Saturday, December 4, 2010

Art of Adire

Yesterday, I got my newsletter from Dharma Trading. They always feature new artists, and I was introduced to Ife Franklin, who is an Adire artist. You can see her on youtube, demonstrating the art form. I was particularly interested in the large wood block stamps she used for waxing the items before dyeing... I have been looking for stamps of this kind for some time, and sent her an e-mail to see if she could tell me where she got hers. Meanwhile, I did a little web searching myself, and found Zanzibar Trading co, where I ordered the last 2 Adinkra Gourd stamps they had available on their website:
I'm also working on ideas for how to create some wood block stamps without having to do a lot of carving! Attaching small pieces of wood to a larger block with wood glue comes to mind, although if I use them for batik, I'm not sure if the wood glue will stand up to the heat of the melted wax. I do have a dremmel, so I could do some blocks using that to chew away the wood around the designs... I also have carving tools, but I think they are designed to be used on linoleum blocks. All I know is my direction is taking shape for 2011! I also know I will not be using the waxes or dyes used by Ife... my back was hurting just watching her video where she is bending over to rinse her dyed pieces, and stirring them in the boiling water to remove the wax! Nope, soy wax and cold water dyes for me! But I truly love the shapes and designs of African tribal fiber arts, and hope to capture that feeling with these, and other stamps either purchased or created by my efforts! More to come...

2 comments:

Vicki W said...

You are right, my back hurt watching that video! I'd have to put those tubs on a stand or table!

Chris Daly said...

Hi Judy, Thanks for introducing me to this new idea. I can't wait to see the results of your experiments