Digitized Shibori

One of my off and on love affairs of late has been Spoonflower. I love it because it is so easy to use, I hate it because--um, well it is so easy to use. I have had fun just cranking out designs and playing with the repeats of them. Honestly some of them are crap. I have also been playing around with Photoshopping some of my shibori samples. It makes me feel unclean to do this to my shibori. Shibori is done by hand, it is a careful zen like process. Here I am playing with it in Photoshop. It almost feels sacrilegious. Spoonflower is like my dirty little addiction.

I have to say some other designers have beautiful work on there that I covet and admire. There is also a lot of crap (my own included, so please, no hate mail.) Recent discussions on Slow Cloth have me thinking more about why I am doing things, what I am learning, and what I am contributing. The good, the bad, and the sometimes ugly. Is it okay to make ugly art if you learn and grow from it? Is it okay to share your ugly work? Or should ugly work be banished and hidden or even destroyed? Should I delete my Spoonflower designs that just did not quite work, or should I keep reworking them?

I took the plunge and ordered more swatches of designs I had previously done on Spoonflower. Time to decide to keep or eliminate. I also need to make a decision about what to make with these designs. I am thinking of upholstering a chair and painting the wood in bright colors?

Slow Cloth

Slow Cloth is a group started on Facebook for discussing the idea of Slow Cloth. Started by three wonderful, thoughtful artists--Elaine, Jude and Glennis. Anyone interested in textiles and what they mean in today's world should check out the discussions going on over there. The group is new, is growing, and is very active.

Kakishibui Update

My Kakishibui (persimmon dye) is fermenting its little heart out. I am having to let off excess gas from it every day. I had forgotten to check it one day and the plastic gas can I have it stored in had bloated out so big I was almost afraid to go near it. I let off some of it using the safety valve and then opened the lid a little bit. The gases from the fermentation process are rather stinky!

My project using this has an extended deadline now. While at first this was a little disappointing, I now see the plus side---more time to experiment to make sure I get it right. I hope this means I will be able to use my first homegrown indigo crop with the kakishibui. My one year deadline has become a two year deadline. Wow! How often do you get that? Maybe this will make it Really Really Slowwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Fiber.

I want to give a shout out to Elaine Lipson and her wonderful blog, Red Thread Studio, that got me started on this Slow Fiber idea. She is a great writer and her website will send you on some great fiber adventures. http://lainie.typepad.com/