Natural Dye Interest Group

Are you interested in learning about natural dyes and dyeing? Kit Eastman would like to start a natural dye interest/study group hosted at the Textile Center. This would be a community of weavers, spinners, dyers, surface designers, and quilters sharing resources and learning from each other about various ways to dye fibers, fabrics and surfaces using natural dyes, natural pigments, etc. To start, the group would meet 6 times a year. 


Potential topics: direct dyeing from plants, natural dye extracts, natural pigment dyes, indigo, mordants, thickeners, immersion, direct application etc.  Formats: discussion, show and tell, experiential wisdom, informal presentation, etc. Continue the community online between meetings with a group blog. 


There will be a small membership fee (i.e. $15-$20) to cover expenses (meeting room, group membership to Textile Center). If you are interested in this concept please contact Kit via email at eastmankm@gmail.com. We'd like to schedule the first meeting for sometime in February.

Snow Dyeing

We had so much snow in December that I was inspired to try snow dyeing. The recipe I used is the one where you bring in snow to pile on the top of the fabric. While I was pleased with the results, I was mildly disappointed that I only removed two buckets of snow off the deck for these two dyeing sessions.

The cotton yardage presoaked in a soda ash solution while the dyes were mixed, mingled and distributed among various squirt bottles. (Digression 1: My husband says I must really like these particular blues and greens because that’s the color range I most often dye. New Year’s resolution: expand my color palette – I think I was just given permission for an online shopping spree for additional dyes and books on dyeing!)

I found several partial sheets of Plexiglas and an empty storage bin to use, squeezed out as much of the soda solution as I could, scrunched up the fabric pieces and placed them onto the slanted Plexiglas. Actually, I scrunched up the one-yard piece and twisted the half yard piece. The angle of the Plexiglas was a bit less than 60 degrees as it lay in the bin, but it bowed ever so slightly under the weight of the wet fabric.

The lovely, fresh, white snow was piled approximately five inches deep on top of the fabric. The dyes were squirted in random fashion all over the snow. (Digression 2: Move remaining undyed, soaking fabric well beyond exuberant squirt-range. Of course, this is logical, but apparently I don’t think logically when caught up in the moment’s excitement. This is why I decline invitations to be a first aid responder.)

It was lovely to behold, all the snow and dye sitting there in the bucket on the laundry wet-studio floor. I couldn’t stay away and kept checking the melting progress. (Digression 3: I also check on sleeping babies, because while they are ever so cute asleep, I also have a need to verify they are still breathing.) In this case, the constant checking was providential because the fabric was beginning to slowly slide into the puddling dyed-snow melt. Yikes! I quickly propped up the other Plexiglas sheet to stop the slide.

I really like the results of snow dyeing. The twisted piece has an almost marble-y look and I enjoy the mottled colors of the other piece. It is true that there is not as much dye to rinse out once the snow has melted and the process is complete. It’s this part that would encourage me to do more snow dyeing. But after my second round using lighter colors I felt it was a bit labor-intensive; a lot of work when the same results can be achieved with less labor and no snow.

Other snow-dyers may be able to answer questions I have about the process: How do you know if you’ve gotten dye over all the fabric since it can’t be seen under the snow? Is there a recommended amount of dye per yardage (i.e., one cup total of dye solution per ¼ yard)? Are there thicker sheets of Plexiglas out there that don’t bow or should one use a smaller angle/incline?

Snowy winter regards to you,

Karie 

Color of Conflict

WHAT: COLOR OF CONFLICT

A body of work by John Hensel & Susan Hensel

WHEN: Dec 1, 2010-Jan. 1, 2011

            Reception: Dec. 17, 7-10pm

WHERE: Susan Hensel Gallery

             3441 Cedar Ave S

CONTACT:  Susan Hensel 612-722-2324

Color of Conflict, opening at Susan Hensel Gallery December 1, is a collaboration of photographer John Hensel and artist Susan Hensel.

A multimedia artist who seeks narrative, Ms. Hensel has brought the world of fiber art into her studio practice. Color of Conflict is a show of photographs that wrest the meaning from a series of yarns she has spun. These knittable yarns contain army toys as well as the colors and forms of armed conflict; but their true horror is revealed in the photographic display.

Ms Hensel defines the word transgression as breaking expected boundaries or expectations. Yarn is expected to be soft, warm, useful, at times even life saving. While it is often associated with leisure, craft and women's work, it is rarely thought of as an object, a material or a subject of fine art. In this project, yarn paradoxically uses its traditional softness to express a hard, harsh, violent reality. The allusions to the yarn’s life saving properties of warmth, padding, and protecting become a field of discussion about war and death. It uses a "women's art" to discuss a "man's pursuit."

Ms. Hensel took the risk of closing the Susan Hensel Gallery in order to return to studio practice and research; it was during this time this body of work was completed.  During the sabbatical she spent time exploring the narrative capabilities of fiber and became part of the artyarn movement, a radical group of spinners who push the idea of “yarn” to it’s maximum.  Usually, it is a lighthearted game about process and fun – spinning Halloween eyeballs and Christmas baubles into fluffy masses of wool. Ms. Hensel goes beyond the process of spinning yarn, she has been adding, multiplying, accreting and inserting meaning wherever she can into her handspun yarn.

There will be a reception for the artists on Friday, December 17, 7-10pm.

South Minneapolis Wild Wool Market

     Come to Susan Hensel Gallery, for wooly, silky, alpaca goodness with demos and shopping opportunities! There will be spinning, weaving, felting, re-using! Fresh food!

     You will find art dolls, handspun and hand dyed yarn, tote bags, tapestry, weaving, spinning materials. It is an ever-changing roster of artists!

     Most artists will be demonstrating!  Some teach, so talk to them. You are invited to sink you hands into the marvelous world of fine fiber.

What: South Minneapolis Wild Wool Market

Where: Susan Hensel Gallery

             3441 Cedar Ave S

            Minneapolis, MN 55407

When:  Saturday, Nov. 27 & Dec. 18, 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Contact: susanhenselgallery.com

SDA Members at 2010 Art at Ramsey

Be sure to visit 2010 ART AT RAMSEY: A Juried Holiday Art Fair of quality fine crafts and fine art. Three SDA members – Candy Kuehn, Kit Eastman, Marit Kucera – are participating.

This free event is a sale of quality work by over 60 juried local artists from the upper Midwest who create fine crafts including basketry, clay, fiber, glass, leather, jewelry (gold, silver, pewter, stone, beaded), metal, paper, wood, mixed media, as well as fine arts including painting, watercolor, photography, printmaking, and sculpture.

There will be everything from leather handbags and belts, watercolor paintings, silver and gold jewelry, baskets, pressed flower art and hand-forged iron to woven scarves, stone sculpture vessels, dolls, fused glass pendants, woodcut prints, unique hand-dyed silk apparel, hand-carved wooden birds, mosaics, hand-woven rugs, hats, turned wood, original cards, hand-blown glass bowls, plus pottery tiles, vases, bowls, teapots and cups, and also Hmong needle work and holiday ornaments.

Art at Ramsey is sponsored by the Highland/Macalester/Groveland Community Education in cooperation with Artists’ Circle, a non-profit art organization promoting fine crafts. This is the art fair’s fourteenth anniversary show.

2010 ART AT RAMSEY

Saturday, December 4, 2010 10 A.M. – 5 P.M.

Ramsey Junior High Gymnasiums, 1700 Summit Avenue, St. Paul
www.artistscircle.org

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