Barb's Fabric Blog

Suminigashi- Ancient Japanese Art

When Colleen took the photo of our newest knit fabric, she told me that she thought she knew how the print had been created.  I invited her to write a guest blog. ...Thanks Colleen!

The recent arrival of a printed fabric at the warehouse door took me back to many years ago, the 80’s if my memory serves me correctly, when I took a day class at our local art museum on paper marbleizing. It was such an unusual technique of getting ink on paper (or it can be done with silk) with such stunning results that I never forgot it.

I remembered the process involved a water bath in which eyedroppers of different colors of ink were randomly applied to the surface. The inks floated on top of the water in their separate circles of color. The colors did not automatically mix together.  Then an implement like a knife or skewer, was gently and slowly drawn through the floating inks on the waters surface.  This swirled the colors into beautiful one-of-a-kind patterns. Lastly, a sheet of paper was gently placed on the surface in a roll-on, roll-off motion, so as to minimally disturb the inks.  This transferred the pattern to the paper. The paper was then left to dry.

The finished papers could then be cut and used as blotter edge covers, pencil holder covers, or the edges sheets of paper could be marbleized to make personalized stationary. This was the time before personal computers remember, when people had formal desk set-ups. I, of course, was thinking what cool scarves and such you could make!

So again, when the swirly knit came in, it brought me back to that fun day at the museum. I looked up the technique on the web and found that is called suminagashi. It originated in Japan in the 12^th century and means floating inks.  There are instructions on how to do the technique on ABSOLUTEARTS Blog, eHow, and a step by step pictorial on the DIY Network site, just to name a few I came across. I found differences in the ingredients and techniques in each one as well as varying suggestions on how to achieve better results. There are also crafting kits available like Magic Dip if you want to go that route.

We think this fabric was created by using this technique on a paper medium and then transfering to the knit fabric by a print technique.  Whatever the technique, the result is stunning!

See the fabric at Suminigashi.

Batik and the Coming of Spring

Open your door on the First of February, and if you're very quiet, you can hear a trickle of water somewhere nearby.  These are the words that get me through winter.  Hope for a new day!  Don’t get me wrong, there are many things about winter that I truly enjoy and feel blessed that I live in an area that experiences all four seasons, BUT our winter is long and can be dull.

How lucky am I to be surrounded by spring colors as early as January here at the warehouse!  We are literally tripping over boxes and what joy when we finally break one open and color bursts forth!  We’ve just recently posted new batiks in our web store…these are just a hint of what’s to come.  We expand our rayon batik collection every year due to its on-going popularity.

As a fabrication, it offers up drape, soft hand, warm weather comfort and sewability—my word!  By that I mean it is easy to work with and supports good results. This is a great quality for beginning sewers and for seasoned sewers with a need for quick projects.

Yes, rayon does slip a bit as you stitch, but with a little practice you can manage it quite well.  The designs and color flow of the batiks hide less-than-perfect stitching and require fewer embellishments to the finished garment.  Think of a solid color linen shirt—yes it is exquisite, but every stitch shows and the shirt is more desirable with topstitching, tucks or some other surface interest.  Not so with a batik... the design does the talking and all you need to do is create a good fit.  Ah, good fit is challenging, but when you use a drapey fabric for your shirt, you can focus on shoulders and neck and let the rest fall nicely to the hips.  Want a really easy project?  Go with a simple skirt—short or long, straight or full, ruffles or culottes, batik is always in style.

Fashion Runway to Your Way

The newest trend report from Vogue describes a group of runway trends as Depression Chic.  Now that’s depressing!  The Roaring Twenties-inspired group is fine, but the bag lady???, please!

I recently heard/read about a new fashion term—recessionista!  It refers to one who can be fashionable without much cash outlay! 

From a fiber artist point of view, the category they described as Geometry Lessons was quite fascinating, and I encourage you to view this focus on fabric manipulation.  Most of these garments of course are not wearable for every day, but the methodology can be a source of inspiration for those with a creative bent to their sewing. Some of my favorites—

Andy & Deb

Erdem

Kai Kuhne

Karl Lagerfeld

Moschino

Ah, Oscar

Wonder how this Dolce and Gabanna will be interpreted for Main Street.  See the Savvy Sewer Salon for one idea.

Not the hips, I beg you!

There's lots more to see.  The goddess grouping offers up a lot of room for reverie and the marrakech express is truly exotic.  Review the whole album here.

Become a Fan!

The holiday break was supposed to be just that -- a break!  We actually ended up working much of the time as our online sale was very popular with customers in a hurry for bargains.  That's ok, we always have fun when we're working here!  We did get a chance to start a page on Facebook.  We hope you'll become a fan and help us spread the word about fine fabrics.  We're so proud of the fabrics we find and want everyone to know that it's still possible to get fine quality fabrics for your sewing projects.   So many customers tell us they nearly gave up sewing before they found us.  We'll have none of that!!!  Sewing is alive and well at Sawyer Brook and we want everyone to know it!  Just wait until you see our Spring 2009 collections.  I'll have more to say later this week on that subject and maybe a sneak pic or two!