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Interesting goodiesMixing Dyes : practical understanding of color theoryI've heard on different textile lists online that American dyeing expert Carol Soderlund's Colour Mixing Course is to dye for! Unbelievable information crucial to the textile dyer, and you learn to mix colours and create a DIARY of how you mixed each sample, which will be useful for years to come.http://www.nancycrow.com/HTML/barncarolsoderlund.html For US residents, check out http://www.surfacedesign.org Dyed Heaven : SydneyCheck out Lisa's site devoted to her fabrics (for sale), with monthly giveaway and wonderful hand dyed fabrics www.dyedheaven.comImporting fabrics into the USFrom the Dyers list online: www.alibaba.com has lists of companies which are already licensed to
do commerce with the United States; there is quite a bit of information on
the sellers, and they are also rated by ali baba. If you're interested in importing silks etc, start here and see if it might be less painful to let someone else have the importing headaches.
The website is the brainchild of China's Jack Ma, who has been cited in business magazines like Forbes and Entrepreneur. You can be a seller or a buyer; it costs nothing to be a buyer. The only problem I have found is that, for my purposes, most sellers have very high minimums; there are the exceptions. In any event, it could be a good starting place for someone who wants to import or export. Oh, yes, they not only sell textiles, they sell EVERYthing. If nothing else, the site is fun to browse! Then there are always the government sites: www.ita.doc.gov is the International Trade Association, and The Department of Commerce www.commerce.gov Hope this helps! BTW - our broker is Sam Gross of Gross Kubrick www.gkccorp.com 
Dyers : graduated dyeing of habotaiRegarding a query to dye habotai lengths in graded colour strengths, the following was recommended on one of the textile lists I'm on:Presoak the silk in Soda Ash and then lay it out (wet) on a trestle long enough to accommodate the length. (You may need two people to stretch it out and lay it down without wrinkles.) You would need strong smooth plastic to cover the trestle otherwise the plastic wrinkles will create a linear design on the finished article - fine if that's what you want. Also watch out for air bubbles once the dye is applied.
Lightweight silk will bubble easily. Mix up your dye into say 5 strengths, weak to strong, and then paint the dye on, mixing the two strengths with the paint brush where they overlap. Because it is wet it should run anyway. Leave in place to set for say 1 hour and then rinse. If it looks too dark then rinse it earlier. Remember pastel is only about 5% strength. If you propped up one end of the trestle say 2 - 3 inches, then you could get a trickle run down effect between the colours - if you wanted it. Dipping it in several buckets could be very tricky.
Things to think about BEFORE you agree to working on a project with another artistSome artists online have been talking about projects and mentioning things they'd look into NEXT time ... before they agree to anything ...Not to agree to work with another artist until you define:
Draw up some simple contract with that artist to cover you if the project expands, goes past the completion date, and how you will be reimbursed for supplies. Ask for part of the fee up front. Even if that other artist must take if from their own monies. Phyllis said:
I guess you can see that I got involved in a complex situation. The
final project did get finished, but not before my studio was totally
involved with huge silk panels and then even my garage was used as the
panels were hung from the rafters - curtesy of my engineer husband and
his ingenuity and PVC pipe and ropes.
I don't want to discourage anyone else from taking on a big project, but would hope to hear your experiences and definitely your advice. Wish I had asked last October.
Thanks Phyllis for sharing your experience, which will help each of us if we find ourselves in a similar situation. Screenprinting designs onto silk, rather than drawing the same design over and overI followed this dialog on one of the lists I'm on, and thought you might find it interesting too.I use a local screenprinter to screen my designs in gutta on my silk items - then I hand paint them. It saves having to redraw in gutta the same design over & over. They each are still quite unique, & I often add other detail with gutta by hand. Another silk painter, who is also a friend, had some of her designs reproduced by hand in Guatemala 10 yrs ago. The women there handpainted her designs, then others sewed the final products. However, this didn't turn out to be a good arrangement, since she couldn't be there to maintain quality control. Some other places she looked into to have designs reproduced, required a huge minimum run in the thousands! It took much trial and error to find a screen printer who would work with me & the special methods for printing on my silk. Most aren't set up to do silk. I had to prepare a print table for the guy I use. They had tried to do it on the t-shirt press and kept getting a ghost print on the next scarf. And I had to convince them I didn't want them sent through the curing step.
Thanks for this ladies. RESISTAD - The miracle GUTTA from New Zealand!Have you heard about this faaabulous gutta? Have you ever used gutta?If you've ever been in the frustrating situation of having used gutta only to find it won't wash out after steaming, and is a nightmare to remove, then you simply MUST try Resistad! John Mitchell[email procolour@xtra.co.nz] of Procolour NZ has developed the best gutta I've used in over 20 years - seriously. The only "trick" [if that's the right word] is that you have to iron it when it's dry and before you steam it ... I love black gutta and this is a breeze to make. The gutta is shipped airmail in its pure gum form, all you have to do is add water or dye; it comes in 3 consistencies, email John for all the details. I'm sure you'll be amazed, just like I was. Check out John's website and ask for info sheets and price lists. Payments via paypal, ships worldwide. www.procolour.co.nz I'll put some photos online next time I use it. |
more goodies
Newbie photosI read about this new textile artist on a list and she's only been working with dyes for 9 months - have a look at her shibori and great work on:http://community.webshots.com/user/clairefromoz Claire wrote,
I was going to use string to tie the fabric but used rubber bands instead, just because they were more available. I played around with tyeing the rubber band around stones, my thumb, the ends of sticks, folded fabric etc and was very suprised at how great they looked!!
With my dyeing the results I get are almost never what I plan BUT I find ways of using my fabric which I never dreamed possible when starting with great expanses of white cotton.
Well done, Claire! Colour range on cottonAnother textile artist who posted her link on an arts forum has some great photos of colour swatches here www.aurora-textile-studio.comThese A4 size card Charts each have 24 swatches of 100% cotton dyed with Procion MX dyes. The swatches demonstrate the colours of a 24-step colour wheel achieved by mixing three pure dyes as primary colours. Each card is clearly labelled with the dyes used as primaries (referenced by MX code) and the proportions used for each colour swatch. The back of each card includes full notes on method used, dye concentrations, etc. The cards come in a clear plastic covers for protection, hole-punched for filing.
If you don't want or need colour swatches, why not learn from this artist's efforts? Why not create your own colour charts for your silk paints and dyes, and glue them onto card? If you already do something like this, why not let us know how you've done yours - it'd be great to see what others amongst us are doing. Need to locate silk in Australia, at the best price?Great prices - check out the website www.beautifulsilks.comEmail your questions to Marion Gorr at Beautiful Silks A site to peruse - full of info, clean and crispCheck out Maiwa Handprints www.maiwa.com/BookWomen's Work, the first 20,000 Years, Women, Cloth and Society in the Early Times by Elizabeth Wayland Barber. ISBN 0-393-03506-9. A great story of the evolution of fabric/cloth.www.arttalk.comFrom the home page: ARTtalk is a monthly eight-page newsletter available on line and FREE-OF-CHARGE from Participating Art Material Retailers in the U.S., Canada and Bermuda. Each month you'll find informative articles that deal with a variety of subjects such as painting, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, arts and crafts, and more. These explain various techniques--how to work and paint with watercolor, oils, or acrylics; use pastels or pen and ink, airbrush, and more. You'll find information on art history, current events and art world news, as well as an occasional "Kidsą Korner". Subjects vary and change each month.
Check out their page on Colour Wheels - lots of info.
[image copyright arttalk.com ] This website has all kinds of art info for artists using all media, so have a browse. |
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