This last weekend I went to the exhibit “To Dye For” at the de Young Art Museum with my mother. Museum bumming is a favorite pastime with us and it had been a while since we had a chance to go to an exhibit together. If you are local or in the San Francisco area between now and January I highly suggest checking out this exhibit. Sadly you can’t take photos, nor is there a book of the exhibit so you will just have to trust me.
The exhibit inspired us to go home and play with a new Indigo vat. We didn’t manage to take photos, to much indigo all over us to handle the camera, but Monday night I got Will to take a couple shots while I tried out my Itajime resist shapes that I got a while back from Rossie.
This is after three dips in the vat, I really had to work the corners to get the dye in the folds as much as possible. I wanted as deep a saturation as I could get everywhere but in the circles. The fabric was some scrap silk I had.
I accidentally cracked one of the circles slightly by tightening the clamp too much, but the thin lines it caused actually appeal to me a lot.
I was very happy over all with this piece as I haven’t done any itajime since I took hand dyeing back in college. At the suggestion of a friend I think I am going to cut it down the center and sew it back together in to a long wide scarf so I can wear it. I can’t wait to play with the other shapes I got, triangles, ovals and coming in the mail soon….toast!
