of the project.
ALERT:
This video contains flickering lights.
(Sunlight reflections on stream surface.)
The project in question is called “Spider Lily Red”, this link will take you to the posts I’ve written since it’s early stages. Thank you for your visit, check back again soon.
A Gift from the Lilies
October 08, 2014. On the day of the special full moon, I finished making five dye sample swatches. Each drawn on a different fabric, all silk, holds dye particles in its own way.
The one below is on ivory-colored silk chiffon georgette, so far my most favorite, quite unexpectedly so, as I thought it’d be too fluid even for the faintest touch with a brush-point.
Twenty days in September spent beside red spider lilies had left me with a gift that seems to be growing on its own. Just as the project itself has a life of its own. Last year I drew the lilies off photographs, dragging my feet at times as I study their complex shapes on a series of pencil drawings. Weary, I’d put my pencil down, on, off and so forth. When I return to it though, I found myself, once and again, in ideas and skills, at a place further ahead from where I left off.
Fairies, has got to be. The red lilies and their hired hands. They followed me home and started building an engine, a gift to the repeat visitor and her adoring eyes.
The lilies were here only for a short time; the rural landscape feels even more muted since. But those fairies they never quit, day after day, working on the motor that is fueled by my remembering the special tone of red. The spider lily red.
The blue photo above was taken on the night of total lunar eclipse, shortly after the moon rose above the horizon, just a few hours before the show time. I omitted the moon in the photo but trust me it was there, sprinkling glitters on the darkened surface of the Big Fluidity.
The swatches are about to be sent off to specialists in Tokyo for steam-setting very soon. They are made as the first step for “Spider Lily Red”, the latest addition to my dyed threads series. You can view the progress of the project as well as the Lilies – the muse, sans fairies, in these posts.
Thank you for your visit.
Last Edited: November 30, 2020
Biofluorescents.
Lately, much of my evenings I spend visiting fireflies.
Early summer rice fields, the plants are already at their full-height. They host a small family of the delicate insects come alive each evening as Twilight falls.
In the pitch dark their fluorescent yellow lights draw weightless lines visible only to my mind’s eye.
Flashing on, off, on, off….I stand amidst the invisible web of Organic Elegance and say to myself:
I get it, it’s that Pulse again!!
Just then in distance a Wave breaks one more time, with its most wholesome assertion Sea replies:
it’s our Heartbeat honey, yours and mine.
The Night then trembles, suspended in time.
Photos are of various beach finds and a dye test swatch for my “Spider Lily Red” series.
The last photo is of a new pencil drawing, incomplete, of a petal of the said lily, for the said series, trying something different from how I usually painted with dyes.
Additional note on April 10, 2019:
This post was originally titled as “Bounds melt. Time stands still.”.
For the reason I do not disclose (i.e. not that interesting to you) I removed this post from this site for a while.
I revived this under a new title and with revised text on April 09-10, 2019. The reason being:
The red lily petal dyed on a silk (the photo in the middle) was the first dye test for this project “Spider Lily Red”. I painted in the same way as all the previous Dyed Threads series (example). And it didn’t quite work.
The bottom drawing is what I came up with as the alternative. The rest of photos are the main sources of inspirations. The drawing – of the same petal, had progressed into 2 part series (references: drawing 1, and drawing 2) – are both completed now. I thought it would be kinda neat to show you how it all started.
Process in Pictures: Wing Dress – Velocity (2009 – 2011)
Originally posted on Cargo Collective circa June 2011.
Piece: Wing Dress – Velocity (2009-2011), acid dye on silk.
Process in Pictures: Wing Dress (2007 – 2009)
Originally posted on Cargo Collective circa June 2011.
Piece: Wing Dress (2007-2009), acid dye on silk.
