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The Four Elements

wildpaper — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 07:35:21 +0000

Inspired by Hiroyuki Shindo’s installation at the Whitworth Art gallery in Manchester I started further studies into Earth Air Fire and Water. I already have one card in the Celtic series using this theme, and would like to have one card for each of the elements, with a dyed design and a especially developed textured paper. I might do a larger wall handing as well. I would love to hear your comments on my ideas for the each of the elements.

The Four Elements – Earth

wildpaper — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 07:34:16 +0000

I want a green cloth with small pure white spots to represent frozen puddles. This will be weld over dyed with woad. I am finding it difficult to get a white spot without a bit of colour in the middle using shibori. I shall have to experiment with topping the end of each tied bundle with plastic. I shall also start the tie dye before mordanting the fabric.

The Four Elements – Air

wildpaper — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 07:33:18 +0000

This is the most difficult element for me. I will use weld as the dye, maybe mixed with dyer’s chamomile. At the moment the design is solid block of yellow but I am experimenting with different types of spiral shibori to represent air movement. However, I am not sure whether there will be enough contrast between the yellow and the white.

The Four Elements – Fire

wildpaper — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 07:32:36 +0000

For me this is the easiest element to work with. This surprises me, as I am a Water sign, and I am not at all happy lighting fires. Madder is my dye of choice to represent fire. The first experiment was a large square of Habotai silk which I put over a sieve. I then placed liquidised madder roots (see www.wildcolours.co.uk) in the sieve, tied the Habotai and put it in a dye vat. The result was a very dark red uneven circle with little spikes surrounded by a white circle and pale red fabric. Shindo said that it is very important that have a good balance between white and dyed fabric. Rather than pale red, I want pure white round the madder circle. This will mean binding all the fabric outside the inner circle. At the moment I am investigating the best ‘string’ to do that. As it would require such a large amount of ‘string’ I want to be able to use the dyed string afterwards. I am mordanting (without cream of tartar) some wool yarn that I have spun and plied using my drop spindle to use in the tie dye.

The Four Elements – Water

wildpaper — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 07:31:59 +0000

I have experimented in the past using rubber bands as a resist. In a woad vat, they give a good impression of ripples in the water. I had the best definition by wrapping a piece of silk round a one litre soda water bottle full of tap water, and then placing different widths of rubber bands round the bottle. I also tried this on wine bottle and empty plastic bottle, but the definition was not as good. I might have to use a large pipe and a water butt for larger pieces, just not sure what I could use instead of large rubber bands, as string does not give the same effect. Maybe pieces of inner tube might work.

Ideas for Valentines Cards

wildpaper — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 07:30:51 +0000

A day after writing a post about lack of ideas for valentines cards, the ideas came flooding in, so writing a blog really works for me. I found a more effective way of cutting hearts, by folding a square several times and then cutting the heart on a fold. This produces four hearts and a cutout border, so no waste. The silk is a bit difficult to handle, so I will try ironing vilene or bondaweb at the back to help with the folding.

Ideas for Valentine’s Cards

wildpaper — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 08:12:23 +0000

Can you help me with suitable ideas for Valentine’s cards? I am looking for ideas that use the kind of materials I use on the other cards, and are not overly time consuming to make.

Usually I have more ideas for my cards than I have time to develop them. However, the opposite is true for Valentine’s cards. I have one design in the Tropical series. It is a heart made with hemp string sewn on a piece of Dupion silk dyed with brazil wood, on a background of handmade paper. I would love to have five or six designs that could also be used for anniversaries.

I have tried cutting heart shapes out of red fabric, but as well as not looking right, they waste too much fabric. I worked with the idea of using the word LOVE, but unlike the simple hemp heart, this word would take too long to sew. One idea I might try is to sew just one word LOVE onto fabric and use it to emboss paper. However, I am doubtful it will stand out enough.

Paper Swatch Swap

wildpaper — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 16:49:18 +0000

I have just received the very exciting Paper Swatch Swap book. 47 participants of the Yahoo Paper Making group produced swatches (2 by 3 inches) of their handmade paper. There were participants from several countries (New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, UK, The Netherlands and the USA). All the swatches were posted to the organiser in Canada, who compiled books with 90 different swatches for each of the participants. I enjoyed looking through the book, with immense variety of papers. There were papers made with grasses, the seat of a 100-year-old chair, beetroot slices, artichoke leaves, blue jeans, and tree bark. I submitted fifty swatches of each of two different papers: a paper made with recycled computer printout and banana skin, and another with intrusions of handspun wool dyed with woad.