10.25.2007

Maki-age challenge

For the Maki-age Shibori challenge that Karren Brito of ENTWINEMENTS posted for the month of October, I decided that the effect I wanted to try to reproduce was the green and white pattern seen on variegated nasturtium leaves and shown in this photo.

variegatedNasturtiumsLeaf


The finished piece is at the end of the post, or check out photos of all the finished pieces posted so far in the Maki-age Shibori Challenge flickr pool. Here is a brief description of what I did.

sketchThis sketch of a nasturtium vine was transferred to an 18 x 24 inch piece of white 8 mommie silk.
DSC04106To get the suggestion of an orange nasturtium flower I stitched and tied the leaves, capped these, and died the orange flower first, which was tied around a cork.
DSC04105The plastic cap was then turned inside out so that the orange flower was capped. The previously capped white silk was then died green.
DSC04111Leftover Procion MX dye stocks were diluted in 50% white vinegar to dye silk.

This is the tied silk after dyeing.
DSC04116This is the cork used to cap the orange flower with the depression showing where the silk was bound to the cork.

D2SC04125

Maki-agi shibori
"Nasturtium"
8 mommie China silk
18 x 28 inches
Procion MX dyes

Some orange and green dye leaked around the plastic cap
in both directions but is mostly visible in the inside edge of
the orange flower. I originally wanted to over-dye the background
but at this point I think that I would probably make a mess of
the leaves. I may quilt this piece of silk and use embroidery
to mask the green dye that has bled into the borders of
the orange flower.

DSC04124
Detail


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

leaves you wanting to do more doesn't it? like the green......

arlee said...

Leakage or not. that is an amzing "translation"! Well done! What will you create from this? How big is it?
(And i wonder if they make daddie silk too :})

juanita sim said...

Hi Arlee, I would like to work more on this piece and am also afraid to ruin it :) I'd like to cap the leaves and flowers, discharge the green dye then dye the background a golden brown colour. Then I'd like to embroider the flower and hand or machine quilt the whole piece. I don't know if you can see it but I've stitched in the stems and would pull these stitches tight when discharging to get the green stems of the nasturtium. The piece is 18X28". Thanks for the encouragement! If I wreck it I can always try again right!

PS. Mommie is a unit of weight (Japanese) for woven silk. The more mommies the denser the silk.