Tosenin's kosode.
Jun. 30th, 2007 01:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gurdymonkeyThis morning I unrolled the brown dupioni to lay out for cutting and I remember why I got it so cheap way back when and why it went into that box in the closet "for later." It was blotchy. I'm not sure if it was sun fading or a crap dye job the first time around, but it was definitely uneven. I cut out all the component pieces anyway.
The karaginu mo project convinced me that it's easier to dye pieces on a stovetop one by one and get an even result than to try to do all five or more yards at one go. Off I went to Berkeley to the art supply store that carries Jacquard Acid dyes for a jar of brown. I also stopped at Michael's in Emeryville on the way back. Their brushes and fabric paints are a little cheaper and as I'd hoped, I was able to find a couple of those mini-hole punches that scrap-bookers use, a plain round and a small starburst. Those may be useful when I start coming up with designs for the lozenge motif.
Overdyeing seems to have fixed the blotchiness. It came out of the dyebath looking promising and even better once I pulled it all out of the dryer.
The portrait shows design elements overlapping seam lines at the eri and okumi - you can see this represented by white lines running diagonally from the top of the detail picture posted here. This is completely NUTS from a construction standpoint and poses significant lay-out problems. Artistic licence, yeah, that's right...... Seriously, though, traditionally Japanese textile embellishment happens either during the weaving process or while the fabric is still in bolt form, THEN it gets sewn up into a garment. My compromise is to do partial assembly when possible. While it means more fabric draped all over creation and longer waits while painted sections of it dry, it gives me a better visual picture of my design layouts.
I used my new favorite cheat - since the fabric was 60" wide, I cut a double width body panel, slit it only up one half and sew a false backseam on the unslit half using a running stitch. Because I'm handsewing, this is one less seam that requires finishing. I should have both okumi (overlap panels) attached with finished seams by tonight, and possibly even have the sleeves attached at the shoulder. This means I can lay it flat on my painting table when it comes time to start painting. I will not attach the collar yet. Since it has to be sewn around a curve, it's easier to paint that separately, then put it on.
I've been mulling over how to attack the designs on the kosode. The portraitist had way too much fun with those lozenges. The number of lozenges per grouping varies wildly, as do the designs inside them. In the interest of preserving what's left of my sanity, I think what i am going to do is design a single stencil with a fixed number of lozenges. (Five, I think. Four is bad luck.) Each will have a different design inside. By flipping the orientation of the stencil itself I should still get plenty of interesting visual variation going on. The same idea will work with the flowers. It just means I need to be absolutely scrupulous about wiping down my stencils and letting them dry before flipping them onto their reverse side.
The karaginu mo project convinced me that it's easier to dye pieces on a stovetop one by one and get an even result than to try to do all five or more yards at one go. Off I went to Berkeley to the art supply store that carries Jacquard Acid dyes for a jar of brown. I also stopped at Michael's in Emeryville on the way back. Their brushes and fabric paints are a little cheaper and as I'd hoped, I was able to find a couple of those mini-hole punches that scrap-bookers use, a plain round and a small starburst. Those may be useful when I start coming up with designs for the lozenge motif.
Overdyeing seems to have fixed the blotchiness. It came out of the dyebath looking promising and even better once I pulled it all out of the dryer.
The portrait shows design elements overlapping seam lines at the eri and okumi - you can see this represented by white lines running diagonally from the top of the detail picture posted here. This is completely NUTS from a construction standpoint and poses significant lay-out problems. Artistic licence, yeah, that's right...... Seriously, though, traditionally Japanese textile embellishment happens either during the weaving process or while the fabric is still in bolt form, THEN it gets sewn up into a garment. My compromise is to do partial assembly when possible. While it means more fabric draped all over creation and longer waits while painted sections of it dry, it gives me a better visual picture of my design layouts.
I used my new favorite cheat - since the fabric was 60" wide, I cut a double width body panel, slit it only up one half and sew a false backseam on the unslit half using a running stitch. Because I'm handsewing, this is one less seam that requires finishing. I should have both okumi (overlap panels) attached with finished seams by tonight, and possibly even have the sleeves attached at the shoulder. This means I can lay it flat on my painting table when it comes time to start painting. I will not attach the collar yet. Since it has to be sewn around a curve, it's easier to paint that separately, then put it on.
I've been mulling over how to attack the designs on the kosode. The portraitist had way too much fun with those lozenges. The number of lozenges per grouping varies wildly, as do the designs inside them. In the interest of preserving what's left of my sanity, I think what i am going to do is design a single stencil with a fixed number of lozenges. (Five, I think. Four is bad luck.) Each will have a different design inside. By flipping the orientation of the stencil itself I should still get plenty of interesting visual variation going on. The same idea will work with the flowers. It just means I need to be absolutely scrupulous about wiping down my stencils and letting them dry before flipping them onto their reverse side.
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Date: 2007-07-01 01:54 am (UTC)I think I've seen you in that dress. Yeah, the dye took it a little darker than the original bronzy brown, so it's nice and deep but not too dark - and the weird pale spots are gone now.
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Date: 2007-07-01 04:43 am (UTC)P.S. I'm putting together a bead order, and every time I see the "monkey head" beads in the Oriental Trading bead catalog (orientaltrading.com, package of 25 for $7.95 plus shipping), I think of you {grin}. Though I can't imagine quite what you'd do with them, I'm sure you have some ideas....
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Date: 2007-07-01 04:57 am (UTC)Re the beads, I have a half dozen of those little buggers that somebody gave me. Tokens for people who do cool things, maybe....
Best of Luck!
Date: 2007-07-01 07:53 am (UTC)Here's to the joy of making cool stuff. :-)