Did a mini indigo harvest this morning 💙
Trying to collect as many leaves as I can. The plants were not doing so great in this 90 degree heat so I decided to give them a little trim!
Now I am going to strip the leaves off of the stems to add to my collection. My goal is to have at least 10 pounds of dried leaves this summer!
FINISHED MY WILLOW BASKET !!! 🧺
Makes me so happy to complete a project. I learned this version from a friend and it’s called a “Donkey Window” basket. I’m not sure where the name came from. It’s one of my favorite baskets I’ve ever made because it is so open and usually baskets have really tight weaves. I find this one to be very unique looking. So far I’ve used it to collect fruit 😊 Baskets are extremely versatile, which is why I love to create them and have them around! Plus, they are made out of natural materials, and I like to keep reminders of nature around me. 🌱
I want to advance my learning in basketweaving this summer, so I signed up for a couple of basketmaking classes. If you are feeling generous, please drop a tip to contribute to my crafting toolbox 🥰🥰🥰
Now I’m doing a “pairing weave” on the base to hold the willow together. I move clockwise a couple of rounds, then I go over and under each spoke individually. After I have a good circumference, I start to add longer spokes inside of the weave to start building the basket up! It requires some bending of the willow to 90 degrees. The structure is coming along… 🤎
2024-06-25 16:29:12 +0000 UTC View Post
Beginning of a basket… 🧺
The fibers must be soaked overnight to make them more pliable. Hence the joke “underwater basket weaving”! It makes it so much easier to weave when the fibers are wet (I use a spray bottle during the weaving to maintain the moisture).
I’m using some willow here to weave a basket. I love willow! And it naturally comes in different colors like red, greenish brown, khaki.
To begin the base of the basket, I stabbed the willow in the center to create a hole to stick more willow inside. Then, I can start weaving all around.
Basketweaving is one of my favorite types of crafts to make! I really love making things that involve natural fibers or objects made using natural materials. I just got this basketmaking kit and I’m excited to make this, it’s going to be great for harvesting. 🥰🧺
2024-06-19 23:47:47 +0000 UTC View Post
I’ve been spending so much time gardening ❤️ look at how gorgeous these tomatoes are! I’m so grateful for the bounty. I think I will craft a tomato jam from this 😋 I love the smell of tomatoes, it’s soooo good.
2024-06-18 21:45:05 +0000 UTC View Post
One of my absolute favorite parts of the kite making process making the kite curve. It's important to add a bow in the kite to make it more aerodynamic, especially if it doesn't have a tail. I'm going to think about the next kite design and structure I wanna make -- there's so much in kite making to explore! So many different types of structures and designs. 🪁🪁🪁
2024-06-16 14:02:05 +0000 UTC View Post
I really want to make more kites this summer. This is the back of a kite I made last summer :) The style of this kite is called an "Edo Kite". It had 14 strings! I used some plants to make the imagery and then I got bamboo to make the frame. 💙
2024-06-16 06:48:48 +0000 UTC View Post
Also, hi 💛. I wanted to see if blondes really do have more fun ... 🙈🙈😘
I love getting creative with my hairstyles too! Updating my hair always makes me feel fresh. It's almost summer and I wanted to go lighter 🌞 but I love experimenting with all sorts of colors and lengths.
Let me know what you think of my hair update by telling me in my messages!!! Write to me 😘 I love hearing from you and I have so many new fun surprises to show you. Let's see how creative we can get together ... 🥰❤️
I used to fantasize about being a book conservator. I loved the idea of bringing books back to life and repairing them.
But now, I just like to make books for fun. It's been a while since I've made books!
I got so consumed by the process the other day, I forgot to take pics until this moment! I was constructing a book cover for a journal. This is what it looks like before I attach the paper to it. Is this what you imagined the inside of a book cover looks like? Would you be interested in deconstructing a book together? 😚
Hi everyone! Did you miss me? 🙈❤️
It's been a little busy over here, but I'm still finding time to craft whenever I get a chance. I moved into a new studio so I'm still adjusting but excited to make even more crafts together!
Have you ever made a book before? It's one of my favorite types of crafting. Here I am working on some bookbinding...
The final product :')
It's some of my favorite things as charms hung on a bow of rope!
I made 2 versions, this version is a "noren" (a Japanese style curtain or divider).
The black parts I used to paint in are painted with pine soot, which is the burnt carbon from pine wood.
On another version, I turned it into a handmade hanten (winter coat)! I'm gonna share that next :-)
In order for the indigo dye to stay on the fabric, it needs to be "oxidized" in between each dip. This means the indigo needs to be exposed to air and adhere to oxygen molecules to breathe the blue into it. Indigo first appears green when it comes out of the vat, but then it changes to blue as it gets exposed to more oxygen.
After each dip, I allow the fabric to oxidize for the same amount of time I put it in the vat for. So let's say I dip it for 4 minutes, then I also need to leave it out in the air for 4 minutes before putting it back in to achieve a deeper shade of indigo.
Here is the fabric up close and drying on the stretchers. The rice paste is still on, and I will soon show you what it looks like when it gets washed off! 💙
Once the rice paste is applied and dried, it gets stretched out with bamboo called "Shinshi". The Shinshi keeps the fabric stretched so when the fabric goes into the dye vat, the rice paste does not stick to itself. If the wet rice paste sticks on to itself, the design will get ruined!
After about 3 dips in the vat, the fabric needs to rest and the rice paste needs to dry. It can only get so hydrated before it starts to fall off. I needed to do about 4 more dips to achieve an even darker shade of indigo, so I hung the fabric to rest before working on the next layer.
This is a printing technique called “Katazome”.
Using handmade rice paste, and printing through a hand cut stencil and allowing the rice paste to dry, I am able to dip the fabric in indigo dye and keep the printed parts white. It acts as a resist and creates so many design possibilities! Think of it as screen printing but with rice paste.
This process is extremely labor intensive and a true labor of love. The rice paste is created by a 1:1 ratio of rice flour and rice bran, and steamed for 2 hours, then mixed to form a smooth peanut butter like consistency.
Cutting the stencil is also tedious! It took me a couple of full days to cut the whole thing.
It’s all worth it in the end when I get to the final stage. 💙
It's been so gloomy in LA lately, and gloomy weather usually makes me so nostalgic. Today I am missing Japan. It was an honor for me last fall to apprentice under and Indigo master. I will go into further detail about what I learned and did in upcoming posts, but here are some snippets. I learned how to make a fermented indigo vat, rice paste printing, and shibori dyeing. I miss it so much, that experience really fueled my passion for the craft of indigo dyeing. It's a huge reason why I want to get better at my craft. 🩵💙🩵💙
2024-05-23 22:47:58 +0000 UTC View Post
Design reveal!
It’s a collage of cut paper of one of ny favorite mascots, the Milky girl aka Peko chan from the Fujiya candy company! It’s my favorite candy and she’s so cute. I used washi paper, it’s lightweight and strong and perfect for kites.
This kite flies really well. The long tail and paper on the sides gives it good balance :-)
I’ll post a video of it in flight soon 🪁
It’s been so beautiful outside so I’m working on a new kite to fly 🪁!
It’s a Korean fighter kite, they fly really well. Design reveal tomorrow :-)
I can’t even believe how quickly time is flying. Summer is approaching so soon! My poppies already have gone to seed! 😭 Here is what it looks like to harvest the poppy seeds, it’s so cool, it comes out of the pod by shaking it :-) I want to bake with them!
2024-05-20 04:18:31 +0000 UTC View Post
Working outside is my favorite way to work 💖
So much gardening to do!
After gardening, I went to the nursery today. I think I want to get the ginkgo plant and I bet I could make some cool prints with those. The Japanese red maple is on my wishlist. ❤️ I’ve wanted that tree for sooo long! The deep red leaves are so beautiful.
So I decided to break in my paper with a drawing!
Decided to do a drawing of a shell using stamp inks and making stencils. 🐚 Shells are so inspiring to me!
Indigo paper I handmade and dyed using hemp a while ago 💙
Even though it’s just paper, I feel so precious about it. But I think it’s time for me to finally use it… what should it be? I’m thinking of making a book perhaps. 📖
The reveal….
Scroll to the end to see what it is ☺️🌻.
Hours and hours and hours spent on this labor of love 💛. My hands are tired from tying and untying so many stitches!
Hope everyone has a beautiful weekend ✨
Answer to the last post:
This is a type of dye style called “shibori” — it means “under tension” in Japanese. It’s a style I learned from reading books. The fabric gets tied or sewn in a certain way to make designs, then gets dyed, and the threads get removed to reveal the design underneath!
Watch this space to see the design I made :-)
This is the piece after it’s been dyed seven times in indigo.
I’m on a sewing kick right now… what on earth do you think I’m making? 🤔
2024-05-07 01:06:57 +0000 UTC View Post
MENDING 🪡
I will wear my favorite clothes until they turn to dust. My favorite pair of jeans had a hole in them and I patched it up with some indigo fabric. I’m very inspired by the Boro fabrics of Japan and how they patch their textiles as an act of preservation and care.
It’s easy to do - I only needed a scrap piece of fabric, needle, thread, and a darning hoop. There’s no rhyme or reason to any type of stitching it’s pretty free flowing. I love how meditative it is!
I think it also adds a lot of charm and character to the textile. I can’t wait to keep wearing these pants forever 💙
Golden hour ✨
Going to pick some flowers to make a bouquet. They always cheer me up 💐!
Happy Friday!
Prune, harvest, propagate, root in water, replant, repeat. 🔁
I continually harvest and replant my cuttings to try and gather as many indigo leaves as possible to make dye. 💙
The various shades of indigo 💙🩵
Here is some cotton I dyed to show the range of indigo. It starts off as a really light blue, and to get to the more darker shades, I have to increase the number of dips I do along with the length of time. Indigo is a cumulative dye! It takes up to 12 five minute dips to achieve that midnight blue.
Some indigo leaves I dried over the weekend after I harvested them. Some have more pigment in them than the others, I need to give them more nitrogen! The leaves turning from green to blue never ceases to amaze me.
I am going to try and do 4 big harvests this year. I need to collect as much indigo as I can to make indigo dye this fall!
