Tangled up in Blue with Carmen Bolanos

shibori sample made by Carmen Bolanos

We have been looking forward to this workshop, dyeing blue with Indigo and making designs with the Shibori techniques. Carmen Bolanos has been working with Indigo in El Salvador for a long time. What started as a pilotproject is now a structural way of living to a lot of people in El Salvador. She started to show us a big sample where she had made different designs with typical Shibori stitching as a resist. During the morning we all worked on our own sample.

dip in the indigo dyepot

After lunch the big play started. Again Carmen explained in a lovely mix of English-Dutch how to make designs, but this time using clamps, boards, pipes and many other things as a resist. It was just at the second day that she learned us how to make an indigovat by ourselves. Carmen has her own recipe for the vat, learned from the Japanese Indigo master. Her favourite is the one where you use fructose for reducing. It will take you some more time to use it, but it will give you a longer profit.

simple resist can give great results!

fabric dyed and designed by Marianne Hauser

fabrics of different students

The fabrics made on this day became bigger and bigger, we all get the hang of it and couldn't hardly stop At the end of the day Carmen showed us how to make a flowerpaste-resist and how to make a paint of indigo. Something to experiment with at home. All students went home with a bag full of indigo-dyed fabrics, enough to give their home and body a make-over!

my own small experiment with a flowerpaste-resist

  

Show must go on!

The show must go on, to start with a full week Diana Nagorna from the Ukraine!

showmodels of Diana Nagorna's dresses

dress made of only wool by Diana Nagorna, 18 April 2013

I was in such a good flow, having good idea's and I could handle all the stress. Untill that split of a second. Hubby was hanging up the last lamp in our renewed atelier and asked me for my 'approval'. I made a turn, didn't lift up my foot (probably because of my distrophy) overbend my knee and before I knew I was swimming on the ground. After two days I went to a doctor and the photo showed a broken ankle. It needed surgery with 7 screws, 1 pin and a plate and 2 nights hospital. Plus 4 weeks no walking. And this all happened two weeks ago, just before the season with all my guests. Now way to cancel this because of such a thing. So I decided to go on, to start with as first Diana Nagorna, a week full of felting and demonstration.

one of the participants showing the dress Diana Nagorna made on the first day

Diana's work is one of a kind. She started feltmaking a couple of years ago and she developped her own style. She is talented with skills and creativity. She knows how to flower a woman's body, the quality of her felt is superb and the finishing of the garments are perfect. Her sensitivity for the right colours are tremendous.

particpants are 'testing' the quality of the felt of the jacket Diana Nagorna

In the seminars Diana has showed her secrects how to make a dress, which fits as a handglove and she demonstrated a complex jacket with a hoodie and shibori. She shared her knowledge and her patterns. In the workshop she teached how to make a felted scarf with bumps and fringes. All participants were very satisfied. One student went home after the first day and came back on the last seminar with two finished dresses! Another student had worked on one sleeve untill the middle of the night to test the way Diana is working. Some students worked the whole evening to get felted the hundreds of fringes.

happy students with their finished scarves workshop Diana Nagorna 19, 20 April 2013

It was such a great privilege and pleasure to have Diana as a guest during these days. I also want to thank Natalia, for translating all the technical explaination and being a helping hand during the days.
I'am still sitting in a wheelchair, there are a couple of weeks to go before I may walk, but with the help of my family the show will go on. Thanks to them too!

lovely group with particpants from all over the world, 2days seminar Diana Nagorna 21-22 April 2013

Bluetiful Blue with Carmen Bolanos

Last weekend it was raining all saturday. If Carmen Bolanos wasn't visiting me I probably had been sitting down and doing nothing. But now we had a great day dyeing with indigo! I heated the woodburner at the workplace and nothing could stop us from working. Last time we were together we had a pH-issue. Carmen wanted to solve this problem so badly that she drove 2hours by train to test it again. She wants to get it perfect for the upcoming workshop at the 26th and 27th April, 2013. And after testing and re-viving the vat we got two perfect vats. One made with hydrosulfiet and one with fructose. It is realyy magic how the green change into blue! We have tested several kind of fabrics like wool, fauxfurcotton, silk, linen, cheescloth, nettleyarn and flaxgarn. We tried to make some Itayime and even an open weave as cheescloth it worked very nice. 

I know there are springholidays for most of the dutchies and maybe they will be abroad. But for those who wants to visit Europe and our beautifull country, this workshop at the 26th and 27th April 2013 could be a perfect combination for sightseeings and creatings. My atelier is located close to Amsterdam and there are lovely B&B in our countryside. The partners can go for a golfclinic at the golf-centre which is at a distance of 5 km. 

Vorige week zaterdag regende het de hele dag. Maar dat deerde ons niet. Carmen Bolanos had twee uur in de trein gezeten om de verfbaden met indigo weer tot leven te blazen. Bij een warm gestookte kachel stonden ze al klaar. De vorige keer in november 2012 kregen we de pH niet goed op orde. En nu met de methode die ze al jarenlang gebruikt lukte het wel. Carmen gebruikt indigo uit El Salvador, de beste die er is volgens haar japanse indigo-docent. We hebben diverse stoffen en garens geverfd van licht naar donker.  Het is iedere keer weer een wonder hoe het van groen naar blauw veranderd. De workshop zal hier plaatsvinden op 26 en 27 april as. Behalve hoe je een bad maakt, leer je ook allerlei handige tips hoe je zo'n bad controleert en weer nieuw leven in kunt blazen. Ook zal er geexperimenteerd worden met het maken van dessins in de Itayime-techniek. Voor informatie zie het tabblad hierboven.   

Forever green

Never a dull moment, although sometimes it feels time is slipping trough my fingers when I'am doodling around at home or surfing on the internet. That's why I decided to make my time usefull and felt some garments. Big sizes this time, taille 44. The Artwear Shop Jordaan has asked for them. It was if I had to learn again how to make them, because it didn't worked out always the way I wanted to have them. I have used some thicker fabrics for the nunofelting and that made it difficult to get them properly felted. But I love the effects I got with it. It only needs a finishing touch with my french coin, some buttons and a belt.

Ik verveel me nooit, al lijkt het soms wel alsof de tijd door mijn vingers glipt. Dan ben ik in het huis aan het rommelen of mooie plaatjes aan het kijken op het internet. Daarom besloot ik mijn tijd nuttiger te besteden en weer eens wat kleding te vilten. Een grotere maat dit keer, 44, op verzoek van Artwear Jordaan. Was het de kou of wat anders, want het leek alsof ik weer helemaal opnieuw moest leren vilten. Het liep in ieder geval niet soepel, de dikkere stoffen vilten niet lekker mee, maar het uiteindelijke resultaat bevalt me wel. Nu alleen nog mijn herkenningsmuntje, wat knopen of een band aanzetten en dan zijn ze klaar voor een photoshoot!

a bit of spring with natural pink

Snow was gone in almost one day 

with the rainy days and temperatures around 10 Celcius. 

Now I'am longing for colours! 

This pink I achieved with cochenille. 

The shawls moved to Art Wear Jordaan in Amsterdam 

to bring a little bit of spring 

De sneeuw was met de warme regen binnen een dag verdwenen om plaats te

maken voor grauwe luchten en storm.

Ik snak naar kleur om alles vrolijker te maken. Het roze hiervan komt van de

cochenille. Een paar sjaals zijn naar Art Wear Jordaan verhuisd om daar 

alvast het lentegevoel te brengen ....

finished U.F.O. in pink

As promised the finished reception-jacket showed by my daughter. I have used another scarf as a lining. I'am glad I did the stitchinglines on the outside. The darker pink lines gives the jacket structure and balance. Also it gives it an extra designelement. It was a fun and slow project and I'am happy with the outcome.

Zoals beloofd het receptiejasje naar het patroon van Mart Visser. Er is een voering ingekomen van een vintagesjaal. De knopen of rits moet er nog steeds op, maar ik kan nog steeds niet de goede vinden. Altijd hetzelfde probleem... Ik ben blij dat de stiknaden aan de buitenkant zitten. Het breekt daarmee het drukke patroon, geeft het jasje structuur en is ook een extra designelement. Alhoewel het lang heeft geduurd voordat het in elkaar zat, ben ik er uiteindelijk wel heel tevreden over.

U.F.O. in pink!

The week before Christmas I spent a short holiday in our home in France. While H. was busy with renovating the front of the house, I found myself behind the sewingmachine. I took some unfinished projects with me to keep myself busy. One of them was something I started some years ago. It was a jacket I cut from different nunofelted pieces according a pattern made by the dutch fashiondesigner Mart Visser. As you will notice this stunning pink was before my natural colours adventure! Nevertheless I still like it. I wanted to sew them by hand, but there were to many pieces. With the sewingmachine it was much easier. I have almost finished the jacket now, it only needs a good closure....

Terwijl H. bezig was om de gevel van ons vakantiehuis op te knappen, zat ik lekker achter de naaimachine. We waren heerlijk een weekje naar Frankrijk en ik had een aantal dingen meegenomen, die maar niet afkwamen. De zogenaamde Unfinished Objects. Dit is een jasje dat ik volgens een raderpatroon van Mart Visser heb geknipt uit verschillende stukken nuno-vilt. Lekker felrose uit de tijd dat ik nog volop experimenteerde met verven als Dupont. Eerst had ik het idee om dit allemaal met de hand te stikken, maar het waren teveel stukjes. En met de naaimachine was het werk zo gedaan. Het is bijna klaar, alleen nog een goede sluiting bedenken. Hopelijk kan ik het as zondag  aan op de dorpsborrel en de nieuwjaarsreceptie.