Unwrapping the Cloth - Kumo
Kaari Meng, French General
Lessons
Introduction
01:44 2Creating the Dye Vats
03:39 3Kumo Overview & Fabric Preparation
06:06 4Testing the Dye Vats
03:10 5Dipping & Rinsing the Cloth - Kumo
07:36 6Unwrapping the Cloth - Kumo
06:01 7Itajime Overview & Fabric Preparation
08:00 8Dipping & Rinsing the Cloth - Itajime
12:30Lesson Info
Unwrapping the Cloth - Kumo
Now that we're completely done using our dive that we can either get rid of it or we can save it and use it tomorrow so if you want to dispose of your dive at the best way to do it is to drain it through a gutter. If you have an industrial sink in your home or in your laundry room, you can wash it down your sink, just make sure you run some water and then scrub your sink because the indigo dye will die, whatever it's it's touching, so I would recommend either a gutter or if you have some grass or lawn, you can pour it out in the backyard. I've also kept in into go that until the water has completely dissolved and then there's indigo pigment, which you then can mix in with paints and use it as a paint. If you wanted to keep this vat going, you would have to tend to it every day and feed it a little indigo and maybe even a little theocracy. So remember, when you do that, you introduce one element at a time and about a tablespoon at a time. So for now we're going to go ahead and take the ...
indigo that and put it aside, and we're going to go back to our coup mow the silk scarf where we did our kuma work and this is nice and dry actually so it's a perfect time to cut out the work in order to do that I like to use my close up stella because it'll really let me get in there and cut the rubber band and I want to be careful not to cut the silk scarf itself so I tend to always have a bunch of different scissors around I'm never sure what sizes or I'm going to need to get in there and cut the chivalry workout so it's kind of ah you know you test it and see if one size is working for you and if not you can always do another so I simply lift up the rubber band and once you've made one cut it usually wants to come out pretty easy and you can see right away that we've got a great resist going already and will open up that take out the glass pebble and that's the resist so it's kind of meat when it dries because it actually retains that shape and there's no way once you watch this again to leave that shape but it's kind of fun the first time go around because you get these fun funky shapes so again we're going in carefully making sure that we're not grabbing any of the silk scarf and taking out the knees the band's there's your resist so you can see how satisfying it is too untie or cut out your your work because you never know what you're going to get, and I think part of the fun of it doing shit. Bori is cutting it out and finding out what what you created and seen what the materials you use and how they created pattern on your fabric. So I will spend some time doing this. This might take me, you know, fifteen, twenty minutes to cut out each and every rubber band and really don't rush it. You want to go nice and slow, you want to make sure that every every bit is cut out and you're kind of pain, respect to the fabric at the same time and treating it very delicately so that all that hard work you put into it hours earlier, we'll now turn out to be this beautiful, this beautiful scarf, ok? And now is a really good time to kind of look at your scarf and see how the end ago how the pigment took to the silk and it took really well. If you notice at all that it might be a little uneven or streaky, you can always remedy that next time by dipping it more because the more layers of pigment you put into the fabric, the less you'll get any inconsistency which silk. It's just it loves to be died, so you don't see it too much in the silk. It may be a little bit right in here, and that would've been nice to just spend dipped maybe another one or two times, and it would have completely even doubt that area. But otherwise it's really, I think this is a really great example of how relatively simple she boeri khun b and especially the coup mo, which uses household items so any sort of little being or marble, or I mean, even maybe it's a bingo chip, maybe it's something that a game piece that you have it's also fun to d'oh all different shapes and all different sizes in one piece, so that you learn what each shape gives you and what what type of shit boeri shape that you can get out of different types of materials. Now that we've taken all of our glass pebbles out, and I've ironed our scarf, you can see the pattern that we've made and it's a really simple but beautiful technique called chemo, and I think this is something great, a great starting place, and as you can see on the silk, it just ends up looking like a beautiful, beautiful she boeri, indigo dyed scarf.
Class Materials
Ratings and Reviews
user-458bc3
Kaari is such a great teacher! She outlines the basic process and steps in the indigo dye process, and encourages experimentation. I enjoyed hearing the traditional terminology, and learning more about how indigo dye interacts with different types of fabrics. Kaari provides lots of tips for adapting your process for different materials, so you always get a deep, rich blue dye. It really got me brainstorming: I started seeing all sorts of things around my house as potential resists for my dye projects! I love that indigo dye projects turn out different every time, and that this should be celebrated! As Kaari mentions, indigo dye projects have a wabi sabi aesthetic, and there really are no mistakes.
Gretchen
I came across this video a couple years ago and have been wanting to try it. The instructions and technique were very clear. We're going to include an eight year old in the project so it will be fun to see how creative she will get!
Annie Milligan
I found this class and this art form on a whim late at night and it has been such a fun project! I got the kit from French General and followed along with the videos and it couldn't have been easier. Everything is explained and demonstrated clearly and I can't wait to start the Intermediate class.
Student Work
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