Blue Moons and dots

It’s nearly full moon. I will savor three full moons this month — the two touchable blue moons I bought from Shibori Girl’s shop (one moon, one bookmark) plus the one bright moon in the sky. Along with my moons, Glennis gave me 3 design stencils for kanoko shibori” that she brought back from Japan. They are pictured below, on top of the pasted cloth.

The stencils are not made from shibugami (Japanese stencil paper), so I didn’t soak them before pasting, which is my usual routine. I think they are made from another type of heavy paper and treated with shellac to make them water resistant. Since the margins are missing, I masked the fabric and used some newsprint to protect the fabric outside the designs from smears of rice paste. I intend to make an “instant indigo” vat this week, and dip these pieces. I wonder if the white dots will show, since the paste is only on one side. I will post the results later in the week.  I’ve used linen/cotton scraps and vintage cotton napkins I found at a local estate sale. The fabric has not been treated with soybean milk. This would prevent the indigo from penetrating to some extent.

The triangle pattern reminds me a little of this.

The Redwings are back

The Redwing Blackbirds are singing earlier than usual.

Cattails with morning sun…

Ice shrinking…

So far, the only minnows I’ve seen are the ones coming out of my studio. This piece approx 24×60. I wanted to try 2-colors (instead of 4). My friend Maddy, who can’t get enough indigo these days, would like to see dark indigo minnows on a lighter indigo background. I think I’ll try that next.

Edible colors

I talked to my sister Fran today. She told me that she bases her color decisions for dye projects on whether she feels the color is “edible,” i.e. as appealing as good food. This is an interesting idea. I’ve often said how much I love the smells of the katazome process — the stencil paper, the rice paste, the sweet smell of the soy dyed fabric. I would probably eat my work if I could!

Speaking of edible ideas and colors, two Minnesota arts organizations — Springboard for the Arts and MNartists.org created a wonderful new project — CSA’s — modeled after the popular community supported agriculture movement but in this case it’s Community Supported Art. It’s the most exciting idea to promote local art and artists that I’ve heard about in a long time. You can read about it here.