Thursday, September 22, 2011

process

left: wild grapes and some vine and leaves on thick silk,
dyed two days ago
right: indigo leaf prints...pounded onto the same silk.
the prints were washed after a week 
no color loss

17 comments:

  1. Those leaves look amazing - do you literally pound them with something to transfer the colour and then leave them for a week? Intriguing!

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  2. Love the leaf pounding; cannot remember Japanese name for the process. It is mentioned in India's book.

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  3. oh, velma! such wonderful work you are doing. the best part being that it really is work, joyous work, and then the end is a little rest with a big smile.

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  4. wonderful colours there, i think India calls the flower pounding "hapazome". very strong leaf colour, you must have pounded well, good for frustration release.

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  5. tee hee...told you it was addictive, didn't i? and Diana, the Japanese name 'hapa-zome' [which is "kitchen Japanese" for leaf dye] was given to the process by me in 2006, after spending several days in the green room at the Yamaguchi Performing Arts Centre beating leaves into a 6m x 6m floor cloth
    the process has probably been around forever, but the name was something i pulled out of the air...

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  6. Since I don't teach printmaking anymore, I miss doing collographs with leaves and such, I've often toyed with the idea of driving over my paper sandwiched between boards to make pull prints... I mean I know I can hand burnish, but using the leaf and the leaf only gave me great results with a press before. I do love leaves on cloth - and the wild grape color is beautiful.

    more rain, ugh.

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  7. Oooh! Love the color of the wild grapes, and the detail in the leaves. Thanks!

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  8. Gorgeous silks-I love the color from the grapes and vines, and the leaves are astoundingly beautiful.

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  9. love the clarity of the leaves and the grape colour is to dye for! wonder if the silk is responsible for the intense colour?

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  10. fiona, i sandwiched them between a china silk and the silk you see. i pounded gently with a hammer. opened, and let dry. the indigo blued some.
    aimee, you are so right
    d, k, and indie, i love it in moderation, my arm gets weary! the process i first learned in an outdoor education class, but india made me PAY attention to it, and first tried the indigo leaves
    v & m & m & j, the wild grape is amazing on the silk. i used a slug of copper pipe in the hot vat.

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  11. Leaf pounding is one of the traditional crafts I teach my Appalachian Arts students most years. This years students are currently working on quilted wallhangings with a leaf pounding center panel and shibori patchwork borders. I have been posting their projects on my blog. They loved the leaf pounding. It tires me, but they are young and resilient.

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  12. V- nature offers such great gifts of colour and texture> B

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  13. in love w. leaf pounding. clever use of indigo too.

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  14. Gorgeous, and beautiful together, too!

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  15. just fantastic..as India says it is addictive!x lynda

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  16. brenda, i am happy to hear of your work, i looked at your blog and will return
    barry, yes, sometimes it's amazingly abundant, like this time of year, right before locking time
    neki, india's idea and it's cool!
    kit, i like them so much
    lynda, yep. do i hear pounding on the wind?

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  17. beautiful rich color!
    today i'm using playground plants to bundle w/2nd graders and next week we're planning to pound them as a part of their plant study, also sun printing. we're creating plant collage cloths.

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