In 2013 we will be returning to our natural dyeing blog posts. We left off at the close of 2010 just before we were about to start talking about mordants.

Why the gap? In that time we've been doing extensive research and testing in our own studios. We have been working with new extracts, a wider variety of raw materials, and some alternative mordanting methods.

During the past two years we have done considerable experimental dyeing in which we check recipes for fastness (light, wash, and rub fastness). We then do additional testing on the process so that we may expect even results. Such testing is especially important for fabrics (as opposed to yarns) as we want to avoid splotchy dyeing. In addition we track such criteria as environmental friendliness, cost of materials, and conservation of water and energy. These are often the most important factors to communicate when we teach internationally.

Below, a grid of tests using weld and cochineal extracts on a variety of fibre types.

A-cotton, B-silk, C-rayon, D-wool, E-wool (dyed at the same time as silk) 1-weld 100% 2-weld 95% and cochineal 5% 3-weld 90% and cochineal 10% 4-weld 70% and cochineal 30% 5-weld 50% and cochineal 50% 6-weld 30% and cochineal 70% 7-weld 20% and cochineal 80% 8-weld 10% and cochineal 90% 9-weld 5% and cochineal 95% 10-cochineal 100%

Kits sell for 24.95 and contain roving, needle, foam and instructions. Available only in Maiwa Supply (not online - sorry).

Copies of this issue can be obtained by contacting SSD at eshop@weavespindye.org  

On November 22nd from 2-8pm the shops of the Net Loft on Granville Island will be joining together to create a special holiday event. There will be in-store promotions, live entertainment and extended shopping hours.

Both Maiwa and Maiwa Supply will be open and during this time you can receive a 15% discount on everything in store.

We look forward to seeing you there!

This week Maiwa founder and natural dye instructor Charllotte Kwon is "up North." How far? Yellowknife. The far side of the Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories. There she is presenting a lecture and providing her week-long natural dye course to the Yellowknife Guild of Arts and Crafts. Is it cold? Let's just say Charllotte was happy to take a Qiviuk sweater with her.

Charllotte is roomed with Minnie Joldersma who has just put up a blog post about the experience of starting the workshop. Get the details here: http://60northofsixty.blogspot.ca/2012/11/charlotte-kwon.html

Laxmi Duclos listens to a question from the audience.

Charllotte Kwon, Jan and Laxmi Duclos talk about the embroidery.

Side by side comparison of historic and contemporary work.

Jan and Laxmi Duclos work with Michel Garcia

Colin Whitworth readies the bar for the 2012 wrap party.

Poster for the Banjara Exhibition

Banjara women visited in 2004

The Banjara visited in 2005

Traditional dress and adornment.

Meena demonstrates a stitch.

Laxmi in 2009

Talking stitches on the porch of Surya's Garden, Hampi.

Stylist Sibella Court fields question at the "Still Life with Stylist" Lecture

Last night the Net Loft was sold out as Sibella Court presented some insight into her nature as a bowerbird. North american audiences might not know this bird, but it is famous for its habit of collecting objects of a particular colour. Different types of bowerbird will collect different colours. It is also the title of her latest title (available in our stores, or by phone, not yet available online). We have managed to get Canadian distribution rights to Sibella's books (no easy task). We now have all her books in stock ".etc" should be arriving in the next few days. Please visit our store or call 604 669 3939 to get your copy.

The cover Sibella Court's latest book.

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Barbara Shapiro speaking at her lecture "Change is Good."

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October 10th was a chance to see a Maiwa event up on the big Marquee ...

Blue Alchemy up on the marquee at Fifth Avenue Cinemas.

BANJARA EMBROIDERY

EXHIBIT and LECTURE

One of the many talented staff at Maiwa is Tim McLaughlin who does much of our graphic design and contributes to our archive of photography. He would like to invite the Maiwa audience to a launch of a personal project - his first exhibition of black and white portraits.

There will be an opening reception this Saturday October 6th from 7- 9pm. We would love to see you there.

Melriches Coffee House
1244 Davie Street, Vancouver, Canada

The exhibit will remain up for the month of October.

More information on the portrait project may be found at
http://ampersand-and-company.com/ 

Do you have an urge to document textiles, fibers, craft techniques, or even your own projects? Are you curious how making a visual record turns into a documentary?
This is a rare opportunity to work directly with American Documentary Filmmaker Mary Lance.

During this three-hour workshop students will learn:
1) How a documentary project begins: Knowing the difference between a subject that interests you and one that you will spend years exploring.
2) How the project moves from inspiration to production: Development, research, finding people and locations, shooting.
3) How the story develops and comes to life in editing.

$75
Maiwa Loft, Granille Island, Vancouver

October 11 (Thu) MORNING 10am-1pm - class limit 18
October 11 (Thu) AFTERNOON 2am-5pm - class limit 18

Mary Lance is an award-winning filmmaker with more than 25 years’ experience in documentaries. Her film Agnes Martin: With My Back to the World has been shown widely in the USA and abroad. Diego Rivera: I Paint What I See was awarded a jury prize at the Biennial of Films on Art at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, a Gold Plaque at the Chicago International Film Festival, and other awards. Her newest release, Blue Alchemy: Stories of Indigo, is being screened at Fifth Avenue Cinema on October 10.

Last night Daniella Woolf took the audience through a tour of her work and creative journey. The fourth lecture in the Maiwa Textile Symposium was very well received and Daniella held the floor for an extended question and answer session.

Maiwa continues its tradition of bringing established artists from around the world to challenge and inspire. This Thursday evening will be no exception with Daniella Woolf -  a mixed media artist who explores the creative potential of encaustic and textiles.

Join us for Crossing a Line: The Encaustic Studio
Thursday September 27th at 7:30pm
Net Loft Granville Island.
Tickets available online,
in the Maiwa Stores or at the door.
$15

Last night Carol Shinn delivered her lecture "The Photographic Stitch" to an enthusiastic audience that came primed with many questions. Perhaps more than other forms of textile art Carol's working methods provoke a curiosity and a desire to understand more fully the techniques involved.

Here is a reprint of the evenings introduction:

"As artists, we may think we know how to deliver colour to a surface. In the fine arts we may mix pigments with oil, with water, with acrylic, or with wax. Hence arriving at oil paint, watercolours, acrylics, or encaustic. In the textile arts we might deploy other strategies centered around dyeing, and various mechanisms to resist that dye.

"Few would consider, however, using the sewing machine as a painter would use a brush. And fewer still would take this idea into the realm of photorealism – producing what has been called “Thread Painting” with freestyle embroidery. But someone did – and that someone is Carol Shinn.

"To look at her work is to confront a tension between the image and what it is made of. For those who appreciate photorealism this is a familiar and pleasurable tension. Such art always contains a little bit of the miraculous in it, evoking as it does, a sense of “how can this be so?” It contains a little of the miraculous in it because the foundation of all miracles is that they be, by definition, impossible.

"Carol shares some of the hallmarks of high realism – a fascination with surfaces, both the surface of the object she is representing and the surface of her own finished work - which becomes layered and thick as the threads build up. For unlike the artist happily cross hatching with pencil, as Carol builds up a shade she must add more and more threads. The result can be a thickening of the surface and a distortion of the rectilinear frame of the piece.

"Carol renders in thread in a way that is so clearly not embroidery. In fact, Carol’s work turns its back on the entire grammar and technique of stitches. It is on more comfortable ground when situated within the context of the photograph and the various artistic reactions to the ubiquity and dominance photographic imagery in the modern world.

"It seems we have come a long way from the Bayeux Tapestry to the works of Carol Shinn.
 - Tim McLaughlin

"I wanted to weave a fabric that was like the morning fog."  This was only one of the evocative comments made by Misao Iwamura that had the audience transfixed at last night's lecture.

Misao is a master weaver and contemporary textile designer. She is also a remarkable woman who, through a desire to communicate directly took english classes so that she could present her talk to the Vancouver audience in English. Through a series of photographs and descriptions Misao showed, side, by side, the inspiration for a weaving and the finished result. Often drawing directly from nature, Misao stated that the largest portion of her textile work involved creative decisions. The smaller portion involved the actual production. When asked about her love of cashmere and her desire to use only the best yarns to achieve a result, Misao reminded the audience that weaving an item was a long journey and it did not make sense to use source materials that were a compromise.