Layers of Meaning
commentary on design, fiber art, & modern embroidery from Serena Fenton
Digital kimonos are appearing in Japan. The actual kimonos are made of fabric, but the fabric is digitally produced. Several media outlets have reprinted an Associated Press article on Kimono designer Yuko Iwakuma. "Her 'digital kimonos', which she began selling last December, go far beyond the flower and bird designs of tradition, abounding with keyboards, playing-card kings and queens, puppies and apples."
An article in Asia's Straits Times gives more details on the digital printing process and includes pictures of the fabric printing process. " Digital design and ink-jet printing also allow kimono makers to avoid excess inventory and relieve growing concerns about a shortage of skilled hand-dyers. At her workshop, Ms Iwakuma uses an Apple computer to design kimonos and sashes. She says the motifs are attracting women in their 30s who seek inexpensive and modern-looking kimonos they can wear to dinners and parties, or just for fun. One kimono is priced at about 63,000 yen (US$574)."
Yet another article in Japan Times gives more details: "Tokyo-based kimono retailer Kururi Inc. started marketing its own digitally designed outfits in April at one of its three shops in Shibuya Ward, with prices starting at about 39,000 yen.
Kururi President Izuru Miura said the digital method enables the firm to produce custom-made kimono with unique patterns at low cost. "Kimono dye houses usually accept orders to dye one pattern onto 10 rolls of cloth, but refuse to dye onto just one roll," he said. "If we made 10 kimono with the same pattern, sometimes it would be difficult to sell them all."
By using the digital method, the firm can produce as little as one kimono with a specific pattern. This gives the product added value and helps the company reduce inventory costs, Miura said."
Silk painter/fiber artist Jeannine Reno tracked down Iwakuma's web site. All text is in Japanese, but the photos are great! Some elegant patterns, while others are just plain fun.
Daniel Smith, makers of superb, high quality artists materials, has a new online tutorial on The Harmony of Light - Capturing the Magical Hour. "Some call it the magical hour, when the sun sinks in the sky, casting long rays through our planet's thick atmosphere. Soft, golden light transforms the landscape."
As one might expect, the tutorial is promoting use of their materials - pastels in this case. But the information, particularly the accompanying photos are great for understanding the use of light in any medium. The beginning point is a photo (far left); the ending is a pastel drawing (near left). The artist, Diana Randolph traces her technique for capturing the pool of light and building up layers of values to create the final, radiant artwork.
Although the article is written for pastels, it seems that the artistic direction is applicable to fiber. Begin by shooting lots of shots of nature until you find one that captures the mood, not just one detail. The tunnel of light in Randolph's image draws us back into the art; we are no longer looking at a flat plane, but moving through an atmospheric space.
Randolph uses color to further emphasize the misty depth. For example, in the photo, there is little detail in the foreground path; the entire lower right corner is sold black. In the pastel drawing, we are given small trails of colors to follow with our eyes. The sky is bluer and the trees touch limbs at the top. on color, Randolph writes, "After the underpainting dries, begin applying pale, hazy colors to the background and brighter, bolder colors to the foreground using linear and side strokes." That would be the advice that your high school art teacher probably told you too: "bright colors advance; pale/dull colors recede".
You can see more of Diana Randolph's drawings and paintings at Portal Wisconsin
Stenciling, the non-sentimental type offers lots of opportunities for the fiber artist. A series of tutorials by The Stencil Revolution takes you through the steps of Converting a color photo to a single layered stencil with Photoshop. Once you have the image, there is a second lesson on how to cut your stencil. Prochem offers directions on how to use the stencil with fabric paint.
Still unsure of what to do with the stencil on fiber? Here are some great examples:
Miriam Shapiro: Mother Russia
Lauren Camp: Quilt Portraits
Patricia Autenrieth lots of different uses, but especially Chameleon
image: Mao #91 by Andy Warhol
When I think 'stencil', I think of a restrained interior decoration form that is traditional and usually somewhat nostalgic. When I was searching the web for stencil information, I discovered that for the 12-25 age group, stencilling is a form of urban decoration, with some dynamic results. Street art used to be limited to spray paint, posters and the occasional sticker. Add to this the stencil and street decorating has grown a whole new level of sophistication: the Stencil Revolution.
Tristan Manco has produced several books documenting this phenomenon, including Stencil Graffitti and Street Logos. The web site,L'expo Stencil Graffitti, highlights a few of the stencils from the book. Graffitis et Pochoirs shows examples found on the streets.
So why am I writing about graffitti in a fiber blog? The connection is not the images themselves, but the dynamic of the image making: stenciling removed from it's sentimental roots. And the parallels between the flatness of the stencil format (Fahrenheit 451, Zurich) and the flatness of the quilted image (Jane Sassaman.)
Come! Read! Mandy Southan has cleared the mud on how to do successful color mixing. (and why if you buy your paints premixed, the finished pieces seem lacking.)
Just a taste: "Most people find working with colour difficult either because they have never been taught colour theory and mixing or if they have, they were taught the old 'primary' mixing system using three primary colours - red, yellow and blue to mix three 'secondary' colours - violet, green and orange. Despite the pioneering work of people such as Michael Wilcox, founder of 'The School of Colour' and author of 'Blue and Yellow Don't Make Green', the old primary system persists, causing frustration and confusion for painters in every field.
(Thanks to Jeannie Call and the Quiltart list for the tip.) image: the right colours by Mandy Southan
Mathematician and quilter/knitter Pat Ashforth has created a textile piece based on a mathematical conundrum: "It depicts a square divided into the smallest known number of different squares which will fit together to make a square". The creation of the shape may be mathematical, but her color use is artistry.
I am no mathematician, so I looked up the history of this puzzle, and found a number of fascinating resources, which are all surprisingly attractive. Perhaps it is one of those 'harmonies of the spheres' events, where the mathematical proportions are inherently pleasing to nature and the human eye.
* Mathworld has a definition of this process that was the clearest to me - and related it to quilting: "A square which can be dissected into a number of smaller squares with no two equal is called a perfect square dissection (or a squared square). Square dissections in which the squares need not be different sizes are called Mrs. Perkins's quilts." (note: this link has 21 types of Mrs. Perkins Quilts).
Some historic tidbits: "In 1936, four students at Trinity College considered the problem of cutting up a rectangle into squares of unequal size (no two alike)."
The ultimate site is devoted solely to squared squares and rectangles: www.squaring.net "This website has been designed to bring together for reference and display, many of the tilings of squared squares and squared rectangles which have been discovered over the last hundred years, up until recent times." If you browse the folders on the left, there are links to interactive square drawing web applets. Choosing 'image8' will generate op art (psychedelic?) results! see below
image(above right): Square Deal by Pat Ashforth
image (left): perfect squared square; order 21;1 generated at www.squaring.net
Piecing curves is a challenge. I can put a sleeve into a shirt with only a few struggles, but a shirt sleeve is a 3D sculptural shape. The curve is not supposed to lie flat. Pieced curves for a quilt are supposed to lie flat - really flat.
Alison Schwabe has created a handout with great illustrations (for those of us who are verbally impaired) that shows and describes how to create an obedient pieced curve. Schwabe's advice for my curves: "If you end up with a mini-mountain-range or a thing looking like a bra, you have sewn the wrong edges together – absolutely, so unpick and go back to find the right piece to go with the one on which you’re working."
Here's hoping for a non-sculptural curve.
image: Alison Schwabe; handout on piecing curves
Today's workout: Jane Dunnewold has a wonderful exercise, Expansion of the Square, on her site. The stated goal of the exercise is to stretch yourself in seeing positive-negative space. But the way the work is executed, or perhaps it is Jane's design sensibilities, makes a simple exercise in negative space and symmetry into something active and evocative.
From the exercise: "Notan, the interaction of positive and negative, or field and ground, is the basis of all good design and exists all around us. The "Expansion of the Square" exercise is one Notan exercise designed to study the interaction of positive and negative space, but these very cool designs can also be turned into quilt blocks, images to be printed, or small embroideries."
sharon b's Stitches for Embroidery and Needlework is a lengthy and well illustrated resources of hand embroidery stitches assembled by an Australian textile artist and colege professor, Sharon Boggon The best thing about this dictionary is that it provides photos of the stitches as they are being created as well as several illustrations of the stitches in-use in several unusual pieces.
image: Whipped spider's wheel stitch by Sharon Boggon
Encyclopedia of Machine Embroidery has just been released by Chrysalis Books. The publisher's website has some great excerpts of the book - 7 pdfs that give a look at 14 pages of the book. The writing is insightful, with a level of detail on each subject that gives the beginnings for many experiments. Here is an excerpt from the entry on velvet:
"It is necessary to take certain precautions when stitching velvet. If the stitching is worked directly into the velvet surface, it will be lost in the pile, so to ensure that this does not happen, a topping fabric can be used. A fine cold water vanishing fabric placed on top of the velvet will ensure that the stitching does not bed into the surface. The topping can be washed away afterwards. This method of keeping the stitching from being lost into the surface of a fabric can also be used for towelling and corded fabrics."
The book appears to be arranged, as the title would suggest, as an encyclopedic work, with the entries being ordered alphabetically rather than as a series of tutorials. The would seem to make it of immense advantage both for garnering inspiration and as a reference to be kept on the work table. The images are detailed and varied - lots of work is shown from a variety of artists. This book is going at the top of my book wishlist!
image: Encyclopedia of Machine Embroidery by Val Holmes
Simone Martini, Vitale da Bologna and Jacopo Bellini
I admit it, I am a fool for the early Renaissance painters. All that gold, the stiff, symbolic gestures, the embellishment on every surface - all of it used to tell a wordless story. Vivian Vakili has written an accessible history of these painters. But better yet, it is posted on the web with magnificant illustrations of the works.
The Simone Martini portrait of a duke, riding on horseback from these prefect Italian Hilltown city-states while tiny armies camp in the corners, is such a wonderful summary of the era in which he lived. Some folks were rich. They got the horses and nice clothes. Everyone lived in beautiful walled cities. War was constant. Another favorite that she has displayed is the Annunciation. This version is not namby-pamby. The angel and Mary are livid and throwing visual daggers at each other. This is not a quiet woman who was jumping on the opportunity.
Don't stop scrolling before you get to Pieta by Jacopo Bellini. The anguish is palpable. The hilltowns in the background of this image are rich with fertile fields and quiet, safe roads. But the tree is chopped down in midlife as Mary weeps over her son. Pretty heady stuff.
image: Jacopo Bellini's Pieta
Bearing Beads - a web site dedicated to creating unique beads and transfer art has a series of technique sheets, including this "Gin Transfer to Polymer Clay." (pdf format) Well, who'd have guessed? It uses plain old gin. In fact, she claims that the cheaper gin is the better gin for these purposes. What is fascinating is the possibilities for creating raised imagery in quilts. More inspiration is available in her gallery pages. She has tiny embellished altars, images transferred to metal for jewelry or to leather for books. Pretty amazing stuff. She also sells the goods to do all this (but not the gin.)
image from Bearing Beads
How to Make Stars: Instructions
I'm always looking for little crafts; things that can be done easily and add some color and festivity to the year. These seem perfect. I think that I could even get my in-laws involved (and they like to think of themselves as totally non-artistic.)
Materials:
4 strips of ribbons or paper
length is proportional to width 20:1
(1" wide ribbon = 20" long)
Another variation is depicted on the web at the Danish Patriotic Star site. That site give phtotgraphs of the process and of the finished star.
image by Nagle Design
Yo-Yo Quilting
This is a page of directions on how to make yoyos for quilting - colorful little circles of color. When sewn on, yoyos can be abstract circles of color, or flowers or even joined together to make an entire quilt top.
The Alaska State Museum has a pdf sheet on how to make yoyos and a terrific picture of a vintage yoyo quilt.
Crazy Quilt Magazine has an article on how to make yoyo flowers using sheer material.
j a n e f e s t From artist, Jane Wynn, a workshop on creating a shrine. Her advice on selecting the "object of devotion:"
In the next several months before our class begins, be searching for an object of devotion. The object that you will search for can be anything that holds a special meaning to you. It can be historic, like you’re first baby shoe, your child’s first tooth, a photograph, or a romantic love letter. It can also be an object that has visual appeal, like a vintage key, a little figurine, or a seashell. Keep in mind that an object no matter how unusual or even ordinary can have a special meaning. I will help you to learn how an old doorknob, placed just right and embellished with your inner creative voice can take on a powerful meaning of transcendence! So be listening and be searching.
(Important: In this case, when searching for an object, size does matter. Since we are working in a somewhat small to medium size range of about 8 x 10 – your object should be on the small side. However, if you really wanted to use a large object, like your pet or the house where you grew up- then you might want to find a photograph or something symbolic of your object.) . She has examples and materials listed at the site.
Visit Wynn's galleries to see her paintings, prints and three dimensional collages.
