natural dyes

Hi All. After a long summer/technical hiatus I thought I would give you a  sneak peak into some of the things happening in the hau studio. I’ve been doing a lot of experimenting with pattern and color and have started focusing on getting my patterns onto fabrics using natural dyes. As someone who loves color (I keep a farrow and ball paint card in my purse to spur daydreaming) it is really exciting to see the range you can get with all natural dyes and it feels like magic to watch the color accumulate on your fabric. It’s also fun to learn about native plants and the sometimes unexpected results you get from dying with them. (Uh oh – new backyard theme – looks like I might need to expand my food garden to include a dye garden. ).

I’m also really liking the way you can create an ombre effect using a modifier. The below samples are made with brazilwood on different fabrics using different mordants to fix the dye. After they were dyed – I dipped one end into vinegar and one into a bath of washing soda. The washing soda brought out the blue tones while the vinegar brought out the orange. But just seeing all the colors up there on the wall makes me so happy.

A technique that I’m currently learning about is shibori which is a traditional Japanese method for getting pattern onto cloth through binding, stitching, twisting, etc. There are a few different techniques but I’m in love with Itajime or the folded and clamped method. It’s a perfect blend of intention and accident. This kind of process is what makes me feel like I have a relationship with my fabric – I may have an idea I start out with but the dye and the fabric respond to this idea in their own way and offer something else entirely. The piece below on the right was folded into triangles, then clamped between two square blocks before being dipped in the indigo. This was only dipped twice, I’ve heard that some traditional shibori pieces may have been dipped hundreds of times. Each dipping brings a deeper blue.

DIY Roof?

LD went on a manventure and came back with this picture of a roof. Sometimes the vernacular of make-do is gorgeous, don’t you think?

the harbinger co. & heat registers reimagined

Browsing A Merry Mishap the other day, I came across this photo of a herringbone wood box cover by The Harbinger co. Although lovely as a box, when I saw the photo I initially read the image of it as a heat register cover. Wouldn’t a geometric design like this in a bright glossy turquoise, magenta or yellow add unexpected bursts of pattern and color throughout a house? It started me thinking about what it would take to create custom registers like this for our own house. It would be relatively easy to create a pattern in Illustrator, laser cut aluminum and powder coat it a bright shiny color. Here in PDX we have a wonderful resource for do-it-yourself laser cutting and powder coating called the Techshop. I have been looking for a project to get me over to the Techshop and check out the facilities, maybe this is it. If you are not in PDX and don’t have access to DIY laser-cutting, another possible resource to make something like this is Ponoko, an online laser-cutting service. They don’t offer aluminum but this project could also be interesting in acrylic or painted MDF.

PDX workshop: alabama chanin at Ace hotel

Update to the Natalie Chanin post! I just found out on the Alabama Chanin site that Natalie and staff will be hosting a workshop on April 17th during their Portland visit! It’s a little spendy at 450 for one day but I’m sure well worth it. I imagine it will be loads of fun and I’m sure you would meet some interesting folk; “lunch and stories” are included they say. They provide an option of one of their kits so you leave with a finished project (or maybe the start of a finished project). Included in the options is a throw pillow (below) and some really cute wearables, and I can think of lots of home DIY projects their technique could lend itself to. Wouldn’t an Alabama Chanin chair be fun? Of course I don’t really need any more projects right now but I tempted to sign up just for the community and fun. But there are only two spots left!

summer-ize

I swapped out my fabric on the bench in my kitchen to get ready for summer. It feels much fresher! The old fabric (still underneath – and still slightly visible) was also black and white but with a much lager, heavier pattern. Pretty, but a little too stuffy. The walls in the kitchen are still darker than I am feeling right now. They are cardroom green (read: Drew Berrymore’s kitchen from Domino green) which I did really like at the time, though I’m not sure they work in an 800 square foot ranch. And now, I’m ready for light and space!

Wallpaper – First pattern.

My first wallpaper pattern silkscreened! And I hand printed it myself – special thanks to Alicia who helped me print and kept me from making a mess of things.

In the late 90′s I managed an antique store in New York for the savvy and delightful couple, Oliver Trebosc and Alfred Van Lelyveld. (The link above is for their Amsterdam shop which they now focus their attentions on.) Muriel Brandolini would shop in the store occassionaly and one day I had the opportunity to visit her Manhattan town house.

Her home was chic, and sophisticated but had a breezy playfulness to it. Her use of color was so atmospheric and moody – but she contributed to that atmosphere by the patterns everywhere. Her home was filled with fabrics that she had designed with traditional Indian wood block-printers. My first wallpaper pattern is inspired by the sweet, fresh Indian block prints that I first encountered there.