I will be teaching a 3-day katazome workshop at Grand Marais Art Colony this summer. See more info below.
Bees, Bears, and Blossoms detail
I’m looking forward to teaching a 3-day workshop at Grand Marais Art Colony on the North Shore of Lake Superior. This is a wonderful place to be inspired and learn something new. Registration is now open.
Find out more here:
https://grandmaraisartcolony.org/events/introduction-to-katazome-japanese-stencil-dying/
Last weekend I taught a 2-day katazome class at Grand Marais Art Colony. The compressed two-day format meant that on day one we cut stencils from Yupo, pasted our work with rice paste resist I made ahead of time, cooked our own rice paste, and learned how to make soy milk. I gave a demo on soy sizing the fabric, but given the time constraints, I sized the students’ fabric ahead of class. Two students chose to cut stencils from designs I provided, and two chose to design their own. I also brought along some of my own small stencils so students could experience the difference between pasting a Yupo stencil and a shibugami stencil.
On day two students learned about natural pigments, made soy milk and mixed it with pigments. We painted our work with three layers of color, drying thoroughly between each layer (with help from a hand-held hair dryer).
At the end of Sunday each student soaked one of their pieces in water to dissolve the rice paste. Normally, work will air cure for at least 3 days to allow the soy to do its work. Nevertheless if the work is dry, and handled VERY gently in the water bath, it is o.k. to rinse off the paste. And, it will continue to cure after that – I recommend students set the work aside where the air can get to it for a week or so before handing and/or washing it.
Grand Marais is a beautiful setting – only had a little time to enjoy the rocks and water at Artists’ Point!
This past week I taught an overview of katazome at the Textile Center of Minnesota, introducing a group of eight students to the process, with a focus on hands-on experiences with the raw materials. Over Thursday evening and Saturday (9 hours in all), we pasted stencils, made two kinds of rice paste, made soy milk, and painted with natural pigments. I did a soy sizing demo (in a slip of the tongue I made up the word “soysing”). There was much preparation on my part, including pre-sizing fabric, and cooking up a batch of paste for the first evening. As planned, I brought a selection of my own stencils to practice pasting (no time to create them in this short time period). The lively and innovative group enjoyed playing with rice paste on both fabric and paper — squeegeed the rice paste through thermofax screens and rolled it onto linocut stamps. We also made a batch of rice paste resist using a Japanese rice bran available locally at United Noodle in Minneapolis. I was really energized by the experience! I’ve posted many photos from the class on my silver minnow facebook page.
A few photos:
The photo above compares two kinds of rice paste resist. The dry rice bran from the local source was more coarse, as was the finished paste (the one on the left). Perhaps one could try sifting it through a fine mesh sieve.
Each student brought a frame, but pasted more fabric than could be stretched, so we used the wall and push pins to stabilize the extra work while the paste dried.
I bought a limited palette of 6 natural pigments. This was still plenty to get lots of color!
A lot of things had to happen simultaneously to pack so much into nine hours. I look forward to teaching again, next time incorporating stencil design and cutting, and perhaps stretching the course across several consecutive weekends.
silver minnow 