Further Evidence: The Art of Natural Dyes exhibition
May 28-July 14, 2019
Penland Gallery in North Carolina
Curated by Catharine Ellis (guest curator, artist, and educator)

 total 16 artists were selected by Catharine Ellis and Kathryn Gremley (gallery director of Penland).

 Recent piece, SUNRISE, SUNSET #2. Fabrics: Katazome (rice paste resist printing technique) with natural dyes on silk                                  organza. Paper Panel: Dyed silk with natural dyes: madder, lac, weld, apple, cochineal, marigold,  indigo. Applied traditional Japanese rice paper with scroll making technique. Hand cut out. Constructed.    86”H x 68”W x approx. 24”D

                                                    View from different angle.

                                                         Detail.

Workshop for Marwen

I taught a workshop, "Sashiko and Boro stitching" for Marwen as a visiting artist.  
Marwen is an art center for children in downtown Chicago, IL.  There are various after school programs in painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, prints, metal, and fiber.  
Although I normally do not teach children, I was interested in the program at Marwen, so I did it.  It was fantastic!  Great experience.

I introduced traditional SASHIKO (stitching) and BORO (stitching).  Boro is a rug or waste cloth, and patched and mendid to repair originally in Japan.  It can be an art form.  Since we wanted to use all indigo blue shades, Rachel who invited me to teach a workshop, dyed fabric previously to make several shades of blue.  Although I was not sure how much children can sew, many students (6th and 7th grade) tried to sew and they were fine!  Children are very flexible and try to challenge a new art form.  The workshop was a short time.  Even so, Rachel will continue to instruct them to teach stitching following classes.  Then after finishing the pieces, they will be displayed for the exhibition in the gallery at Marwen.  Children will be excited to see their accomplishment.

                                Introduction of Sashiko stitching and Boro using my father's Kimono garment.

                               Example of my Indigo dyed and stitched piece.

                                                  Showing samples of Boro stitching.

                                            Various samples of Boro stitching.  There are many shades of blue.

                                                    Student is stitching.  photo by Rachel Hill  /Marwen

                                                   Student is stitching.  photo by Rachel Hill /Marwen

                                                   Student is stitching.  photo by Rachel Hill /Marwen

I taught Katazome workshop in the summer, 2018 at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts.  It was only for a week and it was very intense.  Even so, we went through whole process; designing and cut out stencils, cooking rice paste, spreading rice paste through stencil, brushing soy milk, alum, and natural dyes, such as Lac, Weld, Madder, and Logwood finishing to set colors.  We made a indigo dye vat and dipped rice pasted fabric.  Also we dipped already colored with natural dye; yellow of Weld made lovely green after dipping it into indigo dye bath.

 Amy is spreading the rice paste out through her exquisite stencil.  See the below.

 We started to cut small stencils.  The black color stencil is attached SHA(silk gauze) for screen.

Brushing Lac on fabric.  This way with bamboo stretchers is traditional Katazome, and it stretches both directions.  It dries quickly, and it can be used long fabric, e.g. ten yard!

Community piece with Weld.  Everyone contributed his/her own stencil with rice paste.  Then we dipped it into indigo dye vat to make an emerald green color.

 During the class.  Arrowmont has a large space with wonderful equipment that we need.

 It was a full class.  Everyone was truly creative, patient, and hard working students. I loved them!!!

 During the critique.  They were productive!  I was impressed by student who came from different back ground, not fiber.  Even so, the core is an art.  Use of different medium must be a great opportunity to discover new direction.  Especially young people who pracite different meium tried to lean Katazome, and I admired their experimentation.