June 10th, 2010 by luiven

Earthues, USA. June 2-9, 2010

The telephone never stopped ringing at Earthues studios in Seattle during my recent visit where I undertook an intense 1-2-1 course with Michele Wippingler. From the moment I was introduced to Michele in India and discussed with her the reasons why it was important for me to do a special workshop at Earthues, the moment I felt reassured about my original idea. I was thrilled and equally delighted when we mutually agreed and raised to the challenge over a glass of wine in Kolkata. Michele’s confidence and knowledge on the subject of natural dyes is overwhelming. This is something that became apparent to me from day one. Her acumen surpasses the reputation she confers which is why people from all over the world, including myself, seek her invaluable wisdom and expertise on such complex matters relating to natural dyeing. Michele is the genuine advocate and pioneer of natural dyes that I had imagined she would be. I became totally absorbed in her world in no time, the world of Earthues. I realised then without a spec of a doubt that my decision to come to Seattle to further my knowledge on the art of dyeing fine silks with indigo, madder and weld extracts was the right one for me. Michele was generous in more ways that I dared to imagine, her studio practise was impeccable and infectious. Her method of dyeing complimented her creative approach to hand painting fabrics. I am honoured and priviledged to have had the opportunity to learn from the great master that Michele is, and came away feeling completely reassured that my involvement with Earthues and friendship with Michele in particular will continue for years to come. Thank you Earthues!

 

April 14th, 2010 by luiven

Fashion presentations in Downtown San Francisco

I was invited to attend a couple of fashion presentations not so long ago by Jeff Oakes from Metial in Downtown San Francisco. The one at Bastille was more like a social gathering for which a fee of $20 had to be paid, being new to San Francisco I succumbed to the charge and decided to join my culprit friend. After a couple of glasses of wine and a brief tour of the clothes on exhibit we decided to make our polite thank yous and good byes and headed down towards a disused building not far from The Civic Centre where the Eco-fashion presentation was being held. This time we did not have to pay the entrance fee thanks to Jeff’s quick thinking. It was more like a stalls market hall where sustainable fashion/recycled clothing was being promoted and sold alas without the glamour so thank you Jeff for suggesting an early escape in preference to food and drinks at LIME in the Castro.

 

February 27th, 2010 by luiven

RAKSHA. Kolkata, India. February 2010

I planned to attend this rare and dazzling exhibition on Indian natural dyes while researching on the subject in the US after a tip from Jenny Balfour Paul who is not only an authority on Indigo blue but a constant source of inspiration to me personally and to others I am sure.

Visitors form across the world gathered in Kolkata for this very special occasion to catch a glimpse of the fascinating display of natural dyes and textile samples which stood testimony to the Indian rich textiles and dye history all under one roof at the ICCR building.

For the first time in history surviving volumes of the Indian dye chronicler Thomas Wardle who happened to be William Morris’s dyer during the time of the Arts and Crafts movement in England were on display as well as works of Forbes Watson on Indian textures. I was lucky and priviledged enough to be able to witness such findings and be part of this whole experience.

The seminars were addressesed by distinguished authorities such as Dr. Brenda king from the UK , Dr. Anne-Rose Bringel from France, Dr. Jenny Balfour-Paul from the UK, Ruby Ghuznavi from Bangladesh, Lynda Hillyer and her team from the V&A, UK, Mr.Vinod Daniel from Australia and Mr. Pramod Kumar from the Anokhi museum of handprinting from India.

An exhibition of rare Bengal textiles was also held at ICCR and demonstrations on spinning and weaving, balaposh, kantha, rafoogars and natural dyes were also held at different venues in the city of Kolkata.

This conference was masterminded by Amrita Mukherjee and professionally executed by her team.

 

January 29th, 2010 by luiven

The Craft and Design Institute, Jaipur.

When I was asked to talk to undergraduate and postgraduate students at CDI by Rachna Singh who is the course leader of the textile department at this institute  in Jaipur, I was both elated and apprehensive at the same time but as it happened meeting the students and talking to them about my experiences in the fashion/textile industry in the West came with great ease.

This Institute offers a wide range of craft orientated courses  for undergraduate and postgraduate students respectively. It is funded by the government as well as the private sector. One of the courses is on traditional textiles where the students have the chance to experiment with different media which includes block printing as well as designing.

I was asked to address the students in the auditorium where a series of questions related to my work in fashion and textiles were put to me. I took this opportunity to convey my views on the importance and use of natural dyes in the fashion industry. The talk which lasted about an hour was followed by a tour of the textile studios where the students working on work placement projects with established block printing companies of Jaipur such as Rangotri, Rashid and Ojjas were eager to show me their work in progress. I was asked then to give brief individual crits to each and everyone of the students. 

During this brief exchange of ideas, I felt reassured that the future of textiles lies widely on the revival of traditional methods such as block printing using natural dyes. This application is widely embraced in India and hopefully one day in the near future will also have a strong hold in the West.

January 29th, 2010 by luiven

Mud resist workshop using Indigo, Jaipur.

 

This wonderful workshop as its name suggests involves a primitive and traditional method of block printing with the most fascinating results. It took place at OJJAS printing premises in the North West of Jaipur itself and was supervised by experts in the field which included Dhananjai Singh co-0wner of this growing business.

The mud paste used (also known as Dahbu) consists of five different components one of which is lime stone. Calico was used to experiment with and old wooden blocks were carefully selected for sharpness and clear definition.

After the first layer was block printed with Dahbu the whole fabric was then sprinkled with sawdust to absorb the excess moisture then each piece was left to dry in the sunshine before dyeing it in the indigo vat. Some fabrics were printed over when dry and redyed in pomegranate and myrobalan using Khasis otherwise known as ferrous sulphate as a mordant. All of these were in the powder form with the exception of pomegranate. 

On the last day of the workshop an exhibition of fabrics and garments printed and dyed was held on the lawns of The Diggi Palace hotel and was attended by OJJA’s representatives as well as other distinguished guests from the block printing industry in Jaipur. I displayed several pieces in calico, cotton poplin, silk habotai and silk crepe de chine. The last two lenghts of silk were made into funky ties.

December 23rd, 2009 by luiven

ISEND 2011 logo

When I was asked to design the logo for the next symposium and exhibition on natural dyes to be held in La Rochelle, France at the end of April 2011,  I  felt rather priviledged. The appointment came via an email from Anne de la Sayette from France. I was in the UK at the time and preparing to leave for the US not long after that, so I guess this section of my blog is slightly overdue and should have been written back in mid November after the decision was made to select the most suitable image for ISEND’s webpage.

I supplied Anne de la Sayette and Dr. Dominique Cardon who are the organizers of the symposium with several ideas for the logo and although the deadline was brought forward by a total of two weeks, the unanimous decision to choose the active logo for the website was reached. If you are interested please do not hesitate to log onto www.isend2011.com to view it.  Credits for this can be seen by clicking on the terms and conditions section at the bottom of the webpage.

November 9th, 2009 by luiven

From Switzerland to The White House. November 5th 2009.

The story behind the fabric used by Cuban born and New York based Fashion Designer Isabel Toledo for the innaguration dress worn by Michelle Obama is quite enchanting as I found out during an evening organised by The Textile Museum in DC and to which I was kindly invited to attend.

As the designer herself explained ” It was a privilege to be able to design the innaguartion dress for the Fisrt Lady” although this would not be the first time that Michelle Obama favours Isabel Toledo’s designs.

The fabric was manufactured by Forster Rohner a swiss company specialising in fashion fabrics for both Pret-a-Porter and Couture. They have been selling fabrics to Isabel Toledo for the last 15 years. The fabric used for the dress is a cleverly machine engineered Irish lace inspired design using tulle as a backing fabric which gives a metallic feel and look to it in the most beautiful shade of mustard yellow or lemon grass as it has been described in the media.

Meeting Isabel and her illustrator husband Ruben Toledo was a refreshing experience.

 

November 9th, 2009 by luiven

The Textile Museum. Washington, DC

The Textile Museum is a hidden gem in the Dupont area of DC. Since being in Washington, I have had the pleasure to attend private views, museum talks and visit the Arthur D. Jenkins library of Textile Arts on many occasions which luckily for me re-opened on September 30th 2010.

The Mary Baskett collection currently on exhibit until April 11, 2010 is comprised of pieces from her own personal collection/wardrove which she began collecting during the late 1980s whilst being the curator of prints at the Cincinnati Museum in the late 1960s. Japanese designers include Yohji Yamamoto, Issey Miyake and Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garcons for whom I have had the priviledge to design printed textiles in the 1980s.

The Innovation of Nuno exhibition displays an amazing range of fabrics from the BORO BORO, FUWA FUWA, SHIMI JIMI, KIRA KIRA, SUKE SUKE and SAWA SAWA collections some of which I am familiar with.

I continue to use the museum’s library for my personal research and studies on natural dyes.

November 9th, 2009 by luiven

Maiwa Symposium

I decided to postpone attending this symposium in Vancouver as I am due to do a workshop in Jaipur, India at the begining of January 2010. As it happens, Maiwa are directly involved with projects in the Jaipur area using natural dyes and block printing so I thought it best to try my luck while in India.

However, Michelle Wippingler herself was kind enough to get back to me and suggest that I do the same workshop in her studios in Seattle, this is something I intend to pursue in 2010.

August 21st, 2009 by luiven

Duchy Centre for the Creative Arts

When I phoned my friend Peter from Devon to find out where exactly Princetown was in Dartmoor we had a bit of a laugh as he informed me that it is well known for its prison!!! I joked that I would probably rent a cell for the night but as it happened they only glimpse I had of the place was when I was leaving the town!!!
I decided to book a two day workshop at “The Duchy Centre” after a tip from Jenny Balfour-Paul whilst I was in the US researching on Natural Dyes. This workshop was instructed by Jane Deane who is herself an accomplished yarn dyer, weaver and a lover of colour. After a brief discussion with Jane on what I would hope to achieve during this workshop, I decided that I would like to have a go at dyeing with Mulberry leaves (simply because I know that silk worms love it as I found out during my visit to Veneseda in Merida, Venezuela), Cutch waste, Marigold, Anatto and Madder as well as Madder root itself. Luckily Jane had scoured and pre-mordanted all the fabrics in order to save time. I soon found out that dyeing cloth is harder than dyeing yarns and the colours as a result are harder to obtain. However, I can gladly say that I successfully managed to obtain lovely colours out of Cutch, Marigold and Anatto as well as with some overdyeing using Madder in my favourites cotton velvet, silk gauze and ramie…the workshop was short and experimental, after all, this is what part of designing is about and I am sure Jane would back me up on this!!!

 

July 24th, 2009 by luiven

Design for tomorrow: “The future of Technology and Sustainability”

This I found an interesting presentation conducted by Bill Moggridge co-founder of IDEO and Amory Lovings of The Rocky Mountains Institute.

Bill Moggridge spoke of how Technology, business and people are so important in our society and the role they play in respect of one another. He also showed sketches of his laptop invention which he designed in 1980 and how it revolutionised our technology. He emphasised on how health and well being must be considered to achieve global sustainability as well as sustainable products. He also spoke of a milk carton which he came across during one of his trips to Denmark made out of Ecolen, later found to have chalk and plastic binding agents.

Amory Lovings spoke about how by using environmentally friendly materials money can be saved and used Eco buildings as an example, he also expressed his concern on the lack of official assessments despite the success rate achieved when applied to housing, cars, light trucks, heavy trucks, ships and airplanes.

It was concluded that as responsible human beings we ought to think more of the implications that may be created by using  certain materials which can be harmful to the environment. This is what I would call common sense!

 

July 21st, 2009 by luiven

Am I going round the world doing workshops?

The answer is yes, if that is what it takes to fully understand the subject of Natural Dyeing.

Since arriving in the US in May 2009, I have been trying to find ways in which to do my research regarding Natural Dyes/Extracts/Natural Colorants and Pigments. My findings so far have been very limited and the only basic evidence I have come across here in Washington, DC in particular has been at “The Textile Museum”. As a result, I have decided to try my luck in New York after following the advice of Jenny Balfour-Paul who is a well known academic in the subject of Indigo and the author of books on the subject. ”The Yarn Tree Studios” subsequently proved to be a wise choice to do my first workshop under the instruction and strict supervision of Linda Labelle where we dyed using both cellulose and protein yarns and dyes such as Eucalyptus, Myrobalan, Pomegranate, Cochineal, Madder root, Cutch Logwood and Indigo . The workshop was an intense and enjoyable experience which lasted three days and Linda was always keen to answer any questions no matter how simple or complicated these might be. Being a lover of colour and not particularly afraid of getting my hands dirty, I proceeded to listen and participate in this great workshop as I owe it to myself to continue being a Bon Vivant of Natural Dyes, I am sure Linda would agree!