Warrior_Prints

John@JohnMarshall.to

To place an order, email me at John@JohnMarshall.to and I will process them in the order in which they appear in my email queue. I will attempt to update this list frequently, but it is possible that the item you desire will have already been sold by the time I relieve your email.

Warrior Images by John Marshall

hand dyed on pure silk Shantung - each is approximately 8” x 10” ( or more)

all natural dyes including indigo, iron rust, soot, and ivy berries

$25 per image

Each is unique, so please be sure to specify the name and number, along with a second choice in case your selection is already sold. If you are purchasing via the shopping cart set up below, the inventory number will already be entered for you.

Kanban #48

Seated Yoroi #43

Minou #44

Nagabakama #46

Seated #42

Zukin #55

Nagabakama #49

Sword #50

Karasu #51

Vision #52

Kanban #59

Fan #60

Nagabakama #56

Charge! #57

Look Out #58

Fan #61

Look Out #63

Step #64

Step #65

Defense #62

Defense #67

Zukin #68

Fan #69

Nagabakama #66

Karasu #70

Patience #71

Defense #72

Defense #74

Patience #76

Nagabakama #75

To start with I drew a sketch of the warrior I wanted to portray. Then cut a stencil from hand-made mulberry paper that had been lacquered with persimmon tannin and smoked.

This stencil was then used to apply a rice paste resist make of rice bran (小紋糠) and powdered sweet rice (餅粉).

Notice how the pasted areas correspond to the holes in the stencil. The paste will prevent the areas they cover from being dyed until later.

I prepared blue using what is called indigo bloom (藍花), is made from the bubbles on top of an indigo vat. To this I added some ivy berry juice and stained the cloth by applying the colors with a brush.

Over this I applied a very concentrated version of the indigo bloom to the outlines of the figure. And over that some concentrated soot mixed with soymilk.

The dyes need to cure, so I set the fabric aside for about two months and then washed off the paste to reveal the design.

Now that the paste is gone, I can go back in and dye the face, clothing, and weapons. I used a very thin wash of soot, another of indigo, and some of rust to give the piece a little life.

One of the qualities of the crude block prints that I liked so much was the way in which the colors looked as though they were applied casually or spontaneously–often reaching well beyond the borders of the item being colored. I tried to emulate this effect with my dyes and brushes.

In the end, I decided to put two tiny dots of gold on the hand guards to bring out some of the colors.

The Process