Katazome Workshop Planning

I will be teaching a 3-day katazome class from June 26-28 at the Grand Marais Art Colony (GMAC) in Grand Marais, Minnesota. The course is suitable for beginners. I’ve taught katazome techniques on fabric at GMAC twice in the past (2012 & 2019). 

In this class, we’ll be making nature-inspired katazome samples on both cloth and paper. I will test some ideas and approaches as I plan the details of the workshop, sharing my process here on the blog.

Mock-up of concertina flower book

First, I plan to make a small concertina book based on the mock-up shown here. I will test several different types of paper to see what works best for this application. If all goes well, I will have a nice example to show students . Then, I hope to be able to create an “open edition” of the book, i.e., I can create copies whenever I want, trying out different color palettes, for example.

What led to this idea?

As you can see from my recent work, I love drawing and sketching flowers. I am not yet done with this theme! Two recent learning experiences have led to the idea of creating a katazome book.

Concertina books by Kit Eastman

In 2021 I took a terrific workshop at Grand Marais Art Colony with Karen Kunc (see Constellation Studios in Lincoln, Nebraska) called From Block to Book. We created reduction woodcut prints and made a concertina book from our prints. We made enough prints to create an edition of 7 books, which I completed at home and gave as holiday gifts that year.  My chosen theme was flowers, and here are my completed books.

Then, just this January I participated in a workshop on the Domestika platform taught by Spanish Illustrator/Artist Jesus Cisneros called Artist Notebooks: Explore Illustration Techniques. It was a wonderful course to stimulate the imagination during this cold, dark, and monochrome season. Cisneros teaches how to create colored paper by rubbing a very thin layer of oil pigment onto the surface with the corner of a paper towel or tissue. Multiple colors can be blended on the same piece, if desired.

Example 1: Oil-rubbed paper cutting, glued to sketchbook

Example 2: Oil-rubbed paper cutting, glued to sketchbook,
with colored pencil added (pink)

Then, using the theme of “garden and forest,” we were encouraged to create a series of symmetrically folded and cut plant and/or insect forms using the paper colored this way. The two examples of this shown here are from my sketchbook. 

This particular technique – rubbing pigment on the paper – is similar to the way that pigments are applied to fabric in katazome. But rather than using oil as the medium, soybean juice is used along with a dry brush. Similar effects such as smooth blending and graduation of color can be achieved. This is one of the qualities of katazome that I particularly enjoy. In addition, with the folded and cut paper designs, there is a play of positive and negative space – “notan” – that is also an important part of designing stencils for katazome.

Please watch this space to see how this project (and workshop plan) progresses! For a full description of the workshop I will be teaching, Click Here.

Bees, Bears, and Blossoms – Part 2

I took some time to draw the cartoon and refine it to create a 4-way repeat. Here are the final cartoon before transferring it to the stencil paper, and the final stencil design before cutting away bridges and adding the silk sha. I wanted to try this design on Japanese Kozo as well as fabric. I will post the results next.

Bees, Bears, and Blossoms – Part 1

This design was living in my imagination about 3 years before I began to work on it. I felt really stuck for a long time, just generally, which of course was reflected in my not doing much in the studio. About 9 months ago, I signed up for “Illustration Nation” at Sketchbook Skool, which offers terrific online courses for people who want to learn to sketch, or to begin sketching and drawing again. This is one of many courses they offer, all of them inspiring.

Because of the planning and design involved, creating a katazome stencil somewhat like illustration. I felt the workshop would help me bring this idea to life.

To become familiar with my subject, I began sketching bears from photos.

various sketches of bears

Fun fact: according the Wikipedia, bears are in the family Ursidae (think Big Dipper—Ursa Major). They are “doglike” carnivores, and their closest living relatives are the pinnipeds (such as seals), canids (dog is one example), and musteloids (such as raccoons and weasels).

The next step was to try a few variations for the composition.