Silk Painting

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       1.        2.        3.        4.     

       5.

        The above are all examples of salt technique (stretched work). The last is on crêpe de Chine, the

    others on habotai.

             6.        7.

        A sarong (habotai) and a camisole dress (crêpe de Chine) and shawl/sarong (habotai) in one of my

   informal, shibori-related techniques. Why include shibori on a silk-painting page? Because the dye is not

   applied by immersion, but by hand.

             8.        9.

        Two examples of 45" x 45" (114 cm x 114 cm) scarf pieces in one of my Aussie Shibori   techniques

   (Rose-window variation). Here, it has been combined with salt technique, but, because of the setting

   method (microwave*), the effect is different from that on stretched work. You can see the effect by

  enlarging the images. It's that paler speckling and those darker-edged shapes.

               And, because of the folding of the fabric, mirror-image salt effects are guaranteed!

             10.

        An example (detail) of another Aussie Shibori technique (the Donut, a variation of arashi shibori on a

    flexible core) done on fabric of the same size as 7 and 8. The navette or network shapes are typical of

    the method. This is a good example of the way it is possible with this method to use together colours

    which might usually produce mud - without doing so. Here, they are a poppy red and turquoise.

            11.      12. 

        Examples of another Aussie Shibori technique which I call Rorshach technique, as it gives mirror-

    image shapes. A project for a sarong length featuring one variation of this technique is to appear in Down

     Under Textiles magazine, Issue 6 (November, 2011).

               13.        14.        15.       

          More recent Rorshach-variation sarong lengths, 36" x 72" (31.5cm x 63cm). 15 is double Rorshach

    technique. The result is suggestive of a deconstructed tartan (plaid).

 

             16.        17.        18.       

        These are examples of an Aussie Shibori method I call Pictorial Shibori, which I have taught both 

    in Queensland (at the Alpha School of Creative Arts in 1997) and in Houston, TX, in 2002.

           16 shows a length dyed by this method. It is all mirror-imaged from the centre of the fabric length

    (the selvages being top and bottom). It is intended for use in a kimono, with mirror-imaging from centre

    back. The picture was taken in Auckland, NZ, in 2000.

         I called this method Pictorial Shibori because it produces strange and interesting pictorial

    effects, like animal, human or grotesque masks or figures. These are often repeated and formalised by

    mirror-image repetition.

         In 18 above (the centre of the piece in 17), you can see what can be read as a lion's mask,

    apparently wearing a wreath of leaves. Below it, is what might be the mask of some dog, perhaps a

    hyena (though of course it's really the reverse (upside-down) mirror-image of the "lion's" mask).

             19.        20.       

        

           19 & 20 show a recent piece (November, 2011). 19 is a sarong-sized piece intended for a

    butterfly top (caftans are making a comeback, we're told). Though the design contains mirror-

    imaging in three channels along the length, it is asymmetrical. 20 shows the front (half). The

    whole back is a mirror-image of it.

               21.        22.

          Another recent sarong-length/butterfly top piece in Pictorial Shibori, this time mirror-imaging on

    the horizontal and vertical axes. Sorry I couldn't achieve consistent colour. The photos were taken in

    our sunroom, under one of the shadecloth sails under the glass roof. 21 was taken when the sun was

    out, so it's yellower, even though it was in the shade, so the tone is yellower. Also, in 19, the two

    darker yellow vertical bands either side of the centre are the shadows of the beams supporting the

    glass roof.

    * N.B. A microwave oven used for setting dyes should never again be used for food. You read it here.

    Read it again - with other details about microwave setting - in Down Under Textiles Issue #6.

               23.        24.        25.

        Three recent (March/April 2012) "agate" silk shibori pieces. The first two are W 36" x L 72", the last 45" x 45".

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