It's all in the details.... The Making of Katazome and Yuzen works for my new exhibition! 型染と友禅での新作～工程動画

After some reluctance, much procrastination and a lot of shaky filming, I bring you some short video clips that give some insight into the processes I use in making my work. Katazome and Yuzen are mixed together in these but I have made them abstract on purpose - I just want to show the many and diverse steps in making a piece using these traditional methods. I hope you enjoy them!

Here's part one and two

and here's where these works will be on show from the 13th of August (one week from now!!)

http://www.jpf.org.au/jpfevents/16-some/

Resist & Reveal - Exhibition Wrapped up in Canberra キャンベラでの展示が 終わりました。

The magic moment comes when the resist paste is washed away to reveal your completed design. This final step in the process is when you really feel a sense of satisfaction and it's what excites you to move on and create the next thing. The tickle of motivation to do it all over again. 

This was the idea behind the title of "resist & reveal", an exhibition of works by myself and Amy Kerr-Menz which we held from September 23rd to October 5th in Canberra. Amy and I both studied Textiles and Japanese at ANU, where we met, and we both later went on to spend one year on exchange at Kyoto Seika University, Amy in 2007 and myself the following year. What we met on exchange was the technique of katazome, stenciled paste-resist dyeing. 
「防染糊を洗い落としたら、魔法のように染めたデザインがやっと現れる。この段階は工程の最後で、満足感を感じる上に、次の物を作りたい気持ちも湧いてくる瞬間なのだ。」
こういう気持ちを踏まえて、「resist (防ぐ）＆ reveal (現れる）」という二人展を
エイミー・カーメンズと一緒に開催しました。オーストラリア国立大学の美術学校の中にある「ＦｏｙｅｒＧａｌｌｅｒｙ」で9月23日～10月5日まで展示しました。エイミーさんと私はオーストラリア国立大学で同じ日本語とテキスタイルコースに入ってから出会いました。2007～2009年、一人ずつ京都精華大学で交換留学生として一年過ごしました。私たちは京都精華大学で「型染」に魅力されました。

In this exhibition we brought our different artworks together in the ANU School of Art's Foyer Gallery space. I displayed  my "Degradation"series of 3 works "Daimonji & Black Kites" piece, my round work "Loss & Worth : Orange-bellied Parrots"and one small recent work depicting Eucalyptus leaves. (See more images of these works on my website）
今回ＦｏｙｅｒＧａｌｌｅｒｙにて、型染と友禅染めの作品を一緒に展示しました。私は6点を出品していました。ウェッブサイトで写真が見えます）

One view of our exhibition "resist & reveal" at the ANU Foyer Gallery, Canberra. Sept 23-Oct 5 2014. photo (c) Andrew Sikorski 2014　入り口から展示の風景

Amy had many of her beautiful hand cut katagami stencils on display, including a series based on Kyoto urban scenery, a series of geometric patterns and (my personal favourite) intricate katagami of repeat patterns formed by repeated hiragana characters (a, i, u, e, o). 
エイミーさんは細かくて美しい型紙をたくさん展示しました。その中、京都らしい絵的な型紙シリーズ、幾何学的な模様の型紙シリーズと、写真に見えるひらがなを繰り返している模様的な型紙シリーズ「あいうえお」もありました。

amazing hand-cut katagami stencils by Amy Kerr-Menz which are patterns formed using repeated Japanese hiragana syllabry.　エイミーカーメンズさんによる繊細な型紙シリーズ。ひらがなの一文字をアレンジした模様になっています。

If you couldn't read Japanese, you wouldn't know these are hiragana all rearranged. And because the patterns are beautiful on their own, often even those who CAN read Japanese don't pick up on it at first.
日本語が読めない人はひらがなでできている模様だと気づかないうえ、日本人でも最初は気づかないのが多いです！写真の手前に見えるのはひらがなの「あ」ですね。
Amy also displayed a series of her most recent dyed works, using a palette of natural dyes and the katazome technique. These were dyed on washi paper and depict Australian Native flora combined with the first letter of their scientific name. 

The careful set up process 気を付けながら展示していたところ

Amy Kerr-Menz's dyed flora series 2014. photo (c) 2014 Andrew Sikorski

We had a great turn out to our opening event on the 23rd of September. It was so nice to show my work to an Australian audience for a change and to experience a real exchange of ideas and interactions that is often lacking between Japanese artists and other artists/the public. I got some great compliments you'd never get in Japan like, "Mesmerizing!" and "Amazeballs!" 
オープニングパーティーは思ったより人が来てくれて、盛り上がりました！来た皆さんに感謝！英語で客さんや他の作家さんと喋ったり、アイディアを交換したりがいいねと思いました！

The opening reception for "resist & reveal" on 23rd Sept. Cheese, sushi, nama-yatsuhashi and wine were an amazing combination!　オープニングにて、「巻きずし・ワイン・生八つ橋・チーズ」という不思議な盛り合わせで乾杯しました。

Jill Mowbray-Tsutsumi from the ANU kindly opened the exhibition for us! オーストラリア国立大学のJill Mowbray-Tsutsumiにオープニングスピーチーをしていただきました！

Galleries tend to be small in Japan so exhibiting in a larger more open space for a change was also refreshing. The ANU's Foyer Gallery is glass-fronted so that you can see into the show as you are approaching the gallery but it also lets you see a backdrop of gumtrees and blue sky out the windows and lets in a lot of natural light. 
日本のギャラリーは狭いがちなので、自然光で溢れている広々した空間で展示するのが新鮮でした。美術学校のＦｏｙｅｒＧａｌｌｅｒｙはガラス張りので近づくと中の作品が見えるし、中から外へ見ると、ユーカリとか青空が見えていい感じです。

近付くと作品がちょっと見えてくる。The all-glass back entrance to the Foyer Gallery means the artworks are visible from the outside.

...it also means that there is plenty of natural light during the day それで自然光が結構入る

The Eucalypts outside also form a nice backdrop! 外のユーカリも背景になります！(c) 2014 Andrew Sikorski

We also held an artist's talk as part of the ANU School of Art's Art Forum free lecture series on October 1st. It was great to be able to show the techniques we use to people who had mostly never seen them before. 
期間中にも、美術学校のレクチャーシリーズ「Ａｒｔ Ｆｏｒｕｍ」でアーティストトークをしました。糊防染の技法について殆ど知らない人に説明ができていい経験でした。
And so, after a few Aussie adventures (mostly culinary) We packed the show up again and I'm back in Kyoto. I had virtually no downtime and spent the last month making new work which went on show in a new exhibition this past weekend!! 無事に終わって後、次の日に京都へ戻ってきました。休まずに制作に飛び込んで、あっという間に次の展覧会が始まりました！！

This time, it's a big exhibition with 5 other young dyeing artists and myself. We were selected by our professors and come from Kyoto, Tokyo, Hiroshima and (obviously) Australia. Our common thread (textile pun!) is that we all use resist dyeing techniques but all in very different ways and not necessarily in the traditional sense. Below is a (ahem...classy?!) video where you can see some of the gallery setup and artist's talk but it's on until November 24th so if you have time, please check it out!
今回、京都にある染め専門ギャラリー「染・清流館」で5人の若い人と一緒に展示しています。鳥羽先生に推薦されて嬉しかったです。京都へ来た以来、よく清流館の展示を見に行ったりしたので、長い間憧れたギャラリーでした！
6人の出品者は皆「防染」の技法を新鮮な気持ちで使っている若い作家さんです。ビデオでちょっとだけギャラリーの風景が見えますが、11月24日までにやっていますから、時間がある方ぜひ見に来てください！

Some Seiryukan Details 染・清流館のアクセスなど

If you happen to be in Kyoto, please pop in! I'll be sharing more images from the show in the near future.

京都又は関西にいっらしゃる方ぜひ！
また近いうちにもっと写真アップします。

Katazome Artwork Process Video 型染作品の行程

I finally got down to compiling videos I took back in March into a sort of summary of the Katazome process. There are some parts skipped and steps I forgot to make a record of but hopefully it will give you nice overview of the technique.

My artist profile video

Last week, I was invited to have an artist profile video made by the 3F Project Room in Kyoto. I was part of a group show there in February which was a really great experience. I got to meet some lovely like-minded people and it gave me a chance to show some large works that I hadn't exhibited before. The Gallery space is very spacious and well equipped, it's also one of the cheaper galleries to hire in Kyoto. If you are interested, check out their webpage here: http://www.3-gai.com/

先週お世話になっている3F Project Roomというギャラリーでアーティスト・プロフィルの動画を作ってもらいました。2月3F Project Roomでグループ展に参加したのがとてもいい経験でした。まだ展覧会で出していない大きな作品が展示できて、色々な人と出会えてよかったです。ギャラリー自体は広々、京都の都心にある貸しギャラリーとして安いですよ。興味があれば、どうぞこのページに見てくださいhttp://www.3-gai.com/

And without further ado, here is my face, talking on youtube.
それでは、Ｙｏｕｔｕｂｅで話している私です:

steps to the finish line 着物の段階

Since I last posted pictures in my post Making a Kimono..., I have gone through several important stages of the process: nori-oki (applying resist paste), ji-ire (applying pre-dye sizing), fuse-nori (covering paste) and ji-zome (background dyeing). Here I'll try and briefly explain these steps.

着物を制作なんて!を書いて以来、いくつの重要な段階もやりました。それは、糊置き、地入れ、伏せ糊と地染めです。ここで写真で説明しようと思っています。

*Nori-oki 乗り置き
literally means the putting on of paste. In all my previous work, I have used the traditional form of nori that is a combination of mochiko rice flour and komon-nuka rice bran. Traditional nori is soluable in water and dries to a stiff resist. In humid summer months, the dried nori remains leathery but in winter it's water content to dry up and it ends up cracked like an egg shell (not good!). Being winter this time, and for it's water resistance (essential to the background dyeing part of the process) I used gomu-nori, a rubber paste that has a blue colour added to it for visibility. It is much more sticky and viscous than standard nori and smells like paint (unfortunate) but on the plus side, it is nice and flexible when it's dry and it doesn't wash out in water which means it can be used in clever combination underneath standard nori to achieve layers of dye.

青花で描いた線に沿ってゴム糊を置いていきます。この場合、渋紙で作られた筒ではばく、セロファンで作った筒を使います。
applying rubber paste along the lines traced with aobana (water soluble ink) onto the fabric previously.  in the case of  rubber nori, you can use a cellophane cone (much like cake decorating), and throw it out once empty and start on a new one. Wasteful but better than getting this sticky rubber all over your fingers and nice metal tipped paper cone.

糊を置くと、ただ青花に沿っていくということじゃなくて、よりいい作品を作るために改めて見て、あちこちにちょっと変更することがいいと言われています。
They say that when applying the resist paste, you ought to be improving upon your design as  you go. That is, rather than following the traced lines passively, see the design afresh and make any changes you see fit.

前の作品は昔からあった小紋糠と餅粉で作られた糊を使いましたが、冬にはこの糊が割りやすいし、地染めのことを考えたら、今回はゴム糊のほうが適切でした。買ったゴム糊は「群青入ゴム糊」で、見えやすいように青色が入れています。ゴム糊がペンキの匂いがするけど、柔らかくて置きやすいし、乾いたらまだ柔軟です。水で解けないので、普通の糊とともに置けば賢い染め方もできます。

*Ji-ire 地入れ

Ji-ire is the term for pre-sizing the fabric before dyeing. Japanese textiles traditionally use milk extracted from soybeans and a thickener in the form of funori-seaweed. This application of sizing helps the dye 'grip' the fabric evenly and prevents dyed edges from bleeding. The ji-ire liquid is applied to the back side of the entire length of fabric quickly and in one go, keeping the brush moving and working down the fabric to ensure an even application. I made a 2 minute video of this process when I was about 70% of the way down one of my lengths of fabric. My wrist was starting to get sore by this point!  You can see it is tricky to work around the bamboo shinshi that are keeping the fabric stretched taut.

豆汁とふのりを混ぜた「地入れ」を染める前に生地の裏にひきます。地入れをひくと、染料が滲まないです（だいたい）。・地入れをひく時2分間のビデオを取りました。生地を引っ張っている紳士が見えます。

*Fuse-nori 伏せ糊
Having applied my design areas using the rubber resist, I now want to be able to dye the background colour. To do this, I need to mask all those precious birds and plants so they remain white, to be dyed later. This is where the rubber resist proves it's worth. I go back and apply a masking layer of normal resist paste over my design areas, this time using the normal paper cone with a metal tip. To help this resist dye, you sprinkle a layer of fine sawdust on top of the wet paste. When it's dry, it feels a little like sandpaper.

渋紙の筒で普通の糊をゴム糊の上に置きます。地染めの色に染めたくない部分を守るというわけです。  protecting the parts of the design I don't want to dye yet by applying normal resist paste on top of the rubber resist. 

先がねを外したら、広いところを早く伏せられます。taking the metal tip off to cover larger areas more quickly.

乾いていない糊にひき粉を撒きます。sprinkling fine sawdust over the wet paste will give it strength.

生地を全体的に紫に染めたいけど、ゴム糊で描いた部分を染めたくないですね。ゴム糊で描いてある鳥や植物を白いのままに守るために、ゴム糊の上に普通の糊を置きます。これは伏せ糊といいます。紫を染めたら、普通の糊を洗って取ったら、ゴム糊や白い模様の部分が残っています。賢いでしょう！糊の防染力を上げるために伏せ糊が乾かない内に、ひき粉をまきます。乾いたらちょっとヤスリに似ています。

*Ji-zome 地染め

Finally the nerve racking step of dyeing the base fabric colour. This makes you sweat for two reasons. 1. You'll be physically sweating by the end because you need to dye all 17 metres in one go so that your colour application is even and the fabric all dries in the same temperature conditions etc. 2. You will sweat it out mentally because you're hoping that your fuse-nori is doing it's job resisting the dye and that you aren't leaving any (too many) irregular areas in your dyeing. 

The dye is applied in the same way as the sizing, but with a more (expensive!) absorbent brush made from deer hair. You need to be applying just enough dye so that you're not dry-brushing the fabric but certainly not flooding it either. 

 紫！今回も酸性染料で染めました。紫専用の刷毛ですね。mmm, purple! using the 'purple-only' brush, made from deer hair. This is acid dyestuff. 

染めた時は焦っていたので糊が置いた状態の写真が取りませんでした！この写真では普通の糊が洗い取った状態で、ゴム糊の線と白い模様の部分が残っています。よっしゃ！I was busy in the moment of dyeing, so I don't have a picture of the dyed lengths with the paste still attached. Here, you see the fabric after the normal paste has been washed off and the rubber resist lines remain, along with my white design areas. yay!

紫の地染めした後の生地です！これで次の段階（色さし）の準備ができました。（実はこれを撮ったときはもう少しだけ色さしを始まりましたけどね）detail of the fabric with the background dyed,  ready for the next stage: dyeing the patterned areas! (actually  I had already started here, just a little bit on the grass seed pods )

地染めの段階に着くと色んな理由で汗が出ます！一つは、17メートルの生地を一気に染めないといけないので、肉体的に汗をかきますよ！もう一つは、精神的に緊張になって、汗をかきます！糊が本当に防染しているかどうかの心配もあるし、むらがないように綺麗に染めないといけないから緊張してきます。地入れと同じようにひきますが、今回はもっと高い鹿の毛で作られた刷毛で染めます。

And so now I'm off to add colour to my pattern and bring it all to life!!

さあ、このあとは模様に活気を与えるように、色さしををやります！

The process of Kyo-Yuzen 京友禅

If you can ignore the1980's elevator music soundtrack, this is a really helpful video explaining the steps involved in Kyo-Yuzen, Kyoto style Yuzen dyeing.
Everytime I watch this I am reminded how far I have to go! These people are amazing at what they do, no doubt about it.