things we create

well, as i await the necessary unbuffered acid free tissue paper so that i may mail it off to japan, i thought i would finally unveil the piece i've been working on. i'm quite fond of it, and would like to keep it forever, as it's the first truly artistic piece i feel i've done in awhile.

i used cochineal and osage orange on a tin mordanted silk to get the various salmon hues, cochineal for the raspberry color, and osage orange for the weft kasuri. the binding process took awhile, as there were many lengths of fiber that needed to be resisted. dyeing was an interesting experiment, as i wanted a soft gradation of lighter to darker pink near the top. this was the first serious natural dyeing that i did without a clear formula for proceeding. i used my notes from japan, the book indigo, madder and marigold, and random recollections from my memory of things i've read. now, my hope is that the dye colors will all hold up to time and the environment. well, fingers crossed.

seeing an oft disliked color differently

there are a lot of superstitions regarding the new year and one in particular comes to mind; what you're doing on the first day of the year is a premonition of the coming 365 days. so i decided to get to work on a new cushion instead of lazing about mindlessly watching the tv and playing games on the computer.

while taking a workshop at my alma mater this last spring i was rummaging about in the scrap bins looking for some lovely bits of discarded fabric when lo and behold i came across two narrow pieces of a fantastic vibrant silk pattern. i looked deeper, but couldn't find anymore.

i've been keeping the two pieces but didn't have anything quite like it in my collection until i bought some liberty tana lawn. one of the prints that caught my eye had similar colors to the silk strips, so yesterday i finally put everything together and created a long narrow cushion mirroring the horizontal patchwork center.

i have to say that this one is a bit of a departure for me, what with the darker hues and use of black. but i rather like the vibrancy of the composition.

a dress for the party

well, in my convalescence i was able to finish the dress i started a month ago. i'm really very thrilled, a lot of it was hand stitching, with some machine stitching along the skirt and waist connection. i was inspired when i saw the above photo in vogue a couple of months ago. the print reminded me of the nani iro coururiere fabric, and i thought "i can do this...but not this short".



surprisingly, it turned out just as i had imagined when i started. the sash is a piece that i made during metals casting, i used the lost wax method; it's of an ammonite. the ribbon is in one of my favorite colors, chartreuse. overall it's a very bright dress, i love it. i have a wedding to go to next summer and i'll wear this, as well as my birthday next month.