learning new tricks
June 13, 2012
before I experimented on the dragon stencil – and possibly made a mess – I printed a piece of hand-woven fabric that had been shibori dyed with kakishibu. a modifier of iron on small areas produced the darker markings.
and the dragon seemed to fit
after reading the instructions about a dozen times I was prepared to reinforce the paper with silk gauze, known as sha
oddly enough I had the gauze in my stash but a trip to the hardware store was necessary for the enamel paint.
and now comes the hard part – patience – the paint has to dry, I have to get the new indigo vat going and make the rice paste resist.
nothing worth doing is quick and easy!
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The shibori is gorgeous. Good luck with the stencil. Can’t wait to see it finished.
thanks, Judi. don’t know if much of what I do ever gets really finished, they just keep going through different processes.
Wow Jean, they are such beautiful colours! The stencil is gorgeous.
hi Myra, I love kakishibu, it darkens over time and with sunlight and it goes beautifully with indigo.
Oh yum! Kakishibu. I have yet to try it but I so want to. Your stencil is delightful too. When my study group did some of those stencils we just used regular wall paint, not enamel, and it worked fine. I think any kind will do the trick as long as it is waterproof when dry.
However right now I don’t want to talk about paint. We’ve been painting in our tiny bathroom for 2 days and one more coat tomorrow to go. Bleh.
Louisa – I have house painting that needs doing but I’m the worlds messiest painted and get in such a bad mood I can’t stand myself1
this is coming along nicely. i hate all the waiting, but when you have so much fiber stuff, it just takes so long…it’s worth it, jean.
The shibori is terrific, I love the colours and the patter.
And the dragon is just perfect, it reminds me of our sensei, another dragon…
would poly organza do as sha? winding some slik for kakishibu over here.
Neki – I have read that you can use nylon tulle but never tried it. Maiwa has the silk gauze so it is easy for me to get, not cheap but you don’t use much.
Blandina – I did the shibori 2 summers ago, the pattern was rather bold (just like a dragon!) and I couldn’t think of a use for it until now.
Patience. A skill I started to learn in Japan. Love your dragon.