Tag: traditional textiles
Favourite Things
… making fabric containers for my favourite things .
I have chosen to make containers for the three small pomegranates.These dried pomegranates were collected in a beautiful , old ,derelict, Jewish house in Kashan , Iran .
The Pomegranate is called the Heavenly Fruit in Iran میوه بهشت or the King of Fruits شاه میوه .It is used in cuisine , juices , healing purposes and for dyeing wool and silk …. and of course it is eaten in abundance especially on the Yule Tide Festival ‘Yalda’ which is the Winter Solstice … the longest night.
I dried pomegranate skins and ground them to a coarse powder. I made a dye bath by adding cider vinegar and the powder bringing it to the boil stirring the solution well. I added pieces of cotton muslin , wool fabric and silk thread . I let them simmer for over two hours . It never ceases to amaze me how natural ingredients never cause blotches or spots on the fabric and how the residue just washes away leaving in this case a gorgeous earthy pink on the wool and yellow/ browns on the cotton and silk .
Pomegranate skins and alum mordant are used to dye yarns in a variety of yellows for carpets , kilims and handicrafts. The colour achieved will depend on the quality of the fruit and the combination of mordants used . Vinegar acts as a mordant and a Ph modifier helping the fibers to absorb the dye . A weak vinegar solution also helps to stop some fibers like wool and silk from degrading . If no mordant is used the colours are more earthy browns than yellows and pinks .
‘Ode to Aud’
This is a design project inspired by Christine Chester for the Lockdown Stitch Challenge http://www.textileartist.org . I really enjoyed it .I took the opportunity to use it as a continuation of my research on embroidery on wool and would like to explain the colour choices! Pateh Doozi , an Iranian needlework / folk art uses these 8 colours in certain combinations …. blue and red = purple etc…. I used them in the same way but with a modern twist.
Why the orange ? I always get asked at my workshops … well… you should see it without the orange ! The orange brings it to life!
The yarns and the fabric are sheep and goats wool . They are also traditionally used in Pateh Doozi .
I have taken photos of the work and used App.Ology to create new designs . Amazing stuff this App.Ology!
https://dzignpatch.com/2019/02/11/digitally-designed-textiles/
Lockdown Embroidery
This is a project inspired by http://www.textileartist.org during the Lockdown Corona period February to May 2020 and also an extension of my original project studying folk art on wool . I used the tradition wool arriz shawl from the Pateh Doozi and hand dyed yarns . I made 6 samplers originally using stitches that are used in Pateh Doozi and then used App.Ollogy to create more intricate designs . I cannot put it down ! I usually need to feel the project has exhausted itself and comes to a natural end …. this is still on going!
What are Digitally Designed Textiles and ‘App.Ollogy’
Using photos of my work and ‘App.Ology’ as I call it , the amount of designs I can create is endless!
What is App.Ology ? It it the name I gave to the process of using various apps in sequence to achieve different effects .
I had to choose a topic for a course I am doing and kept having to explain the process so I named it App.Ology so the assessors would know what I was talking about . I am trying to work out a formula to use but the possibilities are incredible! The combinations are infinite and the visual effects depends on the original source, which Apps they go through , which filters etc… Chance and coincidence play a big part in the designs and the introduction of new apps makes for even more exciting effects. I have been successful at harnessing the outcome to a certain extent and use ideas to re design from.I think I will be busy with App.Ology for some time….
I use App.Ology as part of the design process. I have a source, a drawing or piece of work , photograph it … and play with combinations of Apps . I can then derive various new designs from the result …and then repeat the process till I feel I have exhausted the creative process and patterns begin to repeat . It never fails to amaze me how far I can go with each source.
Here are the icons of the apps I am using . The majority of these apps are free and I have limited myself to the free versions so far . All the photos or prints that are named ‘Digital’ are a version of these apps.
Contemporary Pateh
This is a Contemporary Pateh Sampler . I have derived over a hundred new designs from it ! It uses the same fabrics and yarns with the traditional Pateh Stitches but has a modern twist .
Dzignpatch 