John’s Art – Pick of the Week: Fish Tree-of-Life
This past August, 2011, I had an especially enthusiastic group of people
assembled in my studio to learn katazome. As a demonstration piece, I dyed the
panel below and surprised myself with how well it turned out!
I was asked to draw a design to be used in a stencil using the theme of “fish”. Being asked spur-of-the-moment to design an image can be fun – mainly because if it doesn’t turn out, who cares? As a result, I allow myself to try things I might not try
with a more deliberate mind set.
Kumadori highlights added as accents.
With the paste still in position the image can look a bit muddy and ill-defined.
It was my job to discern the original pattern and add a few accent marks,
kumadori, here and there with indigo and chochineal pigments. These highlights
will help the viewer make out the pattern once the image is completed.
FISH by John Marshall, Stencil Carved from Hand-Made Mulberry Paper
Here I have chosen to depict a tree consisting of fish-shaped leaves and bark textured with the repeated word “fish”.
A huge advantage to working with stencils is the fact that once you have put all
that energy into creating the design, it can be used over and over again in a
range of settings. For my class demonstration piece, I have decided to combine
the image above with another stencil carved years earlier. But first I must
prepare my fabric.
I selected a pure silk weave, shot with flecks of 24k gold, and laminated to
hand-made mulberry paper. I rolled it out on my carpet-covered table and took a
moment to contemplate my next step…
Got it!
I’ve always liked arches, so I cut out a piece of newsprint and used a small bit
of blue tape (painters tape) to hold it in position.
A mask of plain newspaper has been prepared to protect a portion of the silk
from the rice-paste resist.
I’m going to apply paste through my stencil – the newspapered area will prevent the paste from sticking to the silk in the
arched area.
The dyed fabric is hung out in a dry area with good air circulation to speed
along the curing of the soymilk.
Rice-paste resist, consisting of mochiko (powdered sweet rice) and komon nuka
(rice bran), has been glopped to the left of the stencil.
Now that all the colors are in place, it was time to practice patience and allow
the dyes plenty of time to cure in a warm, dry area with good air circulation.
Many people seem to think that steaming soymilk will speed the curing. While
steaming doesn’t do any real harm, it certainly doesn’t do any good. Warm, dry air and a little patience will be amply rewarded.
Next I laid out my secondary stencil, a design made up of undulating lines and
rabbits frolicking within leaping waves, and glopped a healthy dollop of
rice-paste resist near the left edge.
Using a wooden spatula to push the paste through the stencil.
A wooden spatula, called a debabera, was used to spread the paste across the entire surface of the stencil,
applying even pressure to force the paste through to the surface of the silk.
Repositioning the stencil for the next application.
Fabric soaking in bathtub to loosen paste.
Now it is time to remove the paste. Since the rice-paste resist is water
soluble, all I had to do was soak the piece in clean, tepid water until the
paste softens and dissolves away.
The stencil was sprayed, and pulled away from the silk leaving a highly-detailed
design in paste on the exposed silk. The repeat of the design must match up
perfectly, so a great deal of care must be taken in repositioning the stencil.
Correcting any flaws in the paste.
The stencil was once again pulled away from the surface and repositioned. This
process was repeated until all of the designated area was covered with pasted
pattern.
Applying rice paste through the fish stencil.
The spent newspaper was pulled away and discarded, exposing the clean image of
our blank arch.
Finished piece. FISH by John Marshall. Natural dye on silk, paper, and gold.
Applying rice paste through the fish stencil.
After carefully positioning the fish stencil, paste was again applied with a
spatula and the stencil removed.
Removing the fish stencil from the pasted silk.
Taping the silk to the table top while the paste is still moist.
The silk with the still-moist paste was taped to the table with painter’s blue tape to prevent excess wrinkling as the paste dried.
Framed and ready to hang!
Applying azurite (gunjou) as a pigment to the pasted silk.
The really fun part had at last arrived – applying the colors! I selected a range of primary colors to use. All were
pigments, all were applied with soymilk. My first color is gunjou (azurite), and from there I go on to indigo, ocher, and many other natural dyes.
copyright John Marshall, 2011
Smearing neighboring pigments into one another using just soymilk.
Each color was built up, layer upon layer, to yield deep, rich shades.
Applying a shibuki rinse to the surface of the pigment dyes.
The pigments turned out to be a bit brighter than the look I had in mind, so I
applied a wash of shibuki (barberry) to tone everything down a bit.
