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...

Soy Wax Batik samples

I finished the 2 samples I was working on, and here they are:

I'm pleased with how they came out, but what's even better is the gal I was making them for likes them as well! She is going to see how they look made up into some of her products, and if all goes well, I will be doing larger pieces of fabric for her. Yaaaayyyyy!!! Meanwhile, I'm kicking around ideas for how to make block print stamps out of wood... got enough scraps in the garage to play with, I just need to figure out how to cut and assemble them. More fun!

Experimental mode

I have been doing a lot of experimenting lately... kinda reminds me of when I took Melly Testa's class in 2007, only then I didn't know what I was doing. Now I have just enough knowledge to be dangerous, but my horizons are wide open too! Today I started to experiment with some fabric scraps, soda soaking and drying them, then applying some dyes with paint brushes. I plan to let them dry, then use soy wax to stamp some designs over them, then when the wax is dried I will overdye, then maybe repeat the process with another layer. I have a friend who sews professionally, and she asked me if I could create some batiked fabric, and since I haven't done much batiking lately, I decided it was a good project to get me back into it. So here is a picture of the first step:

I know... it looks pretty gaudy awful right now, but I wanted to start off with some really eye-popping bright colors to start with. Then when I stamp and overdye, I'll have some bright spots in a darker background... at least, that's the plan! No, Melly... I did not thicken the dyes! I wanted them to run together nicely... and if anyone out there knows of a source for wood block stamps that can be used to batik with, please let me know! I'm sure I could make some, but it would be so much simpler if I could just find some!

Meanwhile, stay tuned... more pix to follow!