Hegira: A SHIFT dress

 
Hegira

He·gi·ra

hiˈjīrə,ˈhejərə/ : any flight or journey to a more desirable or congenial place. 

Usually an exodus or migration.  C16: from Medieval Latin, from Arabic hijrah: emigration or flight

This is the sisterdress to Migration.  I wanted to take the wishbone sculptural elements and use them in larger, more transparent forms.  An individual path compared to that of the many in Migration.

  Hegira was a watery dress from the very beginning. The large sheer panel in the middle of the dress, both front and back, illustrates a journey, broken at times, and coming from or starting with a fork or confluence...Rivers with portages, canals with locks, seas with storms...this was created with layers of silk gauze, with resists to prevent the one superfine merino wool layer from obscuring the path.  This dress is lighter than light.

 

  Different materials mirror the motif; resists, 3-D sculptural elements and silk organza.  The journey can look different but we can arrive in the same place....some are more obvious than others...The forms are like tracks...not continuous...they would take great observation and patience to find and follow.

  This dress was dyed on a full moon dyeing day this summer, which makes it feel just right to tell it's story on another full moon indigo dyeing day today. It is always a wonder-filled to experience to pull the textiles from the indigo vats...

  Hegira had many dips into the indigo vat....developing an intense deep blue...
I added pathways of stitches...but I think there are still more to come ....

  This dress looked wonderful exhibited as a scuplture, but it's story feels even more complete when shown worn on our beautiful island....reflecting the journey by water we all take to get here...

  How can I resist adding more pictures...so beautiful....shades of indigo captured by Amy Melious...(and the model's name is Indigo also)...created and engaged with water...and the moon and some ocean stars....

  Hegira....the lightest definition of this word sums up this process...a journey to a more congenial place....
Warm wishes, 
Fiona

Full Moon Indigo Dyeing: April

Ah! Happy Spring!

It's been an absolute whirlwind of activity around here...I'll tell you more soon....maybe...unless better and more exciting things get here first!

I have been playing with shibori all week...some of you may guess what that means!

It is (also) featuring large in my new felt lines and some new organic cottons and linens I am working with this summer.

For my own work.... madder and cutch natural dyes.....

Then with logwod, greyed with ferrous, and of course-indigo...magical mystical dye pot, and my full moon favourite.  

This vat was revived after a few dormant months (kind of like my blogging!)...and quite happy to be enlivened once again. I didn't have much I needed/wanted to dye this full moon...an interesting change...I guess the regularity of the full moon dyeing sessions have caught up with the desire for indigo dyed items (no...not quite!)...

 Itajime Shibori...Green out of the pot and then the magic of oxidization....

 It was nice to dye just a couple of pieces...slowly....with pleasure....and then put the vat away...and know it could come out again anytime...such a treat.

 Arashi Shibori....the boys kept asking me what I was building-" a steam engine?" with my arashi pipe sticking up from my pot like a smoke stack....dyeing mysteries....

Lots more coming...I have 5 months full time in the studio...starting......NOW! 

So there will be lots of making...and blogging in these parts...

 A cloth eco dyed with big leaf maples...now overdyed and ready to be transformed once again...into a garment....

Hope you're having a wonderful Easter, if you celebrate...and a lovely weekend!

Warm wishes,

Fiona

Bold and Dramatic...

Ahhhh...First Felt of 2012 is finished....I'm so happy with the results....It feels like a just the right starting point and direction to head in for this year.

My peacock blue plans ventured into inky midnights...

 My red (to be purple) mini pocket disappeared into the depths-The purple becoming barely discernible but the pocket is still there- perfectly unobtrusive and ready to hold secret messages....Paua shell bead at the pockets edge...blue and shiny...meeting the wild, now raven black racka locks...which reach out over the nuno linen to find the partially eclipsed shibori moon on the tunic side...

 Neck details adorned with dyes and red stitches and a paua shell bead...

 Shibori moons on the back and side...in honour of the moon under which this was made....(not indigo dyed...although I did fit in my full moon indigo dyeing day this past weekend....).

The finished tunic is simple and dramatic...artistic and bold....and I'm so ready wear it this year....

Warm wishes,

Fiona

Indigo Shibori at Maiwa Symposium

  I 've just returned from my mystery trip! And what an adventure it was! I had two events to attend- The Green Festival in Los Angeles with Living Crafts magazine and then an Indigo Shibori Workshop at Maiwa in Vancouver.
  I don't have any pictures from my time in LA, unfortunately. We did set up a wonderful 20 x 20 foot community craft space, and taught many people how to felt, weave and embroider, all crafts we feature regularly in Living Crafts. It was wonderful to spend more time with Pardis, the editor of the magazine, and fellow contributors, Christine Schreier, and Elizabeth Seward. And of course to share our crafts with some existing readers, and some new ones.      
  What a buzz of excitement to be travelling to teach in California.  The change was exciting....the United States is different from Canada in so many ways. The warmth, sunshine and palm trees were like a balm....

And there were some darker moments...grounding moments....I got lost in LA without a map, and without an address to put into the GPS in the car I was using. Using the "force" to find your way around LA is a very tricky business! I found myself in an a darker side of LA, driving under an underpass, full of garbage and shopping carts and people's homes...brings one down to earth. I had to get out of the car and find a payphone (I don't have a cellphone) and feel extremely out of place, and aware of the value of my life in certain neighbourhoods.  And then, several days later, I found myself walking the length of Hastings Street, in Vancouver's lower east side, arguably the roughest area in the city....and it was like nothing I've ever seen in my life...humbling, unsettling, and terrifying...and invigorating. All this while also exploring and playing with the beauty of natural fibers in both places...such a luxury...I loved the contrast....I treasure these experiences..It was truly a perfect balance in dark and light...or the shadows in between...and the epitome of the travelling experience....

Then, of course there was the fibre play! A wonderful retreat time with Akemi Nakano Cohn in indigo shibori dyeing, part of the Maiwa Symposium. The techniques she shared with us deepened my knowledge of clamp and resist dyeing, and added to my textile toolbox the classic stitch resist patterns of shibori. I learnt that I need to add more indigo when making my baths, to reach the dark deep midnights potential in indigo.  I also learnt that I know more about indigo and shibori than I thought...and this creative confidence booster came at exactlya most needed time.  I left inspired, and I believe to have a student leave full of ideas is a great credit to a teacher! 

I see using these pieces as "canvases"; foundations to be added to or changed through other textile mediums...Fractal building blocks....windows...a frame, or set of frames for future additions...

 

 One of my favourites...a canvas waiting for something....ferrous imprinted leaves? stitches? nuno felting? Mmmm....unknown at this moment...still immersed in moon/indigo relationships...

 

 Traditional Ori Nui Shibori..stitched layers...so contemplative in process.....I know I will use the clamp resist techniques more often, but this I will enjoy using for special projects....this process has such a strong meditative quality for me, less physical process than mental, and will be used as such, when desired or required..

Twice resisted and dyed...6 dips total resulting in deep indigo colour. angel/moth/butterfly wings....

 

Arashi Shibori, wrapped and tied around a pole then folded and dipped. Love this!

 A re-creation of a piece I made during my last full moon indigo dyeing session...moons are clamped CD's....I experimented with some different patterning above them...clothespins and tight binding with string, but got very different results than I expected.  Still a great base for adding more- layers of dyeing maybe?

And my line full of Shibori banners!  The blues a lovely contrast against the greens and yellows of our Fall landscape here.  Most of these pieces are done on quilting weight cotton for sewing...I'm going to cut them and share them....and then dye some more in silk and wool for feltmaking on the coming full moon this Thursday. I enjoyed the setting aside of this time for creativity with such talented fibre artists, both in Los Angeles and again in Vancouver and came away with great new plans and ideas....and the feeling of being grounded in our real world with an appreciation for this beautiful little island and the home our family is creating.

Warm wishes,

Fiona