Look South

This blog focuses on a very important exhibition currently on show at the Hawke's Bay Museum & Art Gallery, Napier, New Zealand, until November 1. This exhibition is titled Look South and displays the work of Clare Plug, one of New Zealand's leading applied artists. Her textile works reflect the world of contemporary art rather than the traditions of quilting and embroidery. In 2006 Clare was awarded an important residency by the Antarctica New Zealand / Creative New Zealand Artists in Antarctica programme, to visit this area for two weeks. It is also supported by the Mary Vigor Brown Trust. This exhibition is Clare's response and I fully recommend a visit, even if it means making a special journey. The HBMAG has supplied the images. There is also a very good catalogue about the exhibition Clare Plug, Look South published by the HBMAG ISBN 978-0-473-14879-9 NZ$20 + p & p.

SDA Workshop

Below are some of the samples I did in Kerr Gabowski's workshop, Working in a Series, at the Surface Design Association conference. These are being published with Kerr's permission. I thoroughly enjoyed this workshop and feel I have added much more to my skills and knowledge. I fully recommend a workshop with Kerr who is a giving and fun tutor.

I have now filed all my notes and samples into this folder covered with one of the pieces I did in the workshop

This piece, and the following three are based on the same design but achieved in various ways. All pieces are 18x18cm /7"x7".






I also worked with other designs, three of which are shown here.







And, with nothing to do with the above, I thought I would share this experience with you. When visiting many museums and art galleries one usually receives a floor map of the venue and what is currently on show. Now, I am not suggesting that my normal sense of direction is excellent, far from it, but on several occasions in Canada I became completely bewildered as to what space I was in and where I was heading. Then, one time I found I was holding the map up-side-down and suddenly it all made sense, so from then on I continued to read the maps this way, much to my amusement. My only explanation, not scientifically proven, is that I am from the other side of the Equator and that this had befuddled my normal map reading skills. You will be relieved to know that I did not do any driving in Canada.....

Back home again

Here I am home again. Much cooler here of course than in the USA and Canada, however the sun is shining but there is that winter chill in the air.
My three weeks away have been most successful and enjoyable. The Surface Design Association Conference in Kansas City, MO, was a great event yet again, and I am full of new knowledge, ideas and inspirations. Meeting up with attendees again was very pleasurable. I am still sorting my belongings as well as catching up with emails etc and in future blogs I will tell of some of my experiences during this time.
After conference my visit of one week to Canada, specifically Toronto, Vancouver and Victoria was filled with visiting museums, art galleries, and many other places of interest. In Toronto I spent five hours in the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), there was just so much to see. They also allowed photos which did surprise me. I also visited the Bata Shoe Museum which was equally fascinating. The Textile Museum was a highlight and featured three exhibitions, The Cutting Edge which focuses on the shape of a garment and what it signifies; She Will Always Be Younger Than Us questioning politics and culture. Also on show was the Judy Chicago's When Women Rule the World. This is a survey of this iconic artist's work in textiles from 1971 to the present day. Judy Chicago came to fame with The Dinner Party project which certainly rocked the textile world when it first appeared.

The ROM has its own textile section, very well displayed and full of information. Above is a garment by Zandra Rhodes (left), cloth by Thor Hansen, and a garment by Vivienne Westwood (right). I also watched a video on the making of a man's suit jacket, from the initial measuring, through to it being worn out of the shop. I actually found this fascinating.....

Me standing next to the Steam Clock in Gastown, Vancouver. Note steam coming out the top. This clock does not chime but toots!

Surface Design Association conference

In a few days I will be off overseas again to attend the Surface Design Association Conference in Kansas City, MO, followed by a week in Canada. I also attended the SDA conferences in 2005 and 2007. It is very costly for me to attend these events from New Zealand but I find the conferences totally inspiring and I would be miserable if I didn't attend. The experience 'feeds' me for another two years. I see such amazing examples of surface design and share this all with some wonderful people who I now consider friends.
I will be attending a pre-conference workshop with Kerr Grabowski and a post-conference workshop with Els Van Baarle. I really admire the work of these two artists so am looking forward to learning from them. I shall have lots to share with you when I return.
The Surface Design Association is well worth joining. It has 4000+ members internationally. It is the most well organised and informative association I know of, well up-to-date with technology and services. Membership includes four inspiring magazines a year, hard-copy newsletters, plus monthly e-newletters.

And now just a quick peek at where that dyed band I showed you last blog has been used. Once again I am avoiding showing the whole piece until after it has been exhibited publically. I am planning an installation of five exaggerated garments, all of which are constructed from plain calico (muslin) and each with some portions coloured and patterned using a navy blue Procion MX dye. They are to be suspended in space and all will have one other added common factor to humour.

Blank Silk Screening

A blank silk screen is very useful for quick screening. My next project requires a band of dyed and undyed calico (muslin) shapes. Because I would like the shapes to be very crisp I masked off areas with freezer paper. Then, using a blank silk screen ie no designs on the mesh, I have screened on background colour using thickened Procion MX dyes. Although the screen is fairly large, I couldn't reach over the whole area and I had to slightly overlap each application. Some brushing with a dry brush smudged the joins nicely. After the cold batching, I laid the cloth on the driveway and hosed with cold water. This helps to remove the initial surplus dye which just floats off in the water. It then went through the normal wash routine. The dye colour has not back stained into the undyed calico. Images show small portions only.

Freezer paper shapes ironed on to calico (muslin).

After silk screening with a Procion MX and Manutex (sodium alginate) mixture. The camera flash shows up on the still-damp freezer paper. The lighter blue being the freezer paper and the darker navy is the dye on the calico.

After cold batching overnight, and the removal of the freezer paper. Nice crisp shapes as intended!

Washed and ironed. It looks abit paler here, and some of the dye has washed out, but also photographed in a different light. No back staining. Folded over as a band which is how it will be used in this project.

Textile Pigments

As promised, the following is information about textile pigments/paints. To start, I repeat my previous description of pigments:

Pigments: These are colour molecules suspended in a textile base. This may be a thickened base (similar to yoghurt) so that the pigments can be used for screen printing and painting; or a liquid base which allows for the spread of colours as in silk painting. They are water-based. To bond pigments to a fabric they need to be heatset after air drying, usually by ironing. Pigments will alter the hand of fabric ie make it stiffer.

There are many brand names for the various pigments marketed. Jacquard, DEKA Silks, Stewart Gill, are some of them. They are like petrol with numerous brands eg Shell, BP, Mobil etc. Most of the pigment brands sell their products in small containers approx. 60ml / 2fl.oz. They usually offer a large range of luscious colours, and some may even have glitter and other novelty additions. These are great for those who use small quantities of pigment and who don't feel confident in mixing their own colours. However they are very expensive.

Because I use pigment on a regular basis, and because I am very familiar with mixing my own colours, I prefer to buy just a few basic colours in larger containers eg red, blue, yellow, purple plus black and white. I don't really need the purple but prefer to as sometimes just mixing red and blue does not give a 'good' purple. The white and black helps with mixing tints and shades.

I buy these from local commercial screen printer supplier (Blue Print Imaging, Nelson Street, Petone, New Zealand). They stock the colours in big pails but decant into 1 litre (approx 1 quart) containers for smaller users like myself. The brand they sell is Permatone. They are much much cheaper and last indefinitely. I also get 1 litre containers of gold and silver from them and have often added 'plain' colours to these to alter the tone eg yellow added to the gold will make it a bright yellow gold, or a brown mix will make it an 'old' gold.

I hope this all makes sense! As this is a blog I have tried to keep my explanations short and simple. There are plenty of books out there with much more detailed information. Create Your Own Hand-printed Cloth, Rayna Gillman

My 1 litre containers of commercial screen printing pigment with a selection of smaller brand containers.

Dyes and Pigments

Just in case you are unsure of what I was doing with my piece in last week's blog, I shall precis it here. First there needs to be an understanding of dyes and pigments. There is always confusion between these two products.

Procion MX Dye: a coloured powder which is dissolved in water, and along with additives such as soda ash, urea, and Manutex thickener (sodium alginate) if the dye is to be used as a screen printing or thickened paint application. The urea is there to slow the chemical reactions so that they process longer when cold batching. This needs to happen to allow time for the chemicals to react with the fabric, before washing to remove surplus dye. If Procion MX is used for immersion/bucket dyeing, then salt replaces the urea as there is no need for cold batching. Procion MX are fibre reactive dyes ie everything works together to react with the fibres.

Pigments: These are colour molecules suspended in a textile base. This may be a thickened base (similar to yoghurt) so that the pigments can be used for screen printing and painting; or a liquid base which allows for the spread of colours as in silk painting. They are water-based. To bond pigments to a fabric they need to be heatset after air drying, usually by ironing. Pigments will alter the hand of fabric ie make it stiffer.

The majority of the colour on my WholeCloth Banners is done with dyes and then they are often finished off with a pigment. There may be 10 – 15 applications of Procion MX dye applied using dye thickened with Manutex, each left to cold batch, and then washed to remove any surplus dye (yes, this does mean 10 – 15 washings!). I may also over-dye a whole piece (immersion with salt) and/or discharge portions with discharge paste.

All the in between washing means that when I apply some pigment, the dyes underneath are stable. So.... if I am leaving pigment to air dry, then wash out to avoid it being too over-powering, the dye underneath will not shift. I don't always do this, but it does seem to work on areas of solid pigment which I may have painted on, or screen printed. Any stiffness in the fabric has now been greatly reduced.

Here is another detail of my Three Brothers Tomb. The border on the right and the sweep below across to the left were painted with a pigment colour which I had mixed. At this point they blocked-out all the dye colours underneath. The pigment was left to dry, then scrubbed in the bath. This removed some of the pigment and now the dyes underneath are still able to be seen. I could have done this with the Procion MX but as this piece has had many applications of dye it has reached a saturation point and would have been ineffective.

Hope this helps. Next blog will explain the pigments I use.