More in the kimono saga

These are the two fronts of my piece de resistance so far and i am now well into the back, which of course is the same size as two fronts, so is taking more time & thought.It really is an interesting challenge,getting the balance right,added to the fact that I think my devore liquid may be going off in the heat,which has finally come back to our corner of France.
Alonside this work, i am thinking about a piece i have to make for Felt in Focus in Denmark  next year, based on Fairy tales Some of the techniques used in the lace will carry over to the Danish piece,which is going to be based on Hans Christian Andersen's Snow Queen, mainly because the story terrified me as a child,so I wanted to face my demons!

Finally,i am harvesting some glorious weld,which is defiantly growing at the front of my flower bed,where i hastily planted it last year before we left here for the uk,thinking it would never survive.How wrong was I?

More in the kimono saga

Lace kimono

This is the first side ,lying on the bench before i stitched it together.I now have two sides all but completed.Still have to print the second side and dampen it to pull it into the shape i want,then i have to think about the back,which in many ways isn't quite so important.Of course, there is the thought that because the front is relatively transparent,the back will be seen through some parts if it is to be hung in an exhibition.Have spent some nights whilst sitting sleepless because of the cat coming and going ,thinking about this and haven't yet come up with a conclusio-suck it and see??Cat now has a cat flap,so hopefully better sleep and less thinking time!

slow cloth progress

Two new patches one waiting to be attached,one already in place.It's almost addictive,putting the latest little piece in place-certainly won't want to part with this one,The next patch is already to go on,but where?This one is a thcermofax printed definition of Fabric which seems appropriate,but a bit solid in terms of the weight of the fabric,so it needs very careful placement.I have also two printed rust fabric samples waiting,both printed with gum tragacanth and Lac natural dye extract.A digger arrives tomorrow as part of the new build plan so I shall be hiding in my studio away from the noise and mess-plenty of time to do lots of work on the lace kimono-watch this space!  

Best woad vat ever

This week the weather has been hot and relatively dry-perfect for woad dyeing, so I set to and made a vat.In the middle of creating the stock solution a friend came around, we sat down for coffee and I forgot what I was doing,so the woad sat there all wrapped up in the heat.When I went back to it,this is what I found.

The crust was fantastic and the colour underneath ,bright yellow.This was done using woad from Bleu de Lectoure which is near-ish to us and so particularly special, because S W France was a big woad growing area, so it seems fitting to use their extract.This is the bucket before I started to dye-pity you can't smell it!Finally, the first piece to go into the vat. More pictures later,when the blue fabric joins the slow cloth.

Best woad vat ever