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Thursday, May 21, 2009

Recycled Mail Book, Transformed Book Exhibit, and Shibori Style Fabric

I continue to experiment and surely it is all taking me somewhere with my art, soon I will get back to painting...?Shibori Dyed Fabric
Above is a picture of fabric pieces that I recently dyed using shibori type methods to create the patterns. Shibori is the Japanese word for several methods of dying cloth with a pattern by binding, stitching, folding, twisting, or compressing it. I've read that that Shibori has been an art form since the 8th Century, quite a tradition. The West sometimes calls it tie-dye, however that does not adequately include all the techniques of shibori. I have belonged to a Machine Embroidery circle of women for a couple of years, where I learned this and various other types of experimental mixed media techniques from a talented fiber artist named June. I had fun with the techniques and the most fun was seeing the transformation of my pure white fabric into the great colors and patterns above. I am interested in taking my experiments further with natural vegetable dyes. Now, what to do with those pieces, perhaps a fabric book is wanting to emerge?
Recycled Mail Book
I have been playing around with junk mail again the last couple of weeks, and decided to make a book out some of it. So, here it is finished, and I really like the outcome. Very portable size, mixed pages of various papers, fold out accordion pages, all ready for me to sketch onto. I got creative with my binding and it came out better than I hoped, as it is totally flexible and lays flat.

Transformed Book Exhibit
I forgot to mention that we went to the Bellevue Art Museum early this month (another free day). There was a book exhibit featuring 31 artists, "The Book Borrowers: Contemporary Artists Transforming the Book", that I especially wanted to see and it was well worth the visit. Consider going since it's on til June 14th. It examines the meaning of the book form in a time when we are becoming increasingly digital. I do love books and magazines and can't imagine going totally digital, there's something wonderful about holding a volume in my hands filled with ideas or stories that can paint images in my head and take me to another place. As for the exhibit, there was a life size reclining Buddha carved from books, a mini-Grand Canyon carved from a set of encyclopedias, and the truly amazing art of Brian Dettmer. Click here to and here to see some of his intricate carvings... I had heard he had some items in this exhibit and that is who I did not want to miss.

4 comments:

Tara's Art Camp said...

You are one multi-talented artist! Love those little journals. I would like to touch one! :)

HeartFire said...

Thanks Tara, I can bring it to the next 3rd P. art date...

Anonymous said...

Hi Delorse,
I'm glad you enjoyed the class. Your fabrics turned out very well.

HeartFire said...

Dying the fabrics was so much fun, I am going to experiment with different things, like watered down acrylics, perhaps.