Week Two flies past

I have no idea where the last week has disappeared to - somewhere between the Glassworks and Megalo no doubt. Since our induction into both organisations the "Glinties," as we've been calling ourselves, have been hard at work trying to get up to speed in newfound media and work regimes and conscious that we are almost half way through our residency. Yes, scary.

So, what have we been up to?? On Monday I helped Deb and George put their designs onto some photographic screens, and we spent time going through all the necessary steps so that they learnt how to coat and expose a screen themselves. Actually they were very good at coating their screens so the rest of the procedure went smoothly. The afternoon was spent printing their designs onto fabric which is always exciting as the following photos show.

George is highly excited about printing her 'Sprinkles" multicolour design.
Photo by Debra Jurss.

Nicci Haynes invited us to a woodblock printing demonstration at the ANU, and gave us a very informative talk about the types of wood and tools to use, the creative possibilities woodblock printing can offer and introduced us to a few of the students who are making large woodblock prints. As well as using the press, Nicci also showed us how to transfer the prints by hand.

Nicci using a plastic burnishing tool to transfer the ink from the woodblock.

Now, I have to confess there were a few laughs about my optimistic post last week, where I mentioned I was looking forward to opening the kiln the next day to see how our casting lesson went...haha! As anyone who lives and breathes glass will know that putting the work into the kiln is one thing...waiting for it to come out is an entirely different beast. So I waited...and waited...and then finally four days later we were able to open the kiln and retrieve our samples.

My casting samples....hmmm ... what is it you say????

After four days I was super-excited to see how things turned out.  You can't really tell from the moulds what lies inside, and what our high expectations are.  So...breaking the plaster mould to reveal what lies within...

Two icebergs have landed  in the cold room....

I decided that my first casting project would be a series of icebergs inspired by my residency in Iceland a few years ago. Having an ipad with a store of photos from that residency with me was great - I just tapped straight back into Jokulsarlon and the beauty I found crossing the lake filled with icebergs and walking amongst them on the beach.

Jokulsarlon, 2011

Yes, pretty cool

So now my icebergs are out of the kiln (...that sounds like a weird oxymoron) I am just waiting to learn how to finish them off to get rid of the jagged edges and polish the bottoms.

During the week there was also an impromptu lesson on cutting glass circles with Ruth Oliphant. Ruth was teaching Spike how to cut circles out of glass and before you know it we were all having a go - successfully too I might add.  It was very satisfying but also relevant.  For those of you who know my work, you will realise that the circular form plays a major part in my artistic concepts - referencing looking down the microscope; the circle of life; the micro and macrocosm.

Carefully scoring the glass, then snapping it

Two of my perfect circles using window glass.

Then finally, on Thursday I taught Spike how to put a simple one colour design into repeat so that she could start printing fabric lengths.  This was a major breakthrough for her, and it took her a while to get the concept between the screen width and the repeat width, but then the light went on and she was off and away. Here she is happily printing at Megalo and thankfully everything joins up perfectly. Well done, Spike!

Spike prints Cats and Ravens repeat length

This coming week I will be exploring screen printing with powders onto glass; engraving and sandblasting; organising my digitally printed prototypes and trying to fit as many working hours into the week as possible.

Until then,

Indigo Workshop

After the three-day intensive Mud Cloth workshop in Mullumbimby, Aboubakar had a day off to prepare the next workshop - the indigo four day intensive. This meant I also had a day off to explore Mullumbimby and surrounds, so I took a ride to Brunswick Heads to have an early morning swim in the ocean followed by a fantastic vegetarian lunch. Later, I prepared a few stitched samples for the workshop, just simple karamatsu shibori, or larch design.
As Aboubakar had previously run a 10 day intensive class, the fermented indigo vat that they had set up was still resting and maturing.  He had also started a new fermented indigo vat for the class after ours, so in total there were two fermented indigo vats that needed to be looked after each day and two fructose vats that we could work with.

The large blue vat is the fermented leaf vat, and the brown
vat at the back is the fructose vat.

The difference between the two types of vats is immense. The fermented vat uses the leaf matter from the indigo in Nigeria, Lonchocarpus cyanescens, also known as Yoruba indigo. This type of vat is a "living colour" vat, where bacteria grow to ferment the leaves so that the pigment can be released. This process can take up to 14 days and is heavily dependant on keeping the temperature of the vat warm, which is why we were doing the workshop in muggy Mullumbimby! I will not go into the process of the fermentation vat here because we were not taught this in our 4 day workshop, so I will concentrate on the Fructose Vat.

Aboubakar carefully hydrating the indigo powder with
water before adding to the vat

The Fructose Indigo vat we prepared follows a similar recipe to other natural vats I have prepared in the past using the 1:2:3 ratio of Indigo, Lime and Fructose. Aboubakar has his own method of achieving his indigo vat, through years of research in Japan and his home country. The more I participate in Indigo workshops the more I realise how attached masters can become to their vats and ways of preparing and caring for them, so it is futile to start comparing one method to another, because you start to realise that it is not comparing apples to apples at all, it is more like comparing children, and as we all know, no two are alike, even from the same parents!! Although I prepare indigo vats for workshops in natural dyeing, and am very happy with my results, I do not keep a vat as part of my arts practice, the way Aboubakar does (or in his case, thirty huge vats or so!!).  Many people are puzzled by this because  indigo is seen to be such an essential part of a natural dyeing practice - especially to get greens and purples etc.  Indigo is such an intense experience that I am almost afraid if I start it (properly) I will never want to stop and do other things anymore...this sounds dramatic ....but some of you will understand what I mean. Also, vats really do need to be tended and cared for like babies, particularly the fermentation vats.  You must monitor them every single day in order to keep them happy and productive. The 1-2-3 vats are much simpler and easier to create and can be left dormant for periods of time.

Fructose vat ready to use.

After the addition of lime and fructose the vat is stirred and left for an hour, after which time the "flower" or "bloom" on the top has increased in size and diameter, and the liquid underneath is a yellowish colour, signifying that the vat is now ready to use. The surface has a coppery tinge, and often has a wrinkly appearance - this is the vat's "skin" to protect it from air.

Aboubakar prepares to test the vat

The first dip in the vat

Aboubakar has a very particular way of immersing fabric, yarn and shibori textiles into the vat in order to get a good even dyeing.  We learnt how to "massage" our textiles beneath the surface of the vat so that our fingers did not leave marks on our samples, and to open up pleats and yarns so that the indigo could penetrate where it should. It was nerve-wracking at first but after a while you get the hang of it!  Aboubakar then set us our first task - to take seven identical pieces of calico to achieve the seven shades from white to deepest indigo/black.  This is one of the tests for the prospective indigo-dyers and believe me, the lightest shade was the hardest to achieve.  Afterwards Aboubakar shared his insight into this special pale blue - it is often done with the oldest "grandmother" vat which is nearly at the end of its life and takes a lot of skill and sensibility to produce. He says that often this colour is the most desirable because it is so hard to achieve. The colour must be pale, but the cloth must still be saturated properly, and in a young vibrant vat there is too much energy for even a 1 second dip to produce a "last-breath" blue.

Aboubakar's seven samples of indigo...perfect

During the course of the workshop we explored many processes of shibori and rice paste resist.  Aboubakar does not use the clay resist in his vats because the minerals in the vat would contaminate and interfere with the fermentation bacteria. The resist paste worked very well and I played around with multiple stamping and printing and dipping to achieve layers of colour and tone on small samples.  I also completed my Seven Indigo samples to perfection - not on the first day, mind you, but the next day once the samples had dried, I realised one was slightly out and I wanted to take the time correct it whilst I still had the same vats.  Of course, when you change one sample...all the others proceding it must also change...haha! However by the end of the exercise Aboubakar was very happy with my samples and I think they looked very close to his. I also made a beautiful indigo scarf with the pleat and tie method shown to me by Abou....it certainly pays to have long fingers and lots of patience!

Some of my indigo samples with resist paste, shibori and repeat dyeings.

 And lastly, there was another RYDER in our group - Angela Ryder - which is so uncommon we both freaked out a bit, but she made some beautiful work including this lovely rice-paste resist piece which sums up the wonderful workshop with Aboubakar in Mullumbimby....

Muddy in Mullumbimby

I've been offline for the past two weeks because I have been up in Mullumbimby on the NSW north coast participating in two workshops run by Aboubakar Fofana.

Aboubakar in our Mullumbimby workshop

Aboubakar is a calligrapher, artist, textile designer and graphic designer born in Bamako, Mali but has lived for most of his life in Paris. He is well known for his work with mud-cloth and indigo, which he studied for many years with Japanese master dyer Akiyama Masakazu in Japan.  He now divides his time between Paris, Tokyo and Bamako as he strives to revitalise the lost art of natural dyeing and indigo in his home-country.
The first workshop was on Mud Cloth, or Bogolanfini which is created by using a mud that is high in iron to permanently stain the cloth. Traditionally this textile was worn as a type of camouflage by Malian hunters, and the patterns are rich in cultural significance. Aboubakar always starts off his mud cloth workshops with his favourite talisman of the fish.

Aboubakar demonstrates how to apply the mud to the cloth

There are several steps to achieving this very earthy, primitive cloth.  Firstly the fabric must be prepared by soaking it in a tannin rich broth made from the n'gallama tree.  Aboubakar prefers the hand spun and handwoven cotton fabric from Mali, and we each received a small piece to try first.  Once the fabric has been prepared and dried, the mud is mixed for application.

Mixing the mud to the right consistency

The mud is extremely smelly as it is taken from the bottom of the river at certain times of the year and stored so that it continues to ferment. In this way it is a 'living' colour, very similar to the fermented indigo vats that Aboubakar prefers to work with. The mud can be applied with a paintbrush, stick or even stencilled, and I decided to make a number of small pieces of cloth using the mud in different ways instead of one large project like everyone else.

Some of my mud cloth experiments

Many of the workshop participants made some beautiful and unique textiles as wraps, scarves and even a skirt, and here are some of the results:

Becci with her lovely mandala fabric, handpainted

Becci working on a scarf with Rebecca and Janie in the background

Once the mud is applied to the cloth it is dried and then 'scrubbed' in the air to release the mud.  Once all the mud has been dusted off then it is put into cold water and scrubbed again to get rid of any excess.  The cloth can be washed and dried and then re-tanned for further applications of mud.  Each mud application makes the colour darker, and you can start to build up many layers of varying shades of the mud to enhance your designs.

I will post an article about the indigo workshop in the next day or so.  It was a great experience to work with such a professional and passionate advocator for natural dyeing and the lost textile arts of Mali.